The 24 Hours of Lemons Forums → Lemons Tech → Tires poking past fender
I got talked into buying a comically large set of wheels for our e30 the question is in order to pass tech how substantial must the fender flares be? Will simple plastic flares suffice? Must the entire wheel all the way to the bottom of the wheel be covered?
Ive seen the video, that's why I'm asking. I saw back and forth conversations regarding what would constitute a tire cage which is also against the rules
The "tire cage" rule you refer to was from a time when contact was more prevalent and offense minded appendages started appearing. The intent of the rule is so you don't attach weapons of destruction to your car to move other cars out of the road. Since it's now no contact, the rule is sorta obsolete. The idea is to have something that prevents miata launching rubber on top of rubber contact. Plastic will break pretty quick and still result in what you see in the video. I would imagine you'll want something metal but avoiding un-reinforced sheet metal. I can't imagine you'd want something bigger than 1/4" tubing as your flare frame. Really, you should run your idea by Evil John.
Ok, the current plan is to use a second stock fender welded to the existing one.
We cut the side off another donor for the rear.
The end result being a ghetto wide body kit, with the gaps disguised as brake ducts with expanded sheet metal ... It can't be any uglier than the ones on the stock WRX am I right?
Here it is mocked up on another e30 
There are a ton of easy solutions to this problem.
I would get a steel rod and weld it to the inner lip to the new quarter / fender.
The other option is to just pick the cheapest solution.
Good Luck.
I saw an E30 (not a Lemons car) with very homemade box flares. They were simply sheet steel with external welded seams. Like E30 M3 flares but wider. There was no grinding down of the seam either. It was a good look - post-apocalyptic DTM?
This looks cool
You can get a trailer fender for about $25. Trim to suit and weld it on.
Tires can't stick out at all. Flares must be substantial enough to keep cars from climbing each other, so they should be sturdy metal. We will be unhappy with flesh-slicing sharp edges. You can make them out of trailer fenders, 55-gallon drum sections, barbecue grilles, whatever-- it's the end result we care about.
And not to rain on your Big Fat Tires and Everything parade, but every single E30 I have seen in Lemons with huge wide tires ended up being substantially slower around the track than it had been with ordinary stock-size pizza-cutters.
And not to rain on your Big Fat Tires and Everything parade, but every single E30 I have seen in Lemons with huge wide tires ended up being substantially slower around the track than it had been with ordinary stock-size pizza-cutters.
Lemonaid dominate on 205/50/15s in their E30
It turns out that BMW had pretty good engineers designing the E30's suspension around a certain tire size.
But Pontiac said "Wider is Better"
You're road racing not drag racing. sell those an get light rims that fit.
Big tires slow you down, they said. Put a 'Merican V8 in it, they said.
Those big meats will look great under there which is half the battle.
You should use this opportunity to rebody the whole car, not just "the fender"
BIG FAT MEATS!!!
OK truthfully - We raced in Mexico with big fat tires. We over-drove one corner and did a 180 degree spin. We tore the stock steering box off the chassis. Lesson learned. Weak point always fails first I never considered that something might not be strong enough to support the extra force added by the BIG MEATS. We were lucky. Our car stopped, in the sand, about 60 ft. from a ravine.
Too often you see racers exchanging wheel bearings - and they never figure it out.
b
I agree the car will be slower and less reliable but I've been out voted.
It is an excuse for a ghetto wide body to house those massive meats.
Fixed that for you
Judge Phil wrote:And not to rain on your Big Fat Tires and Everything parade, but every single E30 I have seen in Lemons with huge wide tires ended up being substantially slower around the track than it had been with ordinary stock-size pizza-cutters.
Lemonaid "completely lucks out" on 205/50/15s in their E30
Also, we would run more meat, but we're too cheap. We have 10 wheels already that fit the 205's.
I'd say go big and baller!!!!
I agree the car will be slower and less reliable but I've been out voted.
It is an excuse for a ghetto wide body to house those massive meats.
... Or go for the best of both worlds and just make a ghetto wide body with stock width tires.
With full rear fender skirts (like a 1st gen Honda Insight). you could try to make hypermiler-style the next "hella-flush."
But of course, there's always the "yet another cheaty e30 with a shitty theme route"
-g
What a coincidence....
On my Prelude, I went from 14 inch 195s, to 15 inch 205s, and now to 15 inch 225s....and I had to change the offset from the usual +35 or so, to a +10.
Of course, now that "scrub angle" thing is a bit off.
The car does handle differently, but I'm not so sure that it is better or faster....I'll need to have it test driven by someone who can drive better than me...!
But it looks "fast"!
I might scale back to the 205s, or just keep the 225 in the front? The whole "oversteer" and "understeer" balance has changed. I think that the going wider than 195s did give it more grip in the turns....my car seems to be a bit light on the rear end.
Anyways, at the last NH race, we did not pass tech because the 225 tires (on the +10 rims) stuck out. We switched the rears to 195s and built up frantically the front fenders to the liking of Judge Phil. The thin metal sheets I got at Home Depot would not be sufficient. The Russian Brotherhood came through, and we attached some heavy steel and aluminum plates with some heavy duty rivets (judges are not thrilled with riveted stuff, but ours were super heavy duty.), and in the end, it passed mustard with the honorable Judge Phil....in fact, he seemed a bit "impressed" with our handiwork....they were betting against us getting the fenders done....!
And, we put duct tape on the sharp edges...
Judge Phil took some photos...
http://www.murileemartin.com/UG/LNHF16/ … G_5197.jpg
http://www.murileemartin.com/UG/LNHF16/ … G_5256.jpg
http://www.murileemartin.com/UG/LNHF16/ … G_5944.jpg
and I think I will cut out some 55 gallon drums to use as fenders for the rear, as Judge Phil suggested for the next race...I think I kinda get the picture about how to go about it...
Z
The 24 Hours of Lemons Forums → Lemons Tech → Tires poking past fender
