Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Autocross and Open Track STS Contour Project

For those who don't know, I've been building my daily-driver 1995 LX to be a semi-competitive STS-class SCCA Solo II autocross car, and I thought I'd share some info on my build.

(2/06)Others have chimed in with lots of good info, so this is becoming a great resource for information on how to make a Contour handle well, and on handling/Solo II car prep in general.

To start with, here are the reasons I chose STS, and the limitations of the car:

ST* classes allow you to be competitive without changing tires at the event. STS allows enough mods to fix the basic problems with the car: stiffer springs/struts/bars, camber plates, and some weight reduction make a big difference. STX and DSP require an LSD, headers, and bigger tires to hang in there, so while they are fun, this is a bit easier on the wallet.

I'm pretty sure I could get a car down to 2600 lbs or so, and 165-170 fwhp, given time and money. But the car will still be limited:

still a little too front-heavy.
Not enough camber at low ride height
long wheelbase
only 225 width tires
no LSD to put down big power

So while it's certainly not competitive in the "Spec Civic Si" class, it's a car that's fun on the street and the course, and I like it!

camber plates are okay, but I'm still a little short. I mostly meant the dynamic curve is bad when you drop the front way down - typical MacStrut problem.

I'm going to give a write-up of my car's progress, along with projections as to what is possible given unlimited time/money. In this segment, I'll outline my beginnings, along with general starting principles for a Solo II car.


I began autocrossing with what I had already. This is how many people start, and it's not a bad idea - there's no harm is going out and having fun in your daily driver. However, if you're going to mod your car, you might want to think carefully about long-term plans before diving in. I now have a super-stiff daily driver, soon to have no A/C. It's not really competitve, and doesn't have good resale. This isn't a problem for me, but I'm stuck with the car now.

You can run anything, and that's part of the appeal of Solo II - you can do well in ANYTHING if you're a good driver. The car isn't important at all for getting to mid-pack locally. But if you want a car that will hold resale modded, have lots of parts, have a good resale on parts, and be fun to drive, things get narrower. Good choices for an Auto-X/DD car are an Integra Type R, any Miata or MR2, or a (non-minivan) Civic Si.They may not always be a front-runner in any class, but they're usually close to the top in several, and you can smoothly move them up through stock->ST*->SP->etc. and always do well. They're cheap, have a huge aftermarket, and are fun to drive in any level of prep. There are a hundred other approaches to building a fast, fun car, but if you want a daily driver (or not, even) that will be a great Solo II car, something like what I listed is alwyas a good choice.

So a Contour isn't a great choice. It's underclassed severely in GS, STS, and DSP. It's probably second or third tier everywhere. But, it's a platform I really like, I already have one, and I plan to keep it until it dies.

I started with the biggest modification you can make as far as lap times are concerned: wheels and tires. 16x7 Motegis are heavy, at 19 lbs per wheel, and Fuzion ZRi tires are not the best, but they made a world of difference. Real rubber and wheels put me in STS, along with my Knauberized sides.

This writeup is all about STS. GS is not a bad place to be, but a stock Contour, even an SVT, is just soft and lacking camber in stock. DSP or STS is someplace where you can fix the deficiencies of the MacPherson suspension so that it handles high-g cornering on sticky tires better. It's not that the Contour doesn't handle well stock - it's great on the street - it's just that slow-speed corners on sticky rubber bring out understeer, and on a suspension like this, it gets messy - and not fun.

So I got plunked in STS to start, but it's not a bad place to be. My car had a lot of understeer, was very soft, and was lacking camber, but was still fun. However, I soon got restless, and began thinking about mods...

The first thing I did was get an Aussie bar. An Aussie bar on stock suspension is not the way to go for optimum at the limit handling. Lifting the rear tire this much is just bad:



For a car that needs to be comfortable on the street, and yet fun in STS, I'd go with - and did plan on going with - the BAT or Koni kit, Aussie bar, camber plates, and some good rubber. That's not much money, is very comfortable on the street, helps resale instead of killing it, and will fix the major problems with the car's suspension for this kind of driving. You're under $1000 if you buy used or just shop around, and it'll handle amazingly well.

But, I found a set of Konis and GC coilovers used. I got them for the same price as a new Koni kit, and was suddenly getting into the seriously modded department. The high spring rates keep camber under control, and make transitions faster. The adjustable struts allow some tuning, and are up to the task of the big springs. The stock GC springs - 525lb/in front and 280lb/in rear - are too front-biased. I'm trying stiffer springs now, details will be in the next intallment.

I lifted my tire that much with stock (SVT) suspension

You mentioned possibly getting new bumper covers. I think that would throw you straight into SM. Mumm's site had some good info on weight reduction... I'm not sure how much (if any) items are STS legal though. Like swiss cheesing the front bumper.... or gutting the doors. Removing the headliner (if legal) should help a bit with the sloloms.

Good write up!

Reading the rules bumper covers are fine.

14.2.F. Addition of spoilers, splitters, body kits, rear wings and nonfunctional scoops/vents is allowed. The intent of this allowance is to accommodate commonly available appearance kits, and replicas thereof, which have no significant aerodynamic function at Solo speeds. Body kits are limited to bumper covers, valances, side skirts, and fender flares. Standard parts may not be removed except for the substitution of spoilers, rear wings, bumper covers and valances. Rear wings must attach only aft of the rear wheel centerline. Total surface area of all spoilers, splitters and rear wing may not exceed 8 square feet as seen from above (see 12.9). Substitution of rear spoilers or wings must retain any original third brake light functionality unless otherwise equipped. No underbody panels may be added or substituted. The drilling of holes for the purpose of mounting these pieces is permitted.

So, what to do if you're like me and care more about a tenth off your lap time than comfot on the road? I'll now explain some approaches I feel will result in a quick STS Contour, with emphasis on my own work.

"Coil-overs", or adjustable-perch struts, are the way to go on a car like this. They offer a great range of spring rates, you can try these rates out, freely mixing and matching, and in our car are the only way to get high enough rates. They also allow corner-balancing, which is critical to getting the car set up properly.

There may or may not be other choices, but the Koni strut with Ground Control sleeve is a very good setup, and used on many other cars to win nationals. The problem is that Ground Control packages with setup with 525lb/in front and 280lb/in rear springs. This is more front-biased than stock! I'm about to try 425lb/in rear springs, and I'll report on how they work. The plan is to get the car close to neutral in the corners, maybe oversteering slighly, and then fine-tune with the front swaybar. I'll drill holes in the arm of the FSB, and by moving the endlink down I will effectively raise the rate of the front bar. I probably won't need to do that with the 425s, but if they aren't enough and I go stiffer, it might be needed to tweak it.

If choosing springs where ride quality is absolutely unimportant, I'd look at 600-700 all around as a staring point. It's really trial and error, and dependant on the surface. For a very serious setup, getting shortened shock bodies and having them revalved stiffer would be a significant benifit - but would run $150-200 per shock, or more.

Now that we have coilover, we need to adjust them. I'm still working on the settings, so I'll just say that last year I ran the fronts dropped so that the control arms were parallel to the ground, and then dropped the rear the same amount, and it worked well.

There is one major group of settings I said was important last time, but ignored. That's your alignment. I ran 1/16" front toe-out, and zero rear toe, with -3* front camber and (a non-adjustable) 1.5* rear camber. I ran 1.5* front camber on the street, and turned it up to the max for events, simply marking the loaction of the plates with a sharpie so I could put it back. Toe can be tweaked to dramatically effect a car's handling, and I'll be messing with it this year. My numbers are great for tire wear on the street, but very conservative for autocross.

One hint that I forgot to mention: Lower the rear seatbacks. It only slightly lowers your CG, but every bit helps.

I'd debated that. Putting the passenger seat all the way back and reclining it makes good sense, but I'd wondered about dropping the seats, since it shifts weight forward as well as down.

I'll cover weight reduction/relocation next, I think.