I had a chance attending Ford EcoBoost Challenge at Lucas Stadium in Indianapolis IN.
It was a fun event. They setup 3 courses; Hybrid challenge, EcoBoost Challenge, and ST Challenge.
In Hybrid Challenge, I test drove C-Max and Prius V. To my surprise, C-Max handled very well!
I had almost no expectation to neither of them to have anything other than “Good Gas Mileage, which I rarely care… I drive Rotary… Do I care to buy either car? probably not though… C-Max Interior looked good looking cheap cars… bit more liberal design with LEDs and curvy lines. I preferred boring Prius interior. Less distractive…
In EcoBoost Challenge, there were 3 sets of cars to test drive side by side. CR-V and Escape, Camry and Fusion, and Chevy Silverado and F150. I tried CR-V / Escape, and Camry / Fusion. To be honest… I didn’t really feel or see much of difference… I didn’t like CR-V as much as I thought, it was bit under powered, but Escape was not much better… Fusion probably handled better than Camry, but not by much. And… well it’s Camry. (I have nothing against Camry. I love my mom’s camry for what it is.. 4 cylinder grocery getter with decent bells and whistles.. probably my mom never had floored the gas, and probably never will or need to… it’s just that kind of car…)
Finally, the ST Challenge. the whole reason I signed up for this. I get to ride along with pro driver on Focus ST, and then drive on autocross-like course in their Fiesta ST.
It was my first time driving this segment car on a course. It was a totally different experience. how it behave when accelerate, how it behave when brake, timing, etc.. it’s all so different from my RX-8. It was a lot of fun driving “Someone else”‘s car, and don’t have to worry about breaking it 🙂
Every hour, they were giving out prizes to the top 2 drivers. Un fortunately I ended up in 3rd… but oh well. It was fun, and a good experience.
