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

[irish44j]

So for the day still no plow on my street. Later found out that he got stuck 2 blocks away and couldn't get through the 2 feet of snow on our street.

In fact, nobody except me could get through it...my tracks (Sequoia) the only ones in or out all day until my neighbor managed to follow them out in his Suburban..



But, it was bright and sunny so with the driveway cleared aired out the garage for a bit. That stack of fresh snow tires for the e30 there.....annoying me with all the snow on the roads





Had a bit of steel sheet scraps left so got out the saw and dimple die and made some A-pillar gussets. Would have done full-length ones, but not enough material on-hand and don't have time to wait since the glass will likely go back in next week. Not as cool looking, but should do the trick.



And then I hear a beeping up the hill....plows! Well, really a dude in a tracked front-loader, open-air in the 20 degrees.



Brought him a hot chocolate, and then watched him clear the street like a boss in under an hour. I've been around heavy equipment quite a bit but neve saw anyone handle anything like this guy did....not a flake of snow on any cleared sidewalk, cleared every mailbox so the mail truck can pull right up. Clearly a pro (from a concrete company, so figures), especially with the ice sheet under the snow making it tricky. And now I can get the WRX out as well, finally :)



Last thing he did before he left the street was get every bit of snow out of the front of my driveway (8))

[DER E30]

Time for some snow drifting!

[irish44j]

Working on a few minor projects to kill time. For our "A/V" system we're going to run my phone (for speedo and odometer/GPS, mostly when regularly driving the car), and Jim's iPad with a rally app for timing and odometer when on course. For this we got a couple of highly-suggested Ram Mounts, which seem to be the most secure-holding things out there within reason.

I mounted the phone mount up today. I wanted it in a place where I can see it easily without taking my eyes off the road, and also a place where I can easily touch the screen without taking my hands too far off the wheel.

So, here it is. Riveted with three rivets to the lower trim panel under the cluster, and the fourth hole with a long bolt through the metal backing to behind the dash for extra security. It's very secure, actually. And I think the placement is pretty much perfect - though it can be adjusted 360 degrees up, down, or to the side.

So, one more little thing done...

[irish44j]

Some quick updates as Ozgur is driving down with the last two bars for the cage (and we have a logbook appointment upcoming as well)...

Once the two new roof bars are installed, I'll complete putting the interior together, which really won't take much time. In the meantime:

Got my helmet and comms in. Stilo DES Plus helmet with the WRC 03 intercom. Pretty well-regarded stuff and this helmet fits great. One little issue is that we found out that the Stilo intercom stuff is almost impossible to get to work with the road racing system that we use in the Chumpcar, so Jim is having to get some stuff we weren't expecting, since we can't really adapt his other helmet and comms to this one. Kind of sucks....but par for the course in racing it seems, where everything costs more than it shoudl and nothign is ever easy, lol.







Got some roll bar padding....once again screw SFI for taking something that should be very inexpensive, and making it way too expensive...



Dash and interior mostly back together, and all my electrics work..



So little thing, mostly for the winter rally. Since we will want our winter coats with us (and gloves) in case we get stuck, crashed, or stranded in the winter woodland.....rather stash them in the car where it's warm than in the cold trunk. So just a net down over the back seat to hold that stuff down while we're running...



Added some lower support bars to the rear strut bar where the cage backstays are. This should make it much stronger...



And with that wrapped up, put the rear glass back in an my new banner that I made with the wife's vinyl cutter :)



A shout out to Ozgur's team, since Ozgur bent the cage..



So, that's how it sits at the moment....getting close!

[irish44j]

I've admittedly been slacking at updates as all the little things needed to get the car ready seem to be coming together with about 10 days left. So here's a quick catch-up on what's going on. Or maybe not so quick....

ok, so let's start small. Added a lower dash support (and re-installed my little gear box that I can't do without :)



Then got around to putting new roof bars in after Ozgur drove them down from Brooklyn so I could get them done in time for logbooking. A bit of a hassle getting a good fit, but they may be the best-fitting bars in the entire cage after half an hour using the grinder and shaping by hand. More importantly they're within the required 100mm RA limit.



And with padding. The new location does compromise on headroom a tad, but I still have sufficient clearance without having to lower the seat





Installed the Stilo intercom controls. Decided to do it on the windshield bar so we can adjust underway without reaching back. Wiring runs over the cage and drops down behind the two seats



And installed the windshield. Solo. With no speciality tools. That trim spacer is a major pain in the ass...



Oh, Ozgur also brought up the other four RE39 mud and snow tires. Not sure when I'm going to use these since they're for deep snow (not likely at WMWR) or deep mud (which we don't have at frostburg). But good to have.



Then did some interior lighting installs. Cheap ebay LEDs. Two colors, separately switched...Not the cleanest installation ever, but will suffice for now until I have more time.



White





Red (it's not as bright as it looks, trust me)





Test with my future co-driver



Dash mostly in



wired power to the plugins on the codriver dash vent to power whatever gear he wants to have



picked up this great deal at Lowes. Love this box and will be perfect for tools in the trunk. Very sturdy so can be ratchet-strapped down without deforming.





and some storage stuff for codriver. Overkill right now until we figure out what is useful and what isn't.



seats in test fit



And got a articulating mount for Jim's iPad. Not sure if we'll use it as a rally computer or not, but could come in useful for watching a movie or something if we end up in a ditch or down in the trees, lol.



Then went to the WDCR rallycross end-of-season get together and picked up my season "trophy"



AND...

next morning Marcel Ciasi came up and logbooked me. He had a few suggestions for additional minor cage elements that I'll work on this summer, but it passed the requirements so we're good to go, hopefully.



Then did a 150-mile round trip shakedown in the car up to Jim's house to work on the Chumpcar, since we're running the VIR 12-hour two weeks after the rally...





messing with harness mounts. Two sub strap positions for if I have a tall or short co-driver in the future...



New positive battery terminal. Bling bling, eh..



Now let's do some skidplate work. Bar is on the way from New York for this weekend, but want to get the rear and front attachments set so I can moutn the bar more easily.

templating for rear holes





Flipped the weldnuts on the mount so that I'd have an easier time aligning the plate when installing or re-installing. Turns out my drilling was perfect, which surprises me lol







New hardware for the underbody protection, so I only need two wrench sizes to take it off when needed, rather than four.



And swaybars deleted. Because apparently no e30s run stage with sways, and I'm not awesome enough to go against prevailing opinion



So, that's it for now. Still a lot to do. Install skid U-brace. Make and install a foot brace for Jim. Figure out all the rest of the gear mounting, install a second harness, and some other shit. That's it for now, I'm tired.

[TheEightAlpha]

Hell ya man glad you are on fb to get the quick updates. Can't wait for the onboard video :)

Sent from my HTC One M9 using Tapatalk

[95maxrider]

Damn that's a lot of work, great job man. I need to step up my game!

[irish44j]

Damn that's a lot of work, great job man. I need to step up my game!

lol thanks. Hopefully it all holds up well and works as planned at the rally. We'll see how all this stuff affects it at rallycross this year. I think some things will hurt and some things will help, but not sure which is which!

In any case, another 3 weeks or so and I'll have some time to come over and help you get your stuff together.

[econti]

You move pretty damn fast. Very keen to hear about how it is in action

[irish44j]

You move pretty damn fast. Very keen to hear about how it is in action

Not much of a choice, lol. I started the rally build with a list of "things to do." As I learned more, that list pretty much doubled in size, so I really had to get cracking....

My wife will be happy to actually see me again in 2 weeks, lol.

[irish44j]

And we keep going....

I neglected to tape up the headlights (required) so off with the grilles and I ordered up a roll of Lamin-X sheet (way cheaper than ordering pre-cut stuff, and I have 20 feet of it left, lol). So put those on the headlights, fogs, tails, signals, etc. Not that you can really see it...



Then onto the front towhook. Because of how the stock tow hooks are, it's a hassle to use hooked straps there, since they hit the bottom of the bumper. Always annoyed me, so I ordered up some axle straps (red, as required for tow hooks). Fed them through the stock tow eyes which too a bit of grinding on the rear bracket to fit them through, and brought them together. Taped up to avoid noisy clanking. A tiny bungee hooks them to an eyebolt on the bumper when not in use. Will do the same on the back bumper.





And now the big project....skidplate. I initially was going to make the U-brace bar removable, but after mocking it up there didn't seem to be any real reason to do that since it's not under the engine, oil pan, or anything else that I can't easily access or remove with the bar in place. And welding just seems stronger than bolts, I guess. In any case, I jsut didn't have time to do anything real fancy here, so after a half-dozen mockups, drilled some holes (stainless 1/8" kills bits fast), welded in some weld-nuts, tacked the plates to the bar, took the bar off, welded everything up, put it all back on, welded the plates (ugh...upside-down welding on my back on the floor again...), and painted everything (not pictured). Everything fits perfect, bolts all thread into the right places (with large fender washers and lock washers) and all in all, it's totally installed.

A good time to thank Red46 for fabbing up this custom one-off skidplate for me out of 1/8" stainless. It's a beast. And to Ozgur Simsek for bending the bar for me and driving it down from Brooklyn last week. In any case, I think I'm done with this (don't mind the two holes on the front, they were for an idea that I decided not to do (no attachment to core support).

[irish44j]

So hopefully wrapping things up with a few days to spare, giving me time to recheck nuts and bolts everywhere and do last-minute minor things.

Jim came over today to do all the adjustments on the codriver seat and harness so we should be good there now. We also did some decorating of his helmet in true 80s style after testing comms, as well as some other minor things.



After he left, I fabbed up a footrest/brace for him which we had measured and templated. A transverse bar (right under where he wants his feet) with a beefy stainless plate angled and bolted to the floor and the crossbrace. Doesn't budge no matter how hard I press on it or kick it :) We'll see how it holds up on stage.







Also did some other small things like clearancing the bottom of the rear bumper to give free range of movement to the towstrap on the rear hook, a few other minor interior things and adjustments, and whatnot.

Oh, also the other night went over to Shawn's house (Moxnix on GRM) and he was nice enough to mount up more tires for me - this time some fresh Altimax Arctics. Remains to be seen how much snow there will be at WMWR, but at very least it'll be some mix of snow, ice, and mud so these should do fine. WMWR is allowing only DOT tires this year, so can't use the big-block snow/mud rally tires I have. Will take some getting used to the soft sidewalls on the Altimaxes...

[irish44j]

So, all packed to leave in the morning for the winter rally....which has no snow. But it's cold. So conditions are going to be tricky. STPR WMWR stage is extremely rough and unkind to street tires, but with temps and ice on the gravel, everyone is weighing whether to go with snow tires (for traction) or gravels (for survivability). Looks like I'm going to run recce with the Altimaxes tomorrow and then make a call for Saturday, when temps are supposed to be higher....

Recap and wrap-up when I get back!

[TheEightAlpha]

Yes!!!! This is my first real insight on stage Management.

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[95maxrider]

Good luck man, go get 'em!