Fiero rally car build, Part I

[Chase Race]

Here I will document the transformation of a Fiero from a neglected, wrecked street car into a well maintained and visciously abused rally car. I warn you now that progress will be slow. This is, at best, about the 5th most important thing I have going on so it is often going to lose the battle for my time and money. If you expect progress as fast as bubbajoexxx's build you will be sorely disappointed. This project will take at least a year. Maybe two. Maybe more.

The project actually started about two years ago. Ed Parks tipped me off to a lightly wrecked Formula at a local (to me) insurance auction. I bought it. About that time I started getting into the Fiero roll cage / roll bar business. The car served as a jig until this business died down and since then it has been doing duty as a shelf.

The car: '88 Formula 5-spd. The only options is had were tilt wheel and a sunroof. No power anything and no AC. Perfect. I've already traded the sunroof panel for a solid roof.

Abbreviated plan:

-Do some parts swapping between this car, my '85 GT rally car, and my '88 GT rally car so I can keep the best stuff but still sell a raceable car.
-Sell both old rally cars.
-Obtain title for Formula (since it was totalled I need to go through a State Patrol inspection)
-Build Formula into the world's greatest Fiero rally car.

Simple enough?

On to Part II, which contains pictures...

[crzyone]

Sounds like a cool project. How does a fiero handle on gravle when its properly set up? I would be afraid of the snap oversteer flying around dirt corners...

[Chase Race]

Sounds like a cool project. How does a fiero handle on gravle when its properly set up? I would be afraid of the snap oversteer flying around dirt corners...

The '88 actually handles quite well. One of the things that prompted me to build the '88 was spending a day playing on dirt roads with my street Formula.

The '85 is decent and I'm sure it could be a lot better with some suspension tuning. I decided to build a new car instead of continuing with the '85 for a couple reasons. Partly to change all those things you'd do differently if you had a chance to do it over, and partly to showcase Chase Race.

But mainly because building race cars is fun.

[The Dark Side of Will]

Moved to Motorsports at request of author.