aspire/gen2 festiva suspension into gen1 festiva.

[moz]

I have found a gen2 festiva donor car for my 87 121.
I'm going to do the brake upgrade.
Is it worthwhile swapping the suspension over? Or am I better off fitting some aftermarket suspension?

Can anyone post a link to previous suspension build threads? Hopefully one with pictures?

I know 99% of all my questions have already been answered.
And I have read other peoples threads. I'm hearing that guys are using Honda civic suspensions?? What model civic would that be?
Do I need to modify the civic suspension?

What about VW golf suspension?

Thanks for your help guys

Moz

[lessersivad]

Being you are doing a brake upgrade, you are essentially doing at least a rear suspension upgrade when swapping the rear beam/ swing arm in the process.

For extra tire clearance I would at least swap the rear struts also.

Just my 2¢.

[Bert]

The front brakes, sway bar (IMO, others will argue differently) and whole rear trailing arm plus the brakes is by far the most advantageous swap. Floating and vented rotors are a real joy when it comes to servicing and the Aspire (Festy II) 100mm bolt pattern is so much more common when it comes to looking for aftermarket rims. The other advantage to an Aspire swap is that the wheelbase of your car will instantly become wider.

I'd post a picture showing the difference between an OEM Festy and an Aspire swap but ever since the FF.com site was up-dated I have been unable to attach anything.

[bravekozak]

Here is a picture of my Festiva after the Aspire suspension swap.

[Prafeston]

bravekozak, very nice Festy you have there!

[Twistiva]

Here is a picture of my Festiva after the Aspire suspension swap.

Brave -

Agreed. VERY nice Festy! What kind of exterior mirrors are on there? Are those what are known as "swoopies"? Comparing those to a donor Festiva LX I've got, yours are not "factory", are they?

BTW, Merry Christmas everyone!

[Prafeston]

Yeah, I believe those are swoopies from the 90-94 Protege.

[Bert]

I gotta hand it to Brave; he's been building/fussing/adapting with that car for quite some time. And unlike me he won't drive it in the winter. No surprise if it turns out that the mirrors are custom. I got a short glimpse of that car a month ago, mostly hidden behind boxes and furniture, while his house was up for sale. But I would suggest we convince him to enter Festy of the month one of these days. Besides Tiburon leather seats (he posted those pics recently) he also has a twin carb B6, digital dash cluster (wow), power windows and a myriad of other upgrades in that vehicle. Stuff that would make many of us drool!

[bravekozak]

Guys, swoopies were a genuine Festiva option. I have about a half a dozen pairs of swoopies to restore. I still have to heat the staples and melt them into the plastic, where the motor housing ears have broken off. I will work on them after I move in February.


My Festiva is stored away in a barn out on a farm. I won't enter it in Festiva of the Month until Festyboy and 25horseplay agree to enter all three of our twin carbs together. I still have one more twin carb setup for sale, just in case someone else decides to join us and make it a four way competition.

[Bert]

Ya gotta tell us more about the origin of the twin carbs. If the Ontario pollution control folks can see fit to overlook going back in time from EFI (yours is a 93!) and still allow that car on the road, and these carbs are entirely mechanical, this is something that has appeal to me. Continually and progressively failing electronics is something we all face as these cars inch closer to 3 decades of service. On top of that, with a series of different jets to experiment with, carbs are a lot easier to tune to an engine than having to fuss around with inflexible injectors, sensors and ECUs.

[moz]

aspire/gen2 festiva suspension into gen1 festiva.

Twin carbs? E5 laser engine? Ka or kb laser?
The ka laser had a sedan version here. It was called the meteor.
Twin carbs, and heated seats ( in Australia, the last thing you want is heated seats).

Once a month (when I was much younger/dumber). We used to buy older cars with one or 2 weeks of registration left.
We used to go bush bashing in an impromptu rally track we built at a friends family farm. At the end we would drive the cars to the scrap yard when it was on its last legs.

One time we bought the ford meteor I described above. Poor thing didn't know what hit it.
I still can't forgive myself.

[moz]

aspire/gen2 festiva suspension into gen1 festiva.

Here is a picture of my Festiva after the Aspire suspension swap.

Brave

Is the ride height in this picture a direct result of the swap?
Looks kinda high.
How do you find the handling at this height?

[bravekozak]

moz, the extra braking power is worth any increased height disadvantage.

[bravekozak]

The ride height is high. Partially, because of the swap. Partially, because of 14" wheels. I prefer that height. Perfect for getting in an out. Good view while driving. I don't drive fast around corners anyway. I always take wide turns whenever I can.

I bought four sets of 1981 twin carb KB laser manifolds on eBay Australia in an attempt to save the species from the brink of extinction. The carbs were sized for a Mazda E5 engine. Bert is correct. They are purely mechanical and do not require any ECU input. Throttle response is great.

[moz]

Re: aspire/gen2 festiva suspension into gen1 festiva.

I'm sure I've contributed to the extinction of many things like these manifolds.

Time to undo the damage

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