Jeff Cleary’s 1967 LS7 Corvette Ready for the OPTIMA Ultimate Street Car Invitational
Jeff Cleary’s 1967 LS7 Corvette Ready for the OPTIMA Ultimate Street Car Invitational
Jeff Cleary’s 1967 LS7 Corvette Ready for the OPTIMA Ultimate Street Car Invitational
Content provided by CorvetteBlogger.comSo who’s your pick for America’s Ultimate Street Car?
One possible contender for the title at this year’s highly anticipated OPTIMA Ultimate Street Car Invitational coming up in less than a month is this awesome 1967 Corvette owned by Jeff Cleary, whose creation has been featured on the cover of prominent magazines for years.
Each year, drivers come from all over the world to compete in OUSCI, which will be held Nov. 2 and 3 at Spring Mountain Motor Ranch, a state-of-the-art racing facility in Pahrump, Nev., near Las Vegas. Drivers compete in a combination of segments, including autocross, road course, road rally, braking and acceleration, style and design competition, and more.
Cleary’s ?67 is clearly a contender in all of those categories.
His wild ride is built on an SRIII Motorsports? tube frame chassis, with a C5 front suspension and C4 rear suspension. He even managed to get an early production LS7 and with the help of the folks at J2 Race Engines and Virginia Speed has the fortified engine pumping out 603-hp and 522 lb.-ft. of torque.
Cleary didn’t stop there, though. It’s the attention to small details that make this car one of the top Corvettes in the nation. For example, a nifty custom hood hinge system lifts the hood up and out, a Vintage Air system has been carefully concealed, and the booming sound system features two channels front and rear, a subwoofer, and a 40-gig iPod – details that could make him a serious threat in the Lingenfelter Performance and Design Challenge.
Despite its serious horsepower production, the car also manages to deliver at the gas pump, with sixth-gear performance numbers of more than 25mpg expected during the Detroit Speed & Engineering/JRI Shocks road rally on Nov. 2.
Observers also expect Cleary’s Corvette to be among the leaders in the Wilwood Disc Brakes Speed Stop Challenge.
Each year, OUSCI follows the SEMA Show, one of the automotive industry’s largest trade shows, and brings in some of the top automotive talent and highly modified vehicles, credible racing veterans, and fresh talent with undiscovered street machines.
Those newcomers no doubt will have to cross the line already marked in the sand by Cleary and his cool 1967 Corvette.