festy weight

[nitrofarm]

IIRC the aspire has a more restrictive exhaust manifold. Resulting in lower horsepower.

Why do you say that Neander? I've never really compared both side by side. I always just assumed the Aspire header flowed better.

[Bert]

Festy46: that dirt track clip of (now I know where your call handle comes from) you cleaning house at that race with (what looks like) a Festy is great.
Thumbs up to all you low budget/high time and enthusiasm guys that are genuinely trying to compete, albeit with variously massaged cars. I can see from that race that my Festys wouldn't have gone anywhere but last place or into the boards.

[nitrofarm]

Festy46: that dirt track clip of (now I know where your call handle comes from) you cleaning house at that race with (what looks like) a Festy is great.
Thumbs up to all you low budget/high time and enthusiasm guys that are genuinely trying to compete, albeit with variously massaged cars. I can see from that race that my Festys wouldn't have gone anywhere but last place or into the boards.

Ya his car is "Dialed". Lov watching his raw dash cam vids. Love hearing the motor go past normal red line also.

[anthony h]

We use the Escort 1.6L carb and run the Festy carbed distributor on the 1.6 and 1.8 with no computer to worry about. Depending how picky the tech guys are, you can use the front wheel drive style steel wheel from Diamond racing wheels with a 5.5" width rim. If you can't use them (they do look stock appearing), then we use the stock steel Aspire wheels with either 185/70/13 or 185/65/13. 65 series tires in 13" are rare and we aren't allowed to go down to 60 series, so we stay with the more readily available 70 series. The Aspire wheels are assuming you swapped to the Aspire suspension. Aspire wheels won't fit on the Festiva suspension. We're not supposed to cut the body either. What we do is take a pair of tin snips and make cuts every 3 or 4 inches from the bottom edge of the fender up into the side of the fender about 1" to 1-1/2". Then take a pair of big pliers and bend it up inside the fender and pound the bend flat with a hammer and a small anvil block held on the inside of the fender. You haven't cut the fender, you just bent it up under. We've never had a problem with the tech guys by doing this and our rules specifically state "no cutting".

Here's a little inspiration from "the good old days" before guys were running the newer high horsepower cars. As you can see from the date stamp at the beginning, this was July 2005. This was the first time we ever ran a 1.8L 16 valve SOHC engine.
http://users.ISP.com/john48/DD2.mpg

you have no idea how much you are helping me. I was on the fence about building this thing because i was afraid i couldn't make it competitive. But now, I think it will work. I hope im not bothering you to much, but I really want to get back into racing cheap. How big is the track you run? I'm tryin to figure out gear ratios and such. How many rpms you turnin with those engines? what intake, and do you have any parts you want to get rid of?

[Bert]

There is no substitute for experience. Show up with something that you feel is reliable and take it from there. You are trying not to spend a fortune remember.

[Festy46]

you have no idea how much you are helping me. I was on the fence about building this thing because i was afraid i couldn't make it competitive. But now, I think it will work. I hope im not bothering you to much, but I really want to get back into racing cheap. How big is the track you run? I'm tryin to figure out gear ratios and such. How many rpms you turnin with those engines? what intake, and do you have any parts you want to get rid of?

That video was for "inspiration". For a reality check go to our racing website and read/watch the video of last years July 4th race or go to the video section and watch some of the videos. Although the Festiva is still not just a "field filler", it's not as dominant as it used to be either with these newer cars. The Clinton County Track is 1/3 mile and the Dunn Hill Track is 1/4 mile. For 1/4 and 1/3 mile tracks run in second gear the whole way around the track without ever shifting. We've tried the Aspire transmission but it's geared too low. You run out of rpms before you run out of the straight stretch. The Festiva transmission will have you running 7,000 or a little over before you have to back off at the end of the straight.

Read these posts for some information on what we use for intakes:

http://www.fordfestiva.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26219&highlight=aluminum+plate&page=8

http://www.fordfestiva.com/forums/showthread.php?p=156921&highlight=aluminum+weld#post156921

I don't have much in the way of parts left since we no longer race on a full time basis. I've got a few parts, but it's stuff you could get at any auto parts store. The rest of the stuff I've sold to members on here.

[Larry Hampton]

What about removing the bumpers?

[nitrofarm]

What about removing the bumpers?

Structural-

[Festy46]

What about removing the bumpers?

You can remove the plastic covers and the styrofoam type stuff underneath them, but that only gives a very small amount of weight reduction. Those things are very light. What we do is remove those covers (they'll just get ripped off anyway) and cut a piece of about 12 ga. metal and weld on the end of the bumper subframe and tie that in to the fender. That way if you get to rubbing with other cars, you won't get your bumpers hooked together because you will have the space between the bumper and the fender blocked with a piece of metal.

[Larry Hampton]

I'd weld up a tube frame one, it'd be lighter.