(By Scott Parker) – The speed stop portion of the Optima Ultimate Street Car Invitational is a devilishly simple looking thing but it is very, very hard to win. The point of the exercise is to get off the starting blocks as quickly as possible, take a corner as quickly as possible, zip through a chicane as quickly as possible and then get your car or truck stopped inside a box made of cones in the shortest expanse of time you can. The fun really comes at the stop box end because some guys misjudge it by a little, some by a whole lot, and others nail it dead on. In this video the footage is focusing on the dudes and dudettes who missed it by a little or a lot.
Charging hard toward the box is mandatory to get the quickest time possible but that also means carrying more speed and that means you better know your braking system pretty well to be able to get your stuff hauled down in time. The fun ones to watch this this video are those without anti-lock brakes. Tons of threshold braking talent here, some guys just completely throwing out the anchor, and others giving them a quick whack, realizing that they are screwed and just bashing the cones to keep from flat spotting perfectly good (and in most cases) new tires.
From vintage wagons to modern super cars, no one was immune to a little “cone kissing” during this portions of the event. You’ll see some familiar cars in here like the Lingenfelter Olds wagon, the 48 Hour Camaro, the Detroit Speed Camaro, some of the C10 trucks we love to drool on and a whole bunch more. If we had smell-o-vision your office or desk, or living room would smell like a tire dump fire because of all the smoke generated here!
Stand on the brakes and watch this!
