First autocross of the year!

The first autocross of the year in the Portland/Salem area is coming up on March 30; it's hosted by the Willamette Motor Club.

The event will be located at the Les Schwab in Salem, located at 2350 Mission St. SE. If by chance anyone from the Portland/Salem area happens to be reading this and is going to go, let me know! Let's hope for sun and warmth.

My Toyota Yaris

So what small car do I drive? I own a 2007 Toyota Yaris, and I love it. In case you didn't know, it's the little white car parked between my friend Craig's Nissan Sentra SE-R (thanks for the photo, by the way) and that Lamborghini Superleggera. Yeah, that one. Although my car is no Lambo, I love it. And you know what they say: If you can't dazzle them with dollars, baffle them with bullshit. Well, OK; maybe not bullshit, but I didn't figure anyone would take a second look at my little Toyota next to an Italian beauty like the Lambo at the track.

To my surprise, I had several people come up to me and ask me about the Yaris. I had one guy even say that he hadn't even looked at the Lambo because he liked small cars and noticed my Yaris. (That's my kind of guy, but c'mon – it's a Superleggara!) Anyway, with it's bright orange Speedmaster SM046 wheels, and lowered stance, it hardly looks like a typical Yaris and does get its fair share of stares.

So a bit about my Yaris. It has the following upgrades:

15x6.5 (et 38)Speedmaster SM046 wheels (they weigh only about 11 lbs. each)

Kumho Ecsta AST (205/50/15)

Megan Racing Coilover Dampners

TRD rear swabyar

K&N Drop-In air filter (hey, I got it cheap!)

No, it's not very fast in a straight line, but it handles like a go-kart! In fact, I was able to do three laps on the racetrack as part of the re-opening, and it handled even better than I thought. The Kumho tires aren't my first choice (they came with the wheels), but they weren't too bad.

I'll be autocrossing the car this season, and it should prove to be a great little vehicle through the cones.

Yaris Links

Here a few of my favorite Web sites with Yaris-specific content:
Yaris World
B-segment.com
The Micro Team