Street Touring VS Stock
 

Ive heard several statements about both classes and potential benefits of each. Im trying to figure out which class I want to participate in that would allow me to be mildly competitive without braking the bank.

Do any experienced autocross guys here have any input about which class to pursue? I will be attending all of my regional events and I am willing to limit the modifications of the car in order to comply with both classes rules.

do you want to drive on street tires or do you want to have dedicated A6s

that's about the only thing you need to worry about.

also street touring classes have much more room for mods so if you don't want to break the bank stay in stock.

As of next year they will probably be getting rid of stock class and making a new 'street' class, which will have more allowances that the current stock class, but less that street touring.

Stock allows you to chance one sway bar, exhaust, shocks, and run R-compound tires.

ST* allows more "normal" mods, but only street tires (treadwear greater than or equal to 180).

Street will allow for sway bars, camber, two-way shocks, exhaust, but will require street tires (>= 140 for 2014, >= 200 for 2015).

Id disagree here. There is much, much more to it than wanting to run slicks or not.

I forgot the link:
http://www.solomatters.com/2013/03/s...sal-explained/

Well, if you don't want to bring extra tires to autocross, then you aren't going to be competitive in Stock unless you are in the Road Tire PAX.

he said he doesn't want to break the bank

so really it's a tire choice first and foremost

Here's my input.

If you're new to autocross, don't worry about mods, classes, or anything. Get out there and experience it. Drive the car as it is. You're not going to be competitive starting out anyways. Get your feet wet, study up on classes, see how similar cars are being prepped and how competitive they are, then choose the class that best fits your budget and local competition.

RTR seems like the best balance between mods, competition, and tire selection.

^^^^ this... Here's what I recommend... If your Brand new...go learn what the car can do.. and develop your skill in RTR..RTR doesn't require a lot of cash... it will require some.. but your better off learning what the car does before you start spending money. Me, I knew right away I was building a STX car out of the box, so I had a plan and pretty much stuck to it. Heres where alot of people get messed up.. they do some mods to the car... THEN try autocross...only to be put in a class that they will never win because the mods they did put them there. if your ok with that then by all means, go have fun and not worry about it. Once you get into the competitive spirit of whatever class you going to run, then do some research and mod away.. But for now, for you, stick to something simple and learn how to drive. :)

Enjoy
Bill

Great advice! I fell into that trap of buying things and then going for autocross (which I'm starting this summer). But I don't mind losing and am just hoping to enjoy the experience. But I can always switch back to stock

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7-year autocrosser here, and ^^^ is EXCELLENT advice. Do RTR or any "street tire index" class locally. You'll hugely benefit from seat time, seat time, and then a little more seat time. You and the car would benefit from some good street tires right off the bat, so I wouldn't discourage you from spending that money now. The three tires of choice would be the BFG Rival, the Hankook RS3, or the Dunlop ZII. Don't worry about doing anything else to the car for now. 9 times out of 10, a talented driver can win a local tire index class on a bone stock car with good tires if it's even a halfway decent car for its class, which the FR-S is. If you really start to do well and know you're going to stick with it, a basic set of Koni Yellow shocks and a front bar would be ok money to spend in year two. Before you do those though, I would recommend doing an Evo School.

After a season of autocross, I can 100% promise you that you can spend $250 on an evo school and shave 1-2 seconds off a 45 second course, or spend $250 on a front sway bar and shave .1-.2 seconds off a 45 second course. It's all about talent :)

I entered my first autox about a year ago in a bone stock 2012 civic SI and came in second out of about 8. Some of the other cars consisted of a brz, a miata, another civic, and the only car that beat me, a 2012 WRX STI.

There is no reason that you can't be competitive and have fun with one of the twins and have a blast while doing it.

Trippin makes a good point.

I plan on just sticking with stock everything and spending money on tires and seat time. With this I can probably get in 2-4 track days and a bunch of autocross. Last year I spent thousands on mods with the Civic and could only afford 1 track day. Luckily this car comes out of the box ready for the track with minimal add ons

definitely go out first and see what you like, my first year at auto-x i was terrible, in fact i'm still pretty terrible.