Mid-Engine drifting, No handbrake

[SpeedWise]

i have a pontiac fiero gt with around 200hp but the location of the hand brake does'nt permit me to use it effectivelly because it's on the side of the door( in between the seat and the door ) which leaves me no room to work with it . i was wondering if i could still make it a potent drift car . i will post some more info on the car later i need to find some more info first
anyways thanks , Jessie

[Hubert Young]

i have a pontiac fiero gt with around 200hp but the location of the hand brake does'nt permit me to use it effectivelly because it's on the side of the door( in between the seat and the door ) which leaves me no room to work with it . i was wondering if i could still make it a potent drift car . i will post some more info on the car later i need to find some more info first
anyways thanks , Jessie

It's been discussed on here before about how good of a platform for drifting is a pontiac fiero. IMO, if budget is a concerned, if you are new to drifting and if you don't work (including fab work) on the car yourself, I will stick with cars with more after market supports (off the shelf bolt on products) to avoid high cost of building the car. You probably can't find any coilovers off the shelf to fit your fiero... S13, 14, AE86, FC are all good cars with lots of off the shelf products.

[soultron]

There is aftermarket for the Fiero, but I'd be more concerned with MR variable. You'll want to know anything MR2 drivers do to drift. It's the closest car I can think of to your car. Since you already have the car, find out what you can do to stiffen up the suspension, You don't need much to start with.
Don't let anyone tell you that you need coilovers. You can get those after you know what you are doing. Look for some fiero forums, but, DO NOT MENTION DRIFTING. If anyone asks what you are using the car for, just say auto cross. You'll get good info, without having to sift through the "drifting is crap" statements.

Check this out too for ideas.
http://www.heldmotorsports.com/standardfiero.html

And for god sakes, try be safe and have fun with it.

[Hubert Young]

MR2 is not a good drift car is not SOLELY because it's MR, the strut design in the rear is also part of the problem too (See Alex Pfeiffer's analysis on his "Ask Alex Pfeiffer something" thread).

[SpeedWise]

does anyone have any more input on this subject i would love some advices , thanks

[Drift For Food]

The hand brake isn't absolutely needed if that is your main concern. It's a useful tool, but for drifting, it's not a necessity. In time, you may find a way to make the e-brake a little more accessable, perhaps fabricate some sort of extention to move the lever up and out from between the seat and door.

About the Fiero being a good drift car...
I like to think anything could be decent for drifting. At the very least, you'll have fun with it. A rear heavy car is a little more tricky to drift with as the rear end is both grippier and more spin happy once you get the rear end sliding. As far as learning how to drift with a mid-engined car, the drift bible does cover that in some detail, particularly the differences between the techniques. The nice thing is that it will initially be more challenging. However, you payoff will be worth its weight in gold. If you can drift a "difficult" car well, most other "good" drift cars should essentially be a piece of cake. If you love the car and love drifting, then I say go for it. Who cares what others think. It's all about YOU and what YOU want. Enjoy it.

[Delphince]

The thing to keep in mind about the Fiero is its weight distribution (40/60) is very unusual compared to other cars. Because of its tendency to have an unpowered understeer, learning to drift the car can be rather hair-raising at first. If you break traction with the front tires, the lack of forward weight goes from an advantage to a nightmare, and the car is very quick to plow. You can't just throw the wheel and force it into a drift; timing is extremely crucial. Turn too early and the car will swing wide in a controlled drifting understeer, where all four wheels lose traction; turn too late with the throttle up and the car will practically beeline with the front tires screaming. This is extremely dangerous, because the instinct to throw on the brakes to transfer weight back to the front usually doesn't correct the situation, because traction is already broken and the tires just lock up. Locked front tires on a Fiero do little to change your course because, again, you don't have the weight up front to back it up and the center of the car is perfectly content to follow the simplest path laid out by inertia.

Like Drift For Food said, you can pretty much count out the e-brake to help start a drift. You need your left hand on the steering wheel, otherwise in a moment of panic you might find yourself reaching for the stick and the brake at the same time, and be unable to make up your mind which hand you want kept on the wheel.

Performing a true braking drift (heel-toe) is also second to impossible without heavy modifications. The pedal setup of the Fiero has the clutch several inches farther forward than the footbrake, and the footbrake several inches ahead of the gas pedal. I've made many attempts to try to control the brake and accelerator at the same time with my right foot, and so far haven't had any success at all. Unless you're a contortionist with your ankles, you'll usually lock your front brakes long before you can get your heel to touch the accelerator. And just touching both is one thing, fine-tuning the two with your ankle bent at 50 degrees is just wishful thinking.

I've had the most success getting my Fiero to drift with simple power-overs and clutch-kicks. Downshift, jam the accelerator, and pop the clutch in proper timing with the initiated turn. Remember, not too early or too late or things get hairy. Still, entering into the countersteer is a huge balancing act, and the Fiero has no mercy delivering surprises. The window you have to work with to maintain the drift, I’ve found to be a little larger than other cars, but stray outside the margin and things are pretty much unrecoverable. Like an FR, too much power after traction is broken will send you into a spin, and a rather unnerving one at that. The rear of the car tends to "yank" the front along for the ride, and even though the fulcrum of the rotation is in reality very near centered on the car, it's still rear-biased. Unlike an FR, however, a sudden drop in power from backing off (or — god-forbid — releasing) the accelerator deals a very nasty result. The midship car is extremely stable, and the rear tires are very quick to regain almost full traction, even during a lateral slide. The end result is the car goes back to doing exactly what you're "telling" it to do, and the car instantly begins to follow the countersteering, sending a surprised or slow-to-respond driver straight into the outer wall with a purpose.

But there are some very nice advantages at the top of the mountain. If you can keep the car inside the power window, the stability works for you, and it will hold a very smooth drift for a very long time with little corrections needed. I took my Prelude-drifting brother for a ride and he whoop/screamed as we drifted halfway around the shop. A good thing to look for is some sticky tires on the front to try and reduce understeer potential — I've had respectable success with Dunlop FM901s; but I’d also recommend Yokohama Advan A032Rs. The lack of weight in the front also greatly increases the normally short mileage of a softer tire, as long as you use them as a preventative (not corrective) measure against understeer. Coil-overs are difficult to find, but ARE available for the Fiero. Just be prepared to pay a pretty penny, because nothing aftermarket for the Fiero is cheap. Some parts are priced as high as ten-times the counterparts for a tuner car. Not only is the Fiero American, but it's not a very common sight and parts aren't in high demand (many companies have a complete monopoly on a particular mod, while others are privately produced), and the prices reflect this.

At any rate, be sure to practice in a flat open lot away from any walls or other obstacles, and your car should start to cooperate and grow on you in due time as you two start to figure each other out. Good luck, and have fun

[Delphince]

Oh, one other thing. If you drive an '86, at some point in time you may have been tempted to swap out your rear engine cradle and suspension for that of an '88. If you're going to be drifting, stay with what you have and just replace the tie rod bushings with polyurethane. The '88's reduced weight and control arm design is more reliable from a street and racing standpoint, but doesn't hold up well to impact. I've seen the spindle torn completely free as the control arms were destroyed from a moderate curb swipe. The flipped-around Chevy suspension is much more armored and holds up to lateral forces far better. Just be sure to replace those bushings with polys, otherwise the rubber ones will wear out very quickly; leaving you with bumpsteer that will have you "pseudodrifting" all over the place.