Jim I wasnt being critical of the street tire requirement. I think its a good Idea really (though I would consider making the limit 180 as some others define stret tires). I think the redneck cars would benifit more from R compound than most of the challengers. I also think the main benefit is to deter those with more or less dedicated track cars from the fray. I do think an appropriate porsche would a good candidate to give the rednecks some trouble.

Frankly speaking, I like the show but some of my motorsports friends are a bit critical of it. It does seam a bit staged at times. It seems that there have been several power induced oversteering incidents by the rednecks and just the right time to cause some drama. That being said I do watch the show and enjoy it. I would love to have some technical highlighs of the cars and challengers mixed in.

Lincoln, it wasn't intended as a stern admonishing at all, just a statement of fact- that's how TV shows get put together. We'd love to have you come to Wisconsin and throw down against the rednecks in our Faceoff event once your car is ready.

aschen, our Faceoff event is a whole different format than the redneck TV show, although several of the same drivers and cars compete. We've been asked to lower the minimum treadwear to 180 and lower before, but frankly, I'm not sure that would make any difference. We knew when a built (original owner) 427 Cobra showed up with a ringer driver and pretty much dominated on DOT slicks, that could have put him into a guardrail on a wet road, that we needed to make some changes to keep the event closer to the “Street Car” name. In an honest moment, the tire manufacturers will admit the treadwear grade number is really up to their discretion.

Rumors have been floating around that some manufacturers have intentionally designated 200 or higher treadwear ratings on tires that really aren't anywhere near that, just for eligibility in these events. For that reason, we keep a very close eye on the tires that show up at our events. We'd prefer not to go in the direction of OLOA on tire rules, but if tire manufacturers start producing tires close to DOT slicks with 200 treadwear numbers on the sidewalls, we probably won't have a choice.

I like the redneck show, but I take it for what it is- entertainment. The off-track stuff is meant to be funny, but all of the on-track racing is legit. If mayhem seems to show up at just the right time, then it's probably due to good editing, rather than prompting from a producer to do something dramatic on the track. While the rednecks (celebrity rednecks excluded) all have a lot of track time under their belts, I don't think the majority of it has come in wheel to wheel environments. One of the Firebirds used on the show is owned by a Canadian and several of the other cars are personally owned by the rednecks. They didn't want to ding any of them up, but at the same time, they also wanted to win the race and had limited opportunities in the format of those races to make that happen. That probably led to some of the guys pushing the envelope a little too far in some instances, which made for good TV, even if it didn't have the intended outcome for the driver.

I don't know much about the challenger cars, but if you'd like more technical highlights on the redneck cars, virtually all of them have been well-documented in a variety of magazines.

Jim McIlvaine
eCare Manager, OPTIMA Batteries, Inc.
OPTIMA® Batteries (optimabatteries) on Pinterest

now THAT would be a reality show I would actually watch!!

Next up on "Would YOU Slap Lincoln?"........

I sure as fuch wouldn't! Hahahahahahaa. Not to mention, not sure I could reach?

And nowadays... you'd have to catch him first!

I will say, though... it is truly astounding what passes as programming these daze, reallllllllllllly makes one wonder. Let's just say I've um er uh been dared to come up with 'something' by some of 'these folks'.

Things that make you go hmmmmm. Stay toooned muwhahahaaa 8-)

turboPALOOZA TV anyone?

I'm not sure the werld can (will) handle it?

^^^ we'll be there... anytime!

I think a decent driver in a bone stock $100K GT3 would give those good ol' boys in their $100K fully race prepped Detroit muscle cars a good run for it. 800hp is great but you can only use what you can put down on street tires. A GT3 can put all the power down exiting every corner, and can go around corners pretty well also.

Anyone??

It seems those fat boys just cant drive!

The fun thing about running our Faceoff and Ultimate Street Car Invitational events is that the longer we run them, the wider the variety of vehicles we get to participate. When folks start speculating and bench racing, we can actually provide examples of what happened in the real world. We'd love to get a GT3 out to one of our events, but haven't been able to talk anyone into it yet. We did have a Carrera GT participate in our Faceoff event at Road America last year. The driver seemed decent and he did beat just about everyone there, but a 2010 Camaro and 1967 Camaro both finished ahead of him in the overall standings, although he was faster than the '67 Camaro on the road course.

Jim McIlvaine
eCare Manager, OPTIMA Batteries, Inc.
OPTIMA® Batteries (optimabatteries) on Pinterest

Ralph knows his way around Waterford... and a bunch of other tracks. "his" Viper has good friends, say, like all of SRT. Not exactly bad company. He was silly-fast in his old GTS, many years ago. Smooth, consistent times, even in a heavy beast like the Viper. Not gonna be easy to keep up with him.


But...

My money's on Lincoln!!! :D He's in a 930, we gotta stick together SmileWavy



Keep me posted, I'm in for a 930-full track day. You guys will need something with less than 350hp to chase around :cool:

some interesting insight from a member of the ///M5 board I'm on

I will be on SPEED in Feb 2013 - BMW M5 Forum and M6 Forums

the bit about the accident, their denial of liability, and their resulting lack of any financial support for such?

canIgetta WTF?

And... I guess we'd expect the scenarios to be stacked, but c'mon srsly... stuff like asking the challenger to lie about his output just so it makes for a good story? I get 'scripted' but that's pretty lame, as it's so pathetically transparent to the viewer it kills all credibility.

stuff like this is good for me tho - provides strong instigation to offer alt's 8-)

Haha Garen, yeah Ralph's cars get the extra stuff that is for "R & D" and he is smooth, probably because he started out in relatively low hp cars, momentum drivers are always gonna be smoother and more consistent.
Paulie WTF!