Want to build Yaris to a top 10 auto-x car

[Loren]

Without reading through this whole thread, here are some thoughts:

If you're talking SCCA Solo 2 classing, the Yaris will never be competitive in anything short of a Prepared or Modified class with lots of money and non-streetability thrown at it. It can't compete in SP and it can't compete in Stock. That's just the way it is.

Does that mean that you can't occasionally see a top 10 finish in a Yaris? Or that you can't finish well in whatever class you run in? Not really. It just depends on what the competition is like in your area.

BUT... here's what you CAN do with a Yaris. Forget about the $3 trophies, and don't even worry too much about the top 10 or top 25 finishes... just learn to drive the snot out of it (for a Yaris, that means learning to maintain momentum and drive consistently and smoothly at the limit, NOT relying on acceleration), modify the suspension to your liking, and put the best tires you can afford on it. You still probably won't finish near the top, and you might not even trophy in whatever class you're in... but you WILL piss off a lot of people in "better" and far more expensive machines.

Classes be damned, when you show up with a $12k econobox with about $1k in mods and the guy in the $80,000 Vette can't keep up with you around an autocross course, it's priceless. You can't get that experience with a WRX. People will just say "damn, that's a fast car". You can't do it in a Miata, people will just say "damn, those Miatas sure are good at autocross". Do it in a Yaris and people say "damn, what the hell just happened???"

It's cheap entertainment, man.

(and you can still get 40 mpg on the way home!)