Go-kart?

[Monkeys400]

I was wondering how well these cars actually handle? I know motor has alot to do with that, but I'm sure a lightweight N/A is the best way to go for the twistys right? I'm not worried about the swap in this thread but mainly just how well the cars handle and feel? I have been in some lightweight cars without mods and they are fun to drive and they have the go-kart feel. Does the festy have the best go-kart effect as far as stop-go and tight corners and just the whole driving experience?

[muscle_Car1]

Quick simple Easy answer=Yes they can handle fine stock.

But if you do the aspire swap you will have a rear sway-bar to induce more oversteer. Since you did the swap the bolt pattern would change from 4x114.3 to the much more respectable and available 4x100. Which means get better rims, and in turn better tires. Yeah Tires=Good handling :idea: . But since you went through all that trouble of taking off the steering knuckles you might as well swap in some sport springs from FMS. While your doing that put in some new struts & Bushings from there also. Then You probably will handle pretty well. Know if you wanna get Extreme You could mount the battery in the trunk for better weight distribution.

So all in all yes :lol: but it can be better :idea:

[FestYboy]

it might just be me, but i think the festy is the furthest thing from a "go-cart" feeling car that there is. don't get me wrong, I love my festy and wouldn't trade it for the world, but FF drive-train layout is the worst you can get for performance driving. all the weight is in the front end, and even if you lighten it as much as practically possible, it'll still understeer like a mutha. if you want to get an economical car with "go-cart" tendencies, then find yourself a first gen MR-2 or Fiero 2M4, both are mid engined and can be had for a very reasonable price. the MR-2 is the lighter of the 2 vehicles but is a uni-body frame where as the Fiero is a space frame and much stronger to start. there are plenty of performance parts for both and can be VERY competitive with cars having twice their power output.

as far as the actual handling of a festiva: it's poor to start, though i found myself throwing it around quite a bit when it was on the skinny stock tires (i could 4 wheel drift it around certain corners). once you throw larger rubber on it though, all you get is understeer and front corner rollover. this is due to mainly 2 things: soft springs and a very small roll bar. something that could be added to the frame would be front trailing arms to keep the wheel hop and torsional steering in check. Allot of weight has to be removed from the front end, or ballast the rear to achieve a more neutral feel.

the festy CAN be a "go-cart" but there's a bit of planning and work that needs done first.

[Monkeys400]

So festyboy? What should I do? Im on a budget and I wanna rip the roads up with my go-cart.

[mattswabb]

1st off get rid of the budget. No cheap way to go. Do the aspire swap, get some FMS springs, KYB GR2 struts and some 195/45/14's and this will significantly improve the handling of the festiva.

I had an 85 fiero gt and I believe my festiva now handles as good as that car did.

All this will run $800+.

[oxbrain]

No ripping up of roads. I don't want my insurance higher or there to be less festivas available. Find a track and race there. Autox is cheap and, unless you live on the moon, close by. You can never push your car as hard on the street as you can on a track, so don't bother.

The engine has nothing to do with the handling of the car besides its weight. The reason turbos are said to handle worse is that the power delivery isn't as smooth. Honestly, the few turbo cars I've driven, I didn't notice.

The festiva will never handle like a go-kart. The reasons for this are that it weighs 1500 lbs more and has a suspension. Karts are insane, break your ribs when you corner, type machines, and short of formula cars, nothing comes close.

The suspension layout on the festiva isn't horrible. The rear torsion beam means it has a semi-independant rear suspension, and fully independant front. With the aspire swap and harder shocks up front there is very little understeer. With a little engine braking into a corner the car will oversteer. The light weight and no power steering mean you get more response through the wheel, which makes it easier to predict when your grip will run out.

I've been to autoxs in my festiva while it was stock and now with the suspension upgrades. Even stock I was placing in the top 75%, now I'm up to the top 60%. At this point, the car is a lot faster than I am. With practice, and the exact same setup, I'm sure I can get into the top 25%. Not bad considering the field is made up of people with a lot more experience, and much more expensive cars.

Racing on a budget is possible, it just depends on your budget. Look up a local autox and go race in whatever car you have. You don't need to spend more than the ~$30 entrance fee to have fun doing it.

[Monkeys400]

Budget as in.... I found a $400 auto festy that would probably be able to hit the road with a battery. Whatever it needs to be on the road would be no problem or part of my upgrade plan anyway. So after that $400 I would be expecting to spend at least $1500 or more to make it how I want. The suspension isnt hard to plan, but as far as what motor to go with im kinda not sure.

[project b6t]

with my set up (ground control coil overs at 300 in/lb in the front and 200 in the rear, KYB gr2 shocks) along with my 15" wheels and 195 yokohama tires with a 50 side wall it handles pretty good.. but nothing to amazing (not even close to the my porsche haha).

At autocross the car actually turns in now which is very nice, i still have yet to push it hard enough to get a lot of under steer with the new tires. even with the stiff springs and semi-almost-not really stiff shocks the car still has a "roll" feel to it even though it grips pretty damn good. The problem is the fact that the suspension set up is built for a econo car from the 1980's and also mainly because the sway bar is to small and not stiff enough. Lets also include the fact that its a solid rear end that was also built to be part of a econo car.

If you were to convert to a true a-arm set up with a nice sway bar, solid mounts, a real coil over set up (i.e. tein coil overs ext..) along with nice light weight wheels and nice grippy tires, and the suspension is set up to dampen with the correct weight... Then it could almost be considered "go-kart" like. Even as front heavy as this car is, a real good suspension set up will make up for that. Look at the racing series and how dodge neons, and Nissan's over take the BMW's.

-Ian's 2 cents