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

[stonea]

Congrats on the first rally. That was my original plan when I got into e30s. I wanted to get into RallyX then stage rally.... oh how things have changed, lol.

[irish44j]

We're headed out in the morning down to VIR for the Chumpcar 12-hour in the Rage Cage Racing e30, so more on the rallycar when I get back....I do have some updates.

In the meantime, here's some great shots from Rachel Lovas from the rally..

[irish44j]

Ok, so let's do some updates. First...continuing on the repair of the car after the rally. Finished up the rear upper spring perches - rebuilt the frame rails (seriously, even they got mushed a little bit) and reinforced them and the spring mount with some 1/8th steel cut in a circle and mounted over the stock plate. Then changed to the e36 M3 springs for a test. The result: well, the car certainly sits higher in the back, which looks a bit funny but will be much better for what we're doing (will change back to the eibachs for track days and stuff).

In my limited driving so far, the rear end feels pretty good and the rates feel pretty similar to what I was using before (said to be around 350 or so). Will give it a good test at the rallycross in about 9 days.

pics:





other minor issues fixed but no need for pics: rear exhaust hangar broke off somehow (at the tailpipe)....probably from whatever mashed in the front of my muffler - yet another reason to get the rear end up a bit. So fixed that.

Also I may have mentioned that our horn kept going off randomly during the rally. Turns out the horn pin holder was cracked and the pin was seizing. No real way to fix this easily right now. Eventually will try to take one out of a junkyard e30. IN the meantime, will just use a cheapo bolt-on horn button on the side of the steering column, which should work fine. Pics when done. Really exciting stuff.

Other than that, rinsed out the interior of the car, cleaned stuff up, and reinstalled the skidplate and other stuff now that I've hammered a few of the dents out of it.

Also made up a bit of new vinyl to give props to my crew....





In the meantime, we went down to VIR for the ChumpCar 12-hour in the RageCage e30, with a new high-mileage B25 engine that we hoped would hold up. Weather was pretty good to start and everything seemed to be going ok as we gridded. I was leading off for the start, and then....car woudln't start. Our battery had somehow gone bad. So crew pushed the car into the paddock with me still strapped in and jumped it. Got us on the track in roughly 55th place (out of 60...).

Anyhow, the race was largely incident-free both in terms of accidents and mechanical issues. At a later pit stop we put the Red Top from my WRX into the racecar and finished the race with that. Also lost a hood pin somehow. We clawed back to about 20th place, and Jim went in for the last 2 hour stint, in the dark, with rain starting. And what happens? The wiper linkage rod (under the cowl vents) BROKE. Yeah, who would have expected that, right? WIth obviously no replacement parts around, Jim battled out there in the rain and dark and somehow ran the whole session with one "kinda" working wiper and the car fogging up as well. I think he had a few "two-offs" perhaps but managed to hold on and we finished around 20th overall. So not bad for starting in the mid-50s. Without the no-start issue where we lost 9 laps, figure we could have moved up 5 or 6 spots maybe.

So that was fun. The guys are doing several more races this year (Sebring, VIR 24, Pittsburgh, the Glen, and others). I may do one or two more, budget allowing.

Pics:





















Meanwhile, Jim and I did some talking and I think we're going to skip STPR rally this summer. A few reasons: First, would like to toughen up the car a bit more and get it sorted before a hard rally like that. Second, Rally America membership is $235, which really isn't worth it for one RA event (all we would be doing). So we'll probably go up there and crew for Jesse Yuvali and Ozgur Simzek in their e30s, or maybe help out Nonack.

Instead, we're going to plan to do NASA Rally instead - membership is cheaper for one. The first event we're shooting for is Black River Stages in NY in September. In the meantime, will run a full rallycross season locally (including the Eastern States Championship), and try to do one or two rallysprints (TBD). So more on the schedule when we know more, but that's the plan for now!

[phenryiv1]

In the meantime, we went down to VIR for the ChumpCar 12-hour in the RageCage e30, with a new high-mileage B25 engine that we hoped would hold up.

What is going on with the A-pillar in that picture? Is it illuminated or is that the angle/lighting in the photo?

[shiboujin]

It's an enduro. You get bored. So he turned on the TV.

[spoth]

Lights.

On the A pillar, they're so we can tell which E30 is ours. Inside, they're so we can read the labels on the switches. Our budget is too low for backlighting.

[irish44j]

Jim, someone over on the GRM thread was asking about a build/photo thread of the rage cage car again......;)

[irish44j]

So today took the car on its first real drive since coming back from the rally and installing the M3 rear springs.

The positives first: The M3 rears feel good. Actually, the ride is excellent but they firm up nicely into hard cornering (keeping in mind, I have no swaybars installed either). I think they're actually a bit stiffer than the Eibachs I had back there so will have to mildly adjust my driving style perhaps - TBD at the rallycross next weekend.

Also, the car is running well. I made a few high-speed runs and hard launches and everything functionally feels good.

Now to the bad: When I put in the solid bushigns, there was a mild increase in noise...essentially a light whirring sound like a slightly scraping brake dust shield. Not a big deal and I got used to it. But now, there is a TON of noise back there, like a box of rocks rattling around. Speed-sensitive but oddly doesn't seem to be affected either by accel/decel (as I would imagine diff bearings would) nor cornering (as wheel bearings typically would).

I got under the car and checked for anything scraping or touching the driveshaft or axles. No dice there. I do have one right wheel dust shield that got mashed up somehow on the bottom, but I can't see it scraping against anything. So it's either the diff or a wheel bearing. Definitely in the back end. So today I swapped out my 3.91 for my 3.73 medium case. The 3.91 I recently put new LSD discs in it, but I was pressed for time and didn't do the bearings/seals at the time. So, guess they could be bad, seeing as they're probably the original bearings from 1985, lol.

In any case, swapped out the 3.73 since I don't have a wheel bearing handy. As usual, diff swaps are a PITA, but whatever. Took it for a test drive and I'm happy to report that the 3.73 is very smooth and the gearing is probably better than the 3.91 anyhow. Unfortunately, it didn't chance the noise one bit. So, not the diff. That's actually good news since that means it's almost certainly a wheel bearing.

Did a bit more driving and it's hard to tell, but seems to be coming from the right rear. I replaced the left rear with a new FAG bearing last winter but haven't replaced the right rear in a good while. So, Jim is coming over tomorrow and hopefully we'll swap in one of the spares for the track car (some good cheap Chinese stuff lol). So anyhow, more on that once it's done.

[shiboujin]

It's probably fine. I've had 4 different diffs in my car with aluminum rear bushings and they all sound like hell. Should come and ride in mine some time to hear the difference.

[irish44j]

No, the diff was definitely fine. The right rear wheel bearing was definitely not. Once we got the axle out it was rumbly as hell. Jim and I replaced it and now the car is in good shape noise-wise. Just a mild whir from the diff and my little exhaust leak :/

[irish44j]

2016 WDCR RallyCross #1 in the books

Rallycross #1 for DC was last weekend. The beautiful spring weather went away and it was slated to snow that night, so had to order up two more Altimax Arctics to replace the two we destroyed at WMWR, just to drive there since the ETA guys have our trailer and were towing their car up with it.



So, loaded everything up in the mini-trailer to tow up there myself. Roads were fine and the drive was fine, and we finally found some snow upon our arrival to the mountain.







So this is the first event with the M3 springs on the back and man they were comfy on the ride up compared to the Eibachs, lol. I also decided to run with most of the rally gear in the car as well as a FULL fuel tank. I want to rallycross heavy the way we run rally....so ran with spare tire, fire extinguishers, gearbag, etc. Everything but the jack since I was too lazy to put it back in after changing tires. Figure with full tank of gas (usually ran 1/2 tank last year for events), full cage, spare and gear I was running with a good 300lbs extra compared to last year - with the same power and same suspension other than the rear springs.

Also removed front and rear sways and had the 3.73 LSD in rather than the usual 3.91. As it turned out the 3.91 would ahve been better for the course, but is what it is.

Anyhow for this event PR was a big class with 11-12 cars signed up while MR there were 7 of us (minus Jason who didn't want to tow up due to weather in the Miata). Eric Eisele and Neil Cox were back out there in the 325i with a new e36 rack and some other improvements. Corey back out with the Turbo Volvo 240 and some additinal rust in its rockers. Nick jumped in and drove PR champion Shawn Roberts' Miata, and we had Justin Kidd in his Swedish-flag Volvo 740 Turbo. Nick didn't have the M3 done in time and wanted to codrive but for the time being I'm only letting Jim codrive this car at rallycross to try to save tires and wear and tear at the moment, so into Shawn's miata he went. A big change from his e28 from last year in terms of driving!





Eric and Drew started out fast and took a quick lead of 5-6 seconds as the rest of us made mistakes and I picked up 2 cones on one run (video shows it was only one, but whatever...). By the lunch break Eric Eisele was leading by a few seconds over me with Drew and Corey right on our butts. Nick was having touble finding speed in the Miata and was about a second slower per run than the top 4 in class. Morning course was very open and fast and definitely gave a bit of edge to the cars with more power.

video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2duZ...ature=youtu.be

In the afternoon course reversed and tightened up a lot...much more technical and full of slaloms. My style. And I managed to start clawing back, running clean all afternoon. Corey put up bllistering times in the Volvo but was picking up a cone or two here and there. Eric and Drew were still running fast but maybe pushing a bit hard as I was slowly gaining and both picked up a few cones - which is unusual for them, especially Eric.

In the end, I had a good feel for the car and it danced well in the tight course (though the longer diff and M42 did not help in the slow, deep turnaround that bogged me down a lot). I managed to take the win by just under 3 seconds after 17 runs and 830 seconds of course time. Cones told the story - I drove clean today except a couple in the morning and that sealed the deal, with Corey picking up 11 cones but only ending up 3 seconds back (he was FAST), and Eric less than a second behind him with 7 cones - almost all of them in the afternoon, and Neil only 3-4 seconds behind him. Nick ended up about 30 second off the lead in 5th in his first full rallycross in a Miata and I'm sure he'll double his effort to have the M3 ready for the next event.

Here's the afternoon course: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzuD...ature=youtu.be

By the way, next event we try out a new venue. The RALLY FARM here in Northern Va. A few of us tested out this venue (owned by a couple rally drivers) at a huge farm last year. Will be interesting to see what the setup is...lots of fields and area, soft loamy surface and grass. Will be quite a change from Gravel Mountain in Frostburg. Nice that it's only 30-45 minutes from me instead of 2 1/2 hours :) Now the Maryland and W.VA guys get to see what it's like to drive distance to rallycross lol.



So all in all pretty pleased with the car and suspension setup. I expected the M3 springs to be unpredictable but actually they were damn near just right - and no more binding or bumpstops banging constantly, which is the real plus. The front sway removal helped with turn-in as well I think.

I did notice the M42 getting a bit rumbly in midrange (3k rpms) on the drive home and noplace else, so not really sure what that's all about. Will have to check out some things on the engine in the next couple weeks.

So, one win in the books continuing on last year's success so far.

Here's some pics.



how many people does it take to fix a Volvo? more than this...


e30 crew minus Eric/Drew


more Vovos


Kimmett relaxing after making this event go..


Some of our new people and old people





Totally unrelated, but Saturday at work this was there. I mean, it's no e30 but it is kind of nice for $400,000.....He was picking up his skis from us. In that. #firstworldproblems....

[econti]

Nice nice. M3 spring thing is cool

[lemansguy]

haha dude i work next door in the white building on my part time job. should swing by sometime to BS. BTW love the rally build. really wish i could get into it, just spread too thin right now with projects.

[irish44j]

haha dude i work next door in the white building on my part time job. should swing by sometime to BS. BTW love the rally build. really wish i could get into it, just spread too thin right now with projects.

lol nice. I'm only really there in the winter, so probably no more work there for the rest of the spring/summer. Surprised I haven't seen your car around.

[lemansguy]

didnt drive it much this winter, been driving my speed3. But before this past winter it was out there a lot.