Originally posted by Gtfour
View Post
-
Right on man! That was a good car. I learned and did a lot with that thing. I am very impressed Hugo is super committed to that car, he’s now owned it for twice as long as I had it! And he has done a great job at keeping it in good shape and putting his own touch on it. I can understand why he is attached! -
He listed for sale like 7-8 ago I think for 11000$. Everybody was like he is crazy; that’s way too expensive forOriginally posted by craz azn View Post
an E30…I was interested at that price back than but already had 4 cars and not enough storage space… Anyway, contacted him 2 years ago to see if he could be interested to sell and I think he was doing a big overhaul/maintenance on the car so he wanted to keep it…
Anyway after owning 17 E46 M3 and other M cars, finally bought a 1991 318is last month haha!2003.5 BMW E46 M3 Laguna Seca Blue/LSB 6mt
2006 BMW E46 M3 Individual Estoril Blue/Black 6mt
2024 Toyota Land Cruiser BlackComment
-
Not much progress in the last week and a half on the car... Once I'd managed to get it going mechanically to a point where it could move on its own, I sort of hit a mental roadblock on what to do next. As the obvious would imply, anything that isn't done, duh!!
"In the absence of clarity, keep moving"
Okay! I started onto another side of the project I was excited for, yet also dreading because it would be slow progress. The bodywork. I have a complete (but rough) plastic bumper/rebar/shocks for the rear, and a plastic front bumper skin for the front. In advance, I ordered plastic bumper sliders from the dealer to hopefully speed up the mounting process. The front popped on relatively easy...
You may recall earlier in the thread, I've mentioned I did a plastic bumper swap waaaay back in the day on my first E30, in the mid 2000s. But its funny because the issues I ran into here were nothing like what I remember from back then. My biggest problem was because the shape of the bumper bracket doesn't mesh with the contours of the rear quarters on the car at all... As I wanted to speed up this process, I sadly had to ditch the slider idea for the rear. So much for those expensive sliders lol. To affix the sides to the car, I just welded an L shape bracket onto the quarter, and used a dzeus fastener to hold it on. It will all be covered eventually with the bumper trim. I then riveted the sides of the bumpers together temporarily to hold them in place, and I plan to get them plastic welded when the car visits the paint shop.
Hmm... not bad for length... But I'll leave this job for a bit later, as I wanted to switch back to working on the front.
The front also had the mounting tab replicated from the original M Tech kit. I chopped it all off at approximately where the kit visually protrudes past the rubber bumper trim, as I plan to line it up under the plastic bumper trim.
Once I'd cut all three front skirt pieces, I then started to slowly cut the bottom section of the plastic bumper off a bit at a time... and temporarily fixing each piece on.
Not bad! Just need some minor adjustments... but overall, I can see the end result as I pictured! YES
Getting it ready to glass together... (yes, it is slightly wider than original...I now assume the plastic bumper itself is wider than a euro metal bumper)
Once the backside was glassed up, I removed the temporaily reinforcement tabs, and gave it a second layer.
And then time for the front to get some help
Lots of small skim coats to smooth out the rivets and also some waves in the skirt itself, but its looking quite good. I had to secure the side of the skirt with one dzeus fastener, and plan to put another two at the front when some extra clips show up in the mail.
Comment
-
More of the same... The front bumper is almost there. Maybe another skim coat or two, and I will call it good enough. The bodyshop can deal with the rest
The rear presented a different challenge. The sides went on relatively easy, and skirt coincidently lined up perfectly with the contour of the fender arch. Pretty awesome!
The issues I faced with the rear were: One, the exhaust cutout was in the wrong spot. I took the liberty to decide I wanted the exhaust coming straight out the back, which necessitated moving the cutout within the skirt. Seemed easy enough to cut, chop, and move it over. However, issue number two was that there was a massive bow at the bottom of the valance. I assume it was maybe in the mold, but I'll never know... only that it looked horrible, as it wasn't straight (parallel to the lines of the bumper area itself)
I gave it some thought for a day before I went back to attack it. I ended up screwing a small piece of wood to the bottom of the valance, in hopes to keep it all in position, as I fiberglass the inside of the skirt to give it some more rigidity. This was my temporary solution:
I'm up to two layers, some spots three... I started with some fiberglass mat to get into the slots and voids in the skirt. I then put on a second layer with some beefy heavy cloth which soaked up most of my resin, and in some areas: put a third layer, this time again with some mat to seal it in. I'll probably give it one more layer of mat before I pull the wood screws out to see how much it relaxes into its natural state.
Comment
-
Last week, I rolled the car outside to enjoy some sunshine... Finally! Glad to see the front bumper is pretty much there.
I took the liberty to try and move the car more than walking pace, so I could turn it around in the shop to refit the rear bumper. I still haven't sorted a seat solution yet, so a plank of wood had to do for the time being! Glad to say the car drove without any issue, no weird noises or anything. Definitely needs an alignment, and I'm also surprised by how light the steering feels so far at parking lot speeds. Eager to see how it feels once it gets onto the road.
Back in the shop... Got the rear bumper back on and starting to sand. Its a good 50% of the way there... Lots more work to straighten this thing out. And eventually I'll have to deal with shortening the bumper trim to suit. But I'll focus on that in another later post.
On the subject of seats, I had to give it a bit of thought what could be my fastest plan of attack. I decided to yank the passenger Recaro seat from my M3 as a temporary measure; its an SPG XL, so it will fit a variety of drivers, should the need arise. Sorry M3!
Luckily I could just pull the seat itself, as I had a few extra sets of sliders and side mounts kicking around...
I started to concoct a mounting base for the sliders, turned out okay. I had to drill two small holes in the floor to fit them, that is about the worst of the hackery to make this thing fit. Trying to go for maximum headroom, especially when accounting for sliders, etc.
Once it was all mounted... I could finally sit properly in this car for the first time. Sweet! Except for the obvious... why the heck is the steering column so far over to the passenger side?!
Turns out whoever did the driver fitment in this car from its previous life decided to move it all over, and crudely. I found a piece of square tube under the dash to lower, and offset the column, I assume for drive space/fitment.
I made up some aluminum spacers at work, slightly taller than the square tube, and stuck it all back together in the original position with longer bolts... Much better!
Some electrical updates in the next post!Last edited by craz azn; 05-17-2023, 07:53 AM.Comment
-
Next up was getting basic lighting to work. I recycled some of the wiring that came with the car, as well as adding a few extras for signal lights, and future plans like a rain light, cooler box in the trunk, etc. The lights are accessed by a breaker switch in the dash.
I am still on the search for some late model signal light housings, so I grabbed a pair of early model versions and temporarily ziptied them into the bumper so I would have functioning lights. I also dug up the hood and stuck that on with some hinges. Reinstalled a hood latch cable... funnily enough the lock itself was still in the rad support, so it was just a matter of hooking the cable up, and good to go. Got the car together enough for its first maiden voyage!
And a quick clip of that first drive. Not sure where it will end up in this post... but its here somewhere!
Glad to say there were no issues at all. Brakes need to be bled once more, and certainly needs an alignment... but other than that, the motor so far is faultless, trans shifts good... suspension feels good, no clunks or anything.
The following evening, I took it out again, but had an intermittent stumble... I think it was maybe near starving for fuel, because once I filled it up, it seemed to be okay.
I've got about 100-150km on it so far... hoping to do a few hundred more and then I'll think about dumping the break in oil, and refilling it with better stuff. I also installed a breather made out of some heater hose from the hardware store, so it wouldn't be just open and venting to nowhere. I still need to get a cap for the canister.
More driving impressions in the next update, and hopefully I'll have time to get around to the side skirts too!Comment
-
Last week was a busy one. Just tying up loose ends on the car to make it road and track worthy. Friday I had plans to take the car to its first shakedown at a local track, so I tried to get the motor broken in as much as I could with the short time I had to work with. In the evenings after work, I'd try to put at least 100km on it... as well as small little detail things each day.
One of the days I did a nut and bolt check. Everything checked out okay, but I did have to recheck the alignment, as I found the steering wheel to be slightly off. Total front toe was set to zero for the time being.
The following two days I spent time on making a dead pedal. I've always wanted to do this for the M3, so it was perfect that I could make one for this car and get some practice in with the dimple die. It is inspired by the factory Motorsport dead pedal, and it turned out really well for a first attempt.
The evening before the track day, I took the car out in the late afternoon with it still being light out (I'd always driven the car at night up until then), and I noticed an alarming sight... Upon hard high rpm throttle... it smoked. Blueish grey smoke to be exact... I stuck a GoPro on the trunk and did a quick highway pull to confirm what I was seeing... Somewhat dejected at what I was seeing, I pressed on anyways to take the car to the track. I changed the oil, did a second nut and bolt check, and packed the car.
I'm glad to say the car did the entire day perfectly fine, and it was also good to assess the car in other ways... My brake pads hadn't shown up in the mail yet, so I was running on a very brake heavy track with mismatched pads... stock front pads, and some aggressive rears make for an interesting ride after 2-3 laps when they start to fade! The slotted rotors kept the brakes smooth and clean, so I was very happy about that. Zero shakes, even after the end of the day. I do want to get power steering back into this car, as the extreme caster makes this car somewhat tough to steer or correct slides with quality inputs as so much effort is required.
As for the smoke, it has not improved, so I will need to pull it apart and reassess. So much for my gamble on the rings when I assembled the motor :( Chalk it up to a learning experience. The compression rings must be okay, because there is nothing in the catch tank, and the motor feels super strong. I'd guess its only the oil rings that need to be dealt with, but either way, it has to come apart. I'll probably dive into that towards the end of the month.
A quick clip from Friday at the track: definitely lively and entertaining! Some more setup, good pads, and proper tires required.
Comment
-
A bit of a hiatus with life, and other car-related plans getting in the way... but after a good month and a half of sitting, I'm back at it on this E30!
I took a chance with the pistons rings on this engine when I assembled it... turns out that was a bad call, as the engine was smoking a fair bit. I found a listing on summit racing by doing some searches and cross referencing ring sizes and brands online, and had success with an oversized Honda application made by Hastings... I wouldn't be able to use the top compression ring as they were too thick, but I could utilize the second, and oil rings from with my existing pistons. Score! Ordered two sets of those, so I could have enough to do a 6 cyl engine and waited for those to show up in the mail.
In the meantime, I set out onto ripping the car apart. It pains me, as I tried to keep everything super clean when I assembled it, and now things will get spotty and dirty, but it has to be done...
Ewwww... oily!
Everything looked okay inside engine, although my one surprise upon disassembly was that the rod bearings, which were brand new when I assembled it, looked like hell... After only a few hours of run time! Maybe my mistake to choose to use cheapo-brand bearings, but yeah, there was no way in hell I was putting those back in. That old adage rings true: Buy once, cry once! I ended up making a rush order for good name-brand bearings, these ones by Kolbenschmidt, and I have full faith in these going forward.
Gave everything a quick clean, and popped new rings in the block to test fit. The gaps looked good to me right out of the box, so I set on putting everything back together. Almost all back in!
I stopped once I got the pistons with the new rings and bearings installed. I turned my attention to the oil pan baffle, as I knew this was something this motor needed badly. Another arts and crafts adventure later, and I had a baffle!
I'm thrashing to get this motor back up and running by this coming Friday so I can take it to another track event where I'm instructing at... Wish me luck! Updates to follow in a few days from now...Comment
-
Thrash and dash completed! The car ran awesome! The night before the track day, I put about 100kms on it, very lightly, and headed to the track the next morning... the morning sessions I still took it very very easy. No smoke, no drama, good oil pressure.
I dumped out the break in oil at lunchtime between sessions and put some 20w50 back in, to try and see how it responded in the last two sessions of the afternoon. Very pleased to see the car ran like a top! Although, it being a super hot day, oil temps were on the hot side... nearly 120* C at some points! Some quick thinking between sessions allowed me to punch two holes into the lower valance, and this alone decreased temps by a good 10-15*C!! Excellent!
After the track event, I did a few things. First, I had a chance to weigh the car... mind you, this isn't entirely accurate as I still had the bars connected, but just to get an idea of overall weight... I actually expected this car to be a bit lighter.
And its funny that I continued to make it worse throughout the week. First... a stock trunk from one of my old cars! The fiberglass trunk that was on it didn't fit very nice, and I also wanted the convenience of locking the trunk, instead of a goofy looking slide pin. I did have to mess with the hinges a bit, as they were both bent... I presume from the accident the car had in its previous life before me, where a rear quarter was completely replaced after a tire wall incident.
I was surprised to see all of the trunk spring mechanism was still present on the car, so I hooked that up again. Also, I found out that early and later model trunk hinges are different. I have a spare set of '91 hinges, that I used as templates to bend back my '87 ones into a somewhat correct shape.
87 with holes, 91 without (I presume all 88+ E30s are the non-hole version)
I also had to throw a blob of weld into the trunk gutter to help fix the hinge pivot point, as the spot weld had broken off, and nobody had attended to it when the car had been fixed previously. This helped get the trunk alignment much better...
Unfortunately, there are still some telltale signs of the bodywork which I hadn't noticed until the stock, unaltered trunk was finally bolted down. The area of the right rear quarter above the taillight sticks out a bit... maybe something we can massage a bit better when the car eventually goes off to paint.
I took the time to finally get around to installing my replica M Tech II rear wing I bought for this car awhile back. I've somehow misplaced all the mounting hardware, so I had to make and find new stuff.
It took me a few attempts, but I got a nice stainless bracket made up for both sides, that puts adequate pressure on the trunk lid edge to pull the sides of the wing down, and threw in a big self tapping screw through the trunk to help give it some extra security.
I also got around to installing a power steering setup I got from a buddy... unfortunately the pump pictured was incorrect, and it has since been changed to another proper pump from an M20, with the correct brackets.
Went for a nice little evening drive to put some easy kms on it... Looking good! Drives so much friendlier with power steering... a worthy addition at the expense of some extra weight.
Comment
-
Some more small updates before the next track event:
I fixed my front valance botchery for the oil cooler venting... looks much better now.
Mounted some old leftover slicks from my previous E46 onto those cheap 17" wheels I scored earlier in this thread. They are a Miata cup car size, 225, a tad on the tall side for my liking for an E30, but it fits!
Found a chunk of leftover steel flat bar, a few drills and a hole saw later, I had some crude tie down hooks for the rear of the car! I made these the morning of the track day, so I will go back and revisit these to slim them down and not look so bulky.
Off we go! One of the first long tow adventures too for my X5! The track I'm off to is Calabogie, a very technical track hidden up in cottage country, about an hour North West of Ottawa. It's about a 3 hour tow for me.
At the track, things started out well. I did faintly smell something after a few warmup laps, thinking it was coolant... but I have water in the car, so maybe it was just another car on track. I stopped anyways to take a look, and swap the wheels onto the slicks I brought along with me. I noticed oil dripping out from the bottom of the car.. to me it looked like the seal on the power steering pump was leaking... weird! Because on all my street test drives, it had seemed fine. I figured I'd keep running it and deal with the mess on the car later... It wasn't a good idea. Within two sessions, and I think the added stress of slicks, it barfed all the fluid out, and I could feel the steering losing assist on the high G loaded corners. I ended up coming in, and removing the belt, and running the remainder of the day without power steering. I also had to pull the spacers out of the rear, to reduce some rubbing from the taller slicks. I'll bring a smaller set of spacers with me next time.
That oil sure made a heck of a mess lol. Looked like a bomb went off under the hood, and under the car! Even all down the left side of the car too! Yuck! Ah well, nothing a good wash can't fix!
Not much for on track photos but a buddy caught some from far away on his phone:
And some on track footage:
(Sorry I'm still failing at embedding videos into my posts)Comment
-
After a thorough clean up, I gave it some thought, and decided to stick with the stock pump. I ended up replacing the puked pump with the pump I tried earlier in this thread that was 90 degrees off. I modified some of those brackets with a bit of elongating the holes, and some minor welding on the smaller bracket at the back to make sure it was secured as well as original. After installing all that, everything seemed well!
I decided to crack onto a job I've been dreading for awhile... side skirts! I mustered up the courage to start cutting off those fabricated box looking things that were done by the roll cage builder many moons ago. I was surprised to see a fairly beefy bracket system welded onto the car holding everything on!
Cut off the brackets and that fender arch spat that was covering the tire which was unfortunately welded, and bondoed into the quarter.
Admittedly, some of the fit on these skirts are not the best, nor is the car for that matter, the lower areas of the front fenders specifically. Turns out they'd been repaired once previously, and it created some more fitment issues, as it was basically another layer of metal on top of the existing rusty bits. I had to cut, hammer, and manipulate them to better fit the skirts.
I also found some bondo in the rear rear quarter which I scraped off as best as I could. Hammered some of the high spots, and left it in primer, to be dealt with another day at the paint shop, whenever that happens.
Once the skirts were fitted roughly, I bonded the front and rear sections together.
I don't have many pictures of it in progress, but all of the ears that run up the fender arches, I had to fill, to get the contours more appropriate against the fenders/quarters. I started by putting packing tape onto the car, and bolting the skirts onto the car. From there, I would fill the gaps, and sand as needed. It took me a few days of this back and forth, but they look presentable, and a good start for the bodyshop to deal with.
Last edited by craz azn; 08-30-2023, 11:52 AM.Comment
-
I drove the car around a bit, and called the second stock power steering pump good. No leaks, felt good... Success!
I decided to concentrate on a bit of suspension setup before the next track event. I felt that the front end could be a bit softer, so I dug up a pair of 450lb Swift springs I had kicking around to replace the off the shelf ISC front spring, which is in the ~560lb range. I also took the time to jam some packers under the bumpstops to get them to engage earlier, as the way things things looked with the Swift spring left a lot of bump travel which wouldn't even get near the bumpstop range. I had a bunch of these leftover in different sizes when I made these a few years ago for my M3.
On the day of the track event, I started off slowly on the street tires. Everything seemed fine in the morning...
However as soon as I bolted my second set of wheels onto the car (with slicks), the second power steering pump gave up too! :(
What a shame. The car was running so well too. Ah well... its only an oily mess to clean... right? Almost a liter of oil, all over the engine bay, in and on the frame rails, and all underneath lol. Back at the shop, I washed it all as best as I could, and tried to put in a small amount of oil. Yep.. right out the pump. Crap.
I couldn't quite understand what was happening... if the lines were causing an issue, or if the rack was the culprit. Ever since I got this car, I felt there being a tight spot in the steering while turning right, so I figured now was the best time as ever to just replace everything. Going Electric, new lines, another used rack.
Back when the first pump gave up, my kneejerk reaction was the electric pump solution, as I've always wanted a setup like this... practically a month later, the electric pump did show up in the mail, coincidently just as the second stock pump failed. So it was a no brainer to throw this all in... only issue being I was tight for time, as I had yet another track event booked, less than six days after when the second pump failed.
The unit I'm using for the power steering comes from a Mercedes Benz, and it's a tall unit luckily with a relatively small foot print. I started to mock it up in the car with a crude looking bracket to start, which I'll go back and redo a bit later with something slightly better. The only non-reversible item I had to do was weld some mounting plates into the frame for that bracket to solidly attach onto.
In hindsight, I should have mounted the pump even lower, as it ended up conflicting with the stock airbox... maybe something to deal with later when I redo the lower mounting bracket. I had some hydraulic lines made up, and got that all plumbed in. Wired up... works amazing!
I buttoned up the power steering and a replacement used steering rack swap two days before the track event. The evening before the track I'd saved to do an alignment and pack up... but I had a hard time getting an alignment set on this thing. I was a bit weirded out as I was making small adjustments, yet somehow getting results that were way off each time! After each change, I drove the car, and it felt strange too, nervous almost. I tried multiple pairs of wheels on the front to try and pin point what was happening, but couldn't really come to a conclusion aside from the rack being suspect. Each turn of the wheel landed the steering to center in the different spot from last time... and having prior experience with a steering rack literally breaking on another past project car of mine, I was not going to take chances, especially on a track car. I ended up having to do another steering rack swap (this time rack #3) and forfeit most of my track day.
Rack #3... this is getting tiring!
At least I got a good system down now, to keep the steering wheel straight while installing the new rack on my own, lol. tape ftw!
I hustled to the track, even though I had given up more than half of the track time. I didn't care if I only got 5 laps in, I just wanted redemption at this point! And it was well worth it. Those slicks have definitely fallen off massively, but it was still a good time. I got about half an hour of run time in. All the steering components were working well, so I can call that a success!
Comment
-
Back with a few more updates, mostly cosmetic.
I fitted a new tail light to the passenger side, but found that the previous bodywork done to the car didn't allow for the taillight to sit flush. What was a five min job turned into an hour between hammering the body and trial fitting the new light repeatedly... The upper corner/inner flange of the tail light on the quarter panel area was sticking out a bit too far. I eventually got it acceptable... not perfect, but it's okay enough for a track car.
I then focused my attention to the front bumper, to try and tidy that up. I gave it a try to plastic weld some damaged bumper trim I had kicking around... the pieces where the reflectors go seemed to fill up well... but the corner pieces that were missing cracked straight away upon install... oh well. Good sanding practice I guess... and for the small cracks, it wont matter anyways for a track car which will get blasted eventually.
I forgot I was still missing some proper signal lights for this bumper, as I'd been using metal bumper lights up until now. With the bumper trim finishing off the front end, I set about making some temporary signal light lenses.
Quick print at work:
Aaaand, done!
Only mechanical updates in the last little while was the addition of a custom heatshield to help out that chopped up airbox after the power steering retrofit.
The car did end up going to the track once this past month, but it wasn't with me behind the wheel. I brought the car to the track for a day, for my buddy, the previous owner, to take it out for the day, as I'd promised to him awhile back. I'm glad to report the day went flawlessly and the car was perfect! The shocks still need some attention as my buddy said he felt like the car rides like a pogo stick lol, but I'll try to mess with that stuff hopefully before the snow flies up here. I may need to do yet another spring change to compliment those shocks.
Photos from the track:
Comment
-
So I left off on the saga in late September, after I let my friend/previous owner of the car use it for a track day he was instructing at. His only gripe was the car being very 'bouncy' and rides like a 'pogo stick' lol... Somewhat indicative of a car sprung too stiff. Odd, considering the spring rates are rather tame. I decided to install yet another lighter pair of front springs, knowing full well it wouldn't solve anything, but the opportunity would give me a chance to look over the entire front end, reset all the damper heights to even heights, and just a general nut and bolt checkup.
I had another instructor day planned for myself mid October. I popped on those cheap $200 OZ wheels with ancient RA1s and set out to try and finish them off that day... and that I did! Drifted the crap out of the car all day... it was a great time. Zero mechanical issues... Because I had a trouble free day, I set out to try and sort some of the handling maladies the car was exhibiting. Each session I tried a massive sweep of the damper settings, one end of the car at a time. I am still not entirely impressed with the on-track performance of these ISC shocks... but the best I could settle on for the day was the front at full Hard, and rears at full Soft.
Late night pizza run/test drive before the track day
And at track
Haha dieeeee... I love RA1s. Some of the best tires ever created! So much fun in every scenario. I'll probably keep these wheels as the rain set from here on out, as they're pretty heavy.
I had a plan to try and pinpoint what was going on with the handling of this car before the year was out. After this past event as our local 'small' track which is good for use in a technical aspect, I wanted to know what the car would do on our 'big' track next door, which is where our local region predominately races on. I signed up with our local BMW Club for their last HPDE event, to run in the solo group. I decided to focus solely on the rear suspension for this event, and brought along two extra pairs of rear springs, and three pairs of shocks. Bilstein Sports, AST single adj, and Koni double adj (stolen off my M3 for this test).
What a cold day to be at the track, only a few degrees above freezing! Yikes!
Due to the schedule being very tight and some sessions back to back... I made myself a work schedule which would allow me three laps per setup, and have adequate time in between to install the new shocks on my own, and get back out before the end of the second back to back session.
I tried the ISC, as-is from the previous event. Extremely bouncy, as my buddy had commented. It was controllable, but not fast as I was constantly fighting the car. Next, I tried the Bilsteins... clearly not enough shock, but it was a configuration I was familiar with from street use E30s, and one I could relate to. Sadly, it was equally as horrible, in the opposite direction. It felt way soft, almost like it was letting the entire car weight bounce around, especially noticable from apex to track out, and worse when a bump was introduced mid corner (Mosport has gotten pretty bad for that in recent years)... The best way I could describe it is driving a car that has huge sidewall tires and they're nearly flat. Not confidence inspiring.
For the thid session, I bolted the Konis on from my M3... and right out of pit lane, it felt very familiar and right on the money. I was probably a bit too confident with feeling it out on the out lap that I decided to go hard right from lap 1 and try to build a gap to the faster cars behind me in the corners so they wouldn't disturb my lap when we got to the backstraight. Well, I didn't get to second turn lol.
I started to understeer wide in the first turn, plainly from going too quick on cold tires. When I reached the apex, I'd forgotten to remember there was a reference pylon at the exit of the corner, right in the line of where I would normally drive in a race environment. With that short distance left, I made a split second decision to go outside of the cone, which involved a massive steering correction, ultimately upsetting the car big time. I got into the grass, it spun me sideways, and I tried to spin it around the other way and lock it up so the nose would spin around and I'd be backwards to track direction, but the car unfortunately kept going on its diagonal trajectory, and I tapped the wall with the left rear corner.
Oh... that didn't feel too bad! I drove back to the pits to survey my new handiwork. I was super surprised to see how much the car crumpled, and also, shifted! The entire rear end moved quite a bit... luckily all cosmetic, as my wheels and suspension were unharmed. But it will definitely need a pull on a frame machine before I deal with anything on this car.
What I'd found out after back at the shop: The tires definitely contacted the inner fenders, and my right front tire had huge scuff mark which felt like driving on a flatspotted tire, but clearly it was mangled from getting stuck on the footwell area of the fender well. This sort of explains why when I cranked the wheel and mashed on the brakes to get the nose to pivot around, it didn't go, because the one tire was indefinitely stuck... My fault for not making sure I had adequate wheel and steering clearance, and also running very tall sized tires.
Back to the drawing board!!Comment
Comment