John/Convette SEMA/Optima Ultimate Street Car challenge, 2013 this Saturday 9 th Nov

[jszucs]

Serioulsy....... you could have finshed dead LAST and I would be just as proud to even share in the same car as you.

 

To even be invited, let alone invited to play with the big boys says something right there. Truly impresive to one mans dedication work, and love of a car.

[CaliConquestAlex]

Yea that 65 Vette was a ANIMAL !!!!! and it looks very RO4 red looking too ! and if you guys here get to see the event on MAV TV look out for the poser in the red 2jz Supra exploding the clutch on the line at the autocross , my ears are still bleeding from standing to close .

 

I've got a video of that Supra coming off the line HARD and bouncing off the rev limiter under full boost. You can't see the sparks come out from under the car very well, but the course was shut down for about 10 minutes while they picked up pieces from the destruction.

 

I'm looking forward to seeing the final edit on TV as I may be in the background in several shots. I feel like I was stalking Goldberg from event to event. I was right next to the starting line for the autocross and start/stop events.

[slowquest]

Quick questions for John..... Which aspect do you enjoy more, building or driving? Which do you consider yourself better at? Just curious if you'd be willing to either drive a better car, or let a better driver run your car. I saw that some participants had "hired gun" drivers on the Continental Shootout for the different track events.

[Convette]

Well done John!!

 

The fact that you smoked an R8 and Lambo with a car truly built in your garage with your hands... well, Im blown away. I know if I was you I would put that on my resume or something, thats freaking awesome! Super pumped to see you pushing the limits and getting our cars more exposure.

 

Thanks man! I really appreciate it. I was a little shocked too about the Lambo. I read it was a lp 560-4 version also... crazy fast car. This event will def be on my resume, haha.

 

 

Everyone, including John, struggled to keep traction in all events. John's car was probably the cheapest build there and he beat a lot of cars. He should be very proud and I'm sure he got a lot of attention from participating. For the record, that highly modded 65' Corvette was a BEAST and the driver was really consistent. He earned the win.

 

Yeah that Vette was one the most impressive cars I've ever seen on the track for sure. I would be upset if anything else won.

 

Again, AWSOME!!! I think it's fantastic that SEMA has more in store for you. We're all waiting to hear the good news.

Great job!

 

Thanks man, I really hope so. Nothing is ever final till its in writing.. haha I've learned that the hard way a few times.

 

Zero for design????????????wt.... those people seems that they judge by the super street mag law.....

 

Even though i am not from your country ,sometimes i get the impression that i have seen and know about your culture more than you do...

 

.....or maybe i spent too much time on my pc :D :D :D

 

Either way John no matter what place you have finished,there people out there that admire greatly of what you have done and achived and are very jealous(always in a good way) of your car.

High up there in this list is surely me..

Wel done my friend and best of luck for your oncoming plans.

 

 

Serioulsy....... you could have finshed dead LAST and I would be just as proud to even share in the same car as you.

 

To even be invited, let alone invited to play with the big boys says something right there. Truly impresive to one mans dedication work, and love of a car.

 

Thanks a bunch man, I really appreciate it. I am a little torn that redesigning the entire interior of the car didn't even score me 1 point... but thats just a few guys opinion. After seeing that video, (which I wish i had seen before the event...)lol bothers me even more about the vette scoring so low on design and engineering.

 

Quick questions for John..... Which aspect do you enjoy more, building or driving? Which do you consider yourself better at? Just curious if you'd be willing to either drive a better car, or let a better driver run your car. I saw that some participants had "hired gun" drivers on the Continental Shootout for the different track events.

 

I enjoy it all man equally. I really enjoy studying my car, you'd be suprized how much time is spent sitting and staring at it, or a picture of it even, trying to think of new ways to improve it. . Driving is my passion, a lot of it is testing out my crazy ideas to see if they work, and how well. I get so much satisfaction from beating cars 8 times the price of mine. It'd be really hard for me to see someone turn a faster time in my car.., that said, I'm no pro driver, and theres always someone better out there, but I'd rather lose in my car then win with someone else driving it.

[boostdquest89]

that said, I'm no pro driver, and theres always someone better out there, but I'd rather lose in my car then win with someone else driving it.

 

No doubt!

[BOHO]

No doubt!

 

X2

[Shelby]

as with all big money events big money always wins the top marks , but you did great and lts of people will remember you and your car , you did great be proud of your car and your self

[Fuze]

Congrats! Scoring mid-field the first time out is pretty huge man, especially against all that money, big sponsorship, and million dollar shops. No small feat dude, hats off. Keep on doing your thing, we'll be watching!

[SOTTY]

Congrats! Scoring mid-field the first time out is pretty huge man, especially against all that money, big sponsorship, and million dollar shops. No small feat dude, hats off. Keep on doing your thing, we'll be watching!

Not to mention the Conquest was the ONLY daily driver i saw racing last Saturday ,i hope this happens for John again in 2014 .

[kidjc]

You did "Fabulously!!!" NO DOUBT... you "out classed" a lot rides there! I'm willing to wager they feel "quite spanked" by both "U & the ConVette!" Speaking of being "spanked," I enjoyed the design & handling of the rides in pic 6. All kudos deserved budd!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[OptimaJim]

John,

 

Thank you so much for competing in our event. I know it is a big commitment in a lot of different ways to come out to Las Vegas and Pahrump and we really appreciate your effort. I hope your involvement will encourage other Starquest owners to get in on the action in 2014. I know some folks are disappointed with some of the outcomes of the event, but I would be curious to know (especially for those who were at the event or saw the cars at SEMA) what their top-10 favorite cars were from our field?

 

Final results do take a while to post, as a lot of activity happens in this event in a short amount of time and we spend the next week or so sorting out what exactly went down. All drivers were either owners of their respective vehicles or builders of record- no pros. One driver who participated in the event (John Condren) had prior professional racing experience, so he ran as exhibition-only and his results were not included in the final totals. Three other vehicles did not attempt to compete in the Detroit Speed Road Rally (which claimed two other competitors) and as a result, they were moved to exhibition status as well, which is reflected in the final results.

 

The Supra mentioned earlier was selected from the SEMA Show and didn't know he was going to compete in the event until we announced his name on Thursday, so kudos to him for stepping up on very short notice (the vast majority of SEMA participants decline our invitations to compete). I believe it is a 1,000+ horsepower car set up for drag racing and I actually photographed them swapping out for a smaller turbo on Friday morning at the SEMA show (he had driveshaft, not clutch issues).

 

While just about every vehicle there came in on a trailer, I know John Kundrat drove his garage-built '64 Corvette to and from Nevada from his home in Ohio and Richard Caleel drove his Cadillac back to California afterwards. There may be a few more that drove in and out, but most trailered, many of them headed to the Goodguys autocross event in Arizona this weekend. Our fields tend to feature the full spectrum of the automotive aftermarket, from budget builds to the very best of the best and everything in between.

 

The OUSCI show will air on MavTV early next year and will be the first in a regular series that will air on that network, following our 2014 search for America's Ultimate Street Car. Anyone interested in participating in those events can find more information at the Ultimate Street Car Association website.

 

Jim McIlvaine

eCare Manager, OPTIMA Batteries

www.pinterest.com/optimabatteries

Edited November 16, 2013 by OptimaJim

[starquestJOE]

John the NEPA guys are proud of you. I feel special telling people about your car and what you have done... Garage built, to cover car, to sema car. Then I'm like I know him, he's from Hamlin area

 

Congrats John. And bring the car back to pa sometime

Edited November 16, 2013 by starquestJOE

[SOTTY]

My only gripe Jim would be the tight schedule from wrapping up S.E.M.A late Friday evening then for these guys n gals then having to go get their trailer, load the car up , check out of the hotel in Vegas, again more loading up this time suitcases then hauling it all up and "over the hump" to Pahrump ,having to drop the trailer at the track same night,check into their hotel room then to be back at the track by 5.a.m , that's helluva tight time wise and makes for some weary drivers for the Optima challenge , ideally holding the event on Sunday (allowing for some proper rest and race prep time) would be the answer but i doubt that will ever happen , overall though absolutely one of THEE BEST "gear-head/car guy" events iv'e ever attended , amazing cars from all ends of the automobile spectrum , incredible driving skills and plenty to watch and do for anyone in attendance , a action packed event for sure , and yes kudo's to Supra guy ( easy on the "drag style" launches next time bud ) , as for my favorite car my answer would be way to bias but i do have my own top ten , and again thanks Optima Jim for playing your part in organizing one amazing event ! Edited November 16, 2013 by SOTTY

[OptimaJim]

The schedule is fairly tight and SEMA didn't do us any favors by pushing the convention dates back by a week this year. Not only did we lose about 20 minutes worth of sunlight for television purposes, but due to the change in daylight savings time, we lost an additional hour, which put us at just over nine hours of daylight to film a TV show with more than 50 cars running three on-track events. It is too cost-prohibitive for everyone involved to run out of daylight and simply stay an extra day. We even told the alternates this year that they would be the last cars to run on the big track, in case we did run out of time. This was actually the earliest we've ever wrapped up the event in six years of running it. Last year at 2:30 in the afternoon, we still had 35 cars that needed to run the road course and we still needed enough daylight left to grab a group photo at the end.

 

When we mentioned in the recap that this year's Detroit Speed Road Rally was less demanding, we were being kind. This was the first year the final stop of the Road Rally wasn't in Pahrump. In past years, this created quite a logistical nightmare for a lot of folks and I've even found myself driving haulers with empty trailers up to Pahrump for competitors that didn't have any friends to help.

 

Competitors who know in advance that they are in the OUSCI also probably have a distinct advantage over those who get picked at SEMA. Hotel rooms in Pahrump are always in short supply, so ending the Road Rally in Las Vegas allowed some folks to stay in their original hotels one night longer. I believe the last check-in cutoff was 7:30PM at Shelby and most folks made it well before then. Even if they checked in and left at 7:30, they could easily get to a hotel room in Pahrump by 9PM and Spring Mountain isn't that far down the road.

 

As a resident of Nevada, I can understand why you'd want us to stretch the event out by an extra day- that would be a minimum of 100 extra nights of hotel rooms for your state. Many of our competitors were loading their cars onto commercial haulers immediately after the event and those drivers are all on the clock, as is our camera crew, Goldberg and Amanda Salas. As much as I love Nevada, between Pubcon, the NHRA, Front Sight and SEMA, I was already three weeks into my trip by the time we ran the OUSCI, with two days and nights of driving still ahead of me. SEMA alone is enough Vegas for most of those folks to handle in one trip and they're ready to head home as soon as our event wraps up.

 

I know there is a perception that a lot of our competitors have deep pockets and that is certainly true for some of them. However, the vast majority have regular 9-5 jobs, some within the industry and some outside of it. Randy Johnson, who built the green second gen Camaro, works for a utility company in Wisconsin and only builds those cars in his home garage on the side. For guys like him (and there are a lot of them), just getting out to SEMA eats up a lot of vacation time. Extending that by an extra night puts even more pressure on the guys with limited resources, especially when they need to be back at work on Monday.

 

Except for the cars we pick at SEMA, everyone else in the field has few excuses for not getting enough rest and race prep, as they know anywhere from several weeks to several months in advance that they are headed to the OUSCI. We also make a point of trying to invite vehicles that seem to be sorted out already, to minimize the chances of cars breaking down during the event.

 

I'd still be interested in hearing your biased top-10. I promise I won't question any of your selections

 

Jim McIlvaine

eCare Manager, OPTIMA Batteries

www.pinterest.com/optimabatteries

[natedog_37]

now free battery to go around

 

What happened to the Viper?

[CaliConquestAlex]

I talked to the Viper guys and they said that one of the cam sensors failed and they couldn't do the repair at the track.

[Burton]

 

 

I'd still be interested in hearing your biased top-10. I promise I won't question any of your selections

 

Jim McIlvaine

eCare Manager, OPTIMA Batteries

www.pinterest.com/optimabatteries

 

That's the thing... given all our love for the SQs, we all probably think John should have gotten first. Even if he would have thrown a rod out of the engine as he was pulling in the parking lot and took him out of the competition, we all would still think he should get first place LOL

 

My biggest complaint was the big goose egg in design. Not sure how that was figured. Personally, when I think of design, I think of how the builder created their mods (wether performance or aesthetic), and how they went with the rest of the car as far as performance, quality, fit and finish, etc.... If that was the case, I feel John should have scored higher. His interior alone looks like something that could be found in a newer supercar, but was designed and built in his garage using whatever resources he had at hand. Then there's the body and aero mods which were carefully thought out with both performance and looks in mind. The front suspension and steering which is highly modified, yet looks like it could have come stock. The list goes on and on.

 

Now, if design is strictly how the mods helped performance, I can see how some of the higher dollar cars which have had no expense spared may score higher, just because they can do some trial and error and try out different parts and engineering. Someone like John only had the resources at hand and whatever cash was in his wallet to do his mods so he may have had to settle for "good enough" for a few of his ideas. However, one could argue that it takes a lot more skill for someone to do certain designs on a budget. Anyone can throw money at a car build, but I think the people with the talent and out of the box thinking who make and build their own designs that perform well on a budget are the true craftsmen.

 

I'm sure you guys have everything figured out and reasons for why people get points for design, but how can anyone look at his interior and not give him at least ONE point?

 

 

 

All that said, the Corvette that won, was deffinately deserving of the win. I'd seen articles about it on the net and seen it on a couple TV shows too. It's an outstanding car with an excellent story behind it. I'm sure that many, if not most of the cars had a lot of hard work and dedication behind them, but I suspect some of the cars were just nice, expensive cars bought by someone with too much money, who then threw a bunch more money at the car to make it better. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I like the stories of the guys who overcome adversity and build their cars themselves with a true passion.

 

 

I bet if there was some sort of formula figured in the scoring with money spent VS the performance outcome, John would be the top of the list!

 

 

 

No matter what tho, I'm glad there's companies out there willing to showcase some killer cars, and especially let one of our obscure cars in on it. Kudos to you for that, Jim. I know it's less about SQs in general, and more about what John has done with his SQ in particular that made it deserving of being there, but I still love to see SQs get some press. John has done that in spades. There's lots of us who go to shows or try and show the world how cool our cars can be, but John has done more with his car in a couple years than all the rest of us combined have done over the past 10 years. He could have taken last place and he still would be a winner to us

Edited November 18, 2013 by Burton

[19cturbo]

im pretty sure john bent his dash around a fence post lol! talk about resources...

[Burton]

im pretty sure john bent his dash around a fence post lol! talk about resources...

 

I was gonna say that too, but I couldn't remember if it was his dash, or some of the other parts he fabbed up.

 

That's the sort of ingenuity I'm talking about. The big money guys have big English wheels, benders, shears, etc... to do their metal fab while us penny pinchers gotta use fence posts, punching bags, pieces of wood or pipes, or anything else that will work for free to contour our steel for panels.

[GNon345s]

Jeeez. 5 pages of you guys crying about "the other guys have too much money" and "Our guy didn't score high enough". Welcome to the car hobby and especially racing events! The other guy always has more money. You guys should just be happy a Conquest was invited to the event, I know I am. For anybody on here who thinks John is the only guy staying up late nights in his garage working on his car must never visit sites like Pro-touring.com or Lateral-g.net. A lot of the Optima cars have lengthy build threads on other sites and those guys cut, grind, weld, block sand, ect. ect. on their cars for years before they show up at an event like Optima. ...Only to have the StarQuest community bash them. What a shame.

[SOTTY]

Jeeez. 5 pages of you guys crying about "the other guys have too much money" and "Our guy didn't score high enough". Welcome to the car hobby and especially racing events! The other guy always has more money. You guys should just be happy a Conquest was invited to the event, I know I am. For anybody on here who thinks John is the only guy staying up late nights in his garage working on his car must never visit sites like Pro-touring.com or Lateral-g.net. A lot of the Optima cars have lengthy build threads on other sites and those guys cut, grind, weld, block sand, ect. ect. on their cars for years before they show up at an event like Optima. ...Only to have the StarQuest community bash them. What a shame.

No one is bashing any of those guys wrenching/grinding/being creative away in their own garages , you must be reading a different 5 page thread from everyone else .

[19cturbo]

i was just curious to how the design points were given... i think he should have at least gotten a few for design.. especially over a stock car with some wheels on it..

 

dont get it twisted, no one was bashing optima in any way here.... the super tight schedule was mentioned and as jim said, most of these guys know in advance and have time to prepare if any is needed then.. which is understood.. no one is bashing the event for john not having enough help to load his car and things so he could go get rest.. it was a simple statement that the schedule was very tight..

Edited November 20, 2013 by 19cturbo

[GNon345s]

Yea that 65 Vette was a ANIMAL !!!!! and it looks very RO4 red looking too ! and if you guys here get to see the event on MAV TV look out for the poser in the red 2jz Supra exploding the clutch on the line at the autocross , my ears are still bleeding from standing to close .

No one is bashing any of those guys wrenching/grinding/being creative away in their own garages , you must be reading a different 5 page thread from everyone else .

Making fun of the "poser" because his car broke??

[creakyjoints]

Yeah no one ever talks smack when it comes to competition. Maybe you should go to the other forums and give them a hearty "Well done mate!". Maybe next year!

[SOTTY]

Making fun of the "poser" because his car broke??

I don't recall seeing you there in person .