So I somehow ended up with a Festiva

Random Festiva thoughts:  One of my college buddies had one.  We called it the "Festarrari".  It was death in the snow, but did awesome donuts in an icy parking lot.  The good news is you could spin the car completely and never leave your lane of travel.  Given the relatively rarity of a clean example, hopefully you won't have to snow drive it anyway.  

These are cool little cars. The Aspire never got the love the Festiva did because it was so ugly.

No bueno. Festiva is much better.

In reply to dculberson :

I had a 97 Aspire automatic after my house tried to sever my hand from my arm. I won't say it was a good car, but it suffered all the abuse I could give it over a couple years time, and I even beat some people at autox with it. 

dculberson said:

These are cool little cars. The Aspire never got the love the Festiva did because it was so ugly.

No bueno. Festiva is much better.

My friends and I used to (and still would if they still existed around here) call these the Ford Perspire. When I worked slinging auto parts, every one of those that came in had no A/C. 

Also, a kid we knew in high school had a red Festiva affectionately known as the Red Rollerskate. That car got the ever loving snot kicked out of it every day of its existence and still kept going. 

In reply to Tony Sestito :

I liked the version of Aspire that received a large plastic wing on back.

Edit - like this:

Off to local CL to see if there are any decent Festivas for sale locally.

In reply to Knurled. :

Hmmm, color me interested. I wonder if anyone has tried it. 

In reply to kazoospec :

Funny you mention it, I drove it in the snow last weekend!

I went to the Sierras for my anniversary and it snowed three inches over night. It was definitely a little scary, I think mainly because the front tires are worn on the inside and the car moves around a bit anyway (tramlines, I think due to the thin tires on those weird lined freeways.) I need to replace the fronts, but only Yokohama makes a decent 12 inch tire apparently, and they're 100 bucks each. 

AngryCorvair said:

GRM forum member and Hong Norrth gang member poopshovel_again aborted a Festiva challenge project a few years ago.   he had a ton of parts in his basement, perhaps he still does.   i will point him toward this thread.

I am thinking that a Festiva plus a rusted out 323GTX would equal a festival of suck, but the suckage would be hilarious!

I thought I posted this earlier, but it's not here, so I guess not. 

This was at Summit Point Jefferson last October. I heard it was swapped. It was definitely not as slow as it should've been. 

Had a dark charcoal 89 5speed while in college. Was a fun car. I actually miss it.  Think I could put my entire dorm room in it. 

For anyone in SE MI- here's a good challenge starter car- 

https://detroit.craigslist.org/okl/pts/d/1993-ford-festiva-parts/6486904727.html

There's a red one with a racing stripe painted on that keeps showing up in my Facebook marketplace. Needs tires but there down to 550 on asking price.

In reply to dropstep :

Go drive it! It's a lot of car, especially for 500 bucks!

That said, I got in my E30 last night, and it felt like what most people must feel when they go from an E30 to an F30 M or something. So fast, so heavy, such higher limits, so advanced, so little visability when compared to the Festy. And power steering was quite a development!

I once had thoughts of a Festiva with a 2.0L Zetec with the ZX2SR ecu.    143hp.   Or the 170 hp crate engine/SVT Focus.

I actually think I would prefer a festiva to the Civic. 

So now that you have a Festy, you are probably going to want to scrounge up some Asspyre parts for it as upgrades. See the Festy has some weird bolt pattern for its wheels that is kind of a drag, but the aspire uses regular 4x100. In addition brake rotors on the front of the festy are bolted to the back side of the hub flange, which means pulling the strut, pressing out the hub, unbolting the rotor and then undoing all that. The aspire rotor slips on over the studs. I don't remember if you have to swap the whole strut and axle, but it is worth doing when brake replacement comes up. Seems like the aspire vs festy struts are the same except for spring perch height too, so some spring/strut mix and match gets you lower in the front.

In the back, swapping to 4x100 lets you take advantage of the fact that the rear wheel bearings are the same as VW rabbit ones and the larger vw drums and backing plates are 10 min of file work away from bolting on. Or more aggressively, the front hubs and rotors from an Opel also use the same bearings and get you a caliper mount away from 4 wheel disc brakes.

There are some weird Mazda interchanges too, like the Miata master cylinder for that 4 disc setup or Miata springs being the right diameter and longer and stiffer.

Just last week I showed SWMBO a listing for a $250 red Festiva.  She was super excited about it at first, as a Festiva served as her first car.

Then she asked “where will we put it?”

Check and mate on that idea.

I helped a guy who raced one in Lemons. He did the 1.8L Escort GT engine swap. Later we did a head swap from a later Miata 1.8L engine.  It required me to modify the intake manifold so it would bolt to the head but he put down almost 130 HP  at the wheels with a tuned but otherwise stock engine.

I somehow ended up with a stable of cars looking for a Festiva. 2 Aspires...one with a turbo motor from a capri XR2, got my obligatory Miata with a 1.6 and a Capri XR2 with a bum turbo. If anyone wants a few stupid projects cheap, I ave them in East Texas.

Bruce

In reply to egnorant :

Details? Just searched Craigslist for Festivas and Aspires but came up blank. 

In reply to oldopelguy :

Thanks for all the tips! Now where am I gonna get an Opel?!

I've also read that the early B6 exhaust mani will bolt right up for increased flow. 

Also read on the Festiva forums something about Kia Rio knuckles for easier steering... need to look more into that. 

I never thought I'd be scouring for Aspire, Opel, Kia and VW parts for my Mazda designed, Kia built, Ford badged car!

I'm going to need a spreadsheet to work it all out!

Buddy of mine wants a Festiva badly, I've been looking for a cheap one to buy for him and just drop it off in his driveway. Would be awesome to see the look on his face.

You guys are terrible. All this talk of Festivas had me browsing Craigslist while I was supposed to be working.

And I found this:

$200 Festiva

Did you buy it?

And Lewiston?! I use to go to school in Moscow!