# Ultimate Street Car Challenge



## Nismo Skyline (May 2, 2002)

I was going to post my thoughts on participating in the USCC, but Sean Morris did such a good job I am posting his comments here.

Ultimate Street Car Challenge again this year for Sport Compact Car. 10 cars. 2 days. Last year we entered Blackbird and it got sold before the event - so we used Justins R33 . We finished in 7th despite a decent performance . We didn't do the emissions , and the guy hated the HKS/Tilton twin plate clutch that much. We lost -91 points out of 100 because of the clutch.

This year Hiros R32 was being built for the competiton . HKS 2.8 , 
custom ball bearing turbos , 280 cams , Ohlins Suspension .Nismo 
suspension arms, Power FC , Nismo twin plate clutch , OS giken 
transmission . Front and rear LSD's , Leather interior , Tommykaira body kit , Hoosiers , etc ,etc. Had a R34 Getrag that was going to go in , but ran out of time to get parts. Then when they went to start the car - there were some issues with sealing on the headgasket and they had to look for a backup car.

So two days before the contest they got Daniels R33. 2530's , 270 low lift tomei cams , Power FC , Ohlins , Hooisers , and other than that pretty stock. 

On HKS ,USA's awd Dynojet it made 509 awhp - peaking at 1.6 kg/cm2 and falling to about 1.4 kg/cm2 . It was running 103 octane unleaded VP fuel though the catalytic converter. The car was the cleanest at the event as far as emissions was concerned. I tried to dyno it 2wd , but the ETC did not like it at all. The car pulled off the dyno 3 times before we finally gave up and ran it all wheel drive. The 2530s did not have the high boost actuators on them . I think the car needed them to get higher boost on the dyno. The Supra made 619 rwhp . There was a 
Mitsubishi Eclipse that made 527 all wheel horsepower . The Viper ACR made 530 rwhp normally aspirated.

The first day was dyno , power delivery , grandma test , driveability , cost , engineering , car show , emissions . The engineering results were not tallied by the time we left from the first day and we were suprised to find out we were in 1st place. There was still one event remaining - the fuel economy test. Filled up the car with 91 and headed out to Fontana. The GT-R on a 60 mile trip used just about 3 gallons of fuel. I think the Supra used about 1.7 gallons . I guess we should have tried harder....

The next day was the track and we knew the car would do good there. It was going to be hot where they were doing the testing. It had been 95 degrees , and we knew it was not going to let up at all. That Sunday night , we changed the oil and drained the coolant and put mostly straight water into the car.

At the track the first event was the skidpad. They let us know know that after the engineering and fuel economy that the Supra was 1st , the Skyline was 2nd , and the Viper was 3rd.

Skyline pulled a 1.04 average on the skidpad. Still having problems with the Attesa kicking off on left hand turns. Vspec R33's do not like the skidpad much. They turn off the Attesa system during the continuous left hand turns. Right hand turns its fine . Left hand turns the rear diff opens - and it starts to spin one rear wheels. Justins R33 did it . Now Dannys car did it. I think its an actual R33 Vspec issue. Viper pulled a 1.07 . Supra 1.00 . SRX-7 pullled a 1.15


It started getting hot . They said 108 degree air temps. On the track. No car was liking it. The Viper guy was saying the Viper never gets hot . Two laps and he said the gage was pegged. Supra and Skyline were having big cooling issues too. The Viper laid down a 1:16.5 . Skyline was #2 with a 1:23.57 , yes thats 7 seconds behind the Viper..... and the Skyline was #2 . Then the Supra with around a 1:25 . WRX with a 1:25.... Mani in the Supra - was having so many cooling problems that he took off the hood , took out the headlights and ran the car. He ended 
up with a 1:22.09 . We had one more lap for the Skyline . I was pouring water all over the intercooler and radiator trying to get it as cool as possible for the last run. One lap - beat the Supra. Steve Mitchell goes out - comes ripping back across the line and we go out and check 1:21.96 . Just beating the Supra.


Next event was the dragstrip , 0-60 , and braking. Eclipse goes first and rips off a 11.15 . We knew that with 527 at the wheels , that it was going to be #1 in the drag strip. Next was the Viper - and it pulled out a 12.2 . Skyline next. Set the rev limiter to 8500 rpms . Set the two step in the Power FC Pro to 7750 rpms.

Danny gets up to the line . Hits the two step for a few seconds and lets it rip. Wheelspin , but it looks like a clean run. It does look slow. Notice he just barely makes it into 4th.... can't have been that fast...maybe a 12.5... go over to check 11.66 @ 123..... wow..... wasn't expecting it to be that fast. Next run .... we up the boost , pack everything with ice . Pour water over everything . Try go get everything as cool as possible. Set the two step to 8000 rpm this time. This time he said that it left so hard that he short shifted 1st gear at 7500 rpms. It ran another 11.6 @ 124 mph.

Then the braking test...... didn't know what it was going to do. Manis Supra had the 14 inch front Stoptech brakes , and the 13 inch rear Stoptech brakes. Plus he had done testing just for this contest. He got 106 feet in the 60-0 braking . I think the Viper and Skyline both got around 107 feet. The Skyline had stock Brembos with good pads.

The last thing was the "gross display of horsepower" . Basically impress the judges with a big burnout /powerslide contest . They told us that the results would affect the outcome of the event.... Danny asked me to drive his car for the event. First time I had driven a GT-R in about 3 months...... thinking of what I could do to make it a "gross" display of horsepower..... I asked to go first...... after all orgininality gets rewarded. And what I was going to do was going to be original. Parked the car out in the middle and waited for them to get all the photographers , and videocameras ready..... It was hot..... so they gave me the thumbs up... threw my hat down , kicked off my shoes , 
dropped my shorts , and took off my shirt. Jumped in the car and 
started doing donuts on my clothes.... I figured that was a pretty 
gross display.... 90 seconds of switching the ETC on and off , buring the rubber off the Hoosiers....

Figured we had the contest locked in after that...... at the dinner 
..... Supra got 3rd by 14 points . Skyline got 2nd by 5 points . and the Viper ACR was first....

-- 
Sean Morris
Check out some new projects :
http://www.ptcruisn.com/F150.htm
http://www.ptcruisn.com/escalade.htm

Great description Sean, Thanks!


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