The Saturn of Doom

[Cloud81918]

The car has gone though many phases. I'll attempt it boil down the major setups. I think I have pics of the car for each one. Be warned though for being descently modified this car has much more then what is stock exterior shows. It is not modified to turn heads, just to turn corners.

My region is very open about the rules. If the mod won't be a huge factor it is ignored. A few modifications on my car legal, so don't be too shocked if the car isn't 100% legal.

Early 2005:


My first Autocross. It was a class in early 2005. At the time the car had an AEM CAI, Sprint 2 inch drop springs and GR-2s. Nothing too amazing. In fact when I saw the competition I nearly headed home, figuring my car wasn't really even worthy of being run. Still, I managed to come out on top in the small tight parking lot. I was hooked.

By the end of the season the car had taken on more mods to help it along. SPS 17.5mm adjustable bar, SS brake lines, rear disc conversion, cut shifter, Autotech Saturn shift knob, Whie faced gauges, Twistec motormounts, Ebay strut bar, refinished sawtooths (Flat black wrinkle finish paint after being striped, filled and sanded) and RT615s.

I took the Novice point championship for my region. I was excited. In 2006 I would be playing with the big boys.

End of the season 2005:

[Cloud81918]

Off season and 2006:




The off season brought about a search for more power. The car went under the knife. An OBX header was installed, along with a Magnaflow inline straight through, OBX twin tip muffler and Mandrel bend 2.5 inch pipe conecting it all. An ACT 6 puck setup, Fidanza flywheel and first gen hydrolics went in. An agressive alignment, SX1 front anti-roll bar and sticky tires proved the undoing of 3 sets of rear sway bar brackets. I had a custom set made. An Apexi S-AFC2 found its way on board and a LM-1 data logger. Streetrix rear strut bar mounts were put on and and a spare ebay bar finished that out. The Twistect motor mounts died and were replaced with Polt inserts. A gas pedal out of a Pepboy closeout "racing pedal" set was put on to raise the gas pedal height for better heel-toe action.

I was competeitive, but always second place. I dispite all the toys came in second in the points. It was a tragic combo of a driver that needed more practice and a car that wasn't quiet setup right. The car had a strange tendancy to bounce off bump stops in turns and a new suspension was required. With a few changed to the car and a bit of working on myself next year was looking good.

[Cloud81918]

Off season and 2007:

The end of the 2006 season had me looking long and hard at the suspension. The car rotated well, but would go wild in hard tranistions and would get very bouncey and light on rolling pavement. Many runs were ruined in a smokey slide by an upset car that couldn't be saved.

A new suspension was needed. AMR had just come out with their coilovers, but I was unsure about laying the money out. I decided to go with H&R Race springs and ST struts. The combo was unproven; I've only seen one other person running the combo and it was on a car that was trailered most places.

I also have one big wish for the 2007 season. My main competitor ran a 2000 Honda Prelude, I took 2nd to him in 2006. He was heavier and wider, but also ran more tire. I was finding the RT615s heat handling issues popping up on longer 60+ second courses and really wanted to go wider. A friend had an extra set of 16 inch rims from a Honda Civic project he was working on and he sold them to me for $40 total. The finish was dead and they were heavy, but I didn't care they could hold the RT615 215/50/16 tire I wanted. Life was good.

My six puck cltuch died about half way through the season and the Fidanze flywheel got put on the shelf as well. Both were replaced by stock units. A Schroth Rallye 4 harness found it way into the car and EBC greenstuff found home in my brake calipers.





It was a great year. Sorting my tires are new suspension took a few races, but afterwards I found myself nearly guaranteed victory at every event, dispite a larger number of STS cars then ever in our region. To challange myself, I started friendly wagers with other faster classes and even started a "Can any SRT-4 beat my Saturn?" Challange on a local racing forum. No one answering the challange has been able to do it.

At the end of the year I had attracted attention from a handful of local buisnesses. A sponsership of my 2008 season brought 2 more local buisness sponserships to my door.

Great year for the car and myself.

[Cloud81918]

Offseason and 2008:


Un-Classified as of 12-17-2007