Drove the FR-S on an Autocross course
 

So yesterday I drove the 6MT FR-S in an autocross course around the Toronto, Ontario, Canada area. I was looking forward to this for a while because of all the hype and also since I'm in the market for a new car in approx 2 years. Push it to the Limit autocross club and Scion Canada gave us the opportunity to beat the car up on a 45 second run through a sea of cones. Unfortunately we were forced to keep all driving assists on so nanny FR-S intruded on a little fun.

My thoughts...

Power- Definitely more power than my slushbox Mazda 3. When I hit the gas in 1st/2nd the power is there when I need it. Got a split second tail action before the TC kicked in and ruined the fun...

Traction Control- Starting off the line, I launched it at around 4000 rpms, got a little tire spin and Traction Control kicked in and ended up bogging the engine a little. But it was expected.

Brakes- I didnt get a chance to brake hard (I'm recovering from a broken ankle) but others have told me that the braking is very good and adequate.

Tires- 100000000000000%%%%%%%%% needs to be changed to stickier ones for competition use. The tires caused a lot of understeer and since I wasnt able to hit the gas to rotate the car, it just kept plowing. For normal street use, there shouldnt be a problem but the grip just isnt there if you're driving it hard through a turn. Keep in mind I was driving the FR-S back to back with my car that was equipped with Dunlop Direzza Z1 Star Specs.

Interior- Looking at the pictures from Scion's website, I wasnt too impressed with the interior but seeing it up close, it was much better than I expected. Its no luxury car but I'd be able to live with the basics Scion provides. There is very little rear seat in the best case, worst case there is 0 room if you move the seat all the way back. Seats are nice and low, I really liked how the seats hold you in on a hard turn.

I took some videos of other people's runs. I forgot to turn on my GoPro when it was my turn to drive :(

http://s22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...t=1e8be2f2.mp4

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...1/65524a4a.jpg
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...1/dc60d92a.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...1/4a0f8965.jpg
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...1/fd76f7bf.jpg

Wow, sucks you had to leave the nannies on. I would've told them politely to shove it. At least you got to drive the MT: we're getting stuck with the 6AT (no offense to AT drivers) at the test drive event near us.

The event organizers and guest journalists got to drive with the nannies off. I suppose its a liability thing for them since they dont know who they're dealing with and things can go wrong. (Lots of poles in the parking lot and its possible to jump the curb, go into the ditch, crash into parked cars). They brought both AT and MT cars but we only got the chance to drive the MT cars since the AT wasnt broken in yet.

I was planning to go but read that getting seat time in the Scion was dependent on entry into the PITL series. I was disappointed at that, but thanks for uploading video to show me what I missed.

Heres another one...

http://youtu.be/_pmwc3_ctDk