August September 2, 2006
The day before the August ER event I got the Kumho V710s mounted on the new wheels, raised the coilover ride-height about an inch, installed camber bolts in the rear, got an alignment, switched the front swaybar from “soft” to “hard”, and installed some 4-pot front brake calipers from an ‘06 WRX.
With the tires I had to move from Street Touring X to E Street Prepared, where some > 300HP stock V8 pony cars live. Not the greatest place for a 227HP stock wagon. Luckily it rained. I had a commanding lead after the second and third runs, but in the end an Mustang Cobra beat by my best time by 0.166 seconds. I was so excited when it looked like I’d take 1st, but even 2nd ain’t that bad — it was my first time “in the trophies” at an ER autocross.
In-car video of my final and best run. What’s most noteworthy about it is the complete lack of drama. No squealing tires. No push-understeer going into turns, almost no power-understeer coming out. I even had a tiny bit of lift oversteer going on. The suspension adjustments certainly helped but mostly it’s the tires.
Run #1, run #2, #3 wasn’t recorded due to user error.
