$2008 Challenge Festiva, Help!

[white_fly]

Hey everyone. It's been a while since I was active in this community, but I will finally be picking up a Festiva this week and after some deliberation I know just what I want to do with it. For those of you that don't know about GRM's Challenges, click here. For those of you that do, you know that a highly placing entries almost always have the support of the model's community. With that in mind, I appeal to all of you for help.

At this stage I am still planning things and deciding how to budget it, but leads on parts are and will be appreciated. I've decided on aiming for $500 for the base vehicle and B6T (done), $500 for drag-focused upgrades, $500 on show-focused upgrades and $500 on autocross-focused upgrades. Obviously, this is a very tight budget and a good bit of ingenuity and fabrication may be required, especially to meet my goal of a top-10 finish.

The first thing I'm wondering about is suspension. Keeping in mind I'm not afraid to do some fabrication or adapt parts from other cars, what do I need for a solid autocross setup? What have guys like Fulkerson and DeRonne run? Can I get in contact with them?

This is going to be a really fun project and I'll do my best to document it as it comes. Thanks.

[25Horseplay]

There was a car here that was built for that in 2003. It was Nightdwellers car. He recently sold the car to another members friend. It had alot of low budget tricks done to it. I know Nightdweller didn't build it but if you PM him he might be able to give some pointers as to what was done to the car.

[white_fly]

I've been thinking about what to do as far as a visual theme. The car is currently white with a tan interior and I think I'm going to leave those basic things untouched. With that in mind I am thinking about the Lotus Cortina. It was a small Ford that was raced back in the day and was white with a simple, green wrap-around stripe. I'd probably also splash some green in the engine bay to make things look a little better. Any other ideas?

[Levitan]

I don't know about the suspension stuff, but I will tell you this, that rendition Lotus Cortina idea is absolutely fantastic in my opinion. I just Google Image'd that car and I can see why you want to go with that theme. Cool thing is that it doesn't stray too far from the Festiva striping on the sides. Good choice.

[white_fly]

Thanks. Sometimes validation of my ideas is just as nice as new ones.

[Silv3rBull3t]

Any updates?!?

[billthekat]

get a set of aspire coils (junkyard), and cut 1 coil off, slightly lowered frome stock hight, plus the extra stifnes of springs desighned for a heavier car...?

[JPT]

If you can get the parts cheap, I'd do the entire Aspire swap. You get bigger brakes and the rear sway bar.

[gotrootdude]

Well, I can tell you what I've done on my '89 Celica to to reduce drag and bring the gas mileage up to 55mpg. Along with a few suggestions.

On my Celica I bought cheap black plastic lawn edging from walmart, around $9, and used it to make the side skirts and bumper hang closer to the ground. It's cheap so it's not a issue if it suffers some road rash. I used the same stuff to make a ramp smoothing the front bumper transition and making a partial grill block. On the underbody, I formed a full pan out of aluminum sheet metal flashing. I also made vortex generators for the rear window and trunk transition and stuck some under the car as well to form a suction to hold the car down at high speeds. Very cheap, works great, looks decent. I took 2" diameter clear vinyl hose, cut it in half, and attached each half to the front of the wheel wells with the rounded part pointed outwards from the car. This guides the air flow around the tire instead of in the hub and the flexible tubing flattens out at higher speeds to close the gap between the tire and the body.


For the Festiva, I believe the largest weakness is the underbody and the negative pressure zone behind the car. A spoiler is a must, and I'd highly recommend a full underbody pan with VG's in a "V" formation under the car guiding air out the side skirts.

I'd also recommend a steering knob to help with handling. Something like this: http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.12973

[Silv3rBull3t]

^ You're kidding right? Please tell me he's kidding...

For $500 for suspension/braking:

Aspire swap front and rear.
Homemade strut tower braces out of some plate steel and tube. (If you have a welder available)
Ebay Civic coilovers.
Used KYB GR2's.

For $500 drag:

I would go with nitrous but to each their own. Turbo, maybe Reich ECU and exhaust..

For $500 show:

Tremclad paint job
Wheels/Tires (Used R comp's for AutoX but I would use them for drag as well unless you can find some used slicks)

-Kyle

[festivaWES]

Good luck...i couldn't spend the little amount of money and expect to compete.....I'd spend 2008 dollars on suspension and tires alone....lol

[festivaWES]

Well, I can tell you what I've done on my '89 Celica to to reduce drag and bring the gas mileage up to 55mpg. Along with a few suggestions.

On my Celica I bought cheap black plastic lawn edging from walmart, around $9, and used it to make the side skirts and bumper hang closer to the ground. It's cheap so it's not a issue if it suffers some road rash. I used the same stuff to make a ramp smoothing the front bumper transition and making a partial grill block. On the underbody, I formed a full pan out of aluminum sheet metal flashing. I also made vortex generators for the rear window and trunk transition and stuck some under the car as well to form a suction to hold the car down at high speeds. Very cheap, works great, looks decent. I took 2" diameter clear vinyl hose, cut it in half, and attached each half to the front of the wheel wells with the rounded part pointed outwards from the car. This guides the air flow around the tire instead of in the hub and the flexible tubing flattens out at higher speeds to close the gap between the tire and the body.


For the Festiva, I believe the largest weakness is the underbody and the negative pressure zone behind the car. A spoiler is a must, and I'd highly recommend a full underbody pan with VG's in a "V" formation under the car guiding air out the side skirts.

I'd also recommend a steering knob to help with handling. Something like this: http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.12973

By the way yoiur gonna be racing...not hypermiling! Plastic gutter gaurd might do wonders in gaining MPG's but has nothing to do with racing.

[gotrootdude]

Dude, you'd be surprised how much small changes to aerodynamics with cheap material can do in racing. I accelerate much quicker with those cheap mods. Pie tin moon hubs would help as well but look a bit funny on a festy.

Anything that decreases the amount of air going under the car and those VG's under the body would really help the car stick to the ground around curves.

The only reason I suggested the steering knob is because it may help in a slalom course like on those you-tube videos and save your arms a bit.

Yeah, you could fiberglass custom sideskirts, like on RACE CARS, but time and money is a issue. Spend the big bucks on the engine, tires and suspension.

festivaWES, he asked for suggestions. I gave them. If he takes them fine, if he doesn't then thats fine too.

[gotrootdude]

BTW. Improving the aerodynamics of a automobile is part of racing and eco-modding. It has nothing to do with hypermiling.

[Safety Guy]

Gotroot, I doubt anyone is questioning the value of cheap mods, or cheap aero mods.

What I personally find questionable is your strong belief that your "vortex generators" will work as stated, along with the cut in half clear plastic piping.

My understanding is that reducing the Cd of a vehicle takes quite a bit of work in either expensive wind tunnel testing or extensive coastdown measures.

What we think wind will do around a complex shape is not always what it WILL do around that shape in the real world.

Am I saying all that you described will not work? No. Just asking how you have measured its success, assuming you tried to measure it at all.

Think "peer review."

Karl