Alex Ross calls his automatic-equipped, Imagine Auto-prepped car "Monkey Tronic." Cort didn't know this and called it "Chicktronic" before posting a 67.14-sec., third-place lap time.
The Saturday before the shootout, someone from CarGraphic called my cell phone to find out which track configuration we'd be using so their chassis guy could prepare the car. Whatever he did must have worked, because its 66.38-sec. lap was fastest of the day. Or maybe it was just that prominent front splitter. Cort noted that he felt downforce working through Riverside, which is long enough for that to make a big difference.
Braking
Our braking test was simple. We didn't have time for 10 stops and statistical analysis, so we gave the cars four chances to go from 80 to 0 mph and took the best one. To keep consistent procedure, we had Cort drive again. Measurements were made with a Stalker ATS radar system.
It would appear Porsche's own engineers know a little about making their cars stop, as By Design's Cabrio, with its PCCB ceramic brakes, cleaned up with a braking distance of 182 ft.
Alex Djerdjevic's S Car Go-prepared effort included Hoosiers and Brembo's 15-in. GT race brake system, stopping in just 184 ft. Protomotive landed another 2 ft closer to the radar gun. The worst-stopping car was the Evolution Motorsports Stage 4, separated from the PES Stage 5 car by the widest gap in the field, 209 ft versus 203.
Overall, this was an astoundingly well-braked bunch of cars. While Los Angeles County Raceway may have been slightly downhill, where the S4s were stopping, and it is doubtlessly dirtier and less grippy pavement, the shortest stopping S4 took 219 ft to stop from 80 mph. Rearward weight bias has its advantages.
Dragstrip
This was the event several competitors had been waiting for, and we saved it for last. Amazingly, the slowest car was still 2/10 clear of the 12s. In fact, considering all the big talk that was thrown around beforehand, all but one of these cars were surprisingly closely matched, falling in a 0.65-sec. window from 11.13 to 11.78 sec. in the quarter mile.
The By Design car was most dramatic, experiencing severe wheel hop off the line. Some competitors reported they could see the whole roofless chassis bending and twisting under the forces of the launch. Still, its time was mid-pack.
Third fastest was Alex Djerdjovic, who drove his own car to an 11.21-sec. pass, making sure the hidden nitrous switches were used appropriately. That system had been a pack of gremlins on the dyno and served only little better here, though it showed some serious power with a trap speed of 131.19 mph.
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