Quote:
Originally Posted by Ziegelsteinfaust
What is next a Shogun version?
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Nah, wouldn't want to make it handle worse, heavier, and harder to drive at the limit. The only appeal would be for better straight line speed, but I'd just build a drag bug with parts I have laying around if I were interested in that. Short wheelbase cars with a lot of rear-weight bias are really hard to get 10/10ths out of; Porsche (rear-heavy R/R layout) has recently been developing mid-engine 911 track cars to move more weight forward. Having weight over the two wheels that don't steer is a pretty big disadvantage in cornering which the fwd layout overcomes naturally. Porsche has also started adding active rear wheel steering to stabilize the rearward weight bias of the 911 in corners. The Festiva Chassis has rear wheel steering already built into the rear twist beam from it flexing under cornering loads to alter the toe angles, so swapping to a different rear suspension setup is a big downgrade.
We have a standing challenge that any mid-engine swapped Festiva that can outrun a prepped stock-chassis/fwd Festiva around a road course gets all of their track expenses paid for. No one has been willing to take us up on it.
For anyone interested, this topic goes deep into why the Festiva chassis is such a great handling car as-is with only minimal mods like springs, shocks, wheels, tires, and an alignment.
https://fordfestiva.com/forums/forum...tiva-advantage