well with THAT deep breath I decide to start a 'real' thread on what I am doing; it will be off and on again, and might be restricted or limited in some of the comments or info etc etc and there is a
reason for that (!?!)..... but right now it looks like there is a REAL possibility that I can start to make serious progress on my car in the next 6 months now.
That is a BIG deal. Life; family; career (and busy!) wife; 3 kids in or approaching post secondary education; all the home-related stuff;
running my full time business (going on 7 yrs now); trying to stay sane; (fit? what is that???) ALL of that has tapped me for a LOT longer than I figured when I began this trek about 2 yrs ago. But it wasn't TWO years ago....... it was in 1980 that I decided I wanted to build a mid engine kit car. It just sort of took me this long to get around to it ......
Along with everything else....
I think I can start to put something up and in a reasonable fashion, keep at it in a way so that there is fairly regular progress.
The subject, for those who don't know or haven't guessed, is an 85 based ferrari 308 kit. It was ...ummm..... 'complete' when I bought it and brought it back a bit over 2 yrs ago. It suffered from a LOT of very very poor workmanship; a LOT of out and out SHODDY work and short cuts; a number of things wrong or broken or missing; etc etc etc. But I figured that I had an idea what I was getting into. Owning and keeping about 45 to 50 cars running over my 'driving life' so far has to teach me SOMEthing.....
But it was a starting point. It would seem that by happy circumstance, (perhaps) the 'inactive' state the car was in had resulted in it being laid up for long periods of time. It has almost NO rust
anywhere. The body kit is showing stress cracking in a number of places but I have looked at the ones I can get at and feel that these areas can be properly reinforced. I have confidence in what I can do and I will sub out the work I can't. I am willing to put in the money it takes to get what I want and I have no delusions that I can or will do this on a shoe string. I expect to sink 10 to 15 K into this to get it the way I want.
My goal is to build a car that exceeds the stock Ferrari 308 specs in every way (that is of concern to me, anyway) - that is, acceleration, stopping and cornering. Note that comfort isn't mentioned. This thing is going to ride like a brick. I know that. It is NOT a daily driver by any stretch. Creature comforts are not a big requirement here. I would LIKE to do some auto-crossing and hopefully lapping days at some tracks too; all to see just how good a job I really did. The 308, by the way, is a VERY appropriate kit for the fiero; there is only a fraction of an inch difference between the two. It was manufactured in the same year range (more or less) as the fiero, and the first batch of them (about 500 IIRC) were in fact fiberglass!!!! (like mine!) The engines were transverse v8's. Not longitudinal as would be thought.... Later ones were 4 valve/cyl. So it is a good car to 'replicate' a bit.
After a lot of bouncing around on things I decided on the 3.4 dohc engine out of the Z34 (GM) cars. It is a V6; (obviously) 3.4 liter that was produced in (more or less) 2 versions from 91 thru 97 inclusive. It is a high winding engine that has a dubious reputation for reliability and a number of other things but I have spent a lot of time looking into it and that is my choice. From 91 to 93 ONLY..... it was available with a heavy duty Getrag 284 5 spd trans that was installed in Luminas, Grand Prix's and Olds Cutlass Supreme Int'l's (as an option) - most were autos of course. Redline was 7,000 from the factory and the manual version was rated at 220 hp. Autos were detuned a tad to about 210 to 'protect' the trans as the story goes.
Once the drive train was selected, I decided (getting to know myself a bit over time) that it would be very shrewd of me to have better brakes than the stock fiero if I was going to push it and autocross it and have a better engine etc etc. I have HAD similar brakes to the fiero in the past and they didn't impress me with...... well, anything. So brakes became a priority BEFORE putting in a faster engine.
At the same time, I was cooking up the 'handling' details. I have long been a fan of racing and racing technology and construction and all that. Formula 1 rules!! I bought some
more books and read some specific info on frame construction and geometry. I looked into the car and various boards and what people were doing and decided that I was going to do what I wanted all along..... even if nobody had given it a try (that I could find, anyway). I was going to put in unequal length A arms ALL around. Yup. even on the rear end where there were struts........ (it gets better.... LOL)
So THAT became the task for the next (almost!!) two years.
The body kit is about 4 inches wider than the stock fiero at the front and about 5 inches wider at the rear, so .....along with everything else, I decided that I wanted my wheels and tires to 'finish' fairly flush with the body lines for optimum appearances. More considerations for geometry and parts and so on.
Anyway.
I am going to start my thread with this post and add to it (or get logged off!) with pix etc.
Again..
I need a disclaimer.....
I started posting some stuff I did some time ago and got some
stunningly ignorant emails from people - let's just say from elsewhere - about doing ie "brake work" using 'soldered connections' or something equivalently stupid. After a few of those I stopped posting. So I might not post everything, and regardless, this is what I have done ONLY. It is NOT a guideline or a recommendation OF ANY SORT for anyone to follow. Any injury, mishap or result of anyone attempting to replicate any of the work INDICATED on this thread shall be solely at that person's own risk, peril and responsibility.
BRAKE, FRAME, STEERING-RELATED AND OTHER CHASSIS WORK SHOULD ONLY BE PERFORMED BY A QUALIFIED AND APPROVED VEHICLE TECH AND THEN INSPECTED AND APPROVED BY A PROVINCE OR STATE-CERTIFIED AGENCY BEFORE THE VEHICLE IS PUT ON THE ROAD AGAIN AFTER THE WORK IS COMPLETED.
Geez, I hope that is enough.
There are sadly some either stupid and/or too-cheap people out there who think they can do modifications AND cut corners. We all see them all the time. Sorry. This is NOT REALISTIC and if you think that way, your ignorance is dangerous to yourself and others.
so on with the thread. and, I guess, is anyone interested?...........
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