2017 - The Year of PAX Domination for the FoRS?

When the Focus RS was classed into B Street, it was assumed that it would have tough going against the incumbent competition such as the Corvette and Porsche Boxster. Though I haven't run against any Corvettes yet, the Boxsters that I have seen have been pretty far behind me so far. My first three events have all produced top-10 PAX times, and the last event would have produced a solid .3 second PAX win had it not been for a cone on each of my last two runs. I'm also reading about other FoRS drivers around the country taking PAX wins at their events.

Now in 2017, the index for the B Street class is softening considerably; from .826 to .813. All of the Street classes have dropped somewhat, but the B Street index seems to have dropped more than most. All this may end up falling into the lap of us FoRS drivers, having an already competitive car given even more of an advantage.

What will really be interesting is when a national-level driver runs against the Corvette incumbents such as Joe Barbato or Dan Bullis. The Vette is lighter and has wider tires, but the Focus's AWD may give an advantage on some courses.

I think the corvette will still be the car to have in BS for national events. However the FoRS will have the advantage at prosolos.

With a decent driver it should be very strong at local events.

We have a local FoRS that I do expect to win the season. The driver is damn good. The car, however, I don't think is an overdog, if anything it is holding him back. Never beat a nationally competitive S2000 last year (that has now gone off to STR). I got him in PAX every event so far, with a lowly STS car. Locally everyone is going to/already seems to think the RS is a huge overdog in BS but I think the rest of local BS is just slow :p

I think do BS PAX is very friendly but I don't think the RS is the car to chase that title with.

I know the guy you're talking about; he goes by the handle of DocWalt on the focusrs.org forum. He said he had a PAX win at his last event before the winter break.

The AP2 is also a very capable BS car.

On a nationals style course many people think it's the car to have.

The FoRS (or an STI) for that matter, is the better car for an average driver to do well at a regional level in BS. The car to have at the national level will probably remain the C5 or AP2.

Maybe, but the best one at Nationals was in 7th place, and the rest were down in the 20's. The Vettes were definitely dominant.

I'm not convinced the RS won't be competitive, even at a national level. At the last event, my raw time was 3+ seconds faster than the winner of A Street (a C5 Vette), and Don is equally as experienced and skilled as I am.

Results

I finally got a proper autocross rode in one the other weekend. The magic in this car is how it claws itself out of corners. There are things I don't like about it, but that little bit of magic makes up for it. The tighter the course, or rain, and the closer it will be to the top.

mazdeuce wrote: The magic in this car is how it claws itself out of corners...

That's for sure. It was rather cold (at least for Florida) the day of my last autocross, and the 2wd cars were all having issues putting the power down. For example, I was working as the starter during the first heat, and I observed a Focus ST really struggling off the start. Wheelspin, feather the throttle, more wheelspin, feather some more, on and on all the way through the whole first section. In my car, I was flat from launch until the first slalom. I had to have put at least a half second on him just in the first 50 feet. Result: 38.8 for me vs. 42.2 for the FoST.

Then I have a question for you.
After the second run I was talking to the owner and suggested LFB to get the car to behave on corner entry. He says it can't be done. He says brake while throttle disengages some of the magic clutches and takes away the wonderfulness. He spent four or five years driving an Evo nationally so he was very familiar with LFB and what it can do.
Is this what's happening? I'm sure it's less of an issue on track or the road, but all of the FWD and AWD cars I've driven have benefited more or less from LFB. I walked away disappointed.

He's right; if you try to left-foot brake, the rear differential disengages and a warning notice appears on the center display. I don't think it matters, though - the car is working better each time I run it, and I'm only using right-foot braking. The initial understeer I first experienced is disappearing as the tires are wearing in.

jstein77 wrote: I know the guy you're talking about; he goes by the handle of DocWalt on the focusrs.org forum. He said he had a PAX win at his last event before the winter break.

You're right, he did, forgot about that. It was cold and there was a 18mph dig for him to launch out of, both of which played to the car's strengths.

He bought the prosolo bundle so i am looking forward to seeing how he fares nationally.

Hear that?
That's the sound of my Evo being even less competitive in BS.

Sort of surprised that I haven't seen a Focus RS at any AXes yet

Had one show up to one of our events. He did okay overall, but in class still got his ass busted by a pair of S2000s and a Z3 M Roadster.

There were two at our last autocross. The fast one won BS by 0.7 in a 15 car field. He was 9th in Pax out of 195 entries. Our friend spacecadet on here took fun runs in the car and would have moved that up to 6th in PAX if it had counted. Spacecadet finished the lower half of mid pack at nationals in his Civic, but the five in front of him at our event all won trophies and on of them got a jacket at nationals. He PAXed 49th in his own car in STS. Take those numbers how you will.

In reply to mazdeuce:

Yowza. That's a big gap. Although an RS with tires and a sway bar is pretty much at its full pax potential, whereas there's a lot of diminising returns stuff on an STS car to get that last second out of it and the civics are definitely harder to drive than an RS.

That RS was also on 245's. The owner said 265's were supposed to be on it but when they tried to mount them Houston was in the middle of a cold snap and once they got the tires on the wheels everything was too stiff to get the beads to seat. He thinks there is more time in the 265's.
It was interesting because the STS owner tends to lose time overdriving the car. The RS seemed much more tolerant of just mashing it, it actually seemed to be faster the more you just beat on it. A very interesting experience.