[Ataru]

The Competitors


The Winner:

mievil

As I've said before, I'm surprised I even made it into the voting process. I personally think the sedan is bitchin! I also think that if we could take little bits and pieces from every nominee's car this month it would be damn near perfect. Every car. No exclusions.

I bought the car with 11 miles on it and it currently has 54,xxx. I've done a lot of things to the exterior, but always levitated back to stock. There's just something about driving around in a car that no one would even take a second glance at. Hell, I still roll around on hubcaps. Not that I don't want a set of rims, but I'd be afraid that if I finally dropped the cash on a set, they'd be destroyed in no time. I've spent more time changing wheels and tires, doing oil changes, and cleaning air filters than anyone should ever have to do. I'd love to do nothing more than a full euro MK1.5 conversion. But if I put anything on the exterior of the car to improve the looks, I guarantee a rock or two would have ripped any of that off by now. My perception of an awesome "ride"? Something that is damn fun to drive. And I have it.

This is my daily driver, and I drive it to and from every event. This gets especially interesting when I get to see that the course I'm about to drive on has a huge mud puddle right in the middle of it, and the thoughts of hydrolock overrun the adrenaline. Or when I blow two tires at an event and realize I only have one spare. I always go in wanting to baby the car so I can get it home and go to work the next day, which gets followed shortly thereafter by just saying "Screw it" and pushing the accelerator all the way down because it puts a smile on my face.

Special thanks to Curtis Himmelberger who always takes time to snap pics of the rest of the rallyx crew, even when no one is able to take pics of his rig. And to jaycomservices.com because Jayson is a kick butt guy with awesome quality products. Also special thanks to energy drinks and candy for getting me to and from the events.

Photos courtesy of Curtis Himmelberger, Andrew Mironov, Justin Lamb, Jonathan Soto

Check out rallyxportal.com and formularallyx.com for more information about rallyx.

2004 Ford Focus 2.3L

Exterior mods:

Painted mirror caps
Mudflaps
um.............dirt

Interior mods:

Steeda short throw shifter
Miscellaneous interior parts removed depending on the event
um............dirt

Drivetrain:

Cosworth intake manifold
Cosworth cold air intake w/ITG filter
Driver side, passenger side, and lower VF Engineering engine mounts
Cosworth flex pipe
Modified FocusSport Sport exhaust allowing hot swappable interchange of cat
Cosworth balance shaft delete
Cosworth tune
I'm sure there's some dirt in there, too.

Suspension:

LCR camber plates
Eibach camber bolts
KYB AGX dampers
P51 shims
SVT rear swaybar
Energy Suspension rear swaybar bushings
More dirt.

Track, autox, and drag setup uses Apex springs and Falken RT615s on wagon wheels

Daily driver uses Hankook somethingorother tires, steelies and hubcaps

Rallyx uses Apex springs, SVT springs, wagon wheels or steelies depending on surface with Michelin Pilot Exalto A/S


ATE Blue brake fluid
Brembo blanks
Hawk HPS pads

Racing profile:

6 first place 1/8 mile drag trophies

6 first place, 4 second place individual finishes in rallyx

1st place 2006 Johnson Valley Rallycross Series

2nd place 2007 Johnson Valley Rallycross Series

3rd place 2007 CRS Rallycross Series

2nd place 2007 FRX Rallycross Series

Streets of Willow
Consistently first place in SDR SCCA AutoX (but I'm usually the only person in the class)