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I wrote SCCA and was told in November's Fastrak News that the fiat 124 will be listed as CS (street class C). We have to wait till its published to confirm. I don't know how competitive it will be in that class.
Hi Travis! We met at the Dart meet in St. Louis. It's great to see you here, and I am excited to see what you come up with for the 124. We loved your Dart Motor mounts.After a year of racing our Neon in DS (D-Stock as it was known then) we jumped straight to DM (D-Modified). They didn't have classes like Street Touring back then, so it was stock, Street Prepared (very specific rules), Prepared (gutted but still very particular rules) or Mod... and we went straight for the fun zone, so we could develop parts for the Neon. Our '96 ACR was a rolling laboratory, and never quite the same car twice.
This time around, rather than bite our fingernails for a whole season and not mod the car, we've taken our Fiat 124 Spider straight to DM class. This lets us do pretty much anything we're willign to do with the car.
Obviously, it's not competitive thee yet, but we have a great baseline, and we know that every notch we move up the index results is an improvement in the right direction! Our first event is already in the rearview, with no performance mods whatsoever. My 18yo son raced with me (against me?) and was just 3 seconds slower on a 42-55 sec. course. Not bad for his first time out! The 124's balance is straight-up beautiful. With the Neon, it was like driving the front half of a car, and the 2nd half was just along for the ride. Driving a RWD with a 50/50 weight ratio means you're driving the whole car, all the time. Sadly, the stock tires are HORRIBLE. Lots of action movie noise, but not much grip.
Can't wait to get some performance mods finished and on the car, and more races under my new driver's beltHopefully we'll be in good enough shape by spring '18 to make it to some divisionals (we're in the Midwest div).
I was really hoping to autocross the Dart. We still might, just for fun. But the Dart is just too heavy to be fun and competitive with as much as it weighs. It's really amazing how different the same 1.4 turbo engine feels in the 124.Hi Travis! We met at the Dart meet in St. Louis. It's great to see you here, and I am excited to see what you come up with for the 124. We loved your Dart Motor mounts.
On the autocross front, we are looking at the rules figuring out how to make a specific tune for various classes. I obviously can't spill any details on a public forum, but we think we can make undetectable improvements.
Greg
Almost nobody is racing the Dart. We couldn't find a single one to sponsor. You're right, it's just too heavy for the 1.4. It's too bad, because the chassis is pretty darn good and with the 1750 it could be really competitive against similar sedans in motorsports. I think FCA really missed an opportunity there.I was really hoping to autocross the Dart. We still might, just for fun. But the Dart is just too heavy to be fun and competitive with as much as it weighs. It's really amazing how different the same 1.4 turbo engine feels in the 124.
While E85 may be legal in all classes, I am not so sure that the bigger injectors and special tune needed to take advantage of it would be. I'll need to look into that.I would LOVE to have one that can compensate for ethanol blends from 20 - 75 % . Turbos LOVE ethanol, and E85 is a "federally approved motor vehicle fuel" which makes it legal for all SCCA classes where "race gas" is not.
I was told it's in the STU class - again a class where it will not be competitive. Any updates from the SCCA to get this fun car into a more appropriate class???I wrote SCCA and was told in November's Fastrak News that the fiat 124 will be listed as CS (street class C). We have to wait till its published to confirm. I don't know how competitive it will be in that class.