Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Autocross and Open Track Pro Solo Nationals @ Oscoda, MI

El Pollo Diablo, Matt, you should go to some major events. Out of the blue, the Audi guy I race with brought in the Northern NJ results from this past weekend and I saw you won again, even beating that Carlos guy. Plus you finished 3rd in the PAX results as well. Any chance you could get some race tires for the Contour to see what kind of handicap it has vs. the Type R? I've concluded you're the best CEG autocrosser, and the fact that you have both cars would give a true measure of their relative speeds. Could you mount your Type R tires on the Contour rims for one event? Either that or run STS?

Dave Andrews, where were you last weekend?

btw Matt congrats, I noticed you beat Carlos and everyone else last weekend. I hope you win the season and try to go to nationals. I'd love to see how you do.

Thanks for the kind words guys, but i think the ITR has a lot to do with my PAXing 3rd at all my NNJR-SCCA races. Anyways, i've only been doing this since June 2000, but i do it often, pretty much every weekend during spring/summer/fall season. I still have a LOT to learn, and i'm slowly adding left foot braking into my routine...I think i will take the evolution driving school next season to see where i stand. I have no plans of going to any major events just yet, although the thought has crossed my mind, although i have no illusions of doing well, the national level drivers are simply amazing, although i would like to try my hand in the prosolo...we'll see :P

During the last englishtown race i think Carlos was having a bad day :P He should be beating me since i am on the less grippy track tires (A032R) instead of my usuall autocross tires (V700)

SVTCole, i cant mount the ITR wheels on the contour unless i do a five lug conversion on it :P and since the ITR has 15" wheels and the CSVT has 16" i cant mount the race tires on it. But my guesstimate would be that the contour would be about a second behind on race tires. Its a pretty big difference, but the added heft, the softer suspension, and most importantly, the lack of lsd, makes the car slower at autocross events. Thats just my opinion, so dont crucify me for it :P

Wow, to be that new at it and doing that well is fantastic! It does help to do it every weekend. Then you get several years of experience in one year's time.

I did not research the tires of the Type R. I just assumed they were 16" wheels and similarly sized. My bad.

I don't think any of us doubt the SVT is outclassed in G Stock now. But what about next year? Add a second to your times and you still have a good performance against most non-Type Rs. Maybe we can convince Dave Andrews to buy race tires. As you mentioned you have numerous nationally competitive drivers in your region, so judging Dave's times vs. his old times and those of the national competitors..like you could be...would give us a point of comparison.

I've seen Matt run. Don't let him kid you, he's very good. Matt you should run up to the nationals even if you don't plan on being competitive, that way when you return to be competitive, you know what to expect.

I've just acquired some R-compound tires (bfgoodrich g-force t/a and extra rims all used of course) So the next time I'm out we'll have to see how much I've closed the gap.

I do think Matt is a better driver than me, of course it doesn't hurt that he weighs about 110 lbs less than I do also.

I have a favor to ask presently Matt, though.. Mind if I borrow your jack?, my floor jack is in storage and besides it's just a little too big to be lugging around in my car.

(I'm slowly building up all the tools to do the autocrossing right.)

Now for that Borla exhaust.