It's too bad that date conflicts with the camping weekend that some club members will be participating in.

       Most of the guys that "would be going" would only be spectators, as it appears to be a members only event.  To my knowledge only Brian and Austin are licensed members with the racing club.  It would have been nice to go out and watch, however instead of sweating on a hot Tarmac fighting to keep hydrated, and stave off a major sunburn, I'll be resting my feet in a cool river, with cocktail in one hand and a laptop on my lap surfing Fiero Racing movies and browsing Fiero websites.

 Ah hell who am I kidding, if I had the option to actually go racing, (car and driver prepared)  I would be all over it.  Oh, I want my V8 back on the road.  I think I am going to go and work on it now.  C-Ya.

Hey all.. Thanks Brian for the heads up, sorry I missed your call.

Unfortunately been sick in bed all weekend since Friday with a stomach flu   The event sounds pretty freakin sweet though so I've signed up!   Will be going over the usual checkups on the car this week in anticipation to this AutoX.  BTW Nice score on the Rcomps!  That would be the way i woudl go too, sticky tires on factory 15's.  17's are just waaaay too heavy, not only wheel weight but tire weight as well.  I'm almost tempted to try running my factories w/ All Season tires to see how they handle being pushed.

Cheers!

Second gear got quite a workout, eh?

Brian, any chance for one run that you could do it with the windows rolled up? It would be great to hear on the video what the car actually sounds like going around the track without wind noise ruining the audio.

Thanks for the pics and video. Looks like fun!

Bassman wrote: As for my jack point, think it's strong enough for future Patrick?

How the heck did it occur anyway? Looks to me like the inside lip of the jack was between the two layers of metal instead of being completely behind the second layer.

Can you bend that outside layer of metal back down? I'm definitely no expert (and several guys here would probably know more than me on this), but I suspect with that piece of metal bent back down it would be fine.

Bassman wrote: Try this vid, I think you can hear the engine better.

Yeah, that's a little better. Does your camera have a remote mic input? If it does, you could mount the mic where the wind doesn't affect it. 

If you can't use a remote mic, you could try putting a piece of material over the mic on the camera. It would hopefully work like a "windsock" on a boom mic.

They talk about it doing that http://www.hv20.com/showthread.php?p=15670 - Here , or you can watch this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nao9KGc6VTM&fmt=18 - Here where the fella tried something very simple...

(Question for the moderators - Is there a way to embed YouTube videos in our posts here like we can do at Pennock's?)

Patrick wrote: Bassman wrote: As for my jack point, think it's strong enough for future Patrick? How the heck did it occur anyway? Looks to me like the inside lip of the jack was between the two layers of metal instead of being completely behind the second layer. Can you bend that outside layer of metal back down? I'm definitely no expert (and several guys here would probably know more than me on this), but I suspect with that piece of metal bent back down it would be fine. Pretty much it looks like I did not have the jack face flush, so when I had to pump it up that 1 cm I needed, that wheels on the jack may had dug in and not moved and adjusted to the new height.  My buddy with the Porche club posted this...I am heading to his place tomorrow night and see what we can do...any other suggestions, I am all ears: Brian: Ouch! If I were you I'd probably clean up the metal, spray it with zinc, then tack weld the pieces together. Follow up with some more zinc. Once metal is bent it has gone through some fatigue. It would be good to attach the folded bit to the straight bit with some tack welds. I may just put on the tires and drive to the next three event days, then no rush for tech and won't have to deal with changing tires in the heat, etc...think heat & fatigue played a role in my accident yesterday. QUOTE=Bassman]Try this vid, I think you can hear the engine better.

Yeah, that's a little better. Does your camera have a remote mic input? If it does, you could mount the mic where the wind doesn't affect it. 

If you can't use a remote mic, you could try putting a piece of material over the mic on the camera. It would hopefully work like a "windsock" on a boom mic.

They talk about it doing that http://www.hv20.com/showthread.php?p=15670 - Here , or you can watch this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nao9KGc6VTM&fmt=18 - Here where the fella tried something very simple...

Unfortunatly it's a Sony Cybershot camera...lol, nice and simple, there is a camera unit that some use for racing but over $400

(Question for the moderators - Is there a way to embed YouTube videos in our posts here like we can do at Pennock's?)

Bassman wrote: Austin...results in:)...what an improvement, for top times out of 64 drivers, I came in 21st:)...all I can say is OMG:)

So jealous of your RComps  Oh well at least i'm not the slowest, close!

Video of one of my runs:

http://s286.photobucket.com/albums/ll117/AustinFiero944/?action=view&current=2009-July26th-PittMeadowsAutoX-Run4.flv">

Bassman wrote: Unfortunatly it's a Sony Cybershot camera...lol, nice and simple

The fella in the video is using a similar camera. He demonstrates an oh-so-simple modification that makes quite a difference with the audio.

Patrick wrote: ...or you can watch this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nao9KGc6VTM&fmt=18 - Here where the fella tried something very simple...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzI8Zxf1dcA&feature=related&fmt=18 - Here's another one.

Hey Brian now all we got to do is get you into some lightweight 14" wheels or go with something like 12" diameter by 10" wide full race wheels.  

Congrats to the both of you, you are making Fiero owners proud all over the world.  (well at least in our section of it)

Na like I was telling Brian when he started this whole racing bug, smaller is better.   The smaller the outside diameter of the wheel, and the shorter the overall tire/wheel combo the quicker the car will accelerate due to the effective gear ratio change.   Going from say a 26" tall tire and wheel package down to a 23" tale tire and wheel package, the difference is amazing.  Acceleration is much faster coming out of a corner, braking is increased drastically, the only draw back is reduced top speed, however if you are never red-line at top gear, the point is null.      We really need to set up Lisa's old tires on a car, say a set of full size 17s or 18s and let people try the difference.  

These sizes will both fit on a stock or lowered Fiero.

Note the overall size is a whopping 4 inches difference, which would result in a 2" drop to your car going from one size to the other, or a 2" lift if you started with the smaller size and moved to the larger size.

Just a side note, on a Fiero that is dropped 2" the max you can go is a 26.88" tall rear tire.  Unless you have some serious back space on the wheels. 

     Also note that you know have a 15% change in gearing, which is a substantial change.   Go to the website and play with sizing.   I think we found one day, that you can go with a 22" wheel on a Fiero and with a low enough profile tire, not even make the speedo change.

This program has been used approximately times.



DML Tire and Wheel Calculator Results

Dimensions

Speedometer Error

If your speedometer has been calibrated for 205/40 R 16 (22 x 8.07 x 16) tires, replacing them with 225/60 R 16's (23 x 8.86 x 16's) would result in the speedometer reading low by 15.67%.

Odometer Error

Same as with the speedometer, if your odometer has been calibrated for 205/40 R 16 (22 x 8.07 x 16) tires, replacing them with 225/60 R 16's (27 x 8.86 x 16's) would result in the odometer reading low by 15.67%.

Effective Gear Ratio Change

As far as gearing goes, if you have a 3.55 rearend and 205/40 R 16 tires (22 x 8.07 x 16), changing to 225/60 R 16's (27 x 8.86 x 16's) would be the same as if you kept your current wheels and tires but changed your rearend gears to 2.99's

RPM Change

Replacing your 205/40 R 16 (22 x 8.07 x 16) tires with 225/60 R 16's (27 x 8.86 x 16's) would lower your finish line RPM by 941 RPMs.

http://www.dakota-truck.net/TIRECALC/tirecalc.html - Back to the DML Tire Calculator page
http://www.dakota-truck.net/"> http://www.dakota-truck.net/ - Back to the DML Home Page

     Ya a 225/20/22 tire will fit and not even throw the speedo off.

225mm wide

20 series profile

22" wheel

Capt Fiero wrote: 20 series profile

Ugh, no thanks, not for street use anyway. I think you'd feel every pebble on the road with such low profile tires. I don't even like the 50 series tires I have on my GT. Next tires will be 60's.

I'm old school. I like to see some meat on my wheels, not thin little rubber bands.

You do know that the profile is not a given number, the profile or series is a measurement of the width, a 20 series 20 is simply 20% of the width.

Or a 215/50/15 has a sidewall that is 50% of 215mm, which is roughly 107mm tall sidewall.    

       OK everybody follow that, take the width of the tire, divide by the profile and you get the sidewall height.

So Patrick in your case, I would stay with the 50 series and move to a tire that is 20mm wider.  This will get you a nice meaty looking tire and increase your sidewall to make it a bit more mushy at the same time.

A tire size/speedometer reading calculator I've used a lot and liked is this one http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html - Here .

Romeo wrote: And Patrick, the style you like is good for drag racing, as it allows the car to spin the axles and inside portion of the tire slightly, before the outside finally tries to catch up and snaps forward like a rubber band, giving a touch more grunt to the sixty foot mark.

Sounds like you're describing "wrinkle slicks".

Romeo sorry to burst your tire here, but in the grander scheme of things, and the reason no one runs much bigger than a 10" slick on a Fiero is, nothing else in a Fiero can handle that much traction.  Long before you break traction on a 10 slick in a Fiero, you'll shatter CV shafts, blow up even the most radical of trans axles, motor mounts would be turned into pretzels faster than you can think.   I use to run a 9.64 inch rear street tire (not a even a drag tire) on my back of my V8 car and I actually dropped it back to an 8.8" street tire because I got tired of breaking parts.  Its much cheaper to replace burnt tires than blown clutches or trans axles.   I still kill mounts, but not nearly as bad.     With the big tires, I could litterly at will, put new mounts in the car, take it out, rev the clutch dump it hard, and pull it back into the driveway to replace my now destroyed mounts.