FOCUSing on STupid Fun

The autocross on Sat was a bunch of fun.  The course was sweeping and smooth, without a lot of abrupt transitions or weird slow-downs.  A very fun one.

I got consistently quicker over my five runs, going from a 51.2 to a 48.7.  That put me at 5th of 7.  The fast guys were going in the 46's with the winner pulling of a smokin' 45.3.  The top four all had RE71's and were very busy spraying down hot tires between runs.

Following Spacecadet's advice, I did get a good Longacre gauge, chalked my tires, and played around with tire pressure.  The car was pretty happy around 42 psi, and the sidewall showed an appropriate amount of scrub at that level.  I might get one more event out of the stock Eagles, but they're definitely getting worn down.

There was a twin to my car there!  Here's the family photo taken after the event:

As a nice finishing point for this event, turns out on the PAX-adjusted beginner results I finished FIRST!  Pretty cool.

Gave the Focus a little love with Ford Performance cat-back exhaust.  I initially heard this exhaust when I went to ST Octane Academy.  All the school cars had them, and all the students were loving the tone.  So I ordered one up.  Went to my cousin's house on Sunday to use his super handy lifts:

The install was super easy.  Worst part was breaking loose the bolts on the down-pipe, and that just needed a 1/2" breaker bar and a little bit of a cheater.  We were done before lunch!

The tone was initially a little rough.  A bit of a drone on the highway home.  I'll not lie that I was a bit nervous.  By the time I got back to the big bad city, it was sounding smoother and not as raspy.  Now I'm getting even happier with it.  It's mellowing out but it really belts out the noise on full throttle.

Next autocross is March 28th (my birthday)!