The Project Really Gets Going.......2002

January 2002

This month I focused on changing the wood model to test different torsional stresses in the chassis. After four or five attempts, I believe that I have something that will work. Needless to say, I will keep the model to check out any structural changes before they have actually been made. I am still waiting on the arrival (or even word of) the transaxle. Nothing yet.

February 2002

This month I spent much of my time on the phone. I started to become impatient for the delivery of my transmission. I called PAP and asked how they were coming and they told me that they could not flip the ring over (requirement for a mid-engine car with this transmission) due to the clutch throwout bearing fork arm position. O.K. now I’m Pis___. I wanted to know why I wasn’t told this way back in December. They just forgot. Even after having rebuilt the transmission, they had not noticed that this was the 930 bell housing and not the 915. Anyway, I also found out that the transmission they were using was not a limited slip differential. By now, I am very upset. After several phone calls with the owner, we came to an understanding. I agreed to purchase the transmission IF he found one with a limited slip, and they could make it work with a mid-engine setup. Joe (the owner) told me that they would “flip” the tranny and this would do the trick. He would still need to locate an LS for me.
Through all of theses conversations, I found out that Joe knew of a gentleman that had actually worked on Clay Young’s car in the ‘80’s and had completely redesigned the suspension for him. His name was E.J. Trivette and he was retired in Florida and still worked on cars for extra income. I thanked him of the tip. I’ll give him a call in a few weeks.
I also (from a tip from Ron at Huffaker Engineering) purchased a suspension design software program to use for the custom suspension design. It will arrive next month.

March 2002

I picked up the 930 transmission in Georgia on the 29th. It came out of a 27,000 mile slant nose 930. It was not the original tranny that Joe had promised me. It was better; therefore, I had no problem with the switch.
I spent much of the month removing old paint and surface rust from the chassis. Afterward, I primed all of the tubes so that they would not rust again.
I will give Renegade Hybrids a call about an adapter plate to mate the turbo 6 with the 930 tranny.

April 2002

Things really started to move this month. I called Renegade Hybrids and talked to Scott about an adapter plate for the turbo 6. He convinced me that the torque band was too narrow for the transmission that I would be running and I would be asking a lot from that engine. He did not believe that the turbo 6 would be able to produce the 500 hp I desired for any reasonable length of time. Actually, this made good sense since these motors (in street form) are usually used as a drag racing motor. In any case, it would be very expensive to get what I wanted from the turbo 6. Instead, he suggested a Chevy V8. After I looked into it more, it did make sense. The original reason for choosing the turbo 6 was to build an engine that had an adjustable horsepower curve. With this light of a car, autocross would be very difficult with 500 hp. In fact, 300 hp might be pushing it. Scott offered the phone number of his engine builder out in California. I called Bill 3 or 4 times asking questions about different motors that he offers. He suggested two motors in which he thought I might be interested. The first one (and most likely) is his stage III motor with 475 N/A hp with fuel injection. He sent me detailed data and we have had several discussions. He also offers a 540-hp motor that would need to be disassembled and checked every year, but that may be too much considering I have considered driving this on the street. The idle is very choppy and the engine is not happy unless it is running above 4500 rpm. Although I still have not decided on the type of engine, I have decided that it will be a pre-1985 Chevy SB.
I called E.J. Trivette around the middle of the month. He sounds like he is the master of suspensions. He related a story to me about his involvement with Clay Young (84u IMSA GTU Fiero) and his complete redesign of the suspension. According to him (through Clay), the Fiero IMSA racecar was dog on the track. Heck, they would be running down the straight under acceleration and the car would spin for no reason! E.J. completely redesigned the old suspension and Clay started winning. He then modified the suspensions of several (4) other IMSA Fieros. He offered to design, jig, and fabricate the suspension for my car for a reasonable price. I agreed. He gave me a list of parts to get before bringing the car down to him in late May. Among the items included were the adapter plate for the tranny and engine, rear hub carriers and hubs, wheels, transmission, axles, and lots of info about the wheel position and dimensions. He also told me that he would tailor the suspension geometry to the V8 I planned on using.
To make the engine fit normally mounted; it will have to pass through the firewall of the car. This means that several of the tubes will need to be cut out. I began this process late in April. It has turned out to be much easier than I expected. We will see how easy it is to fish mouth and reinstall new tubes. After the tubes have been removed I plan to take it to the auto body shop to have it checked (and adjusted if needed) for straightness.

May 2002

This was an even bigger month than April was. Many things started happening. The month began by modifying my chassis for E.J. in Florida and trying to get parts to my house quickly enough to look them over before taking them down.
As I mentioned before, cutting the tubes proved to be easy. I expected it to be harder because some of the joints (nodes) were at steep angles with tubes that I DID NOT want to hurt. If you cut into the wrong tube, life could suddenly get more difficult. I removed all of the tubes in the firewall except for the “V” shaped tubes for suspension mount points. I also removed the upper “shelf” just behind the firewall that would have interfered with the engine intake. After the tube removal, the chassis went to the local body shop to verify it was straight. I had already checked it and it visually looked “off”. However, if they found something wrong, they would have a chance of fixing it.
The chassis report was favorable. It APPEARED to be off, but measured straight and was better than most production cars the shop had measured. Whew! I took the chassis home. Later in the week I decided that the “V” tubes didn’t look very good and may be too weak for the suspension mount application. I removed them and installed new 1.75 x .095 (NASCAR roll cage approved) steel tubing and confirmed with several sources that this would be acceptable. Next, I removed a cross tube from the floor of the engine bay. The removal of this tube would allow space for the oil pan. If not it would at least gain me 1.5 inches (diameter of the tubes in this area). I fabricated (fish mouthed) three tubes to be welded in as an “X” pattern for support that would still allow pan clearance. I used 1.50 diameter tube for this application. The last change before Florida was the addition of a short 45-degree tube on the PS side of the rear bay to reinforce the rear lower pivot point of the rear suspension. This last change made the rear bay symmetrical.
At the same time I was working on the chassis, I spent nearly every other day on the phone trying to locate or hurry up parts. I ordered an adapter plate from Renegade Hybrids for the inverted Porsche 930 transaxle design I am running. It arrived in plenty of time. I ordered wheels and tires (Hoosier 25x12x16R rear and 23.5x11.5x16R front). The rims I ordered were 12” wide steel ones since the aluminum ones would have been way out of my budget. The aluminum rims are an improvement I can make later to help my unsprung weight. Tires are steep too, but you gotta have the correct tires for grip, right? I picked up an Appleton 2.0 rack and pinion form the local dirt track shop. I was told that this should be more durable than the original Sweet Mfg. Equipment that the IMSA cars ran with. After I collected all of these goodies, I asked E.J. if anything else would be needed. He said that the big thing would be the rear hub carriers. Without them, life would be tough.
Back to the chassis. After the tubes were welded in, I re-primed and then painted the chassis to help prevent any surface rust. I painted the chassis a blue similar to the Fiero blue used on the 1987 models. Of course, this paint was not metal flake. At any rate, This was not the final coat and I still will need to weld in more tubes for suspension and engine support once I know the mount locations.
On the morning of May 22, with the truck and car hauler loaded up, my wife and I took off for North Ft. Meyers, Florida. We meet with E.J. two days later. We introduced ourselves and started to unload the equipment. I was as interested to see if he was as good with suspensions as I had heard. He is all that and then some. He has built everything from movie stunt cars (Smoky and the Bandit to name one) to bonnieville salt flat cars (1500cc Porsche world record holder) to Winston cup cars, to road race cars (Clay Young’s Dole car for example). E.J. will build the complete suspension for my car. It will be a rolling chassis once he has finished working on it. I have been asked why I did not design the suspension myself. I chose to have someone else do my suspension for two reasons. First, I need to trust this suspension with my life. This is not a dune buggy. No, really. If I’m running this car in a SOLO I competition, I may be going as fast as 150+ MPH. At that speed, any geometry issues and I could easily loose control. I can design a suspension and I know how it needs to work. However, I want something that is FAST and not some amateur’s first attempt (mine). Second, it would take me a lot longer than I have. This project is on a time line and needs to be completed on time. Furthermore, with a fully (and I do mean fully) adjustable suspension, the set up will be my choice. I told E.J. that because this car was not being built as a competition car for a particular class, there were basically no rules. I simply asked him to make it fast. With all of the championship road racing cars he as built, he said that it would be “no problem”. I can hardly wait the 5 months it will take him to fabricate and install the parts.

July 2002

I’ll start this update the same way I started the last one. It is hard to believe that it’s the end of July already. Not much (O.K. nothing) physically happened with the car this month, but there was plenty of planning and parts hunting.
E.J. has not done much with the chassis yet, however, he has ordered and received some necessary items. The Speedway spindles for the front have arrived and he has started modification planning. I have talked with PAP and have arranged for a set of Porsche 930 rear hubs and hub carriers (aluminum banana arms) to be sent down. The plan is to take the 930 banana arms, cut off the hub carrier, fabricate brackets, and weld them on to fit the rear suspension geometry. This will create a substantial dual bearing (that’s my understanding) aluminum hub carrier capable of holding the 500+ hp with no problem. The hub can be used unmodified, but the stud pattern will need to be changed to fit the 5 on 5 bolt hole pattern of the wheels. I have been told that this will not be a problem since there is a lot of “meat” to work with. These parts have been shipped but have not arrived yet for E.J.’s inspection.
Planning for the brakes started early in the month and have just now been finalized and ordered. After talking with E.J. (again), we concluded that the best setup for this 60/40-weight distribution was to have even braking all the way around. In fact, it may even be helpful to have more braking power in the rear. I would explain, but it takes too long. Anyway, the goal was to find a set of 4 piston calipers with 1.75” diameter pistons, vaned 12.0” to 12.5” x 1.25” rotors. Maybe you know and maybe you don’t, but with brakes, you can spend as much money as you want. Some of the brake systems out there are REALLY pricey. For example, I looked into a set of rear brakes to use on the back that would fit the 930 set up I have. This would simplify the rear design while allowing me to find replacement parts easily. The best set of brakes made (that I found) cost $7000 just for the rear set! Unbelievable! After I recovered from the shock, I quickly looked for something else. Then the thought occurred to me, "what about a used set from the 930?" I know that at this point it sounds like I am building a 930 instead of a Fiero, but humor me for a second. The price of a used set of rear 930 brakes goes for about $750. The calipers are 4 piston 40 mm (or so) with large 12.7” rotors and I can always get new ones later if needed. I am still waiting for PAP to get back with me on these. It may take some time to find them.
As for the front brake setup, I decided to go with a Wilwood Superlite 2A 4 piston 1.75” diameter caliper, 48 fin GT 12.19”x1.25” rotors and the “D” compound pads. The calipers will be powder-coated cobalt blue to match the chassis. I ended up ordering them from Precision Brake Company out of Ashland, Oregon. They work with Dave Held and have done many performance Fiero setups, however this was the first Fiero tube chassis race car they had done as far as I could tell. They also supply brakes for other race cars as well. Wilwood brakes were also the original choice of the Pontiac IMSA Fiero group for the prototype IMSA car. I am having these brakes shipped to me for inspection before I send them to Florida.

August 2002

The project is starting to really move now. During the month of August, all of the parts for the suspension that I needed to find arrived at the house.
After having a tough time with PAP in Georgia (I have complained about them before) I began digging for another source of used Porsche 930 parts. I was surprised to find that many of the used Porsche part shops did not carry anything for older 930’s or only worked with newer cars. I finally (6 shops later) found a place in southern California called Einmalig. They were VERY helpful. They had all of the parts in stock and even could answer my questions about the rear track width (1985 930) and the caliper piston diameter (30 mm) for the rear of the 930. When I asked the question about the track width, Brian answered, “let me go measure the one in our shop. Can you wait 30 seconds?”. Gee whiz. I guess so! I ended up purchasing new rear wheel bearings, used rear 930 calipers, new 12.19 diameter 24 curved vane cross-drilled rotors, and the spline shaft to fit on the end of the axles. All of the parts arrived within four working days. Within 1 week, I had managed to accomplish what took me 2 months to accomplish with PAP.
I received the front brakes this month as well. Everything looked like it was in good order. The color is a little more purple than cobalt blue, but for now, I am done spending money on brakes. Precision Brakes out of Oregon, good company as well. Nigel helped me out there. He told me that they do a lot of business with Fieros and have a working relations ship with Dave Held at DHM (kit car work, tube A-arms, and custom Fiero tube cradles / suspension parts).
Finally, the broken rear hub carriers arrived from PAP. I have to give them credit here. They saved me about $1000 because they found a set that had been broken, but still had a usable hub. They were perfect!
Near the end of the month, I shipped all four boxes (155 lb.) to EJ. When I called him, he verified that they all arrived safely that Friday (9/6/02) and that he had started to work on the chassis! He has bolted a dummy engine up to the transmission and placed them in the car to check the oil pan clearance and the axle position. After making the axles straight to the desired rear wheel position, he measured how far the front of the block sat past the inside of the firewall. The front of the block is 1” inside the bottom tube of the firewall. This will be fine since I have allowed for 7” with all of the accessories. I have been old that I can purchase components that will make the engine fit in a 24.5” length with enough clearance to operate properly. I asked him if the valve covers could be removed with the engine in place and he said that they could. Fantastic! So far, everything is fitting, as it should. He did request that I send him some pictures, which I sent on Saturday (9/7/02).
Earlier in the month, I attended the Fiero Nationals at Osage Beach, MO. I had a great time. Naturally, I am so excited about the project that I wanted to share it with all. I hope that I didn’t bore anyone too much. I have a tendency to do that once I start talking. I set out my project book at the check out of the F.O.C.O.A. store and several people looked at it and commented to me later. Many seemed impressed and I was told (by people I respect) that a project like this one had never been done quite like this before. Several people have tried to build a “copy” of the IMSA car, but that’s not what my project is about. I want this thing to be mean.
At the show, I found a magazine that was a later version of the Hot Rod Magazine showing the building of the Fiero Race Car. I learned many things that I did not know about the race program and design changes that were incorporated during the first season. Heck, even Baird and Trivette was listed in there as a resource for the complete chassis fabrication and setup. I also learned about many body changes that were made after the prototype. I have learned several exciting things about the body that are unique. However, I will save that for next time.

September 2002

This month proved to be a very exciting one indeed. My suspension builder (who has forgotten more than I will ever learn in my lifetime) E.J. Trivette has made significant progress. Currently the rolling chassis is on time for a Thanksgiving pickup date. As promised last month, I learned much more about the fiberglass body that I would use to cover this E-ticket ride monster. This one is a story worth telling to the kids.
E.J. began by locating the engine/transmission combination. This is the datum of all of the other car dimensions. All points will be located from the rear axle and track width. The rear cross bracing was removed because the pan would not fit and engine mounts were fabricated. Once in place, the front of the block set one inch in front of the lower fire wall tube. Perfect! This allows me about six more inches for the water pump, balancer and alternator. The 22 inch fire wall tube clearance also worked. There was enough space to remove the valve covers with the engine in place with his “dummy” small block. The rear axle worked as well. The transmission fit very well. When it was all said and done, the engine pan set 5/8” below the bottom of the tube chassis. E.J. said that this would allow me to adjust the engine height just incase my oil pan was shorter. Lowering the engine to its minimum ground clearance greatly improves handling. The pan will end up being about 4 inches above the ground.
Next, all of the chassis mods were finished. This included finishing touches to the engine mounts, and cross bracing. E.J. began to work on fabricating the hub carrier mounts. To do this he will start by taking the 930 aluminum hub carrier and cutting the excess banana arm off. This will leave a round “shell” used for the bearing mount. Next, he will fabricate a square plate 1” thick with a big hole in the center that will go around the hub carrier. This will be the mock-up to determine the suspension geometry. After the geometry is complete, he will make the square bracket out of 1” aluminum plate and weld it to the hub carrier.
After spending some time on the hub carrier, he worked on the hub it self. This piece has the five studs on which the wheel mounts. He found a slick way to change the bolt pattern of the Porsche to the 5 on 5 pattern of my wheels. With the axle, hub and wheel in place on one side, the geometry can be determined. More to come later.
Let’s talk bodies. Fiero racecar bodies. I have learned some interesting things about the racecar body found and purchased last October. I do not know the whole story yet, but what I have found is worth recording.
About a month ago, I was reading an article in the Pontiac Performance magazine that I purchased from the F.O.C.O.A. club at the National show earlier this last August. The publication has been out of print for some time and was written some time just after the first season of racing. It covered many of the same articles that were covered in the first publication however some new notes were added about the new body style. The new style (of course) was changed to reflect the Indy pace car and eventually the 85 GT. Several improvements were made including:

1. The front aero nose was added.
2. The rear fenders were widened 4 inches on each side.
3. The front fenders were narrowed to accommodate the narrower 10-inch wide rims.
4. The rear deck lid was integrated with the rear (and slightly improved) wing to make removal easier.
5. The doors no longer had a separate lower air “skirt”. The assembly was now a one-piece fiberglass panel.
6. The engine air intake was designed and wind tunnel tested however was not approved for sanctioned competition.
7. A side exhaust hole was added just behind the driver’s side door.

I started thinking about my fiberglass body. This body does not have the widened rear fenders. In fact, the rear width measures about 70 inches. The rear wing is separate from the rear deck lid, too. The doors, front fenders, and nose matches the updated body and some of the parts even have part numbers stamped in them that match the book. However, there is no exhaust cutout in the driver’s side rear quarter panel. This car also came with the air intake that was not allowed in competition. I have also noticed that all of the panels except the scoop and PS door panel are marked with an “0001”. Most of the handwriting matches, but three of the codes are in red and the remainder is in black. Also, as many as five panels appear to have been written by a different person. I have been able to record part numbers off seven of the panels. I have recorded all of the codes that I could find on each panel. They are listed below:

Code: Panel:

1. DGP 841RDR PS Door
2. DGP 841LDR DS Door
3. DGP 841LFF Left Front Fender
4. DGP 841RFF Right Front Fender
5. 841DRRFS Right Rear Fender/Sail (Drag Racing)
6. 841DLRFS Left Rear Fender/Sail (Drag Racing)
7. 84PRCB I I I Rear Center Bumper
8. None Visible Hood
9. None Visible Front Bumper
10. None Visible Front Air Dam
11. None Visible Roof
12. None Visible Rear Deck Lid
13. None Visible Rear Wing
14. None Visible Rear Cowl
15. None Visible Ram Air Scoop

I began to wonder what it was I had. I called Joe Huffaker to ask him what he knew about the changes. He said that there were some narrow body cars produced before the wide body cars, but not many. I asked him if he knew anyone from DGP who I could contact. Unfortunately, Joe said that he never worked directly with DGP and did not have any contacts. I also asked if it was possible that the “0001” signified that it was the first body produced. He said that, in fact, this was possible but he did not know for sure. I have talked to F.O.C.O.A. (Phil and Gloria Huff). Gloria put me on her list to ask Phil. She agreed that this was a significant find. Phil had been apart of the fanfare back in the 80’s concerning the racing program. He might be able to shed light on the subject.
I continued to search for an answer. I had gotten Terry Satchel’s work number from Joe Huffaker some months ago while looking for a set of prints. I thought that he might know who I could contact that would have a clue as to the origin of this body. He suggested that I call John Callies. As you may know, John was in charge of all of the Fiero racing programs at Pontiac and with his team of seven, literally formed the backbone of the Fiero racing teams.
On September 30, after tracking him through two job moves, I contacted John at his work. After a brief conversation, he said that he really could not talk about all of the details at that time and gave me his home telephone number so that we could talk later. I called back that night. We talked for quite some time about the race program and the glory days of the Fiero and then he confirmed some of the information I suspected about the particular fiberglass body. He said that it had been so long ago that he did not remember the details of the body I had, but helped by telling me how the prototypes had been designed. He assembled the original Fiero studio stylists, after hours, to form the clay for the body at an off site location. They made several revisions to the clays and each time they thought that they had something, they would have DGP (or some one) make some tooling to form a prototype panel. They would then decide if that we the body that worked. The bodies developed were broken into three groups; narrow body, wide body (GTO/GTU), and drag race. The narrow bodies (like mine) were the first to be developed. He confirmed that they (the Pontiac group) had designated the prototype cars with an “0001” in the panels to signify that they were prototypes. Many changes were made and several bodies were made before the final version was developed. This body, in fact, does date itself as one of the early ones; however, the drag racing panels are odd. The drag race cars were developed later. However, from my reading, the “Rod Shop” drag car was racing during the 1984 season which means that the body panels must have been done within months of the GTU prototype bodies. I have not confirmed this with John yet. John said that for sure this body is unique because it is a prototype and many changes were made frequently. Reading between the lines, this body is a one off. The only parts that may not be from the GTU prototype are the rear drag racing panels. These panels are also marked “0001” but in different handwriting. It sounds as if this body was put together from a prototype drag car and prototype GTU car. Again, this is my speculation. Another speculation is that this may have been the third attempt at the GTU body. The rear center bumper is stamped “84PRCB III” suggesting that this piece was at the third revision. The front nose, front LH and RH fenders, hood, air dam, LH door, roof, rear wing, and rear cowl, all have the “0001” in the same hand writing. At any rate, this is a confirmed prototype from the early days of the program and will be treated as such.

This picture shows the code that gave me the "clue" I needed to prove that this body was a "one off" Pontiac prototype.

John told me to keep in touch. I plan to. He asked me to e-mail him pictures of the body. I hope that this will jog his memory. I expect that he will be able to provide more information as time progresses. Although I intend to continue to try to dig up more history on this body, for now I am satisfied that I will have a one-of-a-kind “historic” car once it is complete and it will hold the Fiero banner high.

October 2002

November will probably be the longest month ever. Waiting to go pick up the rolling chassis will be the longest 23 days of my life. On the other hand, I only have 23 days to prepare. I’ll need to prep the truck and trailer and make a plan for what comes next. Money for the engine is tight right now; however; I can still assemble the body to the chassis, reinforce the suspension mount points, and work on the sheet metal. All of these things are relatively inexpensive. I expect to purchase an engine in the late spring. In contrast, October went very quickly. I learned a great deal about Fiero racing history and E.J. made some good progress on the chassis.
The month began with the normal weekly check-ups on the chassis progress. E.J. told me that he had the axles in place and the hub with a wheel ready, but needed to have the bolts for the rear calipers and the hub nuts to hold the hub onto the axle shaft. I called a used Porsche parts dealer in California (same one I got the rear calipers from) and they told me that I would be better off just to buy them new due to the very small price difference. Okay, for those of you who have never called a Porsche dealer for parts (like me) you would be astounded about how proud they are about their parts. Yes, I thought the 4 bolts, 6 washers, and 2 nuts would be expensive, but, WOW. Anyway, for those of us in the Fiero world, we are lucky that we do not have to face this very often. I purchased the parts and away to Florida, they went. Later in the month, E.J. received them and got the rear trailing arms fabricated.
The big news this month was my trip to Memphis, TN. As you may recall in last month’s report, I had found and contacted John Callies. John is very important to Fiero racing history. He was the Manager for Pontiac Motorsports during the 80’s and is arguably the father of virtually all Fiero racing. Again, as mentioned, he was helpful with confirming that my fiberglass body was, in fact, a prototype. During the same phone call, John mentioned that he had a set of prints for the IMSA car! He also said that he would be moving soon and that since he didn’t need the prints any more, he would give them to me. Actually, he had a pile of Fiero stuff that he wanted to let me have so that all those interested in Fiero race history could enjoy it. What a generous gesture. With some coordination between a trip to Huntsville, AL to pick up my buddy’s car (Mark is currently president of the St. Louis Fiero Club chapter), we planned a trip through Memphis on October 26. Mark and I waited with great anticipation for that day to arrive.
October 26 finally arrived, and Mark and I took off after Saturday afternoon. We arrived at John’s house just after 9:00 PM. John had made a pile of Fiero memorabilia for us as promised and then invited us into his house. We met his wife Rose and went upstairs to his office so he could show us some of his neat current projects. As I walked though their house, I was amazed at all of the cool pictures. For example, there was a thank you note from Gale Banks on a photo of the Banks twin turbo Trans Am in the salt flats. Or, how about a picture of he and Dale Earnhardt from the early 80’s when Dale was racing a Pontiac! I could go on and on. John showed us a clutch he designed for the C5 that he is currently selling to Lingenfelter to handle the twin turbo motor that they are selling (Motor Trend March 2000 Cover). This and several other projects are done outside of work in his “spare” time. He asked to see my project book and I showed it to him. He recognized E.J. and asked how he was doing. Before we left, we had our pictures taken with him and he signed my hardbound Fiero history book. I took home a full set of original prints for the SD4, 2 years worth of internal Pontiac Racing newsletters, several magazines, and even an original proprietary photo of a 1988 Firebird GTP car model. Don’t worry, the stamp on the back said that the photo could only be released with permission from John Callies. I think we got that. Mark and I spent two hours talking with him and, I enjoyed every minute. I want to thank John and Rose for their warm hospitality to two complete strangers. Truly a nice family. I cannot say enough.
Other than that, the month was pretty boring. So long for now.

November 2002

November was a very good month for the SS project. The rolling chassis is now home from Florida, safe and sound. It was a long trip but well worth it. From now on, I will be able to do nearly all of the remaining work. Due to the funding (isn’t that always the case?) I must wait until about mid-summer before I will be able to purchase an engine. Until then, I intend to work on things that take fabrication time, but don’t cost much. Things like mounting the body, tin work, seat position, dash, and other types of projects.
I want to thank the people who deserve credit for the progress this month. I can think of two inparticular. A special thank you goes to E.J. Trivette who single handedly built my suspension. Since E.J. is “retired” and has such an outstanding racing history (15 years as a driver in Winston Cup and 30 + years as a detected suspension builder), he can pretty much choose any project he wants. I was fortunate and thankful that he chose mine. He put a lot of hard thinking and hard work into this suspension and it shows. All of this while putting up with my progress report phone calls each week for 6 months! The other person I want to thank is my wife, Sharon. She has been very supportive and has been willing to listen to me talk about this project for countless hours. What a Saint! I don’t know anyone else who is that patient and understanding.
As I mentioned before, I picked up the rolling chassis this month. It really wasn’t that simple. Because E.J. had other emergency projects, completing my suspension by Thanksgiving was going to be tight. Unfortunately, due to my work schedule, I had to pick it up that week. The original plan was to pick it up on Sunday the 24th and then go to South Carolina to spend the holiday with my parents. As it turned out, E.J. needed until Friday the 29th to complete the car. Since my wife had to work on Saturday the 30th we would not be able to go to Florida together. We were carrying an empty car hauler anyway, (to pick up the race car) so we decided to take her car with us and visit my parents first. She would then drive home on Thanksgiving (not so much traffic) and I would go to Florida the same day. I drove for 11.5 hours on Thanksgiving to get down to North Fort Myers by 11:30 PM. Long trip.
As it turned out, that was just the beginning. I arrived at E.J.’s house at 10:30 Friday just as planned. I found that he was still in the process of assembling the car. Earlier in the week, I offered to come down early and help him assemble it. When I got out of the truck, he said, “well, I guess I’ll take you up on that offer after all.” Actually, I was glad that it wasn’t done. This gave me an opportunity of a lifetime. I would get to spend an entire day working with a racing legend. It proved to be very educational. I learned details about alignment setup, what order to align the car in, factors to take into account while designing a suspension, neat tricks for speeding up the alignment, and even the logic behind this suspension design. I also got a chance to see how the engine and transmission would fit. E.J. had left the drivetrain in for me to see. He used a junk SB Chevy engine to simulate my future 383, 550 hp monster. The Porsche 930 transaxle and axles fit very well. The normally mounted (longways in the car) engine block only passed into the passenger compartment about 1 inch on the bottom. This means that I won’t have to move the seat up as much as I thought. E.J. used QA1 adjustable coilovers with 250 lb. springs in the front and 350 lb. springs in the rear. The front suspension is fully adjustable. Each of the links on the upper and lower A-arms can be adjusted with the rod end bearings. In addition, the lower ball joint is actually a structural rod end bearing. This makes the camber easily adjustable. This type of setup allows the track width to be adjusted as well as the wheelbase to be adjusted without compromising performance. The rear is very tight. Some of the bolt heads needed to be ground down to allow the suspension linkages to move freely. Although the bumpsteer can be adjusted in the front, it is fixed in the rear. Naturally, it is set at zero. Without a picture, the rear suspension is very hard to describe. Basically, it is a double A-arm except the front arm of each is very long. Each of them extends almost up to the firewall. It makes it more of a trailing arm setup. This is very similar to the original design. E.J. told me that he very pleased with the suspension overall and feels that it is the most adjustable and best Fiero he has built. I am very pleased.
I have been running some performance numbers on the computer to estimate just how lethal this beast will be when it is complete. With 550 hp and 2200 pounds of car + driver maximum, the ratio is 4 to 1. Winston Cup cars are about 4.2 to 1. That plus the fact that it is a mid-engine car, puts the ¼ mile ET at 10.4 seconds going about 135mph. Gearing puts the top speed around 190mph, but the body probably would never take it. The amazing part is that all of this power is simply to get to the next turn. In the handling department, there is the suspension I just described with 12 inch wide Hoosier racing slicks on a 93.4-inch wheelbase. Overall, car width is about 72 inches. All of the weight is near the center of the car to improve handling by reducing turning inertia. Durability is also a key. I have chosen to use a Porsche 930 transaxle, axles, and hub / hub carriers. This setup is good for at least 600 ft.lb of torque. I will only be running about 500 ftlb. And yes, the roomers are correct, I plan to install a passenger seat. Why hog all of the fun?

December 2002

Well, with the rolling chassis finally home, it was time to prove myself. Until now, I have done virtually no work to the car except for cleaning up the chassis and painting. Heck, E.J. even tore half of that apart. Most of my involvement has been as a parts guy. Go get this, go get that, order stuff, you get the picture. Now, I have the car (chassis) in my hot little hands. I feel the need to make things happen. Therefore, I set a goal. I challenged myself to get the entire body mounted by the end of the month.
I know it sounds like a lot, but I am lucky enough to work in the automotive industry. Twice per year, all of the plants shut down for maintenance. I have to work during the summer one, but Christmas, that one I get off. This gives me a full 7 days to work on the car without interruption. I also don’t have the money yet for the engine. That means that I need to find something productive to do that is inexpensive. Mounting the body fits that bill.
I ordered all of the necessities. Dzus fittings, radiator, and several types of steel. All of it came in time for the December 20th deadline. While ordering stuff, I began to try to fit the body to the chassis. To do this, I took some long steel poles and clamped them to the bottom of the chassis. Next, I pulled up the ends with cords to compensate for the bend in the poles near the tips with the weight of the body and wood shims. I did this twice. The first time the poles were not strong enough and there was too much flex. The other problem I had was that the body seemed to be too short! I almost panicked. The rear wheels were too close to the rear of the fender while the front wheels were too close to the front of the fender. I also had another problem. The driver side was shorter than the passenger side. When I first tried to put the body together, the driver’s side door would not touch the front or the rear quarter panel while the passenger’s side door was tight. I checked my wheelbase and found that (and remembered what E.J. said) it was too long. I brought the front and rear wheel in and it got a lot better. I spent one day and three evenings trying to get this right. Finally, on the night of the 20th, I got it to fit well enough that it would work. It is not perfect, but it looks good. Check out the pictures, I think you will agree.
I began the long, process of mounting the panels. I started with the roof. The car already had eight Dzus fittings on the roof. I used the original ones. Next, I mounted the back of the front quarters and the top corners of the hood. These brackets on each side could be made as one. I paid careful attention to make sure that I did not pull the body while mounting them. That was it for the first day. Day two, I began making the front clip. Day three, I finished it and finished the hood mounts. On the forth day, (sounds like the 12 days of Christmas, doesn’t it?) Fabricated the rear clip and made the upper sail panel mounts. I still have some work to do on both of these. Day five, I mounted the bottom of the front fender quarters and the bottom of both doors. Day six, I made up the mounts for the bottom of the front of the rear fenders, and the tops of both doors. On the seventh day, (now it sounds like the Bible) mounted the rear deck lid and wing. Then I took a break. Whew! Not all seven days were in a row. I spent four days celebrating Christmas with my in-laws. What a great bunch!
I said it before, and I’ll say it again; this body is not perfect. In fact, it is obvious that it is a prototype. The wing, for instance, is not symmetrical. Heck, the tips are ½” different in length! I did the best I could. I still have some minor adjustments left and then I need to fortify my tack welds. So, I actually only got 90% of the body mounted since it is not finalized. The pictures that are attached are of the mounted body all fastened together as of 1/1/03. Another interesting fact, this car has a separate wing. As I mentioned in a previous report (September 2002), the prototype body had a separate wing instead of the wing and integrated rear deck lid. I like the idea of attaching the rear wing to the deck lid for ease of removal. However, I did not want to hide the fact that it is a prototype by fiber-glassing it to the deck lid. So, I did the next best thing. I bolted the rear wing to the rear lid. This preserves the wing while mounting it securely.
Next month, I begin the search for the engine. I’ll use a 383 SB Chevy with 550 hp. The leading candidate is American Speed from the quad cities. More to come in 2003!

INDEX:
Page 1 = Overview, Vehicle Summary, History 
Page 2 = 2001 - The Dream
Page 3 = 2002 - Getting Going
Page 4 = 2003 - It's ALIVE!
Page 5 = 2004 - Making Improvements
Page 6 = 2005 - Here's to a better year...
Page 7 = 2006 - The Story Continues...
Page 8 = 2007 - Wider is Better ; )
Page 9 = 2008 - Wider is Better - TAKE TWO ; )