JF Kustoms, a Ridetech customer and competitor at the 2011 Optima Ultimate Street Car Invitational, wrote in this afternoon about their experience out at the OUSCI event that took place in Parumph. They built a 57 Chevy for Dan and Anita Macdonald that finished 15th in the competition two week ago. We found JF Launier’s story to be an excellent first hand view of the annual OUSCI competition:
“Our trip to SEMA this year was a huge success! We debuted our latest build “REDLINE” an unbelievable 57 chev that Dan and Anita Macdonald commisioned us to build. The car was going to be an above average street car that would be a driver. Dans story with 57 chevys goes way back infact it goes back a generation to when his dad sold his prized 57 at the time he found out he would become a father. This car was the replacement for that and in time the car changed hands to Dan and Anita and the rest is creating history as we speak.As the build grew so did our expectations for the car and it morphed into a bitchin show car.
Redline sports a huge 572, Bowler 4l80e, Ridetech suspension, Spectre goodies, Flowmasters, Basf paint, Curtis Speed wheels and custom parts,Lee Baxters hot rod interior and of course the JF Kustoms touch.
It was a very cold desert morning when we woke up in the small town of Parumph. The car still had all sorts of road debris on it from driving over the mountain pass in the snow ,slush and just generally nasty crap.A perfect tough start to a challenging competition to say the least.Of course lets not forget the car had only 75 test miles on it and the journey in the dark in the middle of nowhere quickly doubled that.As the morning got warmer and we started driving the cars around so the TV crew could get the desired shots it started to become apparent that the late night “shakedown” run had shaken a few things loose. Not in a good way ! So as soon as the camera people were done with us ,the task of converting a JF Kustoms SHOW car to an all out competitive racecar began!.Jacks and tools and legs sticking out from under the car in many different directions seemed to make sense of the minor problems. Just to give this justice most of our competition showed up in semi trailers with hired hotshot drivers and pi crews! Ours looked a little more like a borrowed toolbox, some boys that had spent a week in vegas celebrating like only Canadians can and a car builder as a driver! The optima street car challenge had begun.
Our first event was only a success in the fact that I drove the car without crashing it in from of the customer,but it let us know that there was a giant horsepower issue with the car. Back at the pits the thrash against the clock to figure out what demon was hauting us was using all hands on deck. Alex ,Keith, Danny and ben were each on respective tasks to make the car as competitive as it should be.With no time to spare the car was sent out into the next challenge with only mid pack success.Our work was not over. Back on stands back to the drawing board and now engine parts were being removed. The final bell to get back into competion sounded and an obvious problem had been found.A loose carburator part seemed to have wrecked our ability to compete at the top level! With revenge on the brain I got back in the car and was out for blood. The last event is called a speedstop and it consists of an accelaration against traction and a stop from 80mph into a small box. Competing against cars with traction control, more power and abs brakes my first run was one of the top !!! The next was a perfect one again and even my third try was a success!. With that under our belt and a judged car design and detail event coming we were very optimistic to up our positioning in the finals. Magazines started asking about features and we were wisked away for two photo shoots.
By the time we got back the awards had started and the big winners were announced. With all the heartache and drama our latest creation REDLINE would prove worthy of carshow status and capable racecar finishing an amazing 15th in with a group of cars designed to tear up ashphalt and bleed adrenaline! We are so proud to have had the opportunity to build a car that is a family jewel and will hopefully make hot rodders out of few more Macdonalds down the road!
Remember its not the car you drive it’s the car that drives you!”
Tags: musclecar
