Forester on a circuit cross? Why not?

With the RX-8 engine swap still dragging along, I decided to take the Forester out for this event.

I welcome criticism, but please bear in mind that this was my third event ever. I know I should set a constant pace in the slalom instead of lift/throttle, and I kept making that mistake all day. I'm honest, though: I pretty much suck everywhere. I was 10 seconds off of the pace the experienced guys were setting. Some of that is car, but most of it is driver. I think I'm still applying rallycross inputs and getting too close to cones.

I also need more work on aiming the GoPro. I think I should put it outside the car. I still don't have a mic, but at least there is some engine noise from having the windows down.

Final (fastest) run: I lost a bit of time on the start (and everywhere else) but the clock showed I was doing better here. By this time I was a bit more confident and relaxed, too. I was still overcooking the really tight turn near the end of the course after the long sweeper. I should have slowed down more, set myself up better and maybe and gotten on the throttle earlier and while pointed in the right direction instead of letting the AWD figure it out for me.

http://youtu.be/kxoRdnifd9A

First run

Due to the course, novices needed to be "checked off" before they could drive solo. In any case, I wanted some pointers to work on for the rest of the day. I was a bit nervous and i wanted to to see how much of a Pig the Forester was going to be if it could get grip. I think it slides better than it turns.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daGd2ctu2PE

Worst Run: I got checked off after the first run. no problem. This was my second run of the day. Apparently the cone I blasted in the lane change at the end caught something (probably tow hitch) on the way out and launched about 10 feet into the air on exit. The other cones were just regular knockdowns. I'm posting this to show some of the corrections I was making on the next two runs.

http://youtu.be/Ky8PNNbSPqo

Third run: There was a shifter kart in front of me and they were having a bad day out there. One of the guys wanted to ride along with me to see what the Forester was like. He's much better than I am, too, so after my awful performance in the second run, I figured it wouldn't hurt. There was a bit of a pucker moment, but rallycross experience might have saved that from getting much worse. I was guilty of trying to go a bit too fast in places here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_4JrCXQRLM

That looked like a blast!

Hells yeah!

That looked like fun!

I've also nicknamed my Forester the "Filthpig" due to all of the comments I got from the autocrossers about how dirty it was and how much body roll there is.

Thats really looked like a fun event, and holly body roll :D

honestly i thought you did a pretty solid job hustling that thing around. i'm no expert, but i guess if i was to weigh in any helpful tips it would be primarily to brake later...it seemed like for a few gates, especially at the beginning of the course you were coasting/not accelerating up to them from further out than you needed to. you may have gained a little time from accelerating deeper before hitting the brakes. i also understand these things are geared like tractors so it might have been a mistake to bounce off the limiter trying to go faster, or change up to 3rd and then back down again a second later, so what do i know.

you could really hear all 4 tires screaming in unison at a few turns - most excellent

Scotty, there was some drifting happening. I shudder to think what sticky tires would do- it might just be unsafe without lowering the car or running some really stiff springs.

I really wish I had my RX-8 for this type of event, but it was fun. Tarheel plans on doing more, they had a lot of good feedback about this.