The only person who wouldn’t grin ear to ear when auto-crossing would be my ex-gf! Well, that’s why she’s my ex-gf now. LOL

Auto-crossing is the way to drive a car properly.
The tires being quiet would have a lot to do with road, tire pattern, and the helmet itself. LOL

I would probably get long stairs from people if I didn’t spell “stare” properly, too!

I did this same type of course the other day with the new Genesis Coupe V-6 Track model. Needless to say, I think my time was a little bit more eventful as I power slided and was allowed to drift as much as I wanted. I really was impressed by the outright speed that 3.8 put out, and the whole package made it feel insanely fast for a $30k stock car. Still thought he interior was just OK and the outside wasn’t much better.

Was this a review of the car or the tires?

The only 2 facts I saw were that the tires are quieter than his old tires and, he beat faster cars with slower drivers.

I once beat an STI and a Quatroporte in my STOCK WRX, but that was due to the other drivers’ unwillingness to drive 120, not the car. Get my point?

JakeK66,
how did you like the leather steering wheel on it? I drove one and the wheel was really hard, like plastic hard!

it looks good!

I didn’t think the steering wheel was that bad, it slid in my hand more than I wanted though. The interior just had too much hard plastic parts where other nicer cars have a more rubberized feel on top of the door sills and other spots, they actually had a Elantra Touring there to show off and it had nicer grade plastics. The leather was also Elantra-grade cheap. Plus lots of cheap looking chrome bits made the whole inside just not too appealing. I’m very picky about this suff though, and the black interior shows it worse than maybe the red one would.

The right tires and a willingness to push your car to it’s limits make a lot of difference in an Autocross environment. I’ve seen a lot of “slow” sports car drivers because they aren’t that comfortable with the though of having their $30,000+ car on the verge of losing control… where some kid with a $5000 stock-ish Civic is blazing around the track because he just doesn’t care.

Jake- I was allowed to slide and drive this car as hard as I wanted as well, and I did. It was an absolute blast and I was able to really get a solid feel for the car’s performance due to my 16 runs. Luckily for me, the inside and outside of the Fiesta are as enjoyable as the driving characteristics of the car.

armstealer- It was a little of both. As for the slower drivers idea, I pointed that out myself. Do keep in mind, though, this was my first time EVER on any type of track in my life, and the other driver’s had months of practice. Does that mean their cars shouldn’t have been faster? Absolutely not… but it does add some credibility to the fact that the Fiesta was able to hang with cars (slower drivers or not) that should have been well out of its league.

I like this little car. It is cute, has good interior etc. The issue I see, by the time Ford will complete “adaptation” for US market it will look like crap with crappy interior.

I love doing this sort of thing. It’s so much fun. My only regret right now is that I haven’t been able to get onto a track for years.

Mark. you should have had the video photographer ride in the back seat. When I shoot, I’l get a few runs from different vantage points, and then I’ll get some interior footage. By shoving my legs up under the front seats and pushing my back hard against the back seat, I can keep my body in position and therefore keep the camera very steady.

I actually intended on using a dual-suction cup external camera mount but I was unable to find it in time. I have since shot some regular road driving with it, but it sure would have been nice on the track.

I wouldn’t have let you put MY camera on one of those. I trust my own death grip over suction cups. But then, my camera is probably a bit bigger and heavier than the one you guys used. Look up PRG or Bexel and see if you have either of those in your area. They rent equipment, and both have saved me a number of times during critical shoots over the years.

thanks for the tip beatusmongous!

I too thought the suction cups were a joke- but I think I could bend the car’s sheet metal pulling on it before the suction would let go. It’s pretty intense.

I do use a very small and light camera, though.

I own a set of Yokohama S.Drive tires in 17-45-215. These tires are CRAP. Anyone who had such a glowing opinion of them has only previously driven Discount’s off-brand garbage tires for $25 a wheel. These tires have no steering feel. They are extremely noisy, especially in the front tires. They require CONSTANT rotation; every 3000 miles I rotate them, whether I need an oil change or not, because if I don’t the noise gets unbearable.

The wet grip is weak on these tires; the dry grip is decent, but I can easily overpower them and slide out of a turn. They have a lousy off-throttle feel, deep into a turn they have no predictable breaking point. Frankly these tires are fine for mom’s grocery-getter, but I would not dare to show up for auto-x with a set; there are so many superior tires out there (even in this price range) it isn’t funny.

Disclaimers: this is on a 02 WRX that is set up for track handling (full Whiteline suspension) and 110hp over stock power, driven by someone who knows what he is doing. My previous set of tires was 17-45-225 Goodyear Eagle F1-GS D3 tires, which were absolutely amazing in all ways: solid in wet, like glue in dry, I couldn’t break them loose to save my life (no drifting, sadly) and lasted me 40,000 miles. When these stupid S.drives start to wear thin, I know what I am going back to.

02WRXPSM, I guess it’s a case of “different strokes for different folks…” There’s no denying that, while certain tires excel on certain vehicles, some combinations are just a bad match. The S.drive tires made a big difference on the Fiesta, although we were admittedly a bit short on acceptable OE-size performance tire options.

Andrew makes a great point- some people love product A, and others may dolh disgust for said product.

That said, I do think it would be worth mentioning that the S.drive I was using was a brand new, updated model with a new compound and new technologies integrated into it. It is a step above the previous S.drive. I see that you have a 2002 WRX, so is it possible you experienced the previous generation tire?

The reason I think that just might be the case is that I strongly believe this new S.drive was equal to the OEM tire (read: silent on most surfaces) in terms of noise. Furthermore, the thing that impressed me most about the tire on the track was how incredibly predictable the tire was. It gave way in a very controlled, predictable manner and at no point did I ever feel as if I didn’t have complete control of the vehicle- even when sliding it through the turns.

Mark

I bought the S-drives in January of this year, about 11k miles on them now. They were fun for a few weeks, because I could actually slide with them (unlike the Goodyears). Then they got noisy, began to slide in the wet and in general begin to feel subpar. To be fair, S.drives are $87.00, the Goodyears are $136, so these are different categories and price points. The F1s are like driving on crushed velvet, absolutely quiet even on highway surfaces. The S.drives have weaker sidewalls, sluggish turn-in and are especially weak if there is a little dust/gravel on the ground. In that price range I would suggest the new Falken Azenis, Dunlop Direzzas and Bridgestone Potenzas as about equal with the S.drives if not slightly better.