'88 L Street/Track Build- Coilovers • B6ZE • Weber DCOE's • Widebody • Chopped Top •

[theastronaut]

Moved the timing up a few degrees, it loved it! Pulls almost as well as my buddy's efi car. I think with the shorter 14's we'd have a pretty even race.

Still unrelated, the engine in the blue C10 is fine, I'm just horrible at diagnosing problems. Will be up for sale soon!

[FestYboy]

Stock carb timing is 0*, I've added 6* on 87 oct with no issues, 10* on 91 oct.
Carbs like more timing!!

[Advancedynamix]

Awesome! My carb'd 89 always had a dead spot when it wasn't quite warmed up. Cold was fine and warm was fine, it was some place in the middle. Usually I found it while trying to enter a busy street. Lol

[FestYboy]

Bump the timing a few degrees, you'll get there

[theastronaut]

That chevy has perfect paint and you've got her siting really nice.
I wish I could get that lucky finding cheap festivas .
Looking forward to seeing some progress

Thanks!

Take what you want off that 91, you have a buyer for the shell.

I'll let you know if I decide to part it.

Did the new wires clear up that stumble?

Yeah, it's running great. Might hit 104 now!

[Advancedynamix]

Did the new wires clear up that stumble?

[FestYboy]

Take what you want off that 91, you have a buyer for the shell.

[william]

That chevy has perfect paint and you've got her siting really nice.
I wish I could get that lucky finding cheap festivas .
Looking forward to seeing some progress

[theastronaut]

It's time for an update on this! I have spied the new wheels on it.

Been driving with the Nankang's on for the last couple of tanks. I haven't driven it hard enough to get them up to temp fully so I still don't have a good feel for them yet. They are really good in the rain, had it on the interstate yesterday and no hydroplaning at 80-85 mph. I did raise the coilovers back up to get the suspension geometry back in it's sweet spot so I was able to get it to rotate the rear end around when turning onto the on and off ramps. I made a few extra on/off ramp runs to get a feel of how well they grip when it's wet and they stick really well, and they break away "softly" when exceeding their limit. The Nitto's on the Miata break away much more abruptly in the rain so you have to be very quick to reel it back in. The Nankang's are much more forgiving if you push it too hard. It's turned off cold here so it'll be next year before I have a chance to see how they'll do in the dry and wamed up. I noticed a flat spot on one of the rear wheels, and the front wheels must be out of round because they shake the steering wheel at 55-60 mph. I'll try to find another set of 15's over the winter.



I also finally changed out the plugs and wires... It's like a whole new car! The old wires were completely shot, I don't know how it was running as good as it was. Three of the terminals pulled off the wire when I removed them, and two of those were loose on the tip of the plug.





I bought a third Festiva last weekend, a '90 L+ auto with AC and power steering. The seller said it wasn't running and didn't know why. I was just buying it because it was super cheap at only $100 bucks. I got it home and started looking it over and noticed that the coil wire was missing. I put a spare wire on it, charged up a battery, and had it running on starting fluid within a few minutes. Not sure what I'll do with it at this point, the interior is a huge mess but it's kinda too decent to part out. I would like to use the AC and power rack for my '88 though, so it may come apart.





Unrelated, but as of a couple weeks ago my blue '66 C10 is/was pretty much finished which would have freed up some of my extra time but... The used 283 I swapped in decided that it was a little too used, so after only about 4-500 miles I now have to replace it. I halfway wish I could pay someone to swap the Festiva since I''ve been too busy with everything else. hmmmmmm

[Advancedynamix]

It's time for an update on this! I have spied the new wheels on it.

[Team Lightning]

I got to watch his car on the interstate, it's quick for sure.

[Advancedynamix]

Thanks for the kind words John, it was great to meet you and drive your car. You did a great job setting it up.
103mph is pretty good for a car with less than 60hp! That's a strong little carb engine.

[theastronaut]

I had a great time at Madness 10 this past weekend! It was great to finally meet so many of the people from here and the Facebook group and see their cars in person. I met up with Jerry (Team Lightning) Friday morning and followed him to Barb's house in Raleigh for the cookout that night. I had a couple of guys interested in seeing how well Charlie's suspension setup performed so I took them on test rides. Both were blown away at how well the car behaved when driving normal but still had a ton of grip when thrown into a corner at speed.

Saturday was the big show. It had rained in a couple spots on the way up so I looked up nearby car washes to stop at on the way to the show. Everyone else must have had the same idea because there were Festivas in nearly every wash bay, Festivas wating to get in the wash bays, and Festivas outside of the wash bays lined up for a convoy to the show! I should have taken pics, it was pretty cool seeing that many in one place. I didn't take many pics at the show either unfortunately. After the show we stopped in the parking lot of Char Gril to take group pictures, then headed back to Barb's house.

One of the highlights of the weekend was getting to meet and hangout with Charlie. I'd definitely be out of the Festiva game by now if it wasn't for finding his Advance Suspension topic and setting up my car using the info he posted. I really appreciate what he's done for the Festiva community and hope more people could experience how great these cars are with the suspension he's developed. Getting to ride with him driving my car was pretty neat too even though the car wasn't running 100%, and we were surrounded by residential areas so he couldn't really push the car very hard.


On to the pics...

This was at the show Saturday. There were 70 Festivas and 5 Aspires, the largest show so far.






I found these three pics posted on the Facebook group.










Panororamic pic of the parking lot at Char Grill.





Charlie and Arty diagnosing the rough-running issue. Ended up being loose spark plugs, the previous owner must not have gotten them tight enough and they finally worked loose! I should probably check up on what's going on under the hood more often... (pic stolen from the facebook group)





Back in my hometown, 712 miles later.





I checked the mileage on the way there and got 34.3, which was the best I've got since swapping to the heavier 14's. On the way home I took the roof rack off and kept the windows rolled up most of the way to cut down on drag and got 36.26 mpg. I'm sure the fully tightened spark plugs helped a bit with that too!





My previous top speed attempt was 98 mph, downhill with the roof rack loaded with truck parts and the windows down. I tried again on a similar downhill stretch and was able to get up to 103.

[theastronaut]

I'm curious. What is your sweet spot height? I got mine lowered today and its about 30mm from tire to fender but I haven't test driven for performance yet. Maybe saturday.

Right now I'm at 11" from the fender lip to the center of the hub up front. I think I was about 1.25" higher back when I autocrossed it and it had more grip then. Right now it understeers a little, where before the front would bite hard enough to get the rear to rotate around a bit when diving into a corner.

[dliverance]

I'm curious. What is your sweet spot height? I got mine lowered today and its about 30mm from tire to fender but I haven't test driven for performance yet. Maybe saturday.