Pitchblack Motorsports Rally e30 318i (now with M50) - and some Porsche 924S stuff.

[irish44j]

Ok, let's get caught up here. So...due to torrential flooding and lightning storms, last weekend's event was cancelled. That really sucks. Rescheduled for the end of July (a 2-day divisional challenge event). But I guess getting struck by lightning on a mountaintop would also suck, so there is that.

In the meantime.....

You may remember Jason used to co-drive with Pat in the yellow and blue e30 a couple seasons ago, but they ended up selling the car? Well, Jason feels like getting back into rallycross, so this time he went with the cars he knows best (he's had 4 or 5 of them, all heavily modded)...



So we'll see how he does.

Meanwhile, now with the weekend free, what to do. Tinkering on my car. Cleaning garage. Decided to jump on CL and see if anything interesting was there, even though I don't want another project at the moment.

Then I come upon a $1500 '91 318is, 10 minutes from me. Gotta be a catch, right? Well, I have to go check it out anyhow, so I meet the guy that afternoon in a parking garage (it's pouring rain out) and see the car. Looks pretty damn good! Interior mostly stripped, don't see any rust, but he has all the stuff. M42 runs fine but he says it overheats so he hasn't been driving it far (his house is a mile away)....says he can't get the new radiator to bleed well or something. Also says the top end was redone last year, head decked, new HG, etc. Plus has new front LCAs and some other new stuff on the car.

I make a few quick phone calls, and come up with a solution: Buy it. Buy it now. Split the car with Ozgur (who I crew for rally).....I take the whole drivetrain, he takes the rolling shell for his next rally car (with S50/52 swap, likely).

So I go get it...



Home with its older brother



Came with 4 bottlecaps and 5 weaves....all tires suck, but not like I need em.



I inspect the car extensively that night. THere is ZERO rust to be found anywhere....and I mean none at all.





Also came with some goodies: some nice Corbeau side-mounts that he didn't need, a mint-condition Bentley, a new water pump, some other random stuff



And a Turner/Conforti M42 chip, never installed



So tonight I started taking stuff apart.



I was excited to get a 4.10 LSD to try on my car (I have a 3.91 LSD).



But something seemed odd.....the clutch packs didn't engage. Figured it was toasted, so opened it up and WTF?? Some a-hole did a switcheroo at sometime in the past. Dammit.



Well, whatever. Tore everything else apart so I can pull the engine in the next few days. I'll plan to fully rebuild it and then drop it in my car (and keep my current engine as a spare since it's only had a top-end done).

Interestingly, when I drained the radiator, almost nothing came out. No wonder he couldn't bleed it. I suspect that it has a stuck thermostat or broken water pump, since there doesn't seem to be coolant in the engine, just a half-full radiator. Will find out eventually, but oil in the pan is good no chocolate milk, so I don't think coolant is disappearing that way.



So that's where I am right now. An unintentional project that will give me a spare driveline at worst, for $700 (minus half of everything we sell off....sport seats, Turner Chip, airbag, interior, etc).

With any luck Ozgur will come get the shell in a few weeks so I can have my garage back. I'm sure I'm forgetting some stuff, but it's been a long Monday and I'm ready for bed.

[irish44j]

So a few little updates from this weekend....

Got the M42 drivetrain completely pulled out of the new car and stashed away to tear down this winter.





Today did a little project I've been meaning to do forever. With no carpet, the e30 front floors are very uneven and the ridges and bumps make seating your heel while driving sometimes an adventure, especially if the floor is muddy or wet (which is tends to be in this car, lol).



So I made a false floor. In GRM fashion, I used some 1/8" aluminum that was cut out of the old 80-gallon fuel tank that was removed from my boat last year. Made a templace and cut to fit the contours of the front floor edges. Then to avoid any metal-to-metal rattling I took some old e21 door seals and framed the whole piece with them. Then bolted down with a few bolts through the floor. I plan to add some non-skid on top (probably skateboard grip-tape or something), when I get a chance. All I can say is that this really makes the foot position more comfortable, especially sitting up more at the level of the original carpet so it's easier to heel-toe and get leverage over the pedals with the mid-foot.





also installed the dead-pedal that came out of a parts car, which is pretty excellent


Also went over to Jason's today to help him gut and prep the new rallycross Miata.

Amazingly, I actually found room in his driveway amongst his fleet.



workin'....

[phenryiv1]

I forgot how much I like his blue Miata.

[stonea]

I think the LSD was an option on the 318is and not standard like its 325is sister. Me and my buddy got a 318is expecting to get a nice payday from the diff but it was open and not LSD. I think the only thing special about the 318is is that its 2 door and I've been told the 318is only came in manual.

[Northern]

I think the LSD was an option on the 318is and not standard like its 325is sister.

^ This.

[irish44j]

I think the LSD was an option on the 318is and not standard like its 325is sister. Me and my buddy got a 318is expecting to get a nice payday from the diff but it was open and not LSD. I think the only thing special about the 318is is that its 2 door and I've been told the 318is only came in manual.

yeah.....you're right, but the seller did list it as having an LSD. He was a young college kid that didn't seem to know a ton about cars, so my bet is that the guy he bought it from a year earlier told him that, and unless you're a car guy, you can't really notice the difference in normal daily driving I guess.

My fault for not checking, but the car was still a great deal regardless so I'm not that bent....

[irish44j]

So, still a week out from our NEDiv national challenge event, I was bored last weekend and decided to make what is becoming an annual appearance at one of the huge WDCR autocrosses held at FedEx field (Redskins Stadium) outside DC. These events are usually booked-up at 250 cars and very competitive with a ton of nice machines out there.



So I did nothing to the car in preparation. Didn't connect the rear swaybar. Left the 195-width, cycled-out, 5-year-old Star Specs on. I did pack a cooler, since the temperature was expected to be right around 100 degrees with freshly-laid blacktop making it even hotter.

The rallycross car would technically be a C Prepared car (I think), but with that class running in the afternoon, screw that.....ran non-comp in the morning along with about 15-20 other random cars ranging from Evos and new WRXs to Miatas to MR2s and other things that could be fast or slow.

I parked by these guys just so people would think I was fast...



After sweating my arse off for an hour of course working, Nick was nice enough to let me ride in his I30 (not his e28) for a run and chill out in his A/C lol.

Then into my sweatbox. Judging from what stock-ish Miatas with similar street tires were running, I set a target of "around 50 seconds since it seemed to be the midpoint of the event, with the fastest cars running 45ish and the slower cars in the mid-50s.

First run was an adventure learning that to stop on pavement, I actually need to use the brakes with some force (no point in stomping the brakes on gravel), and that my tires were woefully un-grippy and unhappy. Laid down a 52.5 or so. Next run with a rider knocked that down to 51.5 or so. Next run with a rider down to 50.5ish. Final run went back to solo and took in all the lessons learned from being back on tarmac and ran a pretty aggressive, clean, and what I consider fast for this car at 50.05. A bit disappointed to not get into the 49s, since that sounds a lot faster than 50 :)

In any case, with some wider (225ish) and fresher/better tires and the rear sway actually hooked up, I figure I could have knocked a couple more seconds off that, which isn't bad. As it was, the final results had me beating approximately 100 other cars in raw time (out of 216 total cars). So, mid pack isn't too shabby. In the non-comp class, the only cars that beat me were an Evo and a nicely-setup M3. I beat all four Miatas (all of which had similar tires to mine), an MR2, and a dozen other random cars that must have been poorly-driven to lose to me.

To make things funnier, Nick was announcing the run group and from what I hear he was making fun of other cars in my group for losing to a rallycross car, lol.

Anyhow....the big challenge event this weekend. Should get in 25-30 runs all told so we'll see how that pans out. Update when that's done.

[shiboujin]

Tires make all the difference.

Yes I still read these Josh.

[irish44j]

^lol, truth!

Now we just need you to bring your new wagon out to rallycross ;)

[irish44j]

Well, not much in the mood for a recap at the moment from the WDCR NEDiv National Challenge this weekend. We did 20 runs over 2 days on 4 courses. I did the second day on my "emergency" rally tire, a Dmack with a plug in the sidewall and about 10% tread left (on the parts that still have tread), which made for some interesting handling characteristics. Still, a fun weekend and I drove pretty well with the exception of a couple "loss of focus" moments at crucial times....

And after all that, this is how it ended up :/

And yes, that's 2/10ths of a second.

[irish44j]

Ok, here's a full recap of last weekend's WDCR Northeast Divisional Challenge event (one of six in NEDiv that determine the NEDiv Champion). This was a 2-day event with day/twilight and morning/afternoon sessions, with 40ish cars there and everyone getting about 20 runs.

Mod RWD crew




RWD lunch tent. We did let Mike Golden in, even though he has a Subie..



For once, weather was really nice, but very calm (it's usually very windy there), which made things tough due to dust hanging on the course in some places.

Adam got dusty building the course...



And we clowned a bit



Big e30 turnout, with about a dozen total drivers in e30s between MR and PR, as well as Nick in his e28, Brandon's new MR2, Shawn and Katie in the Miata, and a pair of e36s (one MR down from New York and one PR). Sadly for the e36s neiter made it far into the event, with one putting his fan into the radiator somehow, and the other breaking his diff launching at start. The e30s fared better with all cars completing the event without major issue.

Mike Palcynski


e36 in the dust


First day Nick started out fast and I was about the same until I ran though a cloud of hanging dust and lost the course for a moment (and a few seconds slowing down to try to see the next gates). The courses were laid out for speed and Nick was pretty happy about them, so he said :/ The day was relatively uneventful with me hitting 1 cone and him hitting none over 10 or 11 runs, and he ended the day almost 6 seconds ahead due to some small errors on my part and general inconsistency. As usual, I still had the fastest individual runs in the class, but this ain't autocross so that means nothing!

The other e30s were running variable times. A few were close behind us, and others a ways back (see previous post).

Spencer and Miller


Car was running well and continued to be happy with my setup if not my driving.

Running into the twilight






Chris managed to rip a fuel line off and went dead on course. I think he still ended up 3rd overall though, even with the penalty.



Day 2 started off badly as my right rear tire was flat when I arrived in the morning. I knew it had a slow lead so threw some air in and a bit later drove to grid, only to find it was totally flat again. I had to grab one of my emergency spares, which were at best 20% tread (if that) and put it on. This turned out to suck, since the course was counterclockwise and the right rear is really where I needed traction. But didn't have time to flip to the other side (and the original tires were only arond 40% anyhow, so not too much better). Pretty annoyed at myself since I have some almost-new DMacks sitting in the garage and just didn't get around to mounting the. That would turn out to be a major mistake as Day 2 I had serious traction issues on the loose gravel with the rear end, and had to adjust my driving style to compensate.



Meanwhile, the 5-0 showed up to make sure we weren't setting any brush fires. They coudln't be convinced to make a run, sadly.



Nonetheless, I kept running times similar to Nick, and he finally made a mistake on one of his first couple runs, taking down 3 cones (never seen him do that before), which opened the door. For the rest of the morning I ran slightly faster than him and he got 2 more cones, but I also got 2 more (the same cone, a stupid one, on back-to-back runs...that was really dumb). By the lunch break I had pulled back ahead by about 0.8 seconds.

For Sunday afternoon, the course was really open and I overcooked the slalom on my first run and lost a ton of time (2 seconds slower than Nick). After that, we both ran clean and fast for the rest of the session. On a course that figured to suit his car better, I actually ran faster and with one run left I was 0.4 back of him. He ran a 46.4, which was faster than any of my runs so far. So I went all-out and for the first 3/4 of the course I was extremely fast and clean. Then on the backside in a short, easy slalom I slid out of a rut into the loose gravel and had to fight to keep it on course, losing tons of time. Finished strong coming sideways through the finish gate. I saw Nick's reaction in the paddock and didn't even go check the time....

My run was 2/10ths faster than his. Which left me 2/10ths slower in overall time. So after 1,100 seconds of runs, I lost by 2/10ths of a second. Probably Karma from last year at the GLDIvs when I passed him on the very last run to take 2nd there (only a few tenths off the win as well). Apparently, I'm destined to constantly finish 2nd by tiny margins.... :(

To put that in perspective, the 3rd place car (another e30) was 46 seconds behind us, with a few behind him. The last-place e30 was about 200 seconds behind us!

Meanwhile, Stephen coned himself to death and handed the PR title to Shawn Roberts, whose rallycross Miata was broken so he drove his R-spec daily driver...that's how good Shawn is ;)

All in all, a fun weekend, great weather, good competition. But for someone who makes damn sure that my car is always in top condition and prepared, I consider myself an idiot for not having the appropriate tires ready - and figures since this was the first time in 4 seasons that I've had to use one of my emergency spares. You never know what will happen, but I have to think having 80% tread tires on the rear vs. ~20% tires would have been worth at least 2/10ths.....

A couple local events coming up in the next 6 weeks, and then we'll all head up to New York for the next NEDiv Challenge event. Currently I believe Nick and I are tied for the Divisional lead, but I haven't checked the guys up in New England this week.

Best tow rig award went to Mike Julian, who dolly-towed his rallycross Justy there with his Legacy GT Wagon...



I towed a bit heavier...



So that's it for now. We'll see what to do on this car other than tires in the near future.

[TeXJ]

awesome pics and story man!

[irish44j]

A couple nice action shots of me by Ed Palazynski





And a couple cool ones by Steven Philips

Me and Adam Kimmett

[E30_Pare]

Im just waiting for you to hit the Baja 1000 and emerge as the next Caswell.

[irish44j]

Im just waiting for you to hit the Baja 1000 and emerge as the next Caswell.

lol, Baby steps. First need to get this thing built and do a stage rally! I don't think I can do the Caswell thing though. I actually like my day job and have little kids lol. I love motorsport, but no way I could live it day in and day out like he does!