Raceway for Marangoni USC
Described as “The fastest, hottest, largest and loudest modified car festival in Europe”, Ultimate Street Car (USC) had a lot to live up to at Santa Pod Raceway this year and the event, which took place at the start of August, did just that.
USC, which is sponsored by Marangoni Tyres, was bigger and better than ever with a huge turnout over the three day event. Thousands of spectators flocked to the festival, many camping over night, to test out their modified street cars on Santa Pod Raceway’s famous ¼ mile dragstrip. Sponsored by turbocharger specialists, Turbo Dynamics, the raceway hosts many popular events throughout the year including, the GTI Festivals, the Performance, Tuning & Modified Show, Summer Nationals and Bug Jam 22.
Marangoni USC attractions drawing in the crowds were: Monster Truck and drifting displays, car and motorcycle stunt displays, Run What Ya Brung competitions, car club displays, performance traders, the Santa Pod fun fair, Rapid GB Dyno, comedians and of course, the 260 MPH Fireforce Jet Car.
The fastest Jet Car in Europe, the Fireforce is equipped with a modified helicopter engine and can put out the equivalent of 10,000 BHP, enabling it to speed down Santa Pod’s dragstrip in less than six seconds!
Marangoni USC’s Monster Truck display featured two Monster Trucks: the orange Podzilla driven by Drew Thornton and Wales’ Red Dragon driven by Rob Williams. The ginormous 1,500 BHP vehicles were used for car-crushing displays, both on Saturday and Sunday, driving and leaping over a line of cars with their five-tonne force. The powerful and weighty trucks, which have methanol engines, guzzle a pricey 33 gallons per mile!
Meanwhile behind the wheel for the car stunt shows was, the one and only, Terry Grant. With his own stunt school and having worked on major blockbusters, Grant is indeed a professional who likes to keep his audience enthralled. Grant’s stunt displays included two-wheeling, endless donuts, driving a Beetle through a parked caravan and whizzing cars tightly around brave volunteers (gorgeous ladies) standing in the arena.
Santa Pod Raceway staff said, “The James Bond of stunt driving, Terry’s got the fast cars, the beautiful women and the crazy skills. He’s also got one leg shorter than the other, which might go some way to explaining why he’s so comfortable going round in circles!”
Burn-out and flame-out contests, the Marangoni Pit Stop Challenge, Autoglym Show & Shine presentations and Balls of Steel shows also took place over the long weekend. Living up to its description of the “hottest” European festival, there was pole dancing shows, UK Centrefolds Girl shows, X-Men strip shows and lap dancing! English model and former Page 3 girl for The Sun newspaper, Jackie Degg was amongst those models present at USC; signing posters for her fans.
But wait, it doesn’t stop there! On Sunday, the Euro Sports Compact qualifiers, eliminations and finals took place, and attending the event with their ever-popular goodie bags were the stunning Turbo Dynamics (TD) girls. The two TD girls, Louisa and Taryn, arrived on Sunday as Santa Pod Raceway sponsors and in support of their customers.
Amongst those running TD turbochargers and performance parts at the festival was Roger Clark Motorsport. Team member, Olly Clark won the ‘Redline TOTB VII in association with Millers Oils’ top award of TOTB Overall Champion at the end of July; driving his team’s 850 BHP, TD GT4094R turbocharged Subaru Impreza STi.
Dorset based, Turbo Dynamics have announced that they will also be attending the JapShow Finale at Santa Pod Raceway on 5th October with their TD girls. Hard to miss, the girls dress in tight blue and white trousers and crop-tops, going around the shows handing out goodie bags and posing for photographs.
One enthusiastic USC goer commented, “The Turbo Dynamics girls are really sexy and lovely too; quite happy for people to have their photos taken with them.
“USC rocks! I’ve been here since Friday and have still got things to see. I’ve pushed my car to its limits on the dragstrip each day, checked out the motorbike show and car displays… it just doesn’t get much better than this!”
