So it's raining and I am taking a left hand turn when my fiero starts sliding on me. I gave her more throttle, but I started going even more sideways and almost hit a pole. It was a wierd feeling because I am used to powersliding in my friends beamer, but it felt NOTHING like sliding in the fiero. Went to a parking lot to practice and t was easy to get going sideways, and lifting off the throttle would cause a very uncontrollable spin which was sketchy, but giving more throttle was a very different experience than in the beamer which was very easy to steer with the throttle. I am wondering if I just dont have enough power? I have the 4 cyl duke, but I am swapping in a 3800 N/A this summer so should have plenty of power in the future. just looking for any tips or things to try differently from your standard front engine rear wheel drive car.

Its called snap throttle oversteer and is a trait of mid/rear engined vehicles. Adding throttle helps regain control.

the front end is VERY light. Soft tires help a lot, and I have found you can get off the throttle in a turn and the front wheels will bite a little better, but we should hear from some people who actually race this car......

fast forward to 2:18

You have to 'play' with the throttle to recover. Letting off completely will spin you out the opposite way as well as putting in full throttle continues a spin. In race cars its called 'pedaling.' You have to learn how much throttle to apply in a given cicumstance.

Ive been playing around with it and I am starting to get a good feel of where that place is... also, is it terrible to dump the clutch in crappy rainy weather? because thats what I have been doing a lot lately instead of uturns because it will nott stop raining. but i build up the revs, dump the clutch and swing the wheel and the car pivots around. I would never dump the clutch in the dry. am I going to ruin anything? it is always in first gear only and the tires always break loose.

quote Originally posted by zkhennings: Ive been playing around with it and I am starting to get a good feel of where that place is... also, is it terrible to dump the clutch in crappy rainy weather? because thats what I have been doing a lot lately instead of uturns because it will nott stop raining. but i build up the revs, dump the clutch and swing the wheel and the car pivots around. I would never dump the clutch in the dry. am I going to ruin anything? it is always in first gear only and the tires always break loose.

I often do that in the rain for a quick u-turn, but it helps that my tires are dry rotted and have about as much traction as plastic to begin with anyway lol. It depends on what tranny you have, if its the isuzu... then I've heard they are pretty weak.

Great video RWDPLZ, I haven't seen that one.

your still shock loading the transmission when dumping the clutch. wet or dry road. what i do for a quick u turn in other cars is slap the e brake and spin around in wet weather. might be hard to do with the fiero. since the e break is on the floor next to the seat. and sometimes they dont lock up the rear tires well.

when i was younger. i used to let off the gas when in a slide because it freaked me out. but now i just keep the same trottle if im starting to get alittle sideways. sometimes more throttle. sometimes less. its different in dry weather then wet tho.

for every force there is an equa and opposite reaction. if the tires dont break loose then there is a huge amount of force on the transmission. the amount of force on the tranny cant really exceed the force being put down by the wheels, and if that force is not that much because the wheels have broken loose, then I cant see it being too terrible. in the dry it takes wayyy more force to break the wheels loose, therefore more force loaded onto the tranny. that was my reasoning anyways, I only really need this to last until 5 weeks from now. new engine, clutch, and transmission. btw, when does the rev limiter kick in on an 85 2m4? I am not sure if I have hit it or not yet, I think the highest I have had the engine at is around 5700 rpms and it kinda sounded like i was boiuncing off the rev limiter but the spinning tires where making a lot of noise and I couldnt tell for sure

your engine wouldnt last long if you have the duke spinning that fast. i dont think there is a rev limiter. just a fuel cutoff? i dont even spin my 2.8 that high. no point to because there isnt any power up there.
with a duke i wouldnt spin it past 5000rpm. the rods and crank on thos engines are tiny and weak.

This is the problem with many sports cars eg: the celica under powered and if had more would certainly pull the car out of corners a lot faster witha better motor as really is a supra with no balls. When they try to offer sports car handling in cars it is rather useless without power.

Thats why I am putting in the 3800
just a quick question for anyone who has done a 3800 swap, do you use the fiero's alternator? Because mine has a bad bearing but I dont want to replace it if I am going to not even use it.