Vorshlag $2010 GRM Challenge car - BMW E30 V8

[Jean]

Saw pics of the car in the latest GRM. Are you guys going to remove some weight from it to make it faster? :)

[Fair!]

Autocross Report, March 6, 2011: I was very glad that the BMWCCA had an event this past weekend - couldn't have asked for a better group, site or timing to test our E30. I got up early Sunday morning to 28°F temps and was a bit worried, as the forecast was 45-65°F for the day. I defrosted the truck while I loaded the rest of the gear in the trailer then drove the ~50 miles to the TMS site on Sunday morning and unloaded. Even with the cold temps the car started up at the first crank when I backed it out. Drove the car around on the access roads circling the Speedway facility and did some 60 mph stops to bed the new pads in, and the pedal effort dropped from "OMFG I can't press any harder!" and improved to "Yikes this is a firm pedal!". The 285mm A6 Hoosiers had traction issues at even light throttle in the first 3 gears, due to the cold.



Costas arrived and we walked the course, which looked like another great layout designed by VTPP testers and racers JJ and Ken O. We worked the first heat and then brought the E30 into the grid area to run. Costas drew the short straw and drove first, on cold brakes and tires. His first run was pretty hairy and he said the handling was terrible, with a few choice words throw in. By his 2nd run he had some tire heat, as it was now in the 50°s out and the tires were gripping a little better.



Costas' 3rd run was a bit of trouble (I've been there in the same car, brother!), but he saved his best for last - on his 4th run he got into the 49.7 second range, which was almost respectable in the "Z" class up until then (3rd). In the same class there were some heavy hitters, like the 2010 BSP Nat'l champion's EVO (AST/Vorshlag equipped, now owned by VTPP tester Jeremy Foley) and some other hot shoes, and the E30 in its current condition was pretty over-matched.

He was having to brake only in a straight line, coast through corners due to some weird mid-corner handling maladies, and virtually never getting the car into full throttle. It wouldn't stop, turn or accelerate in anything but a dead straight line. Between his 4 back-to-back runs (that's how this club runs the events) I was checking tire pressures, cycling the video camera, shooting still pics, and getting his feedback - none of it good.



We switched places and I took to the course with hot brakes and tires (thanks!), but quickly found out how bad it was. WOW, I haven't driven a car that handled this badly in ages. "This thing corners like a big bag of sh*t!" Right from the start it had no grip through 1st or 2nd gear, and that first turn was an eye opener. WTF did we do? It was worse than at the GRM Challenge, and THAT was pretty damned awful (where I spun the crap out of the car). Brakes locking easily (inside front), no rear grip, and no grip mid-corner. It wasn't the shocks or the front camber, which were about the only two things I had any faith in. Did we have massive caster and weight jacking? Something weird was going on. And there was a terrible rattle from the rear suspension. I got a bit quicker through my runs, and my 3rd was my quickest, running about the same as Costas did.



As the pictures (Costas shoots more and better than I) clearly show us now, the E30 had a LOT of body roll. Some of this was masked because we had to avoid trail braking due to front tire locking (the custom ABS still is not working), but its there in several pictures. My initial thoughts of running 700#/in or stiffer front spring rates were probably more in the ballpark than the 500#/in springs I went with. Should have gone with my gut! We only have the stock 325e (tiny) front swaybar and NO rear swaybar which only made the "lean" matters worse. Gotta find some bigger bars for this thing, but the stock rear mounts are long gone, so it'll have to be custom built back there. Ideas are already brewing.



But there was still something else BIG that was wrong. Even with a LOT of body roll it shouldn't have been this pushy mid-corner. But as you can see in the picture below, left, it had way too much bodyroll. That's Ken O's E46 M3, STU prepped, who beat my time in the morning by a solid 1/2 second, on Dunlop street tires. He's always fast but the E30 with more power, 900# less weight and 285mm A6s should have been quicker. He was having driftoro fun on the last corner on his 4th run, with some newly found horsepower.

http://www.lscbmwcca.org/autox_resul...3-06-11%29.htm = results (we were up in 4-5th spots earlier but fell back after Z class ran 4 more runs in the afternoon)



Looks like most folks went considerably faster in the afternoon runs, which we skipped. It warmed up considerably later that day so that is to be expected. Still, we were pretty far off the pace in the morning runs, and it turned like a greased pig. What did we miss? Turns out there was a problem with both the front toe and to a smaller degree the rear camber.



I went today and got the car spot check aligned and the numbers were embarrassing. That 1° of toe on the alignment sheet above is almost a full inch of front toe-out! We confirmed this here at our shop with a quick toe plate measurement showing 7/8" total front toe-out. OMFG, how'd we forget to check that??? Stupid, stupid mistake. Somehow in the rush to finish the front spindle/hub/rotor/caliper part swap and messing with ride height and springs we neglected to re-set the front toe. So that explains the mid-corner push. The rear camber is also a bit excessive (and uneven), and that's hurting rear grip and forward traction, as is the lack of toe-in on the rear wheels (we normally run 1/4" total toe in the rear of most BMWs), which is also uneven side to side. So we have to make the rear control arms adjustable for toe and camber (its some welding/drilling work, but doable), and fix the front toe (already done today), then go up on the spring rates dramatically and see about a front swaybar upgrade and rear swaybar solution. Matt has some stiffer rear springs (up from the 680s we had in there) ordered and inbound from Hyperco.

At least we got 8 solid runs in on Sunday without much incident - no leaks, engine ran great, trans was working in all gears, and the brakes are working better. So even through it handled so badly I'm still glad we did this event. It was a positive test - told us what to work on next. Well, we had one issue - we were seeing so much bodyroll that on one of my morning runs the front fender still cut into a front tire a bit, so we skipped our afternoon runs to be safe and save the front A6s from more damage.

So there were some big lessons relearned, some new work added for this week, then I'm heading to MSR-Cresson on Friday for testing and Saturday to run TTU with NASA on the 3.1 mile course in the E30. Just with the front toe reset it already has to be a lot better. And Sunday is our first autocross in the 2011 Mustang, running with the Texas Region SCCA. Busy busy!

Cheers,

[zxert]

Great thread and documentation. Though one thing I would like to see is a budget layout. This is exactly the type of project I'm building. Except my budget is small because I spend all my money on Chipotle.

[Fair!]

Project update for March 28, 2011: Prepare for a huge update! This should have been posted in at least 4 or 5 separate thread updates, as I've raced in 8 separate events over the last 4 weekends since my last thread update; 7 times in the Mustang and 3 times in the E30 V8. Each event had hundreds of pictures and videos that had to be cropped/uploaded - the pictures are up for now. March was an extremely busy month for the business as well as for the prep of our cars, too, so I'll try to cram the updates all into one mega post for both projects, so I can get back to work (might have to break it apart if I exceed forum limits for a single post). I'll try not to get so far behind next month, which thankfully doesn't have 8 racing events crammed into 4 weekends, like March did.

March 6 - BMWCCA Autocross (E30)

After re-writing this event coverage I realized I had already covered this event in this post - damn my memory. Anyway, it was good to get the E30 running again after a winter of hibernation and neglect. The month of March began with frantic prep to our E30 V8, with another Camaro V6 T5 being offered up to the Gods of Torque, as well as loads of other prep to get it ready for its first autocross in 6 months as well as its first ever on-track excursion and a NASA Time Trial event.



After this autocross on March 6th we spent the next week on prep work on the E30 and the Mustang, prepping the 5.0 for its first autocross event as well as a NASA TT event for both cars. After seeing how badly the car handled in a parking lot we quickly scaled up the track prep on the E30, and the prep on the Mustang was scaled back considerably. We went to the NASA event and SCCA autocross with minimal updates to the Mustang - the same 265mm AD08 street tires, same spring rates, same shock valving, and same brake pads. This set-up was still under-prepped for both TTB and STX classes.

The E30 got a real alignment (first ever) and we noted a lot of wacky numbers, most of which are not adjustable (rear toe or camber) yet. Still, we know where it is now, so we can cut/weld/hack up the rear control arm mounts to get it in the ballpark we want. And... of course we fixed the front toe. We also swapped in stiffer springs all around - 800# in front and 950# in rear (up from 500#/630#). Since we now have sticky 285mm A6 Hoosiers, a wimpy OEM front bar (12mm?) and no rear bar, we needed much more spring rate to keep bodyroll in check. Ride height was lowered substantially as well. The external water temp gauge was also finally wired-up, which was a relief.

March 11 - MSR Test Session (E30)

First track outing in the E30, so I was a bundle of nerves. It was SO bad at the autocross the weekend before but we had made a LOT of updates in the days proceeding. On Friday afternoon I went out to MSR-Cresson with the E30 in tow, joining Hanchey (AST-USA), who took his ex-World Challenge Subaru out there for the first time since he bought it and his crew went through the car stem to stern. Since we both had untested set-ups we watched each other's cars from the hot pit area on the initial outing in each. He went out for a few laps while I watched, came in for some checks, then I did the same, and once we were certain both cars had no errant fluids or loose bits, we took them both out for some chase/follow laps.

Hanchey led and I filed in close behind (with video - I'll edit/upload it "soon"), but after a couple of laps I got a point by - which I hadn't expected - and then motored away. Considering the E30 had 60mm more tire per corner, 100+ more horsepower, and 600 pounds less weight, it shouldn't have been a surprise... but this was still a $2000 hoopty (with some better wheels and shocks thrown on) in my eyes, so I was ecstatic. The brakes still sucked, but were at least better (and consistent) than before with new PFC-01 track pads front and rear. We had an hour (from 5 to 6 pm) that we could run laps in, and we used nearly every minute on track. The E30 proved to be quicker than I had hoped, for as cautious as I was driving its first time out - with no tachometer. Or fuel level gauge. Or cooling fan. Pretty much all of the OEM gauges/switches were dead. Hmm...



After the hour of track time expired I was smiling from ear to ear and had logged a good amount of miles on track in the car without any drama. Sure, the gauges didn't work (other than the external water temp gauge that we finally hooked up) so I had to guess at the RPMs, but it didn't seem to matter - it was fast. Hanging out in the well equipped AST-USA trailer was nice. DL-1 data from Hanchey's car showed 1:24 laps on the 1.7 mi CCW course, and the E30 was a bit quicker than that. After applying a gaggle of decals and waiting in the long tech line I managed to get a NASA logbook for the little Bimmer that night (with an admonishment to "please get a seat back brace" for the aluminum seat, which we've since ordered). Leaving tech it was pitch black out, so I turned on the headlights - AHA! - the stock gauges worked again. I had a functional tach & fuel level once more, so long as the lights were on. Something tells me the wiring for the recently connected external gauge hook-ups might need a second look? I loaded the E30 back into the trailer, unhooked the truck, and headed for Costas' house.

See part 2 below...

[Fair!]

Part 2...

March 12 - NASA Time Trial (Mustang and E30)

We crashed there that night and Amy, Costas and I went back to the track Saturday morning for the first race day of the NASA weekend. Even after thrashing all week on his own GT-1 car, Costas ran out of time and ended up driving another racer's GT-1 Camaro in "SU", Super Unlimited. The car owner, Mike Countryman, ran it in "TTR". Amy ran the Mustang in TTB again, and I entered the E30 V8 in TTU. The event weekend was to be run on the traditional 1.7 mile MSR loop in CCW direction, but the Time Trial group was so numerous that they couldn't fit all of us on the track at once. Somehow the NASA Texas folks managed to get the TT group onto the 3.1 mile course, which was really cool since I had never run this configuration (but had run the 1.7 and 1.3 mile courses, which combine to make the 3.1).

Since NASA had never run the 3.1 there, that meant not many NASA racers had run this layout. So the first session on Saturday was simply to be a "practice", and lap times would count for nothing more than grid position in session 2. So I took it easy in the session, looking for the bumps (mentioned at the driver's meeting) where the two courses joined. Sure enough, it was pretty bumpy at both junctures. These bumps combined with copious grip form the 285mm Hoosier A6 tires and ample torque from our 5.3L V8 combined to do a number on yet another transmission. On almost the last lap of the first TT session I was building up speed and applying a lot of throttle on the semi-straight where the 1.7 joined the 1.3, heavily in 3rd gear...

The bump sent the car skittering every lap, and this time I unfortunately still had my foot in the throttle when it landed... BOOM! 3rd gear exploded from the on-off shock loading and hot, grippy Hoosiers. I didn't know what had happened, it sounded like the driveshaft or a U-joint had exploded (or so I hoped!). I pulled off line immediately and off track at the next corner station, at the bottom of the 1.3 mile course, and hopped out for a look. The grass blocked my view of the driveshaft but I noticed no fluid trail or errant parts on track. I was about to try to start it up again when the tow vehicle arrived, so I went back on the hook. As I piled out I noticed my transponder wasn't attached - damn! No lap times. My AMB transponder was charging inside my truck. I have no idea what times I ran, but I followed some TTA cars for several laps that were running somewhat quick times (2:28 times).

• Results: http://www.mylaps.com/results/showevent.jsp?id=632206 (of course they aren't up on the NASA website yet; check back in 2012)
• Pictures: http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-E...-MSR-C-031211/

After returning to the pits I had to quickly jump into an HPDE1 student's car, so I didn't get a chance to look at the E30 for a while. Turns out it was only 3rd gear that let go, same as before, so it could have made it back to the pits in 4th. Oh well, it was done for the day. Meanwhile Amy was having fun in TTB in the Mustang, and ended up pulling down some times in the 2:40 range range. She ran 3 full TT sessions and tossed the keys to me at days' end, so I got to run in the 4th. Thanks, Amy!



I had a blast in the Mustang, as did my DE student who rode along, and I managed a 2:39 lap. I quickly noticed that the brakes were less than stellar in the session, which she had stated several times that day. I guess the stock pads were finally done. My DE student's EVO X could out-brake the Mustang handily (with similar Brembo brakes and weight... but race pads), so I decided then and there to order up some race pads on Monday. Costas finished the day with 2 wins in SU after making some patient passes and careful laps in the borrowed GT-1 car. VTPP tester Paul Magyar ran his 2011 GT in TTB for the first time on some 275mm Dunlops and did well. Hanchey ran just two sessions in TTB (spending the afternoon tuning some autocross cars at LSP) and pulled down 2:32 times, very respectable for just a 225mm tire and Legacy GT power. Vorshlag/AST tester Ken O finished with a win and new lap record in TTB in his E46 M3, running a blistering 2:24.9, and on Sunday jumped up to TTA for another win and the TTA track record for the weekend. Nice work!



March 13 - Texas Region SCCA Autocross (Mustang)

The next day we had entered the Mustang in Texas Region SCCA's autocross #1 for the year, held out at Lone Star Park. Costas and I were to run it in STX and Amy in the PAX factored "W" class. The course was somewhat tight and the unsealed asphalt surface comes apart badly, making for low grip conditions, so we went out for our first autocross in the Mustang with little more than cautious optimism.

• Results: http://autocross.com/tr/2011_1_final.html
• Pictures: http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-E...CA-LSP-031311/

Costas and I noticed that the Mustang wouldn't stop from higher speeds in 2nd gear well at all, and we couldn't get it to rotate without coming in hard on the brakes. So we fought the car all day, cursing the worn-out stock brake pads and pushy front end. We finished 2nd and 3rd in STX, probably better than we deserved for such a completely unsorted car. In 5 runs Costas ran a best of 52.395 and I ran a 52.357, less than .040 sec apart, .5 sec behind Ledbetter in his well prepped STX 328is - Hanchey had spent the previous afternoon tweaking this car at this same site as well as Mark Berry's FP Evo. We PAXed 22nd and 23rd out of 109, which was not good. Brad Maxcy drove Ladbetter's car in STU class, running a 51.224 run earlier in the day on a slightly-less-gravel-covered course, showing us how far back we really were. Amy was almost a second back from us in W, placing 2nd as well.

We knew the car needed some serious test time, more grip, some major braking improvements, and a race seat + harness installed, as the stock seat was not keeping us in place. But we had no time for autocross testing, as the next 2 weekends had a National Tour and a ProSolo in store. Not typically the events what you enter a completely untested car in, but they were in our back yard so we had to go to help get the entry numbers up.

Since the E30 was down for a while (we're now looking for yet another T5) we spent the next week in a mad scramble of parts buying and prep on the Mustang. We ordered Hawk DTC-60 race pads for front and rear, 2nd day aired via FedEx to get them in time for my Wednesday night departure for Houston. We also ordered some Toyo R1R tires to arrive at a friend's shop in Houston on Friday, after seeing some back-to-back testing between Hankooks and Toyos at Sunday's autocross on Su and Stan's STR Miata.



I also borrowed a race seat from Paul M to take a look at the bracket he bought for his Mustang and EVO3 seat + Sparco slider, and I made one similar for our car + slider + Kevlar Suzuka seat. The seat bracket took me about 6 hours to make, using 3/16" thick x 1.5" wide steel plate. AJ and I put the lap belt part of a 6-point harness in, a stock seat belt buckle, the seat bracket + Sparco slider + Cobra Suzuka seat installed by 4 pm Wednesday. The slider allowed for 18+ inches of fore-aft travel, but without my co-drivers present that day (Costas and Amy) I had to guess where to put it (ended up being too far rearward). And yes, I know - going on track with a fixed back seat and no 28 point roll cage is a bad idea... instant death... spontaneous combustion... yes, I know. Save your typing. ;)

The front DTC-60s arrived but the rears missed their delivery (you suck, FedEx!) and we went to the track with the new track pads on the front only. Oh well, hoped it would be better. Cleaned it up and loaded into the trailer.

That's all of the E30 racing coverage for March. You can read more of our March racing antics here.

[Fair!]

Project Update for August 12, 2011: So the E30 has been ignored for the past 4 months while we figure out what we are going to do with it. If you happen to be keeping count, like we are, we have broken two T5 transmissions in 5 days of racing, which is a pretty crappy statistic. Do we put another T5 in it, or try to find a way to do a better transmission in this $2011 budget? I mean, sure, we have another whole dollar added to the budget this year. :D


The latest victim (left), and the asshat (right) that broke it (me)

I know why both T5s broke, and we can avoid the "techniques" of failure pretty easily. The 2nd T5 broke with me driving it, poorly, doing things any sane racer would avoid. I was doing the same things that break T5 manuals in A/Sedan and CMC cars that still use them, namely: axle hop under power and other violent loading/unloading of the rear tires over bumps at full power. The 285 A6 Hoosiers on the 18x11's at the NASA TT event were getting hot and sticky, and I was driving over an "unavoidable" bump (in a rarely used section of track that joins the 1.3 with the 1.7 mile courses at MSR-C) at WOT in 3rd gear, with the rear tires skating over the bump in the meat of the torque curve. This shock loaded the rear tires and the drivetrain violently in 3rd gear, which is known to be the weak link in these transmissions. After about a good number of laps like this, with the tires gripping harder each lap, it finally went BOOM!, ripping the teeth from 3rd gear. That doesn't happen in an autocross scenario, and shouldn't happen in a dragstrip run if you shift smoothly. We had zero issues with 2 drivers beating on the car back in March at an autocross, and I drove the piss out of the car at MSR the day before it broke on the 1.7 mile course, where I didn't have any big bumps jumping in front of me. "That f*cker came out of nowhere!"

What To Do with this E30?

So what do we do with this big mess of a car? We could stick a T56 in it and make it a fun little track rat, but there were so many budget-forced parts compromises made along the way we'd want to change the brakes, put in a lighter LS1 motor, etc. Or stick yet another T5 in it and take it to the $2011 Challenge?? Mostly we've been doing like the politicians lately - kicking the can down the road, delaying the decision.


A little aero, some Tilton master cylinders, and a stout trans = fast and reliable track rat?

And we've been plenty busy with other projects and work in those 4 months. The blue TTD 330 got a fresher motor (which itself was quite a project to buy/extract), the 2011 Mustang was getting all sorts of stuff/racing during that time frame, the white 330 was getting the LS1/T56 swap started, and the new shop construction/move has kept me buried for weeks. But in the past 2 weeks we put the Mustang on hold (not taking it to SCCA Nationals for various reasons - mostly "it isn't ready"), the 330 is back together and awaiting a new prototype engine balancer, and the white 330 is not getting touched again until we're moved into the new shop. We have about one more week in the old little shop before we move, and the new lift might be 1-2 weeks until its installed at the new location. So anything needed to be done on the lift needs to be done now.



But do we want to touch this mess of an E30, or just pour some gasoline on it and make a big bonfire? Swapping the T5 is a bunch of work - we have to pull the entire drivetrain to get to the bellhousing bolts, and its never a fun job. Its "easiest" to pull the exhaust, then extract the rear axle assembly, then remove the driveshaft, then disconnect all of the lines and hoses, then drop the K-member/drivetrain out as a unit. And none of this is actually easy.


Click either "page" above for expanded view. Buy the Oct 2011 GRM issue for the entire article!

But the "October 2011" issue of Grassroots Motorsports magazine just arrived in our mailbox yesterday. Starting on page 66 there's a nice 8 page color article detailing the Vorshlag E30 V8 and the white turbo E30 of Condor Speed Shop, with pictures taken at the $2010 Challenge. Dang, that's pretty cool - our humble little $2010 crapcan made it into their magazine?! Well we've got to go back now...

$2011 Challenge Event - ITS ON!



So I've been trying to find another Camaro V6 T5 (its all we can afford in this meager budget), and should be picking one up from a CraigsList guy this weekend. We've already reinstalled the smaller 11.5" E36 brakes, spindles, and crappy struts back on the front of the car, since the 15" steel wheels won't clear the 12.5" M3 rotors (we tried). Plus the AST 4100s we had on there for the MSR track event won't fit this $2011 budget, of course.



Right now the rear axle and driveshaft are out and the motor & trans (plus K-member and front suspension) have been dropped out of the engine bay. While its empty the engine compartment will be spruced up with a rattle can paint job, probably in gloss grey. We've got some ideas on a new external "paint scheme" that will require no actual painting, since we suck at that. A new vinyl plotter and a bunch of scrap vinyl can produce plenty of things to distract the eye with.


The "fake ASTs" are back on the car (blown Konis), which we used at the $2010 event


The engine + trans + K-member + suspension + headers dropped right out the bottom!

Next weekend there is a practice autocross event we can make, so we're trying to get the car ready. We can do SO much tuning and development at a dedicated practice event, compared to a competition autocross where we get 3 or 4 timed runs. Costas and I will tune the handling as best we can on the crap shocks we have for the $2011 Challenge, playing with tire pressures, ride heights, and a box of used springs. There aren't exactly any shock adjustments or swaybars to tune, so there's only so much we can do. We've already made HUGE strides in cornering after our last autocross event, just by doubling the rear spring rate. The car actually cornered pretty flat and didn't do anything terribly badly at the MSR track event, but we were on new AST shocks then, too. Assuming we get the T5 in on time, and it works, we'll post up after next weekend's practice autocross. I promise to do some in-car HD video, and some on-car video if Costas brings his ChaseCam set-up. Its going to take more than that, so we'll enter as many autocross events in the E30 as we can before Oct 6th.

More soon,

[JoeyBones]

I still think you need to make a swap kit for an LS/E30. I know there are others, but more options = better!

Glad to see this thing back in the works.

[etxxz]

i just don't see the $2011 budget.. can't comprehend. this car is badass.

[bernzpeed]

this is the best thread i've ever come across

[Jonny Cash]

Glad to hear you guys are coming back! We missed you at the utcc.

-Jay

[I*Do*Werke]

looks awesome! I cant wait for $2011

[kojack]

Can't believe this is all taking place just miles from me! If you ever need anyone to help turn a wrench I'd be glad to help!

[Fair!]

Project Update for Sept 29, 2011: Long time no post. The past six weeks were a blur, after we finished building out our new commercial space and moved Vorshlag operations into the new location in Plano, Texas. Somewhere in there we worked nights and weekends on the E30 V8, yanking the drivetrain to replace the last Camaro V6 T5 that I broke at a NASA TT event at MSR-Cresson back in March. Twice. This round of repair work was attacked starting in mid-August, and I'll pick up from the previous thread update above.

(To save yourself the long update read, just watch this video below, showing the work we knocked out in August-September)


click for high-rez video

The plan to make that August 13th autocross fell through, sadly, but we made the best of the added delays by spending that weekend we were supposed to race cleaning, scuffing, detailing, prepping then painting underhood with some glossy grey paint. What's the rush? There's an autocross every weekend from now until Oct 6th! We'll get in plenty of events...



Before we did that painting, I stitch welded a seam on one strut tower that had separated (in a previous owner's accident, eons ago). Welding through two panels that have seam sealer between them SUCKS, by the way.



Big Paul and I applied the underhood paint the old fashioned way - with a brush. This job was a complete pain in the backside, as this type of engine bay paint abhors any sort of oil residue. After hitting everything with scotch-brite to give the OEM paint some scuff, then blowing it out with air, we tried all sorts of solvents to degrease the base metal... mineral spirits, acetone, MEK - it all sucked. We let each solvent coat dry for an hour before we tried to paint, of course. We would apply a test area with paint then quickly wipe it off because each solvent left so many fish-eyes. Nothing would totally cut the grease and not evaporate so fast that we couldn't give each area a couple of wipes with dry, clean shop cloths. Real paint prep degreaser was the best solvent, in the end. As with any painting exercise - Preparation is everything!



This cleaned up underhood area + our new super-secret exterior theme should garner us some additional points in the concours portion of the $2011 GRM Challenge, or so we hope. The drivetrain with the replacement CraigsList Camaro V6 T5 was now carefully placed back under the car, was fired up briefly, then everything else (exhaust, cooling system, etc) was buttoned up. I was about to make the test drive and... no clutch. What the....?!

The volunteer crew worked on this off and on for 2 days, pumping a gallon of cheap brake fluid through the clutch hydraulic system. I noticed that the lines to the clutch slave were left loose (that was a huge cock-up) but with some crows foot wrenches both the feed line and remote bleeder were sort of tightened through the tiny side window in the scattershield. Still, no pedal, difficult bleeding. Then the bleeding crew complained of the goofy reservoir angle, so we looked for answers. Within 3 pumps the reservoir was sucking air, due to the unusual angle of the transplanted E36 brake master cylinder and attached reservoir (with no booster behind it, to line it up level). Since this car, like any normal BMW, has the brake and clutch systems sharing the same fluid reservoir (cross-contaminating each system with heat and trash from both), we added a dedicated, remote clutch hydraulics reservoir at the same time. That made it easier to bleed and isolated the clutch fluid from the brake system, but still didn't fix the lack of a clutch pedal.



So I jumped in when the bleeding wouldn't stop, and immediately noticed an issue - a pool of brake fluid under the car, which was coming from the floorpan, which was coming from the now-soaked carpet, which was coming from the BMW clutch master cylinder. (facepalm) It actually looked like the reservoir to master hose was leaking, so we replaced the entire hose. Didn't help. It was pushing more air than fluid out on each pump when we bled it. By now the shop floor and I am covered in DOT4 fluid and getting pissed. So I spent all of last weekend futzing with the clutch hydraulics, eventually pulling the clutch master (while standing on my head) and replacing it with another E30 clutch MC unit we had. That helped bleeding tremendously - now the clutch system could be bled completely free of air in 3 pumps; so the clutch master was indeed bad. Still.... no clutch pedal. WTF?! By now we've lost like 5 weeks of testing time, and I'm ready to set this car ablaze.



I took part of that Saturday off to calm down, then woke up fresh on Sunday, no longer harboring thoughts of making an E30 "car-b-que". Amy and I tried once again to bleed the clutch system, tapping everything with wrenches to try to dislodge some elusive bubble of air. No luck. I then video chatted with Costas, showing him the clutch slave movement (none), and he said what I dreaded - "Its time to replace the slave cylinder, bub." No... no,no,no,NO! That means we have to pull the drivetrain again! Oh good grief.

The thing is our goofy SFI scattershield was built for a Ford Toploader 4-spd or Mustang T5, and wasn't meant to have a combination clutch slave/throw out bearing bolted to the transmission, all hidden inside it. The side opening window in the scattershield, which would normally allow the cable driven clutch fork to stick through, is tiny. This makes the hydraulic lines for our TOB/slave combo a very tight fit through that window, and makes removing them through there impossible. This in turn makes pulling the T5 a nightmare procedure of "drop the entire front subframe and drivetrain". Once this is all out of the car you can access the dozen or so bolts and disengage the entire scattershield from the motor, then gain access the hydraulic lines to remove them from the slave, then unbolt the slave from the trans, then you can pull the trans off the scattershield. That's the process we've gone through after each transmission replacement, and it sucks. It makes me HATE this car. This compromise is the result of our "genius" use of the scattershield rule, to allow us to use a "cheap T5" and save money on our GRM Challenge budget. That's me - Wile E. Coyote, SUPER genius. :( Any clutch or transmission work takes 2 days of pulling the drivetrain...



So once gain, we started another drivetrain pull one afternoon, this week. With some help we removed and reinstalled the drivetrain in a single day - and broke a record for this process. It all came out in 2 hours and went back in within 2 more, with another couple of hours spent adding fluids and bleeding everything. There was other repair work performed in all of these engine pulls, but I won't bore you with the details. Things like our non-functional $10 oil pressure gauge finally works, which is nice.

I drove it on a short test drive last night, then put it back on the lift to "nut & bolt" everything after it had all come up to temp. After that I drove it a couple of miles on the street, sans hood, trunk, registration, inspection, and sanity. Gotta get some miles on this thing before we tow to Florida, even if I'm breakin the law! :)



A short drive-by video (part of the longer video, above). You can here me singing "America, F*CK YEA!"

Sorry to bore you all with the details of the last month in this long post, but they were even more tedious to do than to read about. No matter - it runs, it drives, and our third craptastic T5 seems to shift in all forward and reverse gears, which was itself a small miracle. The car is now re-aligned and awaiting a complete "de-stickering", in preparation for our new "exterior theme application" on Sunday. We also have a top secret test day planned before then, to hopefully get the set-up tweaked for autocrossing, which we definitely did not have last year. If we have time I'll post up video from this test day before we load up the car next Wednesday and tow 17 hours to Gainesville, Florida for the $2011 GRM Challenge.



Big thanks to all of the volunteers who have wrenched and bled for this beast in the past 2 years. We're giving it another shot in Florida in a week!

Until next time,

[redhatpat]

Always a great read on this project. Good luck at the GRM challenge!

[Fair!]

Project Update for Oct 1, 2011: Our showing at the $2010 Challenge event was not what we had hoped for. The concours showing for our little crapcan was actually our best score, which was weird, but our autocross times were off the mark - we finished 7th overall. This wasn't too surprising, since we finished putting the car together and took it on its first test drive about 15 minutes before loading it onto the trailer and taking it to Florida. With a whole 2 miles of street testing, the fact that it made it through 4 autocross runs at all was a miracle, but it handled like an ox cart with a wheel missing. Being 2 seconds back from the leader was NOT what we had desired. Then the drag race potion, with drivetrain breakages; First a half-shaft, then 3rd gear in the trans, with only a coasting 18 second 1/4 mile time that went in the books. That was embarrassing.


Left: Costas saw me rolling up in the truck/trailer. Right: I got the car unloaded while he went and grabbed lunch

We left there vowing to return in the same E30, but to TEST LIKE MAD for the next 12 months before the 2011 event. For us, dedicated autocross testing has always made for good showings at the SCCA Solo Nationals, and years where we didn't test our cars made for poor showings. So while we meant well, life got in the way. After thrashing for the previous year to get the car built, we took a few months off of the GRM project in late 2010. As 2011 rolled around we found another $100 CraigsList T5 and put it in the car, and then we did a local autocross with 2 drivers, where we cut one of the 18" Hoosiers due to excessive body roll. Some spring changes later the car worked better at two track days, where it really shined, except for the fact that I blew up another T5 at a NASA Time Trial. Now I really started to hate the car, more than a little. It sat for months, completely ignored.


Cones? Check! Timing system? Check! Radios? Check! Data + video? Check! Let's test...

We then procrastinated a good bit longer, and the past 6 weeks were burned trying to get another working T5 and working clutch hydraulics in the car. Where does the time go??? So we missed the last six weeks of scheduled local autocross events, where we had planned on testing various front toe settings, tire pressures, and rear spring changes. There's really not many adjustments we can play with on this low-buck car, since we didn't have money for things like adjustable front camber or caster, or adjustable shocks, or fancy things called swaybars. We had still hoped that this limited array of variables could help get the car tamed a bit through the cones. There was a local autocross scheduled for this weekend (a scant week before the $2011 event) we could have entered. Can we learn that much in just 4 runs at an autocross?


The normal array of test equipment and vidcams we use for autocross testing was slapped on the E30

Since this isn't the FIA, and we do not have an "in season testing ban", it was time to make up for our lack of autocross events in the car with a dedicated test session. I made a phone call, loaded the trailer, and then bombed out to a "secure test location" on Friday afternoon that has 62 acres of asphalt. Costas met me there and we had a short little Vorshlag Test-N-Tune event, which we've done many times in the past. We stocked the Vorshlag trailer with our 50 traffic cones, my new FarmTek/Polaris wireless timing equipment (thanks Dave @ SPS!), Costas' DL-1 data logger & ChaseCam 520 line lipstick camera, and my Sony 1080P hi-def vidcam, sound meter, tire pyrometer, camber gauge, and some tools. All of which combined are worth far more than the crapcan we're testing, but its the same testing stuff what we always use. :D


I tweaked/marked the course after driving it in the '92 B4C Camaro - wow, it loses a LOT of front camber under load!

We brought an extra set of "test tires" that we would do most of the testing on - the pretty 18x11" CCW wheels and 285/30/18 Hoosier A6 tires, robbed from my 2001 BMW E46 "DSP car". We used these same wheels & tires at an autocross in the E30 last March, as well as the two days of track days at MSR-Cresson the same month. Using those for the bulk of the day's testing would allow us to make our worn 275/35/15 Hoosier throw-aways make it though a few laps at the end of the day (to scrape off the old rubber) and hopefully just 4 more runs at the $2011 GRM Challenge event.


Left: It was a bit dirty when we started. Right: Ran with the hood off, to keep an eye on "things"

We spent the first hour wiring up the cigarette lighter receptacle (oops! forgot to do that, my bad), then Costas mounted and hooked up the DL-1, the ChaseCam, and the Sony 1080P vidcam. Costas, who pretty much always drives around on R compounds, showed up in his '92 1LE/B4C Camaro. We didn't add in the extra camber he normally does for autocrossing, but it was still a great way to check the course for gate size and flow...and also for a time comparison. We set up a "30 second course" that I then tweaked, driving thru it in the B4C on Kumho VictoRacers. Then I marked it, set-up the timers, and got our radios fired up. That was a huge improvement on previous tests - radios inside and outside of the car, with the outside guy calling out times to the driver while making hot laps. This made for instant feedback and quick driving adjustments.


High resolution, close-up views of the tire loaded in a corner tell you a lot about camber & tire pressure

Over the course of about 2 hours of actual testing we found a little over 3 seconds on this 30 second course, from changing things like driving style, tire pressures and rear springs. A sizeable chunk of time came from the "Hanchey trick" - running the car in a higher gear, to limit wheel spin (which was ridiculously excessive in 2nd gear). I guess our $100 used LSD has seen better days. ;) As time crept past 6:30 pm we lost direct sun, the track temperature dropped significantly in the span of 15 minutes, and lap times started to bump up. Interesting data, since we haven't tested this late before, and hadn't tracked the drop off in times directly like this.


Left: I spent much of the afternoon swapping springs. Right: A screw left us with a flat in our allotment of "test tires"

We crammed about ten autocrosses in 2 hours - Costas put in 43 laps in the E30 - and had zero reliability issues with the car. It was nice to be able to quickly change rear springs, simply leaving Costas in the car for 4 minutes while I swapped them, and then away he went. We did the same for tire temps and most other quick checks, to maximize seat time.


Costas finally donned his helmet and we installed the hood at the end of the day

At the $2010 GRM event we had nothing but trouble, including a wiper motor that caught fire, brake lockup, a massive push, crazy body roll, too much wheel spin, and all of the drivetrain breakages, so having no trouble over 43 runs was a good omen. I probably swapped the rear springs back and forth about 8 times, using 2 different rates, and did about a dozen tire pressure checks/changes. The 18" tires picked up a huge screw and then a flat at lap 31, so the handful last laps were made on the 15s. All in all it was a good afternoon of testing, and hopefully our showing at next weekend's $2011 Grassroots Motorsports Challenge event will be better than last year's, at least in the autocross portion. Fingers crossed.

Was this amount of testing excessive? Well, when you are a shop that specializes in suspension set-up & sales, this is pretty much what you do regularly. We damn sure didn't want to go to the event a second time with a completely untested car. The drag race? If I can make the halfshafts and the transmission stay together for 1320 feet, who knows? We have an all new exterior theme we're applying tomorrow so hopefully that will make the car show portion better, too.


Left: Video compilation of in-car and exterior views. Right: External car ChaseCam video

To sum up, regardless of what you are doing, you are likely going to learn a LOT more during testing than while competing. We sometimes get caught up setting deadlines around and going to races, and thrashing and learning next to nothing at the actual events. But when we go through a dedicated test, we always learn a TON and more than we'd learn in a half-dozen events or more. Testing...it is not pretty, not glamorous, and usually not as cheap, but the knowledge gained is always worth it.

$2011 GRM Challenge Oct 7-8

Look for live updates on the Vorshlag Facebook page (sign up here!) during the GRM event, next Friday (car show + autocross) and Saturday (drag race).

Thanks,