Bobzilla
Bobzilla Reader
4/20/09 7:35 a.m.

Finally, after 12 months of work, planning, one stormed out event and 2 cars..... ST Swift has made her debut. Nuts and bolts: Car placed 3rd out of 7 on a rain soaked day. We were within 2 seconds of a pair of NAtional prepped Civic Si's on our first outing. Both myself and my co-driver realized there is something there in this car.

Finer points, needs more negative camber upfront. Gotta keep the revs up on smaller/tighter courses and have to keep the momentum. THe 'stone RE-01R's are a fantastic tire, but at full tread they left a little to be desired and they did NOT want to stop in the rain! Gonna take some practice. I do knwo that I now LOVE slaloms and quick direction changes....both things I could not do in my previous car (2880lb Hyundai Elantra). Car was flat, handled well and ran fantastic...

And a couple crappy vids from the outside listening to that pretty G13B at full song.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eD4N25XLt0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODbTFNzhrAc

Moparman
Moparman Reader
4/20/09 7:39 a.m.

I for one am glad you had fun. In my opinion, this is what autocross is all about, finding a car you love and can afford and having a blast with it.

Bobzilla
Bobzilla Reader
4/20/09 7:42 a.m.

Oh, I can't afford it... lol... but it sure was fun.

ignorant
ignorant SuperDork
4/20/09 7:52 a.m.

good show. Nice car.

mw
mw Reader
4/20/09 9:57 a.m.

Looks and Sounds great. My dad just switched from driving a swift GT to a 93 miata. He says he really misses the engine in the swift.

Bobzilla
Bobzilla Reader
4/20/09 12:09 p.m.

I can understand why.... it's such a unique little critter.

David S. Wallens
David S. Wallens Editorial Director
4/21/09 11:56 a.m.

Car looks good. Thanks for running our stickers, too.

Bobzilla
Bobzilla Reader
4/21/09 12:16 p.m.

well. y'all sent 'em to me. Of course I'll run them! They'll be on at this years Winged Warrior event to help Riley childrens hospital Cheer Guild as well.

I have a confession to make. I've never stickered up ANY vehicle I owned. Never. Wasn;t gonna do it. Looks to gaudy. But now that the swift is all stickered up... I kinda like it. I want to add more. NEED MORE STICKERZ!

I have a couple more pics to share, but I gotta get home and resize a little.

Bobzilla
Bobzilla Reader
4/21/09 12:27 p.m.

Oh... and I may need to get some spares...those GRM Stickers are right at cone rash level....

nickel_dime
nickel_dime Dork
4/21/09 1:46 p.m.

I went to the National race at VIR this past weekend. There was a Swift running in F Production. I was really suprised just how fast that thing was. He was flat carrying the mail.

Bobzilla
Bobzilla Reader
4/21/09 2:09 p.m.

I love this car. I really do. Even with all the "issues" I fought, I really love it. It sounds fantastic, it is an unexpected sight and I hope to get enough seat time and sorting in the next few weeks to make it a true contender.

maroon92
maroon92 SuperDork
4/21/09 2:18 p.m.

very clean looking car. a swift is on my list of cars I need to have in the future...maybe as a commuter...

as an aside, I am glad nobody in my region has a swift in E-Prepared, those things handle better on street tires than our Mustang does on race tires....

93celicaGT2
93celicaGT2 Dork
4/21/09 2:26 p.m.

Bob, looks like i'm not going to be able to run against you at Winged Warrior..... they want to bump me into Top Gun class.

I was going to make a very concerted effort to make it this year, but it slipped my mind until now, and now they're pretty much telling me, sure! Come on out! But you're running against Vipers and Carey Bales!

Bobzilla
Bobzilla Reader
4/21/09 2:38 p.m.

Be sure to come out anyway. It's still a good time. I mean, I ran the last 2 years with Porky, my overweight and underpowered Elantra.

93celicaGT2
93celicaGT2 Dork
4/21/09 2:40 p.m.
Bobzilla wrote: Be sure to come out anyway. It's still a good time. I mean, I ran the last 2 years with Porky, my overweight and underpowered Elantra.

I'll definitely at least spectate, i'll promise you that.

I am just completely uninterested in crunching through the rest of the stuff to finish the car just to be hopelessly outgunned in every possible way. It'd be one thing if i was a great driver, but i'm far from it.

Bobzilla
Bobzilla Reader
4/21/09 2:53 p.m.

YEAH....I'm not exactly a great driver either. I justgo for the fun!

93celicaGT2
93celicaGT2 Dork
4/21/09 3:07 p.m.

We'll see... i'm going to try to bribe the good doctor when i get there to let me stay in F.

Moparman
Moparman Reader
4/21/09 7:25 p.m.
David S. Wallens wrote: Car looks good. Thanks for running our stickers, too.

Crap, that reminds me, I need new stickers.

Feedyurhed
Feedyurhed Reader
4/21/09 7:59 p.m.

Great vid and cool car!! Sure looks cold there though.

Bobzilla
Bobzilla Reader
4/27/09 4:54 p.m.

Just got back from a Test n Tune at Grissom. Put down 30+ runs on a well laid out 50-60 second course. LEarned a ton of info on tire pressure and what I need to do. Learned that this car needs an LSD to really find it's true potential. That the driver needs to learn finesse on the little skinny pedal to the far right. Learned that passengers do NOT help times! That this car is faster than the driver. Got my first sun burn of the season in, had a ball and was home early.... I really love this little beast.

MoS is born.

Oh... nd what better place for MoS to break a milestone than on the track?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_RfKGZWAKk

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