Spectre founder Amir Rosenbaum explains the importance of the Spectre 341 Challenge:
THE NÜRBURGRING of NÜVADA
by Amir Rosenbaum
What’s the best way to tell which street car is the fastest?
You can subject it to the very basic metrics of 0 – 60, 1/4 mile and drive it in a big circle. But all that gets you is a car that goes 0 – 60 quickly, runs the 1/4 mile swiftly and goes fast in a circle. Who drives their car like that every day? On the street?
The next step is to put it on a track and get a lap time. Maybe compare it to other cars and see which gets the fastest lap time. The thing is, a track is designed to be a safe place to drive fast. There are drive-off areas, specially designed guardrails, track camber angled to help the car through the turn and it’s usually level. Some tracks have a little hill and boy does that feature make them special.
Inevitably, when you see or read these tests they always include a road section – if it’s a magazine test, the editors usually find some nice twisty back road near the track, and they drive the cars there.
Then, when the results come out, the “winner” is often times not the car with the fastest 0 – 60, 1/4 mile, lateral -g or even lap time. Then angry letters from readers ensue. They all want to know one thing:
Why?
Why didn’t the fastest car win? Usually the editors not so diplomatically reply along the lines of: “Because it’s a piece of crap. It didn’t make us feel good when driving it – there was a lack of confidence….” and so on. And so far, that hasn’t satisfied anyone.
So then, how can you determine a way to find out what the fastest street car is?
The Europeans have a solution. It’s called The Nürburgring.
It’s where car companies test their cars. It’s a road with a timing system. It involves sections where the driver has to feel fully confident in the capabilities of the car, and how it communicates with the driver, how it responds to driver input, because………. well……………there’s no other way to say it – you could die. They lose about one a week at the ‘Ring.
And that is why the car companies test there, even the manufacturers from the USA and Japan. That’s a long way to go to drive a car – but, it’s been the only place where you could test for the intangibles. Until now!
Introdücing The Nürburgring of Nüvada: The Spectre 341 Challenge. This is the place you find out how fast your street car really is. Not how fast it does 0 – 60 or the 1/4 mile – for that you could go to a Wednesday night test and tune session at you local drag strip, or you could sign up for one of many lapping sessions at the road course nearest you but all that will tell you is how fast your car is at a track, not on the street.
The Spectre 341 Challenge is for all intents and purposes, legal street racing with a timing system.
This is where you test your car for things there are no metrics for: The intangibles. Those ethereal and spectral flavors and traits of a car that can make it special……. or a piece of crap.
Hey, given enough time and money anyone can build a car to go fast on a track. So what? Real roads don’t look or drive like race tracks. This is a real road. This place has real consequences. The Spectre 341 Challenge answers the question: What is the fastest street car? Is it yours?
Sign up for the Spectre 341 Challenge HERE
Listen to Amir talk about 341 on AutoWorld Radio (Go to March 20, third hour)
