Originally posted by RogerB:

factor in hundreds of hours of driving school and you'll be set.




I couldn't agree more. I have taken the Evolution school, and intent to take another one again this coming year. This was by far the best thing I have done for myself as far as autocrossing is concerned. I cannot emphasize enough how much good this will do you.


Originally posted by RogerB:

I'm wondering what your goal is. Are you looking for a class to be nationally competitive in? Of course the SVT will be faster with all the STX goodies, but so should the rest of the STX field.




Well, to be honest, I don't really have much of a goal. I was just wanting to start a little discussion about STX and voice my own personal opinions about the Contour's fitment in that class. I drove the SVT extensively for a couple seasons, and came to a few conclusions as to what I felt were the shortcomings of the car. Admittedly, some or most can be chalked up to the driver. My thoughts after a few seasons in the car was that it had fantastic brakes, very good acceleration, and good stready state cornering. The areas I felt the 'tour bogged in is transitions (slolams, chicago boxes, etc), and putting all that lovely power to the ground coming off the corners.

I was running GStock, so the suspension could very well be tuned for better transitions via a nice Ground Control setup or something similar. Ultimately, i think you are going to be giving up something to most others in the class because the car just weights so much. This can be accomplished in either STS or STX, so not as much of a factor.

As I said earlier, the LSD is the jewel here. Allowing you to get on the power sooner, and put most, if not all of it, to the ground, is really going to help out. Couple this with the allowance in STX to get rid of the restrictive pre-cat header thing, and dyno-tune/reflash, and you have a bit more power on tap to boot.

I don't feel the contour can be a nationally competitive car. I do feel that it is a great car, and can win locally and perhaps even divisionally, in the right hands. I think it could do this in GS, STS, or STX. So it isn't about that, really. It is just that it seems that there are a few who are prepping the car for GS, many who prep for STS, and even a few with motor swaps and turbos going to SM. Yet, there is little or no talk about STX, which, after looking at the ruleset, seems would be a great fit for the Contour. Couple this with the fact that the STS PAX went up this year, while the STX did not, and bear in mind that most who compete in the Contour do it locally where PAX is often a mitigating factor in results, and I think that those who are into the stuff on this level should definitely take a closer look at this class. That is mostly where I am going with this thought/thread.

As far as my personal autocross goals go, I am going to own up to something, here. I don't run the SVT anymore. I got rid of it and run a Toyota Celica; however, it was the SVT that got me into autocross in the first place, and I still feel loyal to the autocrossers here. As such, I thought I would voice my thoughts on the STX class and perhaps open an avenue to others that they had perhaps not considered before.

There are 10 kinds of people... Those who understand binary, and those who don't.