Here is some quick background info on my car and myself so that you may understand my viewpoint better. I have had my Contour SVT for almost a month now. It is my first front wheel drive car that I have ever owned. I Went to an SCCA race a two weeks ago to check out what I was getting myself in for. I then raced at Bedford and took 2nd in the novice class.
Since I have friends in Lubbock, so I went out for the last race in their season. It rained most of the way out on Friday, and Saturday, it rained lightly all day. Then Sunday, it rained on us on the way to the race site. It ended up clearing up and turning into a real nice, albeit windy day.
The coarse that was setup, was big. Here is a map of the course. http://209.235.102.9/~die27328/brazeau/wtrscca/reesecoursemap.gif
I walked the course several times, and felt I had a good understanding of the course. The organizers had the faster cars (street prepared and modified cars) run in the first heat, which I was glad to hear, since there was still a good bit of water left on the track from the mornings rain. After a couple of delays, the faster cars seemingly run on forever, as I work the course. Then the moment finally came, the first heat was over.
I got back to the car and started to get ready. I doubled checked my tire pressures. I had set the fronts to 46 (which had worked the weekend before) and since I wanted to loosen up the car a bit, I tried 44 in the rear. My first run, I almost got lost (it had been almost 3 hours since I had walked the course), but make it through the course. I wasn?t pushing it very hard and turned a 74.003 second time. My second run, I was pushing the car pretty hard. I was carrying a bit to much speed, and with the car looser than before, she spun on me pretty quickly. I didn?t hit any cones, and I ended up cutting a second off my previous time. I lower the rear pressure to 40 and found that that was still a bit too loose. I have found that at 36 in the rear, the cars under steers, and at 40 she is loose and tends to over steers. 38 seems to be a pretty good balance for cement surfaces.
My runs get better with each run. Then Brad Pyatt offers a ride in his Neon AC-R. I knew Brad was a good driver, but I was amazed at how fast and smooth he was on the course. He was breaking later and harder than I thought was possible. He was also breaking in areas that I never considered it. Remember, I have not been doing this front wheel drive stuff long. I tried to absorb as much as I could from Brad first Autocross 101 class. I had to run from his car to mine, as I was being called to the line. Before riding with Brad, I was had gotten my time down to 70.186. My run after riding with Brad, I utilized as much of what I had learned as I could, and cut my time down to 69 and some change. My best run was my best time of the day at 68.686.
Once the day was over, I walked away with first in GS and first in street tire. More over I got in a bunch of seat time, and I continued my trend of improving my times. I improved my understanding of how to tune the car, and increased my respect for the Ford employees that designed and built my car.
------------------
David Mimlitch
davidm@hpnc.com
'00 'Tour SVT T-Red
'99 F250 SuperDuty Powerstroke Diesel 15.1 second 1/4 mile time
