Fiero Diet

[aaron88]

I Was thinking about starting this thread but I don’t really have much to add to it.  So I’ll just start and well all see how long it takes me to finish.  Maybe a year or so.  This will be an ongoing thread that only on occasion will have new posts.

First pick: rear bumper.  I pulled out the steel bumper and changed it for an aluminum one.  Shaved a bit off the plastic honeycomb pieces and voila 7 to 8 lb lighter.

Note: my scale isn’t very accurate so the weight will be in general terms and plus or minus two pounds.  We’ll just have to see how much the total is when I get it all done.

[2ML67]

Thats nothing I found a way to shed almost three hundred pounds off my car. Any one care to guess how, what no one have any ideas. Ok I will share my secret with you, I simply do not let Gary in my car. Sorry Gary couldn't help myself. Dan

[aaron88]

You could get another 200 lb almost if you ditch that auto transmission. 

[GoFast88]

If anyones start to talk about me beer belly,  I am going to get angery 

[Slammed Fiero]

I got a carbon fiber Decklid for the car that dropped 30Lbs , and my sparco seats  dropped another 20Lbs.  If you swap to a roof without a sunroof you can probably shave another 20Lbs or so. I was going to build a Carbon fiber sunroof panel and paint it to match the car.

You will only be able to go so far with a Fiero. I think the lightest I have heard of that is still streetable is 2300Lbs. You could swap the rear windo to lexan and shave a few Lbs....but it all depends on your final goal for the car.


JM

[fiero308]

yeah; one of the guys on PFF who did a 3.4 dohc swap stripped his car to NOTHing and it was STILL a pig!! But that is maybe why they survive crashes (STILL!!) there is some mass there to absorb impact!

But yes it would be nice to get rid of weight where possible. I thought ALL fieros had power windows, for example, but I see that some (seem to?) have manual ones and I expect that saves a few pounds. 

A/C elimination and so on can help. Take out everything related to it (assuming you are willing to give it up!) including the evap and so on in the dash/heater core area. 

Another item that will help a BIT in the handling dept is to LOWER the weight that you can't get rid of. Ie the battery and almost anything else that can be moved. Mount it Low low low. In an extreme case I saw a race car with the brake calipers at the very bottom of the rotor. well..... why not? Everything helps..

[Slammed Fiero]

AC system isn't worth the hassel to remove . It weighs 35Lbs total. Compressor , lines and even the HVAC controls.  You could get ultra serious and gut the hoods and doors. George Ryan had a totally gutted 84 with a 240 HP manapart Quad 4 that weighed in @ 1800Lbs and ran AP in SCCA.

How serious do you want to get. Even the susepnsion technology of the 88's isn't on par with modern cars. My ultimate goal was to build a killer autocross / track car with my Fiero. Hence all the work. At the end of the day it's a fun toy , but not competitive ... I have Koni's 1.25" big bar int he rear , 1" bar upfront , 500Lbs coilovers , poly..ect..ect..


So I bought a Vette for Autocross and Track use and I will keep the Fiero for Fun.

[fiero308]

well it depends on who you are talking to I guess and what their goals and limits are. To some, 35 lbs would be a HUGE saving. And best of all, it is free; simply remove the stuff. You don't have to buy a replacement in aluminum or titanium etc etc so it is an easy and very economical thing to do.  Fanatics might spend "how much" to remove that much weight in wheels and tires, for example?

Yes the fiero is an older design but that is part of the 'given' I think, of owning one. You don't expect Lotus handling from a non-lotus - or you shouldn't anyway . By and large the people who have fieros are either on a budget or have decided to work under a budget and that is why they didn't buy a 911 in the first place.

What yr vette did you get to race? Just wondering what the suspension technology would be in it to make it so much faster/better?...... There are numerous claims that on an extreme 'handling' course a fiero still can be competitive. But they are claims only so just interesting reading.

[aaron88]

How serious do you want to get.

I'm not going to be super serious with most of the weight, but I would like to get the car down to 2400 lb.

The front and rear bumpers I'm going to keep but mostly everything else is going to be changed.  I don't have the money to do carbon-fiber but I will likely do thin fiberglass.

[Slammed Fiero]

I ran the Fiero racing list of aprox 450 people for 5 years , I am probably one of 3 people that still autocrossed and tracked a Fiero in Ontario up until 3 years ago when I blew the motor (Tyler is the only other guy I know of currently doing it).  My 86 GT with poly , Koni's , bigger bars , 11.25" brakes and coilovers was never the most competitive in it's class. Having autocrossed probably the fastest Mk1 MR2 in Ontatio (Rob Brunners car) I can tell lyou that it is considerably faster than a modded fiero wether it's an 86 or an 88. George Ryan  Who built the Quad 4 car I spoke of and later sold it to Tom Hill in Arizona has probably the fasest Autocross Fiero in existence. The car is developed to the extreme. He runs an 88 rear cradle and an 84-87 Front suspension.  This is whats been the fastest setup on the car. He will even tell you that it's not the most competitive car , but he does it for nostalgia

I compare my Fiero and the many I have driven to the other cars I have owned or driven Extensivley.  My old 1997 BMW m3 that had H&R springs , 02 Mini cooper with Sport suspension Plus and poly bushings , Dads 911 RS America 911 and our 87 Vette With Koni's.. The Fiero is quick , but on tighter courses it's hard to get rid of the fiero's tendancies to understeer. Like most mid / rear engine cars it's twitchy when being pushed through a corner. Trailing throttle oversteer is killer on the car..worse than a 911. The big difference..ON The 911 , Corvette ,  even our 2100Lbs Autocross Corvair , Mini and BMW , the issues are easily fixed.. On a Fiero there not. As we all know the Fiero was built using off  the shelf parts , even the 88's don't really handle that much better , what they do offer is better ride quality. Im not trying to piss anyone off , or detur anyone fromw orking ont he cars..but just don't expect a world beater.  When I ran SCCA events down in the US with my Fiero on R compund race tires , I was a good 2 seconds off the pace in my car. It wasn't driver related either.. I was driving the car @ 10/10ths... it just didn't have the handling or power to play with 1900 LBs CRX's and Miatas.

The Vette I got is an 89 6spd L98.. There aren't faster cars out there , but bang for the buck it's hard to beat. I needed a reliable toy for street and autocross.

I will take the Fiero to a few Autocrosses and Track events this year to seehow it does...but even with the extra power of the northstar ,I don't expect to be a serious threat to anyone in the same class.

Like it or hate it , my 02 Mini would crush any Fiero I have ever driven in terms of handling. I have seen conversations like this on pennocks and unfortunatley they never end well.. This is my perspective from 10 years of autocrossing and using my dads 30+ years in  autosports to develop my Fiero and other cars... don't take it as bible...just as a point of view from someone who drives a Lot of  different cars.

Enjoy your fiero for what it is and have fun with it... Don't build it to beat the neighbours.. Cars are getting so fast these days there's no point in trying to keep up. There's always someone with a new Z06 out there aaiting to burst your bubble.

[fiero308]

yup; I agree. It's a mid to late 80's car and it is now 2005. About 3 yrs ago I test drove an Acura 3.2CL Type S that blew my mind with its handling. Went across a very solid bump on an on-ramp - at speed - and did NOT change position or stance in any way. So much so that when my automatic reflexive counter steer happened and wasn't necessary ... well, THAT is when I realized what had happened.
It was amazing and technology is really being used now.

I think most people try to have fun with $5K or maybe less in their car and that is the bottom line for them. If they want to go faster etc they will simply have to spend more, like with any sort of racing.

Sounds like a lot of very interesting experiences!! You're lucky.
gp

[aaron88]

Enjoy your fiero for what it is and have fun with it... Don't build it to beat the neighbours.. Cars are getting so fast these days there's no point in trying to keep up. There's always someone with a new Z06 out there aaiting to burst your bubble.

My sentiments exactly.  There’s always going to be someone faster, always.

All I want to do with my car is fit into my definition of what I want my car to be.  If it’s better than the neighbours car, cool, if it’s not, that’s life, get over it.

I’m doing what I’m doing for two main reasons, experience and fun.  After that it’s all icing.

By no means is all the work I’m doing worth the effort for most people.  To each their own.

Aaron

.

[aaron88]

By the way, in order to fix a lot of the handling characteristics of my Fiero (due to weight distribution) I have calculated the requirement for 245's on the rear while keeping the 205's on the front.  That should tame the rear end a lot, while keeping an equal slip angle front and rear.

Aaron

.