What’s the one thing better than a car that can perform as good as it looks? Our answer to that would be a car that looks good, can perform well, and actually gets driven hard and put to use. That’s just one of the reasons we love the Optima Ultimate Street Car Invitational (OUSCI) so much. It’s hard to think of any other event where so many incredible, best-of-show-worthy cars come together to put all their high-performance hardware to the test.

Meet Bob Bertelsen’s 1971 Chevy Camaro, dubbed “Brute Force” – which is one of the lucky qualifiers that will be pounding the pavement at this year’s OUSCI. The flawless Camaro is powered by a modified LS7 that makes somewhere in the ball park of 650 horsepower and 580 pound feet of torque. The power is transferred through a Bowler T-56 six-speed, harnessed by a full suspension set up from Detroit Speed, and held back by Baer brakes on all four corners.  

Then there are those wheels – gorgeous concave Forgeline CFC3s. The CFC3s are made of 6061-T6 forged aluminum, and feature a three-piece construction with hidden hardware. Brute Force’s wheels have a few custom touches that the guys at Forgeline added specifically for this car, including a track-ready center lock conversion and engraving on the wheel faces. Truly awesome rollers for a truly awesome ride.

According to the OUSCI preview on the Optima website, Brute Force will be one of the contenders to really keep an eye on. Bertelsen has already competed in several events like Holley LS Fest in Brute Force, and that means more opportunities to work out the bugs and get everything dialed in.