Forester XT or Mustang autox this weekend?

We are traveling about 2 hours to visit friends this weekend and there is an autocross on the Sunday that my friend and I are going to attend. I can't fit the family and my race tires in the Mustang so I would have to run on 10+year old BF Goodrich tires. Would be fun, lots of tail out and I'm sure ploughing action. My wife suggested we just take the Forester XT and I could use it for the solo. This is 100% stock and is autotragic.

Decisions, Decisions...I'm leaning towards the Forester as it has A/C and it supposed to be a hot weekend. Plus, it would give me a chance to see how it handles the demands of autocross.

But the fox body Mustang is so much fun, but I would have unhappy wife and child in a very warm car, no A/C.

What do you think? Either way it's going to be a fun weekend.

A stock Forester is going to be . . . interesting. We had one at an autocross a few weeks ago, and it had an eye-popping amount of body roll. We kept hearing a scraping sound and figured it was tire rub. Nope, turns out the molded in mud flap/stone guard sections on the front of the car were dragging on the pavement on the outside of the turns. Don't believe it was a stock size wheel/tire combo, but it was an amazing amount of suspension compression on the outside and stretch on the inside. Seriously thought it was going over a couple of times. It was amusing though . . .

Forester. You'll have a better weekend overall. And still have fun

I'm trying to decide whether I should bring the Locost (on tires from 2006 or so) or the Targa Miata to the track this weekend. Hmm.

what year xt?

Forester.

Purely for keeping the wife happy.

DirtyBird222 wrote: what year xt?

2004

z31maniac wrote: Forester. Purely for keeping the wife happy.

Happy wife is a happy life, as they say.

Keith Tanner wrote: Forester. You'll have a better weekend overall. And still have fun I'm trying to decide whether I should bring the Locost (on tires from 2006 or so) or the Targa Miata to the track this weekend. Hmm.

I wish I had to make your decision.

I would take the Forester. Regardless of body roll it will probably be just as fast or faster than the mustang on old tires, anyway, and more fun for the entire rest of the weekend. It might be less fun at the autox but still a heck of a lot more fun than no ac for a whole weekend, or not autocrossing at all.

I had a friend with a forester that he drove the balls off and eventually did tip over. After months and months of his crazy driving, it took a curb to tip it on its side. He tipped it back up and kept driving it until someone T-Boned him, then got an impreza. I would not worry about tipping the car over unless you slide it sideways into something.

My daughter's 2002 base Impreza wagon is a surprising amount of fun to autocross, even with the automatic transmission. I'd take the Forester and be comfortable, hands down, especially if it's an XT.

Votes are in, looks like the Forester by a landslide. I'll take some video and see how the Subie does.

Any seat time, regardless of the vehicle is always good. Best part is I don't have to switch rims/tires, going to be too hot for that anyway.

Thanks for all the input.

Glenn

THE ANSWER IS ALWAYS FOX BODY MUSTANG.

Drive whichever car the woman wants to ride in and stop at Enterprise or Hertz when you get there to pick up your ride for the autox.

Here's a video of the Forester. It under steered lots and also would over steer all at the wrong times. Still was a hoot to drive. I'll stick with the Mustang.

Forester run

The two cars in line in front of you = le drooooool!

kazoospec wrote: The two cars in line in front of you = le drooooool!

Agreed. I've been for ride in the GC, incredible car. NSX was amazing.

rustysteel wrote: Here's a video of the Forester. It under steered lots and also would over steer all at the wrong times. Still was a hoot to drive. I'll stick with the Mustang. Forester run

Part of the trick with the Impreza is that you have to take the first half of the turns like it's FWD. Brake hard and straight and then use a touch of trail braking to turn it in and get it rotated. Once the chassis takes a set and you start unwinding the steering input, you can stand on the power (well, OK, it's a NA 2.5 with an auto box) and it will squat down on the outside rear and crank around the apex.

I co-drove a stock Impreza for one event and got a similar impression. You pretty much drive it like a FWD except you can get on the power a lot earlier coming out of a turn.

Of course, i think that's true of MOST fwd-based awd's because a lot of them still have a very FF weight distribution and that dictates your corner entry a lot more than which wheels are getting power, imo.

I never autocrossed a forester but from driving them i'd say that at least half of the handling difference between that and an impreza is just the tires that get put on foresters. I drove my friend's forester with the same tires/wheels he raced his impreza on (205/50/15) and it felt very similar, just heavier and with more roll. I never encountered 'oversteer at all the wrong times' in either car.

In reply to Vigo:

Maybe I shouldn't have said 'oversteer at all the wrong times' it just seemed loose and after I adjusted pressures it seemed much better. I was driving it like my old Civic and tried to drop throttle oversteer and I got plenty more than I expected. I agree that it is much like a FWD car but you are able to apply power earlier. I started to get a better feel for the Forester as the day progressed. The stock tires that are on the car are yokohama avids, and they are just about done. I autocrossed my '03 Legacy Wagon last year and with R-Comps it was a fun car as well, it was a manual trans and much easier to keep in the power band. The XT's turbo lag seemed exaggerated by the auto box, especially when launching the car. I am thinking that since we need new tires next year maybe some BFG Rivals and nice 16-17" rims would be a nice upgrade. Could be my 'When it Rains' autocrosser. Keep the Mustang for the nice sunny dry days...

That looked pretty fun. Better tires will make it worse without taking care of the suspension.

Look in my build thread.

The STI rear sway, King springs and new shocks/struts made a world of difference in the way mine handles.

I'd get ridiculous body roll on dirt- you can see it in some of the pictures there.

I might have to take mine out to an autocross to see how it does.

Better tires will make it worse without taking care of the suspension.

Ive never found that to be the case on any car.

I found it to be 100% true on my Forester. My suspension was shot and I had Geolanders on it. I tried some stickier rubber and it made the body roll feel more pronounced.

Granted, the only diagnostic equipment I was using was my inner ear.

Oh, i guess by "it" yall were talking about "feelings" and not actual performance or handling balance. Ive never found a car to understeer worse with better tires.

Speaking from personal experience, 10 year old tires won't survive an autocross. Driving two hours with chunks missing can be nerve wracking.

rustysteel wrote: Here's a video of the Forester. It under steered lots and also would over steer all at the wrong times. Still was a hoot to drive. I'll stick with the Mustang. Forester run

Cool!

Here's a video of me running my Outback at an autocross: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_cp09DeF6o

It's tons of fun, but pretty tough to control the corner entry understeer. I eventually got the hang of it.