That's the ... er ... spirit

My 10 picks
1997/8/9 Impreza 2.5RS with the 3.3L H6 from the SVX swapped in and turbo'd
An E30 M3
An S13/14/15 with an RB series swapped in
1989 Toyota Celica All-Trac (the one w/out the hood scoop)
Mk1 or 2 GTi
Mitsubishi Colt w/4G63 swap
A MF'ng Turbo Sprint
An FC RX-7 with a 22B swap (or maybe a Miata w/same swap)
1997 Civic with a CR-VTec swap
A Peugeot 205 Turbo (yes, they did sell them here)

Hrmm... Okay, so I guess spiritturbo would have the normal-ish race, and I'd be facing all the franken-cars off against each other  

Gosh, guess mine would be kinda boring huh?  

I suppose, but then again, you'd probably have less catastrophic 'events' on the road course and drag strip...

Really though, wouldn't it be nice to see actual fellow tuners face off against each other, and not just those tuners who coincidentally happen to own a tuning house, allowing them to drop 5 and six figure sums on their 'shop' cars? *shrug*  

Indeed. There need to be more homebrew, rediculously cheap, yet effective parts on the cars, not just unobtainium given by the tuning houses. Honestly, how many average Joes have tweaked the torque distribution for an Audi's Haldex system?  

*nods* Yeah it's no secret that money and huge connections makes big power. I like GRM's 200X challenge, I just wish it were as big as the USCC, event wise.  

Actually, in this month's issue of GRM, one of the editorials states that they hear all the time from competator mags how their readers talk a lot about the $200X Challenge. Maybe the Challenge isn't as well known as the USCC, but it is gathering a growing buzz in the industry.  

As I stated with the Supra tread... one of the things they need to do is find a good track. They do the quarter mile on a track that clearly favors the awd cars due to it's dusty conditions and poor prep.

I do like the idea of an autocross.. that should take come of the wind out of the laggy high power cars or the bigger ones like the Skyline.

You want to make the fuel efficency test more real world? Run it like a timed event rally. Not only do they know the miles they will have to do, but give them a minimum time to get there.. this will discourage snail's pace acceleration and a lot of the coasting. Take a point or two away for each minute over.  

well said. Nothing picks up girls like a ridiculously fast car at the limit of cohesion. At least some girls. The Granny factor is dismissable in my opinion. Anyone that reads this magazine devoutly would gladly sacrificie ride&handling over a land yacht 70s Caddy ride.  

Simkin:
Well, how about kicking the crap out of an E46 M3 with a nicely tuned E30 M3 (the 4cyl one).<br /><br />My ideal lineup? 15 cars, with 5 being RWD, 5 FWD, and 5 AWD. The newest that they can be would be 3 years old, so that would mean anything newer than MY2003 would be out (most of the tuning houses seem to stick with modding the newest/latest/greatest).<br /><br />Add in the aforementioned 0-160-0 (kph) test, possibly an autocross (or rally cross in the case of the AWD cars), in gear acceleration tests, and the benchmark car (okay, so make it one of SCC's better sorted project cars), and it woud be sooooo much improved.<br /><br />Am I nuts, or does this seem kind of like what you guys would like to see as well?

Your not crazy.
That sounds decent enough except i think that the tuning shops should be out completly. I realize it will be a little more difficult to select competitors but i'm sure that many readers would love to see what real people who don't work in the industry are doing and what results they are getting.
The 15 car drivetrain lineup is just what the Challenge could benefit from, although the additional tests would need to highlight the the qualities of the different drivetrains. Otherwise the fairness of the Challenge could hang in the balance. I can imagine the results already.
Your idea of an age limitation is an excellent idea but I think it should be 5. Anyone agree?  

there are quite a few five year old cars out there that can still kick butt.

Personally, once I get my spider done, I might put together a competitive car. I was thinking an early 70s fiat X 1/9 (light weight and mid engined) with a Supercharged Honda K series in the middle.. just like this year's elise.  

Personally this is what they need to do:

1) if the car is either sponsored or owned by a Tuning shop, then it shouldn't be in the competition, if you wanted a comparo like that, I go to like superstreet or some other boring rag.

2)Base Price out the window, TOTAL costs in. That means USCC needs to audit it's entrants to see how much the cars have put into them. Be like the IRS and require that every nut and bolt+shop labor be scrutenized over. If they don't have all of their reciepts, either disquailfy the car for any chance of winning, or at least the one with the most records. And the final score should be curved by how much the cars have put into them. Like a car that does moderately well and has a low total cost would therefore beat a UBERfast, car made of unobtainium.

3The show contest needs to add another judge, a cop. I suggest using Steve Foster, from the SCC October 2003 issue. This is the Ultimate STREET CAR challenge, not ricer fest. again while cars will be awarded points for their "blingyness" they will be divided by a number assigned by Steve Foster using the 1st car as a highway patroller he'd pull over to the last. Again if a car that gets points for a mildly good showcar, and lower on the police pullover scale, then a showwinner than would be pulled over in a second the former car would win.  

The cop pullover catagory is a great idea. It awards more for stock looking DSM OEM cars. Right hand drive GTRs would be too JDM for a high score and likewise hand built track cars. Put the street back into street cars.  

I was thinking it is LOOOONNNNNGGGGG overdue for a Ford Probe GT to make an appearance...one that will have a chance of winning or at least place very high  

Im gonna take a wild guess and say that you own a Ford Rectal-Probe. I'm sorry, but I don't think that a 15-year-old front-wheel-drive coupe based on the Mazda 626 Camry fighter has what it takes to knock down the Skylines, Evos, and STis that frequen the USCC.

I think that we should have something unique that would still win. Perhaps that 3 Fast 3 Furious Mustang GT-R would be fun, or if someone has a Bugatti Veyron...

And one more thing-I don't need more than 250-300 hp, depending on what car I'm driving, but I would really like to see a Skyline, Supra, or muscle car break 1000 hp in the dyno test