Most competitive 4 door stock autocross car?

Flight Service wrote: In reply to jstein77: I know Ford does that power limit thing in the lower gears to prevent it from breaking stuff. Ahh, the modern DI engine.

They also tuned the motor for a less peaky power output, so it falls off a bit in upper revs and yes it doesn't get into the hard boost levels until you're well out of 1st. On level ground you can practically skip 1st if you feather the clutch, that tells me that 1st needs to be a touch taller, but production cars are always compromises.

Also don't discount the fairly large throw between gears compared to a DSG style box. I suspect a shortened throw solution will be in my future before too long once the box loosens up a bit more.

Jerry is right though, the car's grip, steering feel and traction is pretty hard to beat stock for stock.

The biggest drawback is simply that they over-damped the car for the street, so on broken roads it can get a bit tiresome. I've already blown one sidewall due to a bad section of road (marked at 45mph, I hit it at 35mph and it felt like I hit a parking block, thank goodness for the forged factory wheels). Perhaps with more miles, it will loosen up a bit more. Ditching the stock tires and/or dropping to 18" wheels for slightly more sidewall might help the ride a bit too.

Since we're on the topic of 4 door autocrossers, here's my current issue: Kazoo Jr. is a few months short of a driver's license. At that point, the Protege 5 becomes his. We would, at that point, have the Mazda5 family truckster, Miata and I'd need another winterbeater. There's just no way 4 cars fit in our driveway, so I'm thinking I need to turn the Miata and the proposed winterbeater into a single car. There's a really nice 2010 Mazda3 Wagon locally. It's the "S" model, so it looks like it would come with a 2.5 and a six speed. Pluses are 167 hp and roughly equal torque. Minuses are it's a little chunky (3000lbs), a 6 speed (which usually means 2nd is a little short for autocross) and it's a McStrut set up. Nobody really races them locally (except for the MS3 versions). Wondering how it might do in HS. Don't mean to thread crash, but it seems related enough to ask here.

How about an RX8?? Essentially a rotary powered NC with back doors. Not sure how they are classed.

Perhaps that's cheating- you didn't say if the doors had to swing the right way, or if the adults had legs!

2010 Mazda 3 2.5 isn't a horrible HS car locally, but it's no match for the FiST or old base Mini or likely the 500 Abarth that is getting moved into HS this year.

Where it can really shine is in STF. Get a set of coilovers, camber kit, and sway bars, stick some sticky 225's on all four corners and get to it.