Considering FE

[Zollie]

Hello Everyone, I'm considering moving to FE and was curious if anyone has an FE in the Indianapolis area I could try on for size. I'm 6' and 200lbs and broad in the shoulder. Just concerned about fitting in the car before shopping for an FE.

Thanks, Darrin
317-496-8731

[Keith Carter]

Hi Darrin,
No problem. There have been some bigger guys to fit in FEs so I would say you're safe. I believe there was an FE recently purchased in the Indianapolis (member: dsmithwc04) area that would be relatively close to you.

[BeerBudgetRacing]

I'm 6'0, 230lbs and 21+" wide shoulders.
I'm in a 94VD. The FEs are bigger....

[Jeff Read]

I'm 6'4" 230 and fit easily

[Zambo]

I'm 6 foot, 200 lbs and I fit with room to spare. No problems here.
Zambo

[dsmithwc04]

Zollie, I'm about a 35-40 minute drive north east of you. If you want to come check out the car and see how you fit I would be more than happy to have you up and check the car out.

[mstephenson51]

I too am considering the FE.

What can you guys tell me about:
Engine- How long is its life? I read that its injected with a sealed ECU. Is this great? Headache/tuning free?
Chassis- Some cars you spend all weekend chasing setups, some cars you tweek a wing and shocks a couple times and thats it... Where do the FE's fall?
Gearbox life- how long between major rebuilds? Are gears fragile/touchy?

If anyone is in the OKC or DFW area and willing to lemme check out your car let me know. Thanks!!!

[Marshall Mauney]

I too am considering the FE.

What can you guys tell me about:
Engine- How long is its life? I read that its injected with a sealed ECU. Is this great? Headache/tuning free?

Engine life is nearly indefinite - if you don't do anything to hurt it (i.e., run it too lean or over-rev massively) it will probably last longer than you own the car. It's tuned at a level where it's not heavily stressed - it's a 2.3l injected mill running comparable times to a 2.0l carbureted setup.

Chassis- Some cars you spend all weekend chasing setups, some cars you tweek a wing and shocks a couple times and thats it... Where do the FE's fall?

Springs are mandated, and shocks are single-adjustable - not much to do there. The front swaybar is adjustable, and you can set wings, rake, etc. Once you get the basic mechanical setup where you like it, it's a matter of adjusting aero balance vs. drag for the track, and setting the shocks.

Gearbox life- how long between major rebuilds? Are gears fragile/touchy?

Compared to what? Since the ratios are fixed, you'll spend a lot less time setting up your tranny - but you put a lot more wear on each gearset than you would in an open class, since you never change to alternates. If you're careful with your shifting, you'll get about the same time run time from them as any other open-wheel gearbox - and you'll spend a lot less time swapping ratios.

Now, the actuator can be a it finicky - but a number of people have gotten it figured out and can help you get it set up. Input shafts are the weak link, but if you don't do anything abusive to the car, they aren't a major problem.

[Caveat: Early on, the FE gearbox had a LOT of reliability issues, but the bugs have basically been worked out.]

Also: We have a tire rule, and tires are relatively inexpensive as race tires go.

[MAC Racing]

The motors will last seasons. My car is an early car and it is on its second motor. I put the current motor in three seasons ago and know of motors with 7 or more seasons.

The set up is fairly straight forward and only a few things that can be adjusted and barring rain there isn't much I change at the track.

The gear box is the one item that will require some looking after, I take the gear stack out between events and inspect the gears. Over the past few seasons we don't seem to be replacing gears as often so it might be overkill but changing a bad gear is better than waiting for it to fail and risk a total rebuild. It really is simple and can be done in a short time.

The car is really over built, large brakes and rotors so less replacing these, motors are low HP compared to the displacement so they last, lots of tire and they are spec and you must race on the set you qualify on so that helps control cost. Since the parts are spec its also not an arms race to develop the next latest and greatest parts.

Overall I would recommend one.

Mat

[Kazis31]

100% agree with all of the above.
great car.

[mstephenson51]

Thanks guys! Good info. Strongly considering one now.

So the EFI is all sealed? so no engine tuning at all?

[dsmithwc04]

Thanks guys! Good info. Strongly considering one now.

So the EFI is all sealed? so no engine tuning at all?

Nope, the only thing you can adjust is fuel pressure but this is not done through the ECU.

[MAC Racing]

The motor is sealed and the ECU comes programmed. So except for the fuel pressure no tuning allowed. I like it since it leaves more time to spend on driving and less on tuning.

Mat

[Joe Reppert]

No regrets. Maximum grins per dollar and minimum prep time in a high downforce car.

Joe
FE #47

[G.Rossman]

What is the expected price range on the FE. Almost all my looking has been FV so far.

[mikey]

What is the expected price range on the FE. Almost all my looking has been FV so far.

Expect to pay around $28K for a good, clean, well maintained car. Prices range from about 23K-34K and you pretty much get what you pay for. Recommend spend money on the car that has the updates and extra wheels. Spares are not necessary with the CSRs really. Unless you just like to tie up cash and haul stuff around.

[dsmithwc04]

My motor is fresh as well as my gearbox and came with receipts. My recent trip to the dyno proved this to be so. The car has every update I can think of except for floating rotors ($1200 upgrade!) and also came with three sets of wheels with a good set of rains and the others had okay practice slicks on them. I sold the AIM solo and stock Pi- C Dash with steering wheel and bought a CDS copilot 2+ that I upgraded to the newest firmware and have all 12 channels currently logging. I would expect around $31-32 if I was crazy enough to consider selling right now after the blast of a time I had at Gingerman a little over a week ago!

Between what I gather from others and my own limited experience with the car I just can't see any other racing being as cheap (relatively speaking) as FE and sure as hell no where near the performance per dollar. You could easily spend the same $ on a spec miata and still not be competitive nationally and still spend more money on the annual engine rebuild alone in SM than all running costs in an FE for a season less travel and maybe tires!

EDIT:

I only bring up Spec Miata because everybody thinks it's a cheap series to run in. Sure it is if your okay seeing the ass end of everybody else on track. $25k can buy a car that can compete nationally in FE as long as the pilot can drive and has a much better understanding than myself on setup.

[Kazis31]

FE rules.....