For the past three years, Castrol has been putting several of the Source Interlink Media magazines together for the Syntec Challenge. Castrol is one largest oil companies in the world and Syntec is their flagship line, featuring fully-synthetic racing oils.
Although we've never won, each year we've been able to gain higher ground on the totem pole. The first year was a motor build off, and our Bisimoto built F22A fell rather short, landing in fifth place (out of seven) (Although we should have won - SK). In the past two competitions, the Castrol Syntec Top Car Challenge transformed into a full car exercise. Last year our 350Z chariot did an awesome job, coming in second, but couldn't take down Modified magazine's AMS-built Evo 9. This year we've sharpened our skills and knew exactly what to do.
It took us a long time to find the perfect candidate to represent Super Street in the Castrol Syntec Top Car Challenge. We knew that in order to win, we'd have to place high in all the categories and never be on the lower end of any. With tests ranging from vehicle cost to a time attack, we had to find a perfectly well-rounded car. On top of all that, it had to be a streetcar that would pass emissions and be able to drive on public streets, a three-hour journey to the fighting grounds of Buttonwillow Raceway. At first, we wanted an AWD car to ensure us good results in the 1/4-mile time, 1/4-mile trap speed and acceleration tests. At the same time, we knew we needed something in the neighborhood of 600whp for this competition and no AWD with that kind of power was anywhere near a streetcar anymore. They all tend to be gutted down racecars with no interior or license plates. When we saw Curtis Chen's 1995 Supra, we knew this was the car. It was relatively inexpensive and extremely balanced to meet all categories.
Kicking off the challenge was the dyno competition at K&N's research and development facility in Riverside. We were greeted with our competition; a R35 GT-R (Modified magazine), a time attack S2000 (Honda Tuning), a widebody turbocharged NSX (Import Tuner), a built Shelby GT500 Mustang (5.0 Mustang), and a BMW M3 that definitely was no streetcar (eurotuner). The dyno numbers came out rather low even though our Supra was screaming. Apparently that dyno gives off low numbers and so it was consistently low for everyone. Two teams were having problems with their cars on the dyno, but everything on our car ran seamless. What can I say, it's a Toyota. Along with the dyno pulls, the emissions tests were done at K&N. As much confidence as we had in our Mil.Spec catalytic converter, we couldn't be sure we'd beat some of the more stock cars. Afterwards, we headed to Buttonwillow where for the next two days all the cars would be put through more grueling tests of performance.
First of the morning was a 1/4-mile drag race in conjunction with 60-foot acceleration. AWD cars have a traction advantage, but Supras are known to lay down some sick 1320 times. If we couldn't win, we knew would finish somewhere in the middle. Losing any class would mean we couldn't take home the victory. As they say being second is just the first place loser. Two of the competitors seemed to have amazing runs and we weren't sure how our lower numbers would come into play.