FoRS owner check-in?

In reply to yupididit :

Can’t find it. Shoot me an email at mike at hongnorr dot com?

In reply to jstein77 :

Cool. Thanks for the input! I might hold out for an 18 simply for the “last year of production,” etc factor. Still noodling. I’m not as worried about rear seat room as mama is. Honestly, my opinion is that the girls will just have to deal with it. They’re very rarely in my car together for more than 10 minutes at a time anyway.

Also, while it may not have as much rear passenger room, I’m guessing the FoRS has more *usable* cargo space than the V. The trunk is surprisingly useless for a big car.

poopshovel again said:

In reply to Saron81 :

Holy crap that’s delicious. Love the white letter tires!!! I’m torn between white & blue, with blue being the first choice...I think.

Nah, white's a terrible color:

That said, the blue is spectacular, especially in the sun.  I just know that having to try and touch it up or worse, repaint it after an accident amde the $850 premium price not worth it when I ordered mine.

There's also a part of me that really wants to try and fit non-RS body parts to mine to make it a sleeper, but then most people don't know what it is.

A co worker has a '17 in gray.  He had a black ST and traded it in after going to lunch with me in mine.  Both colors are very "Star Wars Bad Guys" to me, which isn't a bad thing :)

poopshovel again said:

In reply to jstein77 :

Cool. Thanks for the input! I might hold out for an 18 simply for the “last year of production,” etc factor. Still noodling. I’m not as worried about rear seat room as mama is. Honestly, my opinion is that the girls will just have to deal with it. They’re very rarely in my car together for more than 10 minutes at a time anyway.

Also, while it may not have as much rear passenger room, I’m guessing the FoRS has more *usable* cargo space than the V. The trunk is surprisingly useless for a big car.

Eh, that's where I'm a little disappointed in the RS.  Compared to hatchbacks I've had in the past, there just isn't as much room in the trunk as you'd like sometimes.  The raised floor to make room for the rear differential doesn't help.  The rear seat does fold flat (fold the seat bottoms up first, some people miss that apparently) which is handy and its how the wife, kid and I took a road trip down the Oregon coast in it.  Folded one side down for the packnplay/stroller and pile the bags in around it.  The Hyundai sedan we had as a rental while the tire was being replaced on the RS (damned potholes) swallowed all of that without issue or folding seats.  Annoying.

I really don't like the red they used on the '18s.  It looks very tomato-ish, especially after some sun.  Just me though, so get what you like.

I really considered getting a V-wagon instead of the RS (when ordering was taking too damned long), but they were too damned expensive and I knew the sedan wouldn't work for us.

I keep thinking about changing the amp/subwoofer just so I can take that stupid 4" of foam out of the trunk.  Oh well, some day.

Knurled. said:

I do recognize that getting a good launch from a turbo AWD vehicle is both demanding in driver skill and somewhat abusive to the drivetrain.

I launch mine for every autocross run by simply flooring it, waiting for a split second for the revs to hit 5000, and quickly releasing the clutch.  I get a slingshot launch every time without even using the launch control.

In reply to Stefan :

Yeah. I dig the stormtrooper look (the caddy is white/blacked out everything) but, man, the blue is incredible. 

Funny: The local carmax has a blue ‘17. I’m pretty sure it’s the one I tried to buy from the local Ford dealer last year. Sadly, it’s only $1500 less than they wanted for it new, and now has 14,000 miles :/

Launches are easy - either with the launch control, or doing what Jerry does (me too) by dumping the clutch at 5000 rpm.

The surprising lack of room in the hatch is part of what ended my love affair with the car. It'll swallow a set of mounted tire and wheel assemblies along with my other autocross stuff, but there really isn't much room in the back.

poopshovel again said:

In reply to yupididit :

Can’t find it. Shoot me an email at mike at hongnorr dot com?

Just did, sir