Rallycross

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Series8217
1988 Fiero Track Car
Posts: 5971
Joined: Thu Jun 02, 2005 9:47 pm
Location: Los Angeles, CA

Rallycross

Post by Series8217 »

I borrowed some gravel tires mounted on 15x6" GTI wheels from my friend and took my DOHC-powered Fiero track car out to a RallyCross practice event. I have been very successful competing in an AWD car but this was my first time on the dirt with a RWD.

Conversion from my track setup to rallycross involved the following:
* Swap wheels over to the gravel setup, removing the front wheel spacers
* Remove fieroguru lateral link relocation brackets
* Raise front and rear suspension by 2 inches using the adjustable coilover sleeves
* Remove front splitter
* Remove rear wing'

After these adjustments, toe remained at zero front and rear. I didn't measure the camber but it is not critical for rallycross.

The car behaved VERY well. Surface irregularities were easily soaked up by my springs and dampers (800 lb/in front with custom valved Bilsteins, 475 lb/in rear with Koni reds at full stiff) and even the largest dips did not upset the chassis or result in tires losing contact with the ground. The fast steering made for very easy corrections. The 3.4 DOHC makes enough torque that 2nd gear can be used for almost the entire course. First was only needed if I messed up and lost a lot of momentum. Even in second gear at 2500 RPM I could spin the tires at full throttle. Even on a freshly-wetted surface, handling was predictable. The torque delivery is so linear that it's easy to control the rotation of the car by feathering the throttle and making minor steering adjustments.

It could certainly use some more grip.. the tires I used were heavily worn, hard compound, and hardened more with age. Some fresh gravel tires should help quite a bit.

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