I just found this beaut at a challenge friendly price.
Going ro look at and potentially buy it for reasons entirely unrealted to the challenge...
Has a pretty bad rust issue and im hoping to get it even cheaper
Have a bunch of budget parts discarded from the 3800 corvette project.
It should be a fun daily driver.
Not sure if it was a 3800 but it "ran when we parked"
In reply to Andy Neuman :
I've seen that run in person more recently.
In reply to Andy Neuman :
Lol. Looks nice, how did it do?
Certainly not a 3800
Thats a Supercharged 3800 there...
In reply to Gearheadotaku (Forum Supporter) :
When I saw it running it was a turbo 3800.
In reply to Crazier :
Popped the head gasket on the second autocross run. Ran a 20+ second 1/4 mile with a spark plug pulled so it wasn't shooting flames on the fuel line.
Had potential was a poor decision that made for a good story.
In reply to Crazier :
Wait just a second. Let me side track your thread... did you almost put a grown up Buick 231 in a corvette? I need more info on that!!!
In reply to 03Panther :
secretariata (Forum Supporter) said:In reply to 03Panther :
Thanks!!! That’s incredible!!!
btw, how do y’all Chan the words in a link when ya paste it?
In reply to 03Panther :
Use the chain icon above text box to insert a link & it has 2 spots. One is for the link & the other is the text to display.
In reply to 03Panther :
Use the chain icon above text box where you enter your post text to insert a link & it has 2 spots. One is for the link & the other is the text to display.
Cool. Thanks.
In reply to 03Panther :
not almost. I just keep changing my mind on aspects of the build, so I have a lot of leftover parts.
Working on a megasquirt for it now.
An engineer I worked with put a supercharged 3800 from a Grand Prix in his Fiero, he said it was almost a drop-in operation. He gave me a some rides at an autocross. I almost needed some Depends.
I had a supercharged 3800 Fiero that was intended for the Challenge, but I never brought it.
If you were fabbing your own mounts and making your own harness... Just seems like there would be some real challenge potential.
I don't know that I will ever make it to the challenge with any car...
But I can tell you, sticking to challenge rules on the vette has led me to interesting choices and prevented me from making foolish financial descisions.
Even though I may have now exceded the budget on the vette, its still a super cool project on a super tight budget and im activly looking for a way to cut $500 and be back inder budget.
Im going to start a thread for the fiero and try to keep it Challenge compliant... And maybe one day I will actually get one of them to the event!
The Fiero will always be loved by car guys because the theory is right. Even 40 years ago enthusiasts knew that moderately priced mid engine RWD was the right formula. In theory. Add GM style LEGO-like modular swap-ability and it should be a win on every level.
But I have owned one. Actually 2.
Every fiber of my being wants to love the Fiero, and I've tried really hard. But GM missed the mark on almost every level. It's not light, it's not nimble, it's not fast, it's not easy to work on... the list goes on. Adding the 3800 didn't give me more love for it- just more annoyance. I love what the Fiero could have been, but not what it is. It makes me frustrated with GM.
It took 40 years for GM to try and get it right in the C8.
I'm no stranger to mid engine. I've owned 2 Fieros, 3 MR2s, an X1/9, 3 Europas, a 914, a Boxster, and a couple oddball hot hatch RWD conversions.
I loved all of them more than the Fiero. Although the Fiero was the one I really wanted to love more than any.
Im not trying to be negative. I will watch your build with great enthusiasm- I will be your biggest fan. I just think it's time for enthusiasts to be a little more honest with ourselves about the Fiero.
I am excited to see what you come up with! Best of luck!!
In reply to SVreX (Forum Supporter) :
I dunno man.
Thjs thing currently makes no boost... So its may be 180 HP and while it dosen't have the downlow grunt at 40 mph its as fast as my stock l98 vette was.
For a 30 year old car its pretty quick
Once I swap to 60# injectors and fill the tank with E85 (and fix the boost bypass) and drop pulley it should be at 330ish crank HP and I expect that to be pretty rowdy.
$500 worth of ebay turbo parts would have it near 600 HP if i had big enough injectors.
But I know i wont ever dominate anything but an 11 second driver sounds like fun.
In reply to Crazier :
Like I said... I will enjoy watching.
"Rowdy" is possible in an air cooled VW running on 3 cylinders! 
I'm pretty sure when it's all done you will be happier with your Vette. I'm also pretty sure that I would love to be proved wrong!
In reply to Crazier :
Have you actually timed it, or are you saying it is quick based solely on your butt dyno?
I'm not arguing. I'm honestly curious.
The Fiero is pretty good at feeling fast when it's not going that fast. I feel the same way about my lawnmower (which CAN pull a wheelie! Haha)
In reply to SVreX (Forum Supporter) :
The stock l98 hits a wall about 4800 rpm and by like 5200 its actually lost a ton of the whopping 250 HP it had in the first place.
So yeah. Basically but dyno.
The vette in its curent form is capable of about 800 HP on race gas and the c4 suspension still dominates in many race classes.
No question of what car will be better.
My point is only that the fiero is going to be cheap fun.
I mean, im only projected at about $3500 total for the vette finished. And while that is $500 over challenge budget its still IMHO an incredible budget project....
But the amount of work and thought and CONSTANTLY shopping for better deals... If you had to pay me $5 an hour for the effort that has gone into wheeling and dealing it would be a 50k car.
A guy with just slightly better than average fab skills could do a 500 HP turbo 3800 fiero for $2500 with out all that effort.
I'd like to build a 3800 Cavalier swap and cut the roof off aka "3800 Speedster".
Or Sunfire.
Last spring I picked up a 1987 Fiero GT that was midway through a turbo 3800 swap. The build has been kinda slow (brakes/hubs are a PITA) and for autocross purposes we pulled off the turbo and reverted to supercharger. Built bottom end, and lumpy cam should get it to around 370-380 hp.
Maybe it'll be ready for '21
In reply to KyAllroad (Jeremy) (Forum Supporter) :
Very nice one there
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