[Drumr90]

Excellent advice! Once you become frustrated with FWD understeer, it will be time to upgrade tires and lighten wheels, then make a few alignment changes. Once you discover oversteer (in practice) and get "comfortable" with the feeling of onset, then start playing with bigger brakes, and eventually, higher rate springs and dampers and sways.

Good tires... but if you want a slightly better ride on street and slightly better stick on course, next time try Michelin Pilot Super Sports, or Nokian Z-lines (unless you get dedicated track wheel/tire set and can use track tires).

I was gunna go with the pilot super sports just was real tight on money. If i start getting real serious about autocross im gunna look into dei ated wheel/tire setup.

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[SVT5D]

Comp2s are my daily driver tires. They are very good and probably the best overall summer tire when price is a factor. If you decide you like autocross, you will need some competitive tires. The advice I was given was to go ahead and get them before you totally shred your daily tires, and after doing exactly that I would suggest the same.

You already got the new suspension done, the other thing I did that made a huge difference was replacing (when it was convenient) nearly every bushing an ball joint on the whole car. It drives like new now and was less than $200 in parts.

When I started this I did not realize how much money people dump in to performance mods, even at the local autocross level. The best part of this car is all the things I did not need to do to it. The chassis is already stiff, there are no gains to be had from external engine mods, the brakes are huge, there are no cooling issues, etc.

Over two years, I've spent less than $1000 on autocross related expenses (an won a little back), and also less than $1000 slowly bringing this 200,000mi car back to nearly new condition. It is by far the cheapest car to win any recent series here locally, and is still a really fun daily driver that gets 30mpg.

 

[Drumr90]

Ive replaced both outer tie rods and drivers side control arm. Was planning to redo the rear bushing's over next winter.

My main choice for tires was the price for shure.

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[Drumr90]

I also though about polly bushing any where in the suspension i can get one but not shure if that be good for a dailly driver/weekend autocrosser.

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[SVT5D]

I also though about polly bushing any where in the suspension i can get one but not shure if that be good for a dailly driver/weekend autocrosser.

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I originally went with poly bushings/end links on the rear and it was a great little upgrade, made the car just a little sharper and did not cause any dd issues. They are the only bushings legal to change in street class. They were easy to install and cost less than stock replacement bushings. The only reason not to get them would be if you are planning to change to a different sway bar soon.

 

[Drumr90]

I originally went with poly bushings/end links on the rear and it was a great little upgrade, made the car just a little sharper and did not cause any dd issues. They are the only bushings legal to change in street class. They were easy to install and cost less than stock replacement bushings. The only reason not to get them would be if you are planning to change to a different sway bar soon.

Do you have poly control arm bushings?

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[SVT5D]

Do you have poly control arm bushings?

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Nope, not legal for street class and would probably be annoying for dd

 

[Drumr90]

Ok thanks man

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[G-forces]

Although it's not relevant to this discussion of street class autoX... I had poly bushing all around the suspension and the dogbone, and the car was not overly harsh on "normal" street surfaces. Even though an SVTF already has great handling characteristics and admirable steering precision, with the poly around it was just that much sweeter... an easy flick to avoid pot-holes and/or hit the sweet-spot over RR tracks.

 

[Drumr90]

Although it's not relevant to this discussion of street class autoX... I had poly bushing all around the suspension and the dogbone, and the car was not overly harsh on "normal" street surfaces. Even though an SVTF already has great handling characteristics and admirable steering precision, with the poly around it was just that much sweeter... an easy flick to avoid pot-holes and/or hit the sweet-spot over RR tracks.

I think im gunna aim tword street class for autocross as of right now but thanks for info on how the svt is with polly mounts all around.


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[jimmyk8]

I did an FSwerks tune and typhoon intake chasing a stumble when I first got it. but that puts me in street touring. which actually is great because now I can do pretty much whatever I want to the car. after fixing all the **** that was wrong with it for the first year (still have the 1st/2nd gear bang, which I'm convinced is something other than my dogbone). so now Im ready for my first suspension upgrades, I was gonna do the tried and true koni yellow/H&R setup, but I see I might be better off with the bilstien B12 kit. has anybody tried both? the cheaper bilstien setup would almost pay for the poly master kit too!

 

[SVT5D]

Last update here if anyone is still around:

At 200,000+ miles my car is still kicking as in local autox and even placed not last at the San Diego regional event.

I did a nice little legal mod by switching to the 60mm clutched alternator.

16" autox tires is the only mod that really cuts time on this car in street class.

An aggressive alignment (thanks to G-forces) and Mazda style rear sway bar (I recommend Corksport) sharpen the handling even more but don't do much for lap times.

This will probably be my last post on this forum, as it seems to be slowly dying from neglect. Its too bad as there were some great people here, and I still love my little car even after driving some of the newer hot hatches available. I'm at the point now where I can afford a serious track/autox car, but just don't want to let this one go because it is so fun (and apparently invisible to cops). If anyone needs help from me send a PM, who knows if it will even work! Maybe I'll see you over at Fanatics.