ne0stai2dust

I'll take this to PM. you have a PM Ram95

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What's in your wagon?

lowell787

Planning on intorducing the FXT to autocross this year after the past 2 years in SM with the EVO8. My wife's starting this year so that should be fun. Right now we've got:
STi suspension
4pt rear strut tower brace
SST brake lines and slotted rotors
STi Steering rack w. whiteline bushings
Perrin TMIC
Kumho 225-45-17 V700 Victoracers
UTEC
Here's where I'm stuck..... I've got a VF43 in now and the power is amazing, but I ran one race last year with just the stock TD04 in and burned up the rear inside tire trying to get out of the corners. We were going to run in SM, but I don't like the competition since we'll be going up against Evos and a few crazy modified STi's. It just doesn't seem fair.... Should I take out the VF43 and compete in ESP?
http://s152.photobucket.com/albums/s...t=P3180514.jpg
http://s152.photobucket.com/albums/s...t=P3180509.jpg

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I swear I did it to make my wife's car faster.

captjim

Are you going to be running Mar.09 at Laurinburg/Maxon? If so, I'll see you there. I 'll be running STU
Jim

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Remember, nothing is as simple as it seems.

lowell787

I wish I could make it. My folks are coming into town and Laurinburg is about a 4hr drive for me. I'll be doing a few with CCR, and ETR clubs this year. Any tips on getting the rear inside wheel to stay planted? I'm not a suspension guru. I bought the car with all the suspension mods on it already and I've just been adding power. I was thinking a front sway bar would help... I measured the current one OD an it came to 21.2mm. Any thoughts?

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I swear I did it to make my wife's car faster.

ploney

For me, the only solution to inside rear wheel spin was replacing the blown rear diff with a cusco 1.5 way.

BTW, the spider gears let go after too much inside wheel spin, hint hint....

That was after about 20-25 auto-x's when it blew.
Lucky for me I was close to home and at lunch during the week. Was able to drive mainly straight, avoided as many turns aspossible, and limped back to work and home later. Whew....

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Former SF.org junkie......

Visits for the good company though...

captjim

This will be my first Auto X in 35 years. I'm going to start by playing with the adjustable rear SB and tire pressure. I'm going to try and make all of the Tar Heel events this year.

__________________
Remember, nothing is as simple as it seems.

Nereus

All things being equal which category is the FXT most competitive? It seems D-Stock

I ran and enjoyed a STX Saabaru, and would like to do most of the ST mods, but it just seems the FXT gets really stiff competition beyond DS.

IF I go/stay in DS, what are the best tire options?

back road runner

A suggestion for those getting into auto-x on the cheap, the Forester does actually drive pretty well ...as it should since it's just an Impreza for the most part but with a 50/50 weight distribution and a little more wagon-esque.

Step #1 is always the driver. Learn the basics, learn lines, and get an idea for what you're supposed to do. Some people grew up driving really fast; some are late bloomers. It is a learned trait, so learn as much as you can. A lot of this learning will be hands on as you train your mind and body to do what it needs to do to actually drive the car.

Step #2 is tires. Nothing is going to help you more than a nice, sticky set of tires. Buy something very good. If it's a daily driver, buy something that will work off the track too. Note you can stick pretty wide tires under the Forester wheel wells. 235-245 width is plenty doable. You're looking at right around 9.5" section width as the upper limit. Stay with the +48 offset as that will keep the tire center between the strut and fender and will let you run the widest tire you can.

Step #3 is alignment. You gotta make sure you're making good use of that rubber. Again, if this is a daily driver, there will be a compromise for tire longevity versus maximum grip. Note, you may have to look into camber plates and such to achieve more agressive setups. Some grinding of the bolt holes can be done to help some. These adjustments can affect tire fitment.

This is personal preference, but I'm a fan of neutrality. In this sense, I knock out all the stock bias.

On the very cheapest level, upgrade the rear swaybar. OEM 17mm to 20mm rear bars can be purchased cheap used or around $85 new. It's probably the most influential suspension upgrade you will do and will take out a lot of roll and let the car rotate and corner far better. I've used the 17mm bar but have upped and preferred the 20mm rear bar overall. Although the car becomes less "tossable," it gains stability as you go higher. If you got too high, you will simply reintroduce oversteer.

Springs will be the next step. Since the car is 50/50, you're shooting for a pretty even spring rate on both ends. Along with the pretty even swaybar setup, the car will become very neutral. Again, if this is a daily driver, use rates that are livable. The Swift FXT springs are nice. They stiffen up the suspenion some as well as neutral it out decently. Still, they are soft enough for daily use and actually feel better than stock in most every way for normal daily driving. It's cheap because it takes no additional hardware and simply reuses the stock struts. Any stiffer springs will require firmer struts. Moving further, you can start running sedan suspensions, aftermarket coilovers, etc. and get the car lower and stiffer. Again, you want to sit pretty even on rates.

Stock brakes can take lighter abuse on slower courses, but you'll need some upgrading to prevent fade on anything faster. At the very least, just get better ceramic pads. Something like EBC's Redstuff works plenty well and resists fade nicely. You can step to more agressive pads if you're looking for heavier bite. Fresh DOT4 fluid finishes off the change. Again, for neutrality, the stock brake bias is front heavy which can promote understeer under braking. To fix this, upgrade the rears to the Outback bracket and rotor(H6 upgrade). If you have a Forester older than 03, you can upgrade the front rotors and brackets to the WRX size. The newer Foresters already come with the WRX sized front but are a bit front biased because of it. WRX + Outback = very neutral braking. This can help a good bit on entry.

Further steps would be looking at harder bushings to improve the precision and feel(tremendously). This just makes for a far more precise, far more direct car and just a more enjoyable car to drive. I will note this is a considerable difference. NVH isn't bad as long as done right. GroupN rubber over Poly if you care. It's quite hilarious to drive a stock and a GroupN rich car through a slalom and feel the difference.

Since this is a sport with rules, familiarize yourself with the rules of each class and understand what you can and can't do to the car. If you're trying to be completitive, do what's most beneficial. If you're just there to have fun, it doesn't really matter that much. Set up the car the way you like and enjoy.

My humble "hobbyist" setup, geared to my preference:
2002 Forester S, full interior
245/45/R17 RE01R on 17x7.5 Rota Subzeros (yeah 7.5 is kinda low, lol)
Swift FXT springs, +03 tophat + TiC washer
OEM 20mm rear WRX bar
WRX front rotors/brackets, "H6" rear rotors/brackets
ATE Super Blue fuild
Carbotec AX6 (Panther Plus) pads
I-Speed RS ECU reflash (just hated stock tune's behavior)
Upgraded bushings/mounts everywhere, GroupN where possible (best grand you can spend)

Total cost: ~$3500 (rough guess, from stock)

Cheapest to get into auto-x:
Tires + brake pads
Cost: ~ $500-$900 depending...

Nereus

IMHO, the first step is to decide how serious you might be about this. The 'serious' auto-crosser around here will need to be racing almost every weekend to accumulate points (most points at the end of the year wins). And yes, everyone (even the once a year driver) needs to follow the rules because they are all competing against each other across classes. Make sure you 'Class' you car correctly.

Many chapters/clubs also have "fun runs" and or "test & tune" days ($30 ish). On these days there are no points and you will probably get more actual driving time. There are also schools/training where you get tons of seat time plus an experienced driver trainer to help teach/improve your skills ($250 ish).

FXTRunner1

Next week is a Driving school / Test and Tune (Sat and Sunday)
Cant wait to get started. Here's my setup:

2005 FXT 5MT
Class: ESP

Engine -
Cobb Stage 2
Sti Uppipe
TXS Turbo Back

Suspension/Brakes-
MR 8k/6k coilovers (street 16 front 18 rear, at 0 for an autox)
Front strut bar
Hawk HPS pads
Motul 5.1 brake fluid
Hodgkis Sti 25mm bars f/b, back is adjustable (medium setting in back).
Mo_Boost LLWS
Lock out bolts
Kartboy endlinks front / back

Wheels -
Rota Boost 17x8 with 245/45/17 Falkin Azenthis

Its been a year now and I think I have done about 18 autox's .
Recently i took first in esp at the subaruchallenge. Only 3 in class. But i was 32 out of 101 in Raw and Pax. I was hoping to be a little further up in pax.. Next time.

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FXT 05 MT CGM VF39'd FTW!

fourortwowheels

2008 FSXT
NY Region - SCCA, BMWcca, PCA
Class : SM, just bumped outta novice for 2 consecutive podiums. BMW/PCA classing sucks!

Skill Level:
Weekend warrior. I have attended 10 events; 4 SCCA / 3 BMW / 3 PCA.


Power:
SPT intake/heatshield
STI tmic
Cobb catted TBE
Cobb AP protuned by dave@mspt


Suspension:
Swift lowering springs
Perrin 22mm rear swaybar (stiffest setting)
Perrin HD mounts
Kartboy rear endlinks
Kartboy botox bolts
Whiteline lateral link tab supports


Tires/Wheels:
18 x 8 Konig Zero
225/45/18 Kumho SPT
40/41 psi


Brakes:
2008 STI front brembo calipers
DBA 4000 slotted front rotors
Goodridge SS front brake lines


Alignment:
front camber = -1.1 / 0 toe
rear camber = -1.4 / -.04 toe
zero toe


Problems:
- Holy wheel spin batman. damn cheesy front diff, my inside tire just bakes and bakes. need to stop trying to formula d around the cones!


Plans:
Upgrades, upgrades, and more upgrades. lets see; TIRES, bc br forester specific coilovers, 25mm front sway, f/r strut bars, h6 rear brake upgrade, turbo, turbo inlet, sti exhaust mani, and tons more im forgetting. OH YEA, DID I MENTION SOME GOOD TIRES!


Results:
July 12th, 2008 NYR-SCCA Auto-X - 1st place out of 18 drivers. RAW = 25/56 PAX = 18/56

3T STX 920 adam g 53.446 52.102 51.680 51.721 41.581
52.611 51.544 50.709 51.175 0.839



July 20th, 2008 BMWcca Auto-X - 7th place out of 18 drivers.

7 H 719 Adam G Subaru Forester 56.905+DNF 56.295 55.287 > 54.492
71.129+DNF 55.110 T: 54.492



August 3rd, 2008 BMWcca Auto-X - 13th place out of 25 drivers.

13 H 719 Adam G Subaru Forester 18.662+DNF 64.709+DNF 61.784 62.304+DNF
> 59.730 T: 59.730



August 9th, 2008 NYR-SCCA Auto-X - 2nd place out of 12 drivers. RAW = 25/58 PAX = 16/58

2T STX 920 adam g 55.133+DNF 54.887 55.056 54.228 43.552

53.113 53.611 54.624 0.145



September 13th, 2008 MetroPCA Auto-X - 5th place out of 11 drivers. RAW = 32/55

5 240 Adam G 2008 Subaru Forester 69.032 68.529 68.925 67.321 65.800 65.800
67.191+1 66.050 66.270 0.093



September 20th, 2008 BMWcca Auto-x - 5th place out of 9 drivers.

5. 719/H ADAM G SUBA FORESTER > 60.739 <
TIMES: 1) 62.775 2) 62.124 3) 62.177 4) 61.593
5) 62.594 6) 61.228 7) 60.739 8) 59.321 + 1



October 5th, 2008 NYR-SCCA Auto-X - 2nd place out of 3 drivers. RAW = 16/65, PAX = 29/65

2 SM 920 adam g 49.639 50.171 48.382 48.354 48.354
48.513 49.168 48.599+1 48.675 1.574



October 12th, 2008 MetroPCA Auto-X - 8th place out of 21 drivers. RAW = 45/89

8 240 Adam G 2008 Subaru Forester 52.922+DNF 52.303+1 51.619+2 51.998 51.748 51.748
52.442 51.367+DNF



October 18th, 2008 NNJ-SCCA Auto-X - 3rd place out of 4 drivers. RAW = 49/81, PAX = 59/81

3 SM 7 Adam G 43.135 41.431 40.936 40.440 39.989 39.977
40.148 40.158+1 39.977 0.021



November 2, 2008 MetroPCA Auto-x - 13th place out of 19 drivers. RAW = 45/74

13 240 Adam G Subaru Forester Red 46.550+OC 48.393+OC 48.236 53.416 51.913 48.236
51.677 51.482+1 51.581 51.256+1 1.647