PCA AutoX Sept 4 2011

hi Graeme,

i think the sitting around was the problem. some regular use brought the issue forward. the crank is cooked enough to have a definate texture and signs of heat on the shells (with a good amount of wear)

the cost to repair is not huge and is a good opportunity to dig in and go thru all seals and surfaces... tons of work though.

i will encourage Colby to put up a picture or two..

Gary

karnak wrote: the crank is cooked enough to have a definate texture and signs of heat on the shells (with a good amount of wear)

I have no idea what that means.. it would be like me explaining the difference between UDP and TCP and the benefits of either one relative to the purposes of live communication on the internet. So that's that.

Either way, that sucks big time. Definitely post pics, I'm always keen to learn more about our cars and what makes them tick (louder and louder and louder...)

Brian,

Holy cheese! Nice. But "better" in this case only means possibly lower latency, there's so much more!

Anyways, great pics. Still a bit lost, possibly because I've never seen one of those that is in good condition. A can definitely see the abrasions though, that's obviously bad.

Let me know Colby...and COD4 was fun last night:)...

Cheese wrote: I'm officially registered now.

So am I.

Sorry to see the extent of the damage to the Formula's engine, but unfortunately that's what I figured you'd find when I heard that knocking at the track.  

Oh well, look at the bright side.. We'll be "duking" it out again, just like old times.

 

And Allan, if you still want to try it, I'd still like you to take the Mighty Duke for a lap or two during the lunch break. I'd like to see what an experienced driver can do with a low horsepower car on street tires there. I want to see what I should be aiming for!

 

Great!

Kudos to Brian for kicking my butt today!    I had a great time chasing him and happily bought him beer and appys at the local pub.  Great job, Brian!  

Well, that was a great day. That was probably the most fun autocross I've been to since I started doing autocross last year. There were some unexpected twists and turns (not all on the course), but taking everything into consideration, it was a lot of fun.

First things first. When I turned up at the track this morning, there was this beautiful pristine 1988 Fiero GT 5-spd sitting there in the pit area. Turns out this GT belongs to Charles from Bellingham, who just bought it. And get this, there are only 10,000 miles on this GT. I'm not kidding... 10,000 miles. Wow.

The course layout was really really good. It allowed fast cars to go fast, and it allowed slow cars to go fast. How's that possible? There were no tight corners, no need for a lot of power to get going again. This was Duke country!!!

Colby and I had a great time chipping away at each other's time in the morning runs. And seriously, we weren't that far behind the pack. We could actually compete on this course with the other cars. We had four runs each in the morning, and I was ahead of Colby by 5/10's of a second... 47.4 to 47.9 (from memory). I put on my best Tristan impersonation and made a big deal out of it for Colby's benefit.

Now for the twists and turns. I blew my first run in the afternoon by getting way too cocky (again, like Tristan), and entering a turn much too quickly with ummmm, exciting results. Spinning the car does tend to slow down the run. On my next run, I launched... turned after the first cone... and then the engine got VERY quiet. It was deader than dead, and she wasn't going to re-start.  The track crew then earned their pay and found out first-hand how heavy a Fiero actually is and pushed me off the track.

I had my suspicions what the problem was, but before I could even curse or cry, Charles walked up to me and said, "Do you want to co-drive my car?" Excuse me, do I want to co-drive an '88 GT with 10,000 miles on it? Hell Yeah!

It occurred to me that the last time someone autocrossed an '88 GT with 10,000 miles on it was probably back in 1989!!!!

Anyway, as excited as I was, I was also terrified that I might possibly damage this pristine car. Putting it into the fence would not be the wisest thing to do!

It turned out that the '88 GT had lots of power, which was great, but it also had 23 year old tires on it with rubber as hard as porcelain, which was not so great. Combine that with shocks and struts which have deteriorated from sitting for two decades and all I can say is that the first slalom I went through was... challenging. I couldn't believe how squirly the car felt. It felt dangerous. Did that slow me down? A little... until the next run.

The next run I wanted to push it a bit more, just a teeny weeny bit. Bad move. I totally lost control of the car and nailed, not clipped, but nailed two cones. Worse than that, one cone wedged under the front of the car. It was with great shame and embarrassment that I returned to the starting grid with a bright orange cone wedged under this beautiful pristine '88 Fiero GT. Did I mention that this GT only has 10,000 miles on it?

Charles was very good about it. He didn't yell at me or strike me or anything. Charles is a fine man.

I behaved after that, but even after four runs with the GT, I couldn't beat my best time from the morning with the Duke. I was a full two seconds slower. It really made me appreciate the work that's been done to the 84's suspension. I like the way it handles. Proper tires would improve it just that much more.

Colby continued to improve his times in the afternoon. On one hand, I was disappointed that I couldn't continue to "duke" it out with Colby in the afternoon session (it's a great rivalry), but on the other hand, what a thrill to drive such a low mileage '88 Fiero GT. Thanks Charles!

And what was wrong with my '84? Turns out that a wire supplying power to the ignition coil broke off where it was molded into a plug (due to age and fatigue). I had my suspicions about that wire/plug, so I was able to identify the problem pretty quickly at the end of the day. Thank goodness, as I didn't relish the idea of having my car towed all the way home from there. Gary stepped up to the plate with some electrical tape and zip ties and we pieced it together enough for me to drive 'er home.

It was a great day. If any of you are still sitting on the fence in regards to autocross, ya gotta try it at least once next season. It's a fun way to spend the day with your fellow Fiero buddies.

 

ok.

Here is the Video and Here is a link to the double view between Allan and myself. Note how he isn't moving around as much as me.

nice re-cap Patrick. the 88 you drove should be in a museum it is so flawless. i asked Charles to take several pictures of all the little bits and details. this car is a fantastic resource for people doing a full restore.

Gary