Over the past three years, Optima has hosted its Search for the Ultimate Street Car competition in conjunction with the Ultimate Street Car Association, and this year it kicks off on March 17th at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. But, don’t start detailing and prepping your street machine just yet – you need to hop over to USCA’s official web page to register for the event (in the source field below.) But, rest assured, you’ll be welcomed regardless of what you drive, even if it’s a modified 1978 Honda Civic or something much newer. That’s right, the competition is open to all years, makes, and models as long as your car is a street-legal performance machine, and sports a major OE manufacturer factory affixed production tag or plate. If you own a kit car or modern reproduction model, however, you’ll just have to sit this one out.

Back to the news at hand, each event scheduled for this year’s run will be split into five key segments: design and engineering, road rally, speed-stop, autocross, and road course. These segments will allow the judging panel to make an informed decision as to who owns the ultimate street machine in a balanced manner, with an emphasis on high-quality fit and finish, innovative and cutting edge ideas/parts, features that retain its ability to perform as a daily driver, and performance on the track. And, don’t think you can get by with trying to pass off a vehicle not suitable to be a daily driver here folks because the road rally event is designed to ensure that each vehicle meet that criteria with a road cruise that covers anywhere between 25 and 100 miles with or without stops

Meanwhile, the speed-stop segment will test your ability to accelerate and stop quickly, and the Autocross competition will time you as you attempt to negotiate tight turns, short straightaways, slow-speed maneuvers, and your ability to stop within a designated spot. Finally, the road course competition will time your car’s performance and your ability to perform on real road racing conditions with the lowest times receiving the highest score. Registration is open now, so get over there and register your whip before it’s too late.

Keep reading for more details

Just a Little More Info

Las Vegas Motor Speedway hosts the first event from March 17 to March 19, however, there are six other events that include:

- April 21-23 @ NOLA Motorsports Park

- June 2-4 @ National Corvette Museum Motorsports

- July 7-9 @ Pikes Peak International Raceway

- August 25-27 @ New Jersey Motorsports Park

- September 1-3 @ Auto Club Speedway

- October 7-9 @ Road America

As you can see, there’s a venue that is well within just about anybody’s reach over the next nine months, so start planning now and make your presence known.

2016 Winners

GTV Class

1969 Chevy Camaro owned by Jake Rozelle – Total score: 1431 points

GTS Class

2013 Nissan GT-R owned by Steve Kepler – Total score: 1450 points

GTL Class

2006 Chevy Corvette Z06 owned by Rich Willhoff – Total Score: 1462 points

GT Class

2013 Chevy Camaro owned by Bryan Johnson – Total Score: 1443 points

Note: This year, a new FTC class is being introduced that will allow cars like the Volkswagen Golf, Honda Civic, Mazda Miata, and other sport compacts to compete as well, which should lead to some interesting competition. We’ve uploaded the PDF of the full rules provided by the USCA for your review below.