Optima Search for the Ultimate Street Car, NCM 2017

[Turbo6inKY]

Well, I pulled it off. This past weekend I made my second attempt at an Optima USCA event. Last year, I was knocked out on the first day by an electrical problem, but this weekend went off without a hitch (for me).

The event is a two-day thrash with five components. There's a Design and Engineering, where you basically blab about your car for two minutes; an autocross; a speed-stop, which is really just a very short autocross; a road rally, which was a 60 minute jaunt on the freeway this year; and laps on a road course.

This was the second time I'd been on a road course (see my road course porn for video from my outing to Putnam Park two weeks ago), and the experience was helpful. Primarily, I figured out the Hawk HPS pads I was using weren't going to cut it. I switched them out for the DTC-30/SR pad. Big difference.

The results are posted here: https://clubregistration.net/clients/usca/results/overall.cfm?eventID=8095

I placed ninth overall in GTV, in a field of thirty really high-end builds. My ninth place speed-stop scores? Did them in the wet!

Anyway, I shot video!

Here's my fastest autocross run:

Here's my second fastest autocross run, but with engine telemetry added to the video, just for dorkiness:

This was made possible by my Powerlogger, Scanmaster-G, ALDLDroid, and Dashware, married to the data from Harry's Lap Timer. I couldn't get logs of all the segments because my Android phone is ancient and not doing very well. It would crash halfway through a road course session.

And here's my best road course lap:

And if anybody is interested, post up and I can share the entire road course session. It'll be a few hours before that video is processed.

All in all, it was a fantastic weekend. Really tough on the brakes, though. I turned the rotors blue and grease has seeped out from under the dust cap on the front hubs. I'll need to repack them this weekend.

 

[turbodean87]

Cool. sounds like a blast. Will you get any tv time on mavtv? Is it a friendly environment? Are other competitors friendly? Mostly the more famous ones.


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[Turbo6inKY]

Cool. sounds like a blast. Will you get any tv time on mavtv? Is it a friendly environment? Are other competitors friendly? Mostly the more famous ones.

It's unlikely I'll get specific coverage on MavTV, but I might be in the background. They have to compress an entire weekend into a 40 minute package, so they really only cover the people vying for first. Ninth is good, but not good enough for TV.

As for friendly, yes. This group is awesome. If somebody's car goes down, there's instantly a crowd around them not gawking, but helping to get them running again.

 

[Instro84]

nice, always wondered how a buick would do in those competitions. i'd like to see the entire road course session, from the short video you hit over 1G quite a few time.

 

[Turbo6inKY]

nice, always wondered how a buick would do in those competitions. i'd like to see the entire road course session, from the short video you hit over 1G quite a few time.

Full session:

There's a lot done to my car, but compared to the competition in a series like this, it's an overachiever.
The things to fix on a stock GN are the front suspension. Fix the caster/camber curves and make sure the brakes work. The rest is gravy.

 

[gdsims231]

I have really wanted to try some of what you are doing with these cars. It's been years since I have done any AC and I would need much seat time. Few questions if you don't mind. What tires are you running? What are the settings on your front end? How much does your car weigh? Really cool what you are doing, I wish there were more Buick's involved. Maybe there are and I just don't know about it.

 

[SpeedRacerX]

Awesome. Must be a Miata or Honda nightmare to be passed by a big, boxy, black GN monster. Lol.

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[Turbo6inKY]

I have really wanted to try some of what you are doing with these cars. It's been years since I have done any AC and I would need much seat time. Few questions if you don't mind. What tires are you running? What are the settings on your front end? How much does your car weigh? Really cool what you are doing, I wish there were more Buick's involved. Maybe there are and I just don't know about it.

I'm running BF Goodrich Rival S tires in 275/35R18.
My front end alignment is 1.25 degrees negative static camber, 4.8 degrees positive caster, zero toe.
The car weighs 3538 with half a tank of gas.

 

[scot w.]

Great Job!

Several Years ago our GNS white T-Type test car qualified but I wasn't interested in toting everything to Vegas for the Circus. We definitely had enough car to compete and have fun but the cars at the top in the Optima event are loaded with unlimited money and as Richard Clark once told me "If you have enough money, you can win anything" The D&E portion is kind of a joke, It's where you can beat every car there in AC, RC & Speedstop and loose to them cause of D&E...

 

[Turbo6inKY]

Great Job!

Several Years ago our GNS white T-Type test car qualified but I wasn't interested in toting everything to Vegas for the Circus. We definitely had enough car to compete and have fun but the cars at the top in the Optima event are loaded with unlimited money and as Richard Clark once told me "If you have enough money, you can win anything" The D&E portion is kind of a joke, It's where you can beat every car there in AC, RC & Speedstop and loose to them cause of D&E...

Thanks!

And yes, the metric poop-ton of money that is in the front runners' cars is just nuts.
And the D&E is a challenge. Completely subjective. It's a sales job. I did a really good job in it last year, not so much this year.

 

[xpander343]

The road course video was really cool to watch.

 

[BEATAV8]

Very Cool!