Well, I made it to Bristol for the weekend to participate in the Car Craft Real Street Eliminator, which was part of the Year One Bristol Bash. In case you missed it, see my previous page about my excitement over this event. :)

I don't want to give out too much information on the event, as Car Craft will be writing it up for their March issue. But, I will tell you about the cars and where I placed, as well as my 'fun' during the weekend... Read on!

The Cars

In addition to my own car, there were 4 other participants in the RSE event. All of the cars were very nice, and there was some excellent engineering and craftmanship in each! Here they are:

• 1967 Camaro - WOW! What a gorgeous car, with a very clean engine compartment and interior. It has a 355 small block which is every bit as clean (if not moreso!) than the one in my car. :) The wheels on the car were gorgeous, with 19's in the front and 20's in the rear (Billet Specialties, if I'm not mistaken). A full custom interior and trunk rounded out the car.
• 1982 Cadillac - Who would have ever expected this car, eh? :) What an engineering marvel this was! With a 500ci or so Cadillac motor, custom lowered suspension, very clean engine compartment, and plush/comfy seats, this was a really nice and clean car! This car has participated in the Hot Rod Power Tour as a long hauler, and it's owner enjoys competing in high-speed autocrosses. Oh, he's also an ex-IMSA and Renault spec-series driver, so he certainly brings the driving skills to the event!
• 1978 Caprice - Can you say "frame off restoration"? Wow! Just looking at the outside of this car, you don't think it's anything special. However, this car has gone through a complete rebuild, and it's like a new and improved version of what GM build back in the 70's! :) It was very clean and performed well in the competition. I never did find out exactly what was under the hood, but following him through the ride and drive portion of the event, I KNOW it has something good. :)
• 1978 T/A - This car was GORGEOUS on the outside and under the hood! It is Viper blue with the white stripes. It has a 400ci Pontiac motor putting out some pretty serious torque. It also has a full roll cage and racing seats (won't help it in the ride and drive! :). The front suspension on this car was custom designed by one of its two owners (a GM suspension and chassis engineer!) and it's stance and performance showed his skills!!! This car competed in this years One Lap of America and if not for a broken distributor gear, it would have likely finished top-15 overall! Impressive...

The Competition

The Real Street Eliminator competition consisted of 4 events.

• Drag Race - Each competitor was allowed three passes down the drag strip. The best ET would be the one that counted toward your total score.
• Autocross - Each competitior was allowed three trips through the autocross course. To even out the scoring here, the average time of the three passes was used toward the final score.
• Craftmanship - This category was subjectively scored by 5 judges (4 Car Craft writers and one honorary judge, the president of Year One). There were 4 categories to be judged:
  • Paint
  • Engineering
  • Fit & Finish
  • Overall Detail
• Ride & Drive - Another subjective judging category. The 4 magazine writers took turns riding in each car for approximately 20 miles, judging each car based on:
  • Comfort
  • Ride Quality & Noise
  • Vibration/Harshness

My Results

I don't plan to tell how any of the other competitors performed, but, I will tell you how I did. :) Honestly, the car performed VERY well, given that I had basically no experience with it on the drag strip, and only one autocross before this event. Thankfully, I had driven it on one long trip (~120 miles round trip) before I went, since the 30-mile Ride and Drive turned into a 100-mile Ride and Drive. :)

Drag Race

First, the drag race, Unfortunately, our schedule for the weekend was totally scrambled due to the threat of rain. No one really wanted to autocross in the rain, so we packed everything into Saturday rather than taking the chance on Sunday rain. That meant we really got no practice on the drag strip or autocross.

I did get one pass down the strip before starting the real passes. I had also made on pass on Friday night during the Bristol test 'n tune. During that pass, the car hooked up amazingly well on my street tires, so I didn't plan to change them. However, on my one pass Saturday morning, I had NO traction off the line (spun through 2 gears!). I still managed a 12.8 @ 117 MPH. I thought that was pretty respectable.

Thankfully, before leaving for Memphis on Friday, I managed to locate a pair of drag radials and a pair of wheels that a friend had which would actually fit my car. After that first pass, I scrambled back into the pits to switch them over. Thankfully, they fit, since I hadn't had time to test fit them before loading up the car and leaving for Bristol. :) I lined the car back up and was ready for my first pass...

Because I was swapping tires, I didn't get to see what the other guys ran, and I also didn't run against anyone, so it was a pretty low-key pass. I heated up the drag radials and staged, then launched pretty hard! Unfortunately, I managed to suffer some wheel hop, but the launch otherwise felt pretty good! I went flying through the gears, and was getting close to the line. Then I went to shift into fourth, and MISSED!!!!!! I couldn't believe it! :( By the time I got it in, the damage was done... I picked up my time slip and saw a 12.70 @ 112 MPH. That means the car should have a low-12 in it, no problem! :)

One thing I noticed was the car was running a little rich, so I leaned it out some for the next run. Not sure how much it helped, but what the heck... :) When I returned to the starting line, I was up against the blue T/A. I knew this was going to be a fun run! :) The car was fast, but given my first run, I knew I should be a little quicker. Hmm...

At the launch, he had a better R/T than I did (.662 to .748), so he took a little lead (heads up wasn't important, but bragging rights were.. :). We were side by side all the way down the track, with me creeping up on him as we went along! Here is the time slip:

So, looking at that timeslip, guess what happened? Yup... I missed 4th gear AGAIN!!! I was pulling on him the entire run, only to lose it at the end... That was big, because it was likely to be my best run of the entire weekend!!! He came up to me after the run and was all psyched about it too, and asked me what happened. He saw me drop off right at the end, so he knew something was wrong... Ugh! Oh well, it was a FUN run! :)

My last run unfortunately came with a LOT of tirespin off the line. I'm not sure what happened that time, but I didn't get anywhere near the traction I did previously. I turned in a 12.718 @ 115.8 MPH on that run.

Out of the three drag runs, I unfortunately never managed a clean run, and that would ultimately hurt in the overall standings. But, the car performed beautifully (albeit without much traction, guess that's what a clutch a 4.56 gears will do to you! :), it's the driver who needs some work... Time for the Craftsmanship judging now...

Craftsmanship

There isn't a whole lot to tell about this portion of things... I stood around the car for about an hour while the 5 judges walked around. I talked with each of them extensively, telling them about all the subtle things I've done to the car that aren't obvious. Each different judge had certain things they were interested in (engine, suspension, interior, etc), but they all seemed to like the car and had a lot of questions.

Autocross

As I said, because of the impending bad weather, we moved the autocross portion of the event from Sunday to Saturday afternoon. A Georgia sanction of the SCCA had come to Bristol and set up a course for the Bristol Bash in the parking lot of the Bristol Motor Speedway. The course was running anywhere from 20-25 seconds, and it was a FUN course! There was a 180 degree bend, a long sweeping turn, and a couple of 90 degree turns. Otherwise, it was a FAST course!

Unfortunately, I only managed to get one run through the course before the real laps started. One more run would have helped a lot, as my times showed. I experimented with gears through the course, but eventually managed to run the entire course in just first gear. Thank goodness for a 7500 rpm rev limit! :)

I completed all 3 runs without hitting a cone, which was a great accomplishment for me! :) I was pushing a LOT through the turns though, and on the last 90 degree turn before the finish line, I was sideways everytime! I did a lot of power sliding through this course, which was a BLAST! Here are my times:

23.999

23.313

23.437

As you can see, that first run was still really a practice run to get to know the course. That 1/2 second would have helped a LOT! My average for the three runs was 23.583s.

Ride & Drive

Sunday morning as I awoke didn't look so great... It was wet outside with more rain to come. We lined up the 5 cars with 4 passengers, so there would always be one empty car. We departed on our 100 mile trip at about 10:00am.

The path that the writers chose was absolutely beautiful! We went through all sorts of twisty mountain roads! The tree, the lakes, the hills were all gorgeous! It was hard to stay focused on the driving... :)

The car performed very well! Of course, I was the only one to have any problem at all during the drive... My PS/AC belt frayed and started slapping the hood and inner fender. Not good! And of course it happened at a point where I couldn't pull off the road. We crept to a point where I could, and I trimmed off the frayed belt rib. I think this happened because a while back the idler pulley on the car had started moving off the bearing, causing misalignment with the other pulleys. March replaced the idler for free for me, but I imagine that was the cause of the problem.

These roads would have been a LOT more fun if it weren't for the rain. I just wasn't willing the push the speed but so much, given the blind 180-degree turns that were everywhere. But I will say this, the driver of the blue T/A had more fun than ANYONE else on the Drive! :) He would slow down to let the rest of us catch up, then just take off winding through the turns. I would have loved to have ridden in that car through these roads! :)

I was the last one to have no passenger, so I followed the group back to the track. I felt I had done well during the Drive, and the writers seemed to comment favorably on the car.

The Scoring

Now that the events were done, let's explain the scoring. There was a maximum possible 270 points for the competition. The drag race and autocross were worth 100 points each. The Craftsmanship portion was worth 40 points, and the Ride & Drive was worth 30 points. I'm not completely sure how the drag race and autocross points were awarded, but I know that the best time on each received 100 points, and you lost points as a percentage of the amount of time you were slower than the fastest time... Can't explain it any better than that!

My results

Ok, time for my results!

• My best drag race time was 12.70. The overall best drag time was 11.80! I received 92.91 points for my time. Remember those two missed shifts??? Just imagine if I had pulled a 12.4 or so with a clean run... Hmm... As it was, I placed third in the drag race.
• My average autocross time was 23.583 seconds. The best overall average was 22.533 seconds. I received 95.55 points for that time. This placed me third in the autocross competition.
• For the subjective Craftsmanship category, I received 35.7 out of the possible 40 points. That put me in first place for that category!!! Woo hoo!
• And finally, the one which likely decided it all... For the Ride & Drive, I received a score of 26.125 out of 30 points. I placed second in the Ride & Drive

What does this mean overall? Well, I placed SECOND for the entire competition. My total score was 250.285 points. The winner scored a total of 253.625 points. Third place received 249.485 points. Supposedly this was the closest finish ever in their competition!

I have to say, I can't help but be a little disappointed about my finish, as I wanted to win this competition VERY badly! I honestly feel that I had a car capable of winning, and my drag strip passes let me down. But, overall, I had a great time, the car performed excellently, and I'll take my second place and be happy! :) I feel that a good time was had by all the competitors, and the writers seemed to enjoy the cars and the rides and watching us flail around from event to event. :)

I look forward to the magazine writeup which will appear in the March issue of Car Craft. They took some excellent pictures, and we gave them some good material to write about I believe. Be sure to keep an eye out for the Hunk 'o Metal in that issue. :)