Okay, as I said, the car had some problems. First we found the brake pedal mostly on the floor. This required new front calipers. While we were there we did rotors and wheel bearings. This got the brakes functional again.
We also had to pull the dash apart to resolder all the electrical goodies. This was a good solid afternoon of work and involved a lot of swearing.
The car was quickly fitted with Toyo Proxes RA1 soft-compound radials in the stock size of 205/55ZR16 and I started running it at the MCO autocross events. I ran the car in this configuration for the entire 1997 season.
We found out a lot about these cars far too quickly. They don't like to refire when they're hot. People like to blame it on leaky injectors. I have no idea. I just know it can be both annoying and embarassing.
This year was the first time the car saw some action on a road race course, too. Shannonville Motorsport Park. We quickly found out that the brakes weren't up to the task. We did both the pads and the fluid in at this event.
As the weather grew colder we also found out what detonation was, and ever since this day I've grown to hate the sound. I've also grown to hate the 25+ feet of vacuum hose that you'll find in these cars. I'm still tracking down vacuum leaks and fighting with the idle.
Overall the first year with the car was successful. It was running strong and winning races... hard to complain.