I went autocrossing yesterday with SVTOA. What a day.
There were 17 SVT vehicles (13 Cobras, 2 Lightnings, 2 Contours). I guess we didn't have enough SVTs, so some non SVTs were allowed to participate. The non SVTs were a 97 Eclipse GSX, 95 Tsi Talon, 94 Mazda MX-3, 01 WRX, BMW 325is, 01 Bullitt, 01 Mustang GT, and 01 GT vert.
We did 4 practice runs and then 4 trophy runs. My times were something like 2:36, 2:00, 1:51, 1:48, 1:47, 1:44, 1:44, 1:41. For my first two runs, I had an instructor come with me. For last three runs, I had one of my friends come with me to do some in car video taping, which came out very cool.
I think I did well. I finished fourth in the novice class and yes, there were more than 4 cars in that class.
The other SVT Contour was a Silver 2000. It is owned by the chapter director Dave Spear, but he let his friend Tom drive it (Tom blew the engine on his Cobra, so Dave let him drive the Contour. Now that's good friend). Dave drove his 96 Mystic Cobra. Tom drove the Contour around the night before the autocross to get a feel for it and he still beat me! His best run was 1:39. Dave took one run in the Contour and ran a 1:37! I need to practice my autocrossing.
The 95 Talon had the fastest time of the day (1:22!) with the 97 GSX right behind him. Those cars just flew through the course and those guys can drive. They were in the 1:20s the whole day. The fastest run for an SVT was Chris Yates in his 96 Cobra with a 1:34 or so.
Overall, it was a great day. No one crashed, no one broke down, and everyone had a blast. Even though it is very hard on your brakes, suspension, and tires, I would love to do this again.
