Nitto Tire 2006 King Of The Street - Royal Rumble

Before people say we're picking on a girl because of Amy Stewart's finishing position or say we didn't want to rename the competition Queen of the Street, look at the facts. First off, we like Amy-she's the first female KOTS competitor, so we give her big props. She has big dreams within the automotive realm, and serves our country as part of the Marine Reserves, meaning she could probably beat our tails. Even she thought she was outgunned when she saw the level of cars competing. If we remember correctly, she questioned our sanity, but her car was worthy of competing alongside them.

Appearance-wise, Amy's car needs TLC, but the damage we saw was from the car getting keyed, which is the ultimate kick in the teeth for a Mustang owner. Even with that damage, Amy's car is still nice. It's too bad the car is black-the keyed areas are easily seen. For that reason, Amy's GT didn't have the greatest Fit and Finish score.

The Ride and Drive segment spelled more bad news for the car, which carries the nickname Betsy. We deducted points for the car having that name, too-just kidding.

Though Amy's used to it, one thing for us to get accustomed to was the rollcage. Origami specialists we are not, and that's how we felt when trying to get in and out of the car. We felt like a tooth wrapped in nerve endings and in need of extraction, like someone needed to grab a really big pair of pliers to pull our behinds out. OK, maybe that's extreme and exaggerated, but the point is that the 'cage is not daily driver friendly. Neither is the clutch in the GT. We're not sure if it's actually the clutch or the cable, but it was stiffer than an Orange County Chopper rigid frame.

The aforementioned 'cage made for an uncomfortable driving position for us. It would've been fine if you're Justin Burcham, but this is surprising since Amy is 5 feet 11 inches, and Associate Editor Johnson is 6 feet tall. The bar that runs behind the front seats keeps the seatback from reclining, so the gangsta' lean is impossible. This seating position is good for racing, but not for a daily-driver. The A/C didn't work, either, which counted against Amy.

Another aspect of the car we weren't too fond of was the exhaust. It's alarmingly loud. If you were drive it into a five-story parking garage, every car alarm would go off on every floor, and that's staying on the first level. We're sure SLP is proud of that fact, since it did name the after-cat a Loud Mouth system. It lives up to its name-and then some-on Amy's GT. What was impressive about the exhaust was the absence of leaks, so all the sound was out the back. If you were at the front it wasn't so bad, but get behind it and you wouldn't be able to hear a train coming if you were standing on railroad tracks. The exhaust doesn't resonate while going down the road, but you won't be able to sneak through town with it, and forget playing around on the street.

Like a few other KOTS cars, her '98 GT was not totally running at the top of its game, and it still had a couple tuning issues to be addressed. The major issue was that the rev limiter was still set at 5,500 rpm. That hurt her car's finish in the Dyno Number and Drag Race portions. She still ran an 11.67 at 123 mph and made 524 hp and 519 lb-ft of torque on the DiabloSport Dynojet. Since then, the rev limiter was opened up, and Amy's GT makes more than 100 hp more than it did, but it is too late to be counted here.

Check out Amy's score below: