84 Fiero Endurance Racecar

Justinreed7

Justinreed7

I like anything that goes fast
Since we’ve decided to retire and sell our 2008 Saab 9-3T Endurance Racecar, we needed a good replacement that would be fast and reliable to compete for overall wins in 24hr of Lemons and Lucky Dog Racing League. So this Fiero was reborn from its shallow grave.
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Justinreed7

Justinreed7

I like anything that goes fast
Snagged this Fiero and a 2.0T engine assembly out of the scrap yard for $403.20!
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Given I still had to pull the engine from the Saab donor in the middle of 90° July weather, this is an amazing deal lol
Next step was figuring out how to unload it without front suspension. Had to get creative and some mistakes were made lol
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Next step was the tear down phase
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Justinreed7

Justinreed7

I like anything that goes fast
Since the fiero is notorious for its bad rear suspension geometry and rear hubs exploding under load, I decided to do a cobalt spindle/strut retrofit. Also moved the tie rods from the top of the subframe down to level with the spindle right about the control arm mounting points. This should reduce a lot of bumpsteer with keeping the tierod level with the control arm. Stock axles from a base model cobalt were used to get the correct wheelbase.

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Justinreed7

Justinreed7

I like anything that goes fast
For brakes we went with rear rotors from a 92 lebaron with gm metric calipers and hawk performance HT10 race pads. Afco had some gm metric calipers at closeout pricing for $27 each, so naturally I chose those lol
Pedals are inverted top mount wilwood pedals, keeps the masters in the cabin to make room for the fuel cell up front. Had to run all new hard line and braided hose as well

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Justinreed7

Justinreed7

I like anything that goes fast
Fueling was debated, but the idea of racing a 10gallon tank with pickup issues for endurance racing just sounded really bad. Wanted to have the capacity for long stints without having to constantly fuel save. I sized the biggest possible cell you could fit into the front of a fiero. An FIA 22 gallon fuel cell was needed since I had to mount it so far forward and close to the hood. Lemons Chief Tech also mandated a separate cage for the cell as well.
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rivets were taped over per regulation to not puncture the bladder and holly hydramat was used inside to the cell to pick up every last drop!
 
Justinreed7

Justinreed7

I like anything that goes fast
trimmed up the dash and installed it back in over the cage. Decided to use a $50 Amazon back up camera for our rear view “mirror”. Just trying to be like the IMSA guys! lol
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Wired up the fiero bulbs to the cobalt harness and got them working. Also did a little cutting for our center exit exhaust
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Justinreed7

Justinreed7

I like anything that goes fast
Attempting its first start, fuel showers the entire engine bay. Turns out the brazing on the Saab fuel rail had cracked half way around the pressure check port. Nothing a little welding can’t fix!
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after fixing the fuel leak, it runs and drives!!
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duthehustle93

duthehustle93

Active Member
This is super sweet! We definitely need more Fiero's in the series! Our next car will be utilizing a similar swap... I just picked up a $500 after rebate Nissan Leaf this weekend; going to daily beater it for a couple years and LNF swap it to race in C class ~2026. This will allow us to continue CA smog exemption so the car will remain street legal (as long as we don't get caught) as a race car. Do you have any lessons learned on swapping this platform? We need to take subframe measurements, but I'm hoping we can strip the leaf, drop out the Cobalt subframe, graft it onto the leaf, and plate/redrill the strut top mounting point for the desired camber. Also, did you retain the BCM?

This may have already been sorted.. but there's nothing worse than getting stuck at tech so I figured it'd be worth pointing out (better safe than sorry). See rule 3.6.6; Fluids in the cockpit are a bit of a grey area... because it's just cold brake fluid, they probably won't have an issue... but items like an in-cabin oil accumulator get a lot of scrutiny.. may be worth running by Pagel if you haven't already. Also, for roll cage padding you need the high density stuff. They don't require SFI rated, but they stopped allowing the low density/pool noodle stuff about 4 years ago.
 
Justinreed7

Justinreed7

I like anything that goes fast
duthehustle93 said:
This is super sweet! We definitely need more Fiero's in the series! Our next car will be utilizing a similar swap... I just picked up a $500 after rebate Nissan Leaf this weekend; going to daily beater it for a couple years and LNF swap it to race in C class ~2026. This will allow us to continue CA smog exemption so the car will remain street legal (as long as we don't get caught) as a race car. Do you have any lessons learned on swapping this platform? We need to take subframe measurements, but I'm hoping we can strip the leaf, drop out the Cobalt subframe, graft it onto the leaf, and plate/redrill the strut top mounting point for the desired camber. Also, did you retain the BCM?

This may have already been sorted.. but there's nothing worse than getting stuck at tech so I figured it'd be worth pointing out (better safe than sorry). See rule 3.6.6; Fluids in the cockpit are a bit of a grey area... because it's just cold brake fluid, they probably won't have an issue... but items like an in-cabin oil accumulator get a lot of scrutiny.. may be worth running by Pagel if you haven't already. Also, for roll cage padding you need the high density stuff. They don't require SFI rated, but they stopped allowing the low density/pool noodle stuff about 4 years ago.
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It’s bar padding from speedwaymotors that I’ve had for a year or so. I’ve emailed John about the fuel cell situation, but not about the reservoirs. Seriously doubt that’s an issue since I’ve seen a few like this in the pits
 
Justinreed7

Justinreed7

I like anything that goes fast
duthehustle93 said:
This is super sweet! We definitely need more Fiero's in the series! Our next car will be utilizing a similar swap... I just picked up a $500 after rebate Nissan Leaf this weekend; going to daily beater it for a couple years and LNF swap it to race in C class ~2026. This will allow us to continue CA smog exemption so the car will remain street legal (as long as we don't get caught) as a race car. Do you have any lessons learned on swapping this platform? We need to take subframe measurements, but I'm hoping we can strip the leaf, drop out the Cobalt subframe, graft it onto the leaf, and plate/redrill the strut top mounting point for the desired camber. Also, did you retain the BCM?

This may have already been sorted.. but there's nothing worse than getting stuck at tech so I figured it'd be worth pointing out (better safe than sorry). See rule 3.6.6; Fluids in the cockpit are a bit of a grey area... because it's just cold brake fluid, they probably won't have an issue... but items like an in-cabin oil accumulator get a lot of scrutiny.. may be worth running by Pagel if you haven't already. Also, for roll cage padding you need the high density stuff. They don't require SFI rated, but they stopped allowing the low density/pool noodle stuff about 4 years ago.
Click to expand...
I transplanted the entire wiring system needed to run the engine with the stock ignition tumbler. PCM/bcm and fuse box. No major problems with the swap. Just a ton of measuring and looking over the wiring diagrams.
 
Rttoys

Rttoys

Goblin Guru
This is convenient. We had a lemons Miata using autocross as a shakedown run, last weekend. All of us goblin guys started chatting about doing it too. I think our local race is in October or so.
 
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