Road Racing Thread

[Advancedynamix]

By the way, I like your lightweight hatch! I have been putting too much thought into making one, I could just remove it completely!

[russian]

I used aspire lower control arms with the Capri xr2 spindles, Capri xr2 axles and Capri xr2 trans, but I had to use stock festiva arms for the aspire spindles. I also had to shorten my passenger side axle a quarter of an inch to allow for camber adjustment at ultra low ride height. I slotted my strut on the top spindle mounting hole and the front strut mount hole in the body. This allows for up to 0 to-3.5 degree camber on the front. You can also flip the strut tops around because they are offset. I'm not sure about what you can do with stock axles. Anyone who is installing a g series in their car, who plans on a performance alignment should mount the tranny so that the end cap is almost touching the body of the car. This will center the axles. My engine/ tranny are centered in the engine bay and that's what caused my axle trouble.

so aspire arms are too long for aspire spindles? how much longer are they?
do you think aspire arms would work in the tranny is located close to the body? I guess a BFH will give me a some clearance... anyway i really appreciate that hint - we are putting a G series into the car on this weekend.

do you do your own alignment - what do you use to measure camber?

[Advancedynamix]

so aspire arms are too long for aspire spindles? how much longer are they?
do you think aspire arms would work in the tranny is located close to the body? I guess a BFH will give me a some clearance... anyway i really appreciate that hint - we are putting a G series into the car on this weekend.

do you do your own alignment - what do you use to measure camber?

I use a longacre camber guage, but if you can find the right size digital level they will work too. It should contact the outer rim of the wheel and not rest on your tire.
The aspire arms still might not work with the tranny moved over. Mine kept pulling the axle out of the tranny when I jacked the car up, so that was a no go. It looked to me like the difference was more like 3/4" and I can't move the tranny more than 1/2" over so I doubt they will work, but I could be wrong. I would have rather used the aspire arms because they are longer and stronger. Longer arms means less bump steer and less torque steer due to torque induced suspension movement. The festiva arms seem to work good, but I did blow out a inner bushing on my passenger side control arm. Mine are just the cheap 35 dollar ebay replacements though, I'm ordering the Moogs before the next event. If I blow those out I'll replace them with spherical bearings, but I'd rather not do that because I fear I'll shear the mounting bolt and that's not cool at 85mph so I'll have to drill the chassis for shoulder bolts. I think good quality arms will hold up.

Aspire arms are around an inch or so longer I think. Someone must have an exact, I just eyeballed them, They are a lot stronger though.

[tderonne]

Awesome! What is the setup on the car?

Pretty simple really. When it was an IT car all I could really do is springs/shocks. VW Rabbit Sport Bilsteins front and rear (custom housings in the front). Simple coilover setup. Exhaust was open so I did do a custom header and exhaust. For HP you can do a bit more, some more lightening, composite hood/fenders/hatch, lexan windows. I have put lexan in the hatch and lightened the hatch and doors. Motor rules are very similar, but the cam doesn't have to be stock. I have a FMS cam in there now. Throwing in a lightened flywheel (about 5 pounds lighter) soon.

I still run stock Festiva brakes, have to. They work fine with my 1750 pound race weight. In HP I made my own front control arms that incorporate a circle track style mono-ball and pin ball joint. That let me lower it another 1.5" or so and keep good geometry. I run 20x8" slicks in front and 20x7 in the back, all on 13x6 wheels.

[Advancedynamix]

I have some 20.5 x7 13 R35 compound Hoosier slicks that I want to run, but wasn't sure if I could fit those under the fenders without lots of cutting, which I don't want to do to this car (still semi DD, and I love the car as is on the street). I'm having trouble finding a 13x6 in the right offset, so I may get some 13x7 team dynamics wheels, but I don't want to buy them if I'm going to run into problems with clearance. do your tires rub, and what offset are your wheels? I have some 13x6 BBS wheels that could be machined to about a 28mm offset, but again I don't want to do that unless I know it's going to work. Thanks for joining in on the thread by the way!

[Advancedynamix]

found this video today, pretty cool. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LD-8y...feature=g-vrec Just wish the camera was lower. I'd love to have a festiva meet at a good road coarse to have all these track festivas come out and play!

[jemartin144]

Awesome video. Waterford is actually close enough I could race that car. It would be cool to get bunch of road racing festivas on the trac together. Id be there for sure.

[jemartin144]

tderonne what pads and shoes are using? ive been told that porterfield makes a performance shoe that works for the stock brakes. know anything about it?

[festyfreak39]

I promised id post pics and details of my old race cars+setup, ill keep it short and sweet.

So at the tender age of 14 as a die-hard vw lover i couldn't afford a gti or a rust free golf shell so i ended up with a crapcan fetus.
Essentially it was my summer road racer and ice racer for the winter so it had: exhaust, intake, cage and a mazda 1.6 sohc... Was running mazda 323 front hubs+brake setup and egay coilovers.

http://i793.photobucket.com/albums/yy216/fastiva39/005.jpg

http://i793.photobucket.com/albums/yy216/fastiva39/006.jpg

http://i793.photobucket.com/albums/yy216/fastiva39/008.jpg

http://i793.photobucket.com/albums/yy216/fastiva39/011.jpg

This was me at about the age of 15 racing at a local auto cross,

http://s73.photobucket.com/albums/i210/mini112/?action=view&current=a0fe044c.mp4

This was my other festiva i bulit just for autocross and time attack, again stock b6 SOHC engine but everything stripped out... i was about 17ish here... This car ate anything from vettes, a lotus exige s, and pretty much anything i could throw at it.

Here are times from an autocross, got lots of people very angry.

http://www.mrheavyfoot.com/files/results/2007/Event_4_Fun_runs_raw.htm

Here are some pics of it

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g95/ChromeDragon78/0826ta/sm0826timeattack227.jpg

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g95/ChromeDragon78/0826ta/sm0826timeattack248.jpg

Both of these cars are sadly rotting away , i havent driven them in years. Kind of unfortunate really. They taught me lots of stuff and made me a better driver, i learned to do more with less.

The reason i don't road race a festiva is that i hit a wall at the age of 17ish... I couldn't finish a b6T swap properly, or afford baller parts to make it fast so i bulit a miata instead.

Looking back though, if i would of kept my festiva and built it with the knowledge i have now of them, it would have been interesting to see the results.

[FestYboy]

found this video today, pretty cool. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LD-8y...feature=g-vrec Just wish the camera was lower. I'd love to have a festiva meet at a good road coarse to have all these track festivas come out and play!

try this one Charlie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UczrX...feature=relmfu much better view and same track.

[Advancedynamix]

Nice! Thanks Arty! That video makes me very glad to have a b6t, but I have lots of respect for the guys rocking the B3 on the track.

[russian]

In HP I made my own front control arms that incorporate a circle track style mono-ball and pin ball joint. That let me lower it another 1.5" or so and keep good geometry.

Pictures!!!

[fastivaB6TG25MR]

i want/need/require that cage in that 39 car

i have been doin alot of canyon runs and am getting addicted to road racing... gonnna see what the local auto cross has to offer...

[festyfreak39]

i want/need/require that cage in that 39 car

i have been doin alot of canyon runs and am getting addicted to road racing... gonnna see what the local auto cross has to offer...

Your car is going to be way to much of a handful at an autocross

The cage on my 39 car is pretty brutal, custom fit cages can be made up here for around 2k, defiantly worth it stiffens the car right up makes it handle a-lot better and become more responsive.

[Dragonhealer]

Road Race

found this video today, pretty cool. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LD-8y...feature=g-vrec Just wish the camera was lower. I'd love to have a festiva meet at a good road coarse to have all these track festivas come out and play!

Charlie, it's too bad we live in the south west dessert, how many Festivas
could show up for a private track day or two at Inde Motorsports Ranch?

PS Look forward to seeing you there at the PAS event!:p