Fiero Spindles?

A bunch of years ago, I stopped by a place that deals in vintage sportscars to photograph a few genuine Lotus Sevens. Among the cars that he had was a seven replica out of Canada by Gary Wolf. He made a big deal out of the fact that it had "beautiful" Fiero spindles. He said that they look like exotic race car parts. I have seen them and they didn't seem a big deal to me. I have wondered about these for years.

I recently saw a reference to another Seven clone whose owner mentioned that it has Fiero spindles.

What's so special about Fiero spindles?

Uh, nothing. They are Chevy Chevette pieces (at least on the early ones, not sure about the later ones)

The later ones had struts, right?

I've heard a similar response from people who use them. Personally, I'm using Spitfire bits on my seven for authenticity. They're the same as the originals and they're light, oh, and they were dirty freaking cheap. Downsides, they're small, odd bolt pattern, trunion, poor brake selection.

Actually looks like a good solution if you don't have a full donor already:

http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1882&start=0

Plus the aftermarket is still there thanks to the Kitcar craze around the Fiero.

Small wheel bearings, crappy cast in rotors, not the greatest geometry, not overly light. This things can be fixed but if your building an entire car I think there are much better places to start... Possibly better than mustang 2 but only just.

nocones wrote: Small wheel bearings, crappy cast in rotors, not the greatest geometry, not overly light. This things can be fixed but if your building an entire car I think there are much better places to start... Possibly better than mustang 2 but only just.

small bearings can be fixed- a little bit of research with a wheel bearing catalog can hook you up with a combo of bearings that allows you to use a bigger rotor/hub. i have a part number combo somewhere that will allow mid 80's GM 2 wheel drive pickup HD rotors (12X1.25 rotor with a 5X5 bolt pattern) to go on a Chevette spindle.. at least on paper, anyways..

Geometry is a non-issue on a Locost as you design your own. As someone else said they are simply Chevette spindles so nothing spectacular other than they are lighter than a truck spindle.

The spindle will fit inside a 13" wheel so you don't have to run ridiculous negative offset. Smaller wheel allows for a shorter tire and a lower car.

The spindle fixes your KPI and spindle offset as well as your steering ARM length and without heating and bending your ackerman. You are also stuck with the stock ball joint heights without some questionable adapters leading to potentially sub optimum chassis side geometry. It may be that your chosen suspension design works great with everything exactly the way the spindle is but you start your suspension design with more things fixed so they may limit your ability to design around them.

WhiteLX wrote: The spindle will fit inside a 13" wheel so you don't have to run ridiculous negative offset. Smaller wheel allows for a shorter tire and a lower car.

This is probably their biggest advantage. Even with the KPI that they have you have a shot at using a wider 13x10 type wheel and still get a very small amount of scrub radius.

The front suspension on the Fiero was from the Chevette, and the rear was from the Citation. The whole engine cradle was from the Citation, just rotated 180 degrees to make the Fiero mid-engine.

I've corresponded with Gary Wolf whilst building my Locost, and got the low down on the Chevette spindles for my build. One of his comments regarding them was that the geometry was pretty close to the original 7 design, thus easy to adapt. Gary took my Locost out for a spin a couple summers ago, and had good things to say about the handling/steering.

Unless, of course, the 88 Fiero has something super special about their spindles, different than the rest of the Fieros?

Gary's son frequents this board.

I wish I could find some photos of the Gary Wolf car that I saw. It was 4AGE powered.

SkinnyG wrote: I've corresponded with Gary Wolf whilst building my Locost, and got the low down on the Chevette spindles for my build. One of his comments regarding them was that the geometry was pretty close to the original 7 design, thus easy to adapt. Gary took my Locost out for a spin a couple summers ago, and had good things to say about the handling/steering. Unless, of course, the 88 Fiero has something super special about their spindles, different than the rest of the Fieros? Gary's son frequents this board.

the 88 Fiero had an all new chassis under it- one that wasn't taken from the Chevette and Citation parts bins. everything under the car was all new. then, as they usually do, GM canceled the Fiero just as it was getting good.

It was still the same parts, just different mounting points. The front cross-member was completely different. It's a popular fix for the earlier cars.

That was my car in the photo.

And yes, pre '88 Fiero Spindles are (for most purposes) the same as Chevette spindles. But it's easier to find a junkyard Fiero than a junkyard Chevette.

And while they may not have "perfect" geometry, I have not seen another spindle off a mass produced car that works as well for a Lotus replica. The only better spindles I've seen are aftermarket parts. The bearings are more than adequate for a Lotus 7 and if you run stock brakes, you're a fool.

More photos of the car are here: http://s683.photobucket.com/albums/vv198/aaa-111/lotus7/

And my Reader's Ride page is here: http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/reader-rides/528/

They look like they've got much less KPI than Miata spindles...

The current owner of my old car has it up for sale for the low-low price of $6000.

http://locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=6100&start=0

They work, there cheap and used to be easy to find. Theres off the shelf brackets to mount willwood calipers. (hawk machine) Last spindel i bought cost me $25 about 2 years ago. rotors are on sale now at rockauto for $19