7th August 2005 - Event Report: Ultimate Street Car, Santa Pod Raceway (for Fast & Modified Magazine)

* * * * * * * * * *

Event: Ultimate Street Car, Santa Pod Raceway, England

Date: Friday 5th to Sunday 7th August 2005

When it comes to the big modified car shows during the year, there's one that stands out above the rest - Ultimate Street Car. For the 3 days in August that it runs Santa Pod is over-run with just about every make and model of car imaginable, with many being heavily tuned so that when they get their 3 runs up the famous 1/4 mile stretch they are able to get the lowest time possible.

The "run what ya brung" style of drag racing ran for most of the 3 days, with only a few hold up's for lunch breaks or with cars breaking down as they tried to launch of the very sticky surface. So many cars that you would never have expected very low times from were pulling exceptionally fast times. One car that impressed everyone throughout the weekend was the Nitrous Solutions mini. Ranging from high 11's all the way down to a jaw-dropping 9.9 second run near the end of Sunday's activities.

As always several of the big UK drag cars were in attendance to deafen the viewing public with the roar off of their highly tuned V8's etc, and for those that still had some hearing left it wouldn't be Santa Pod without a few runs each day from the Fireforce crew who were pulling 5's and 6's all weekend long in their recently rebuilt Fireforce 2 car.

I had heard about the highly tuned Subaru which had made an appearance last week at Ten Of The Best, and thankfully the crew from the Netherlands had brought the car down to the Pod for some more high speed fun, managing to pull low 10's almost every time it rolled onto the track.

An old skool beetle decided that Bug Jam wasn't enough for it a matter of weeks ago, and wheelie'd off the line time after time to the rounds of applause and cheers from the crowd. On both Saturday and Sunday we found hoards making their way to the other side of the enbankment to the burnout competition which was trying it's best to create more smoke than Fireforce on run-up. The team that brought the GT Battle event to Rockingham earlier in the year were in attendance to show everyone what drifting is at various stages throughout the weekend, with their twincam's, 200sx's and skylines.

Saturday evenings activities were brought to a close by the flamer competition, which again drew in massive crowds. 7 entrants had their machines (you'll find out why I used machines there in a minute) lined up next to the start line with their exhausts facing the rear grandstand. One by one they had 30 seconds to show the crowd what they were capable of, ranging from a jet of flame from the pipe of a Scooby through to 2 crowd pleasers - an old Sierra running a massive 25kg bottle of Calor gas which was shooting flames that could probably have been seen from space, and a small tractor which a group had modified for this competition with some butane. In the end the competition was won by the Sierra due to the sheer size of the flames it produced, and with that the crowds then moved on to the dance tent and funfair etc.

Terry Grant was in attendance on the Sunday with his recently painted Legend and flame-throwing Subaru. On his first run the Subaru seemed to understeer on the strip and bumped one of the walls, which showed the crowd that he is still human after all. Bump or no bump, Terry then drove one of the best displays I've ever seen, which had the crowd cheering like crazy as he ran through his vast array of stunts in both cars.

The sheer number of top quality cars on show this year once again ensures that the Ultimate Street Car event is at the top of the tree for another year in succession.

* * * * * * * * * *

PREVIOUS JOURNALISM ENTRIES

2005-06-26 - Overdrive Event Report (Flat 2 The Mat Magazine)

2005-06-12 - Quickshift Drag Racing Event Report (Fast & Modified Magazine)

2005-06-11 - Club GTI Trackday Event Report (Flat 2 The Mat Magazine)

2005-05-22 - Modified Mayhem Show Report (Flat 2 The Mat Magazine)

2005-03-26 - D1 Drifting Dates & Drifting Background Info (Fast & Modified Magazine)

The images contained in this site are protected by copyright - no copying or use without prior written consent