Street Tuner Challenge Premier

Sections: Events | In the Press Oct 17th, 2007 22 Comments

Street Tuner Challenge on SpeedTV pits 3 tuning shops against each other to build the best car they can. Last season a television crew from Speed Channel’s Street Tuner Challenge chose three vehicle makes representing North America (Chevrolet Cobalt SS), Europe (Volkswagen Jetta) and Asia (Nissan Skyline) and followed each team throughout a 13 week build competition.

Tonight starts the latest season of Street Tuner Challenge on SpeedTV. This time around it will be a Mitsubishi, a Ford Focus and, of course, a MINI built by none other than Fireball Tim and his guys from Fireballed! We all know what Hubie and Brian can do to a MINI, and this is their chance to show a few million television viewers too.

It all starts at 7:00 PM PST on SpeedTV. Check your local listings for channel information. You can get the entire schedule here.

And, if you are in SoCal, you might want to think about checking out the premier party. ~~I will be there snapping pictures and hopefully getting some audio.~~ Last minute work emergency kept me from going, but I did get it on the DVR!

Written By: DB

michael

Nice! I hope they kick butt!!! In capable hands, a well set up mini with some extra oomph can be surprising to on-lookers and competitors. A few of us already know first hand…
Jon

This is, by far, the most anticipated TV show this season, (for me, anyway). I told my wife that I have “dibs” on the TV tonight at 10:00 (when the show airs in the Eastern time zone).

Can’t wait!
http://calabashcattery.com pbraun

Fireball Tim! has a great team, wonderful outlook, and makes some way cool cars!
Adam E

Not that it matters, but it is now just SPEED. It’s been awhile since they dropped the TV portion.

-Go Fireballed!!
Ken

Adam E Oct 17th, 2007 Link Not that it matters, but it is now just SPEED. ItÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s been awhile since they dropped the TV portion. -Go Fireballed!!

Speedvision, then!
Fussner

not that it matters cause the MINI is going to dominate the competition but what kind of Mitsu is it? an eclipse im assuming
robble

I’ve got the DVR programmed!
http://www.rustysteeldesigns.com rustysteel

I just saw the finale for the fit/mustang/gti episodes so now I can’t wait to see the new ones. The MINI will kick Arse!
pete

If its an R56 it’ll kick ass.

If not then i got dibs on the cobalt.. sorry but ive seen those at the track. theyre beasts. im about to watch it in like 8 mins too im excited.

The jetta is a college girls car and should be left at the dealer. why not a rabbit? the gti’s already been done
ken

Watched the show. Those women have to go. The producers got the intro wrong and intorduced the MINI as a COOPER. Should have been Cooper S!

The graphic with the HP stats was for a COOPER also. I will be recording but fast forwarding to the MCS build. This show could be so much better.
DCMotorer

I watched the show last night. Absolutely awful production (like most shows on SPEED). But I guess it fits the demographic its aiming for.

That being said I hope the guys at Fireballed win because I couldn’t stand the other teams or their cars (especially the EVO team).
Frank

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ i think the producers wanted to give the impression of a huge power gain from the stock version.

Did someone notice that they referred the MINI as:

MINI Cooper SS?
http://www.gominigo.com GoMiniGo

Watched the show. Not much positive you can say. About 9 minutes of show (3 each team) and the rest fluff. Seems like they spent more time telling you want is coming up than the actual segment. Too bad. Hope it gets better.
Ken

Frank Oct 18th, 2007 Link ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ i think the producers wanted to give the impression of a huge power gain from the stock version. Did someone notice that they referred the MINI as: MINI Cooper SS?

Frank, I think you give the producers too much credit. And if they said SS, it just goes to show how little they know about MINI’s.
lavardera

any images of the mini online?
robble

any images of the mini online?

sure. It was stock last night until they took everything off.

I have faith in Fireball but I think the EVO is going to smoke the MINI and Ford in the performance categories. Too much HP and all-wheel drive. Evo is expected to have 600-700 HP when they finish.

I almost felt sorry for the Focus team.

My biggest thing is waiting to see what FB does to the R56. Of course they let us know right away a bigger turbo will be going in.

Has anyone put a larger turbo into the R56 yet (other than FB of course)?
fdavid

What an awful trashy show. I had it programmed last night on my DVR and didn’t finish it. By the way the Evo is going to destroy the MINI for sure. Those ricers seemed like they had a bunch of techie toys to play with in their garage. Either way, I took it off from recording anymore episodes. Sorry but, wow did that suck or what?
robble

fdavid – just be sure to record each one so you can fast forward through the trash and get to the important 3-4 minutes of each show.
Anthony

Yeah, when there’s been nothing on tv, I have fast-fowarded through Street Tuner Challenge in the past on Speed Indemand. I didn’t think it was possible, but this year’s edition is even cheesier than the previous two seasons! That being said, it will be interesting to see how the MCS fares. The “Tuner Chaser” theme sounds as cheesy as the show though. Hahahah!
Jon

The opening was AWFUL! There’s so much fluff in this show. Instead of 5 minutes of terrible opening segments, extraordinarily long “coming up next” segments, and a poorly-edited and boring segment on a bimbette walking around a car show, why don’t they give us a solid 10 minutes on each of the cars. That would fill up the entire half-hour with the stuff we’re all actually turning in to see!

And who is doing their fact-checking? MINI Cooper SS? 118 HP stock?

Finally, I have no doubts that Fireball Tim and Hubie will make the MINI insane in every way, but there’s no possible way to beat the EVO. The contest is already over, before it began. It’s a shame the cars weren’t all a bit more equal in stock form.
http://www.fireballed.com Fireball Tim!

Interesting comments. The Producers know about the mistakes and are taking action. They regret them and are doing their best to improve things. Hopefully it will get better. More pix of the cars coming tomorrow to the blog along with SEMA updates.
brian

yeah, I give tim props for making a sick mini, if it wasn’t for the showy paint job, its definately a mini i could see someone using as a seriously fast daily driver with no problems. Unfortunately, Skunk2 and the evo are going to UTTERLY own this challenge. They are taking every aspect of this challenge so seriously its not even funny. Im sure it will show up in the bill too, as even in the first episode it is obvious they have spent a few pretty pennies more than the other teams. No stone is going unturned and the cars will NOT be evenly matched. The focus is going to suck dick unfortunately….but who didn’t see that coming

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