The original engine, as we picked up the car. Okay, it's just another engine bay......

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At this point, we were able to break up the many tasks involved in creating a fire-breathing, flame belching race-car of a Fiero. Oops, let's delete the fire references.

Rich has a tubing bender purchased early on in his race-car construction days. He has actually produced a couple instructional videos including building a stock-stub race car as well as the IMCA-modified race car under the C&K Motorsports title. Cage design and construction fell on his shoulders.
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Robert and I tackled disassembly and clean-up of the suspension, brakes, bodywork and, well, the general clean-up that's necessary for building a track car.
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As I mentioned above, we found another '88 4-cylinder car in the local pick-n-pull. I spent a day dropping the front and rear cradles to have as spares. We also picked up a spare engine and transmission combination out of an '86 GT. Knowing that we were not going to be rebuilding an engine for the series, we wanted to carry a spare in case of catastrophic failure on-track. What better way than to have a complete loaded and ready to go spare cradle. If we had to swap an engine, it's far faster and easier to drop an cradle and replace it. Same goes for the front cradle with a complete suspension.
Why not rebuild the engine? Remember, it's a LeMons race. So essentially the car should have a value under $500 less all the safety stuff such as wheels, brakes, cage, seat and like items. Some teams have reportedly rolled in "better" but still used main bearings. But a full rebuild is not within the spirit of the competition.

We did intake and exhaust gaskets and one modification I'll talk about later.

[This message has been edited by DonP (edited 07-05-2017).]

So now we have to come up with a "Plan of Attack" (v1.0) I would suggest that anyone trying to build something like this (with so many tasks all of which seem to change almost at random,) find a team member who is painfully organized. I won't say names, but our guy was/is compulsive about lists. We had ever evolving lists of tasks to complete, parts to purchase, stuff to research (most often right here on the forum.) It's really the only way to make it all work, particularly with a very short window to work it all out.
Here's a portion of one of the early "to purchase" lists.


Part Number Vendor Description Qty. $ ea. Total
40-2124 UB Machine RETAINER CLIPS 6 $1.10 $6.60
60-0115 UB Machine SCUFF PLATES 10 0.80 8.00
60-0100 UB Machine 1/2” HOOD PINS 6 1.75 10.50
999-4506-100-1 UB Machine 1/2” TAPERED BOSS 4 2.50 10.00
999-5751-100 UB Machine SPACER 2` 2.70 5.40
999-5751-318 UB Machine SPACER 1 4.00 4.00


916-66006 Speedway Motors BATTERY BOX 1 17.99 17.99
910-32859 Speedway Motors QUICK RELEASE 1 27.99 27.99
916-32201-48 Speedway Motors STEERING SHAFT 1 21.99 21.99
910-32720 Speedway Motors STEERING BRACKET 2 9.99 19.98
175-0757 Speedway Motors HEIM 2 9.99 19.98
175-0247 Speedway Motors JAM NUT 4 0.99 3.96
910-32234 Speedway Motors STEERING U JOINT 1 49.99 49.99
910-70 RED Speedway Motors WINDOW NET 1 11.98 11.98
916-72005 Speedway Motors MOUNTING BRAKET 1 24.99 24.99
913-64381 Speedway Motors STARTER SWITCH 1 5.99 5.99
913-64380 Speedway Motors TOGGLE SWITCH 3 9.99 19.98
910-64015 Speedway Motors DOUBLE THROW 1 9.99 9.99
910-64501 Speedway Motors DISCONECT SWITCH 1 24.99 24.99
604-50606 Speedway Motors WATER TEMP 1 16.99 16.99
604-50604 Speedway Motors ADJ OIL PRESURE 1 19.99 19.99


You'll notice none of the early stuff was really Fiero specific, but mostly construction related. Stuff like Rodney Dickman's shifter rebuild kits, clutch slave cylinder and ball joints came later in the process. And trust me, there was a ton more to purchase.

Is it really Christmas if you have to pay for it?

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[This message has been edited by DonP (edited 07-05-2017).]

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88 Coupe: 2.0L Turbo 4 Cylinder, W2A, T25 Turbo.
84 Indy #64: Restoration Project!

We decided to remove the fuel tank fairly early in the process. The biggest reason being a safety concern . We knew that we would have a lot of sparks flying both during the disassembly process as well as the build-up.

Also, the fuel pump, water pump and oil pump are all "must replace" items for a track car.

What a pain! That's the first time we realized that in addition to a heat shield, there's a double bulkhead arrangement. The filler neck comes from the filler (in the now removed rear quarter) behind a wall and to the tank. Of course you cannot see a thing when removing the tube or replacing it. We took the opportunity to replace every rubber hose. Should you be in the same situation, make sure you use fuel rated hoses. Ordinary rubber hoses will deteriorate.

You can see the filler neck at the top of this photo. That smaller tube is the vent tube which also goes down to the tank
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Even today we are still discussing the possibility of using a racing style fuel cell. I think that our preferred option would be to mount one in the front trunk. Remember that 57% rear weight? In front would probably be advantageous.

We have already decided to mount the battery in the front. We elected to mount as shown in these photos instead of further forward just for protection. In addition we didn't want to mount it in the plastic tub as some guys are doing because of how it might hamper our plans to re-work the airflow through the radiator. I believe we bought the battery box through Speedway Motors, but several racing vendors carry a similar product. No plastic box and straps for us!
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You can also, see how we placed a piece of sheet metal over the opening created by removal of the AC system. The plastic tub was replaced once we were done with our work in this area. You can also see the steering rack stub. We will deal with that shortly.

[This message has been edited by DonP (edited 07-06-2017).]

[This message has been edited by DonP (edited 07-07-2017).]

Picking the seat was another task that had to be completed early on. The Main hoop of the roll cage is supposed to have 2" of clearance to the top of the drivers helmet. In a stock seat, I doubt I have 2" of clearance to the headliner even without a helmet.

This is one of those times it's so convenient to have Summit Racing just a mile down the street. We had the chance to do a direct comparison and experience the difference between a 15" wide seat and a 17" wide seat. We chose the 17". Our choice was a Kirkey aluminum seat with a 20 degree layback. It was a 36 series or what Kirkey calls an intermediate seat.

http://www.summitracing.com...r-36300/media/images

We also chose to add the padding, something we have not done with the IMCA Modified. The Modified races for maybe 10-15 minutes at a time. We are planning on up to 2-hour stints.

One of the first uses of the new racing seat. It may not have been mounted in the final position. There might have been a bit of snoring.


Checking out the steering position

[This message has been edited by DonP (edited 07-06-2017).]