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

[FunfGan]

yes!

I will need to polish up on my welding and fabrication skills in advance.

...and somehow get alot of money.

Hmm, the money part I can't help you out with, but I'm planning on doing a ton of aero on my car once the swaps done, so feel free to practice with that hahah.

[kts]

here's a pic, just for you ;)

Yea I remember you used to have a gold wheel setup. I was going to do that for my STi (same color as yours) but at the time I was looking only options that weren't in the "brotato hellaflush!" or ungodly expensive were only 8 or 8.5 wide so I went for the cheaper 9.5" TRMs.

but they weren't wide enough.....the current white ones (Enkei Tarmacs) for autocross/track are an inch wider, 3lbs lighter, and JDM ;)

Yea I remember John saying you picked those up from him before he sold the WRX. I loved how they looked on his car and they look pretty good on your car too.

You should have kept the duct tape he had on the spokes.

[irish44j]

lol...those wheels were NASTY when I got them....years of built-up brake dust, mysterious yellow goop, etc. Now they look almost new :)

[irish44j]

ok, no car work tonight since there are some things on TV I feel like watching on the couch, lol.

well, just for the hell of it, a little bit of kindergarten hobby time. I have a long-kept hate of painter's tape and shoe polish on cars at autocrosses, etc. IDK why, I just do :)

So I'm going to need some class magnets (already have plenty of numbers from years of autocross). Went and found a few old magnetized autocross class decals, and an old magnetized G-Force sticker (where that came from, no idea....)

A bit of tracing printed out letters, a bit of cutting, and we have some free magnetic class letters. I know, I know. Big-time stuff here. Try to contain your excitement.

I'll hit these up over the weekend with some spraypaint so people can actually see what they say.

Coming soon:
- a couple new steering wheels to choose from
- battery relocation to the trunk
- fix the damn sunroof track.

[irish44j]

gotta go help a friend do some house painting tonight.....bleh.

before I go, opened a little package on my porch. One for the BMW, one for the GT6. Haven't decided which is which yet....Got both wheels and an e30 hub adaptor (all brand new) for around $200. So if I decide I don't want them, I figure I can recoup my money pretty easy, if not make some.



350mm devil


370mm retro


installed

[irish44j]

a little detour from working on the e30 to clean the garage and watch a couple episodes of Dexter tonight. Waiting on a few parts and making some plans for the e30 on some minor issues. Also re-upped my SCCA membership, which is not cheap for the WDCR region, so I can't back out now. Plus I want to run the WRX at some FedEx Field autocrosses this year between rallycrosses, since I'll finally have new camber plates on the car - one of the last things I really want to do with the Subie.

Anyhow, with cleaining the garage always comes a few realizations. Tonight's are:
1. My workbench is the best ever. It's 200lbs, made of steel, and cannot be damaged in any respect. It's more awesome because it was free. I got it from a music studio that was getting rid of it - it used to hold an old soundboard, so it was built to hold alot of weight and be extremely rigid. I highly suggest studios as a source of heavy-duty equipment, because they replace stuff alot.
2. I have too many wheels and tires. Really. And all of the ones in the garage are either for the Subaru or the e30. The GT6 second set is back in the shed with it. Thankfully the 4Runner just has one set.
3. Upon cleaning up, I've come to the realization that I have exactly NINE tape measures floating around the garage. Where these all came from is a mystery.....
4. I'm going to need a bigger toolchest soon. This one is getting really crowded, and I want more drawers to organize nuts, bolts, etc in. Especially since I need to divide up the large number of metric (for BMW and Subaru) and SAE (for GT6) stuff.
5. "building" and "modding" the garage is almost as much fun as doing it to my cars. Every piece of furniture, workbench, etc in the garage was gotten either for free or built by me (with the exception of the tool chest, which was a Christmas gift from my wife years ago). It's not blingly, and it's not pretty, but it is 100% functional in every respect. And no "bling" single-bay garage could possibly fit more tools, workbenches, and storage in it and still be able to fit a typical compact sedan (the WRX fits in with just a couple inches to spare now, but the e30 and GT6 are much smaller obviously). So that's the ongoing goal. Faster car, and fit more crap in the garage.


Anyhow, because posts without pics are boring, here's a couple of the cleaned garage. Well, my half of it that is.

[kts]

Nice garage layout. I need to organize mine better.

I think the Momo Retro would look better on the GT6 and like that you put the Devil on the E30.

That said, I think you should sell the Devil and pick up a nice suede wrapped wheel. They feel amazing.

[irish44j]

some pre-Superbowl minor work today. Took the car out for a 20-minute drive today and everything seems to be working well. The ride quality is firm, but somehow better on the bumpy stuff than my WRX (on RCE yellows and Bilstein Sports). Steering is still slow, but the new steering wheel helps alot with quick movements over the stock trucker wheel. Engine and brakes working perfectly, all controls working well. Still hearing some rumble from the back, but can't tell if that's just NVH that was previously covered up by the soundproofing/rear seats or if something is actually wrong. Doesn't sound like wheel bearing noise, so might just be a noisy diff. Time will tell.

Also drained the transmission (fluid didn't look too bad, but might as well) and refilled with Redline MT-90. I know MTL is the preferred fluid, but I had three half-full bottles of MT-90 sitting around, so decided to use it for the moment. Shifter feels nice and smooth, but still may switch later. We'll see.

took a few outdoor pics, with the completed "rally stripes" made from some remnant vinyl. Against some suggestions, I wrapped it down the fenders and I think I like it that way.







Also hit a small, and annoying little project: removing about 2lbs of soundproofing on the c-pillars (since the lower headliner in that area was all ripped up anyhow). This stuff is stuck on there good, and it took various scrapers and razor blades to get it all off. Fun fun. But the little stuff adds up.

[FunfGan]

Ahhhh, just reminded I need to finish taking all that crap off the c-pillars haha. Stuff was sent out today, sorry again for the wait.

[irish44j]

Ahhhh, just reminded I need to finish taking all that crap off the c-pillars haha. Stuff was sent out today, sorry again for the wait.

no worries, I jury-rigged the sunroof to stay on while I drove around. Kept off the highways though :)

[shEck3lls0]

Shipped out those parts today for yah. (because stuart is too lazy to do it himself)....

On another note, I am picking up another e30 wednesday... the purpose will be the same as yours. Maybe we can go out to some rally events sometime.

[CW325]

How hard was it pulling the headliner?

[irish44j]

Shipped out those parts today for yah. (because stuart is too lazy to do it himself)....

On another note, I am picking up another e30 wednesday... the purpose will be the same as yours. Maybe we can go out to some rally events sometime.

YES!!! First rallycross is in mid-March at Summit. Just get the car in driving shape and run it as-is until you can build it how you want it! The other e30s that run there, from what I can tell, are fairly close to stock.

Thanks for shipping the stuff. Stuart is so lazy ;)

How hard was it pulling the headliner?

You asking me or Stuart? I didn't pull the headliner (yet), I just cut it off at the top of the c-pillars (and A and B pillars). NOt sure yet if I'm going to pull it or not immediately, since it really doesn't weigh much anyhow and I like the idea of not having hard steel above my head, lol.

[FunfGan]

Yeah, unless you're taking more of the interior out/ deleting the sunroof, theres no real reason to take the headliner out haha.

Also, I want to build a car for the STU class. If not purely because of my name, ahaha.

[irish44j]

Yeah, unless you're taking more of the interior out/ deleting the sunroof, theres no real reason to take the headliner out haha.

Also, I want to build a car for the STU class. If not purely because of my name, ahaha.

you don't want to build an STU class car, lol. That's where all the STis and Evos run, and you won't beat them in an e30. I built my WRX into SM just to get out of STU - it's one of the fastest out there and a WRX can't compete with the big guns with the allowed mods. Especially in the DC region SCCA.

An e30 is probably an STX car unless you put huge rubber underneath. Otherwise, bump up to SM or SP class where you have more freedom to do good mods!

I think you should make the V8 car into a rallycross monster :)