Left the Boxsters at Home... - Page 2 - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

78F350 · 09-08-2021, 08:27 PM

I did a quick check on the rear wheel. With the car on the ground it didn't rub anywhere, but there was no space at the fender for travel. That would be a lot of fender to roll, but looking at what Truegearhead had done, I'm not scared to cut the 'excess fender' off.

itsnotanova · 09-09-2021, 03:48 AM

You're going to need to cut 4 inches to clear those tires. Smaller diameter tires will be a lot more fun as they're lighter and make the car quicker to accelerate. You'll have a harder time getting the rear end to swing out and just have a slower car with those tires. Generally the tracks here in this region pack down and are more like wet asphalt than muddy road. In my opinion those will be the worst tires for having fun or being fast.

78F350 · 09-09-2021, 05:21 AM

Thanks, good info and pretty much what another local RallyCrosser said on the Grassroots Motorsports forum. I won't bring these to HooptieX, but I am going to fit the fronts just to see what it does.

For the event, I plan to have some sticky 17" track tires and a set of Khumo street tires that are TW 400 and pretty hard.

itsnotanova · 09-09-2021, 10:46 AM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZ775XUdVng
Here's video of the location where it's being held. These are small rallycross events but the Hooptie event will be 1.5 miles long.

itsnotanova · 09-09-2021, 10:51 AM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqLbwKf2aqQ
Video makes it look slow but trust me you're getting thrown around inside and it feels like you're going a million miles an hour

78F350 · 09-09-2021, 03:34 PM

Thanks for the links. I watched those and some more that both of them uploaded. I'm gonna need to double up all of my structural zip-ties and put a pillow in my Sparco seat for extra padding.

78F350 · 09-11-2021, 07:48 AM

I tried the 15" Fuchs style wheels on the front last night with 25mm spacers. They don't quite work. They bind just a little bit on the tallest part of the brake caliper. Those 235/75 tires would need to have the front bumper cover cut back at least an inch or so too.
In other news, I sold the Dung Beetle to another guy in the Gambler 500 group. I plan to build a '93 Miata up next, but the seller is having a hard time finding the title. If that sale doesn't go through one of my junky 914s or the 81 Scirocco will probably be next.

ike84 · 09-11-2021, 06:27 PM

If I remember correctly, the calipers on the 2.5s are smaller than the later cars (16" wheels were factory option or standard, ok don't remember) and I wonder if they would work with that setup.

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itsnotanova · 09-11-2021, 06:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ike84

If I remember correctly, the calipers on the 2.5s are smaller than the later cars (16" wheels were factory option or standard, ok don't remember) and I wonder if they would work with that setup.

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Base model calipers are the same throughout the whole 986 generation and into at least the 987 that I know of.

Jon, You need to sign up if you're going to make it. Hooptie officials are having issues with the lack of people signing up. The event will still go on with or without them

78F350 · 09-11-2021, 07:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by itsnotanova

... Jon, You need to sign up if you're going to make it. Hooptie officials are having issues with the lack of people signing up. The event will still go on with or without them

Oops, I meant to do that earlier last week, but had thoughts of changing cars. I'm on now for Sunday and I'll let my other Gamblers know to do it asap. I'd sign up for Saturday too, but I'm working Friday night, off at 7 am Saturday morning. I may get to sleep or I could be working hard all night. Fridays are unpredictable.

78F350 · 09-19-2021, 09:17 PM

HooptieX was a lot of fun. Of course, this is now off topic from the off-topic topic since I did bring a Boxster, but I might as well finish it out. I finally met Woody in person and had dinner with him and two other Texas racers on Saturday night

. Woody's car had seized the engine before I arrived on Saturday after doing about 2-1/2 laps.

On Sunday morning my car ran pretty well. For me this was about playing with the car and learning more than trying to be competitive. On one lap, I had a good spin and just kept driving through it out of the thick dust cloud. When the dust cleared my rear bumper was still there. Someone was nice enough to bring it to me. My technique got better through the day and I ended up lowering my tire pressure to the low 20s on Woody's advice. Grip was much better.

I had lunch with Rick (Redtele58) then got three more afternoon runs of the track before my engine seized. I made it all the way to parking and as I started to let up on the throttle it stalled hard. I could not get it to crank at all after that.

I would not recommend doing this with your pristine 986, but I actually had more fun on the dirt than I did on a paved track at DEs. My car was rough and my engine was bad when I started the day, so no regrets. Here's an aerial view of part of the track. It was about 1-1/4 miles total. Some parts were getting very rough by the end of the day.

Now this car gets set aside for a while while I catch up a few other projects.

itsnotanova · 09-20-2021, 04:32 AM

It was great hanging out with you two again. I'm glad to see you had so much fun. Sorry to hear your racing got cut short too. How many laps did you get in? I only stuck around to watch you run the first lap as my friend and I needed to pack up for the 6 hour trip back home. I was happy to see you weren't out there driving like an old man. You were laying into it pretty good. My friend took these two pics before we left.

itsnotanova · 09-20-2021, 04:36 AM

This is about 5 seconds before my motor seized up

78F350 · 09-20-2021, 07:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by itsnotanova

... I'm glad to see you had so much fun. Sorry to hear your racing got cut short too. How many laps did you get in? ...

I wasn't counting, but it looks like I got eight runs. The 2+ minute ones had multiple spins (and were the most fun).

I really wanted to break into the 1:40s. For the last few laps I tried adding V8 Power, but my front struts were completely shot at the end and it was bottoming hard.

That guy with the MR2 was awesome and somehow got down to 1:43.9. That Cayenne GTS was quite impressive too for a Pig. Makes me wonder if I should get a flood salvage GTS and gut it...

78F350 · 09-23-2021, 12:15 PM

I stole enough stuff from other peoples uploads to make a video:

78F350 · 10-01-2021, 08:17 PM

Back to Off Topic. I have never had any respect or love for Fieros. I thought; 1980s GM attempt at making a sports car without really caring about what they sold to customers. According to Wikipedia almost one out of every 500 Fieros produced caught fire. Most of the fires were attributed to connecting rod failure: "60 percent to 90 percent of the rods produced do not exhibit defects." This means at least every 1 out of 10 rods produced were defective and possibly 4 out of 10 were also defective. I could go on, but lets just say that it has never been on my shopping list.

That is, Until a Hollywood stunt car driver posted an ad for a friend's car on another forum. The basic platform is a Fiero, but it is highly modified. This car was used around 2006 - 2010 as a camera car. Dubbed the 'CineRacer' it was used to shoot chase scenes and car commercials. Since it filmed scenes for 'Walker, Texas Ranger: Trial by Fire' I think that it is safe to say that this car is 'Chuck Norris Approved'.

The last job it was on, shooting a commercial at Texas Motor Speedway, the engine started to smoke. After finishing the shoot, it was parked in a warehouse and has sat there ever since. It was offered for $900. The driver's seat costs about $900, the car is 'built', it is complete, it comes with lots of spare and extra parts, it has a cool history, and is enough 'not Fiero' that I really love it. I'm going to get it running properly again and give it a new life. I'm thinking Rallycross car and entering it in next year's Grassroots Motorsports $2,000 Challenge: https://2000challenge.com/ .
I'm not planning a build thread here, but I'll post updates from time to time. Feel free to share Fiero tips and knowledge. I'm not a 'GM guy'. :dance:

itsnotanova · 10-02-2021, 08:14 PM

LS4 and 6 speed from a Pontiac G6

78F350 · 10-03-2021, 11:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by itsnotanova

LS4 and 6 speed from a Pontiac G6

That would be nice, or even a supercharged 3800. For now I have too many other projects so I'm planning to work with the 2.8L 6 that's in it. I do see a couple salvage G6s on Copart and I'll watch for a good one to part.

itsnotanova · 10-10-2021, 10:36 AM

Both the LS4 and 3800sc are good cheap motors that are capable of 500hp. I prefer the LS only because there's such a huge aftermarket support for it. The 88 was a good year as they attempted to put a better rear suspension on it. I had a brief fling with Fiero's and bought one. I never did anything with it.

78F350 · 10-24-2021, 10:15 PM

Then there was a Gambler 500 Rally (An arguably $500 car running 500 miles of back-road checkpoints) that I needed a car for so I got a slightly wrecked CR-V with a bent frame.

Luckily my son-in-law got me access to a frame machine to get it bent back into shape. A quick paint job in the driveway, some accessories bolted on, and a little work with a Sawzall and sledge and it was ready to go...

Now I think that I can spend a couple months focused on the Fiero and some Boxster projects.