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

[irish44j]

apoligies for image size. I don't know why the hell they're showing so huge here....need to mess with adjustments.

[irish44j]

So it's been a while since updates. A few non-car-related issues kind of put a delay on some of my racing and building activities, but hopefully am back at it again now.

So, let's catch up, if I can remember where I left off. Well, yeah I've been working on paint prep on the 924S. A GRM member was nice enough to offer to shoot the car for (very cheap), so I had to make sure to do at least a "reasonably ok" prep job on it. I don't much care about the car being show-quality at all. In fact I don't mind some paint flaws and such since I plan to drive the car and have fun in it and don't want to worry about paint scratches and dents...ever.

So, that's not much fun to do or talk about, so yeah lots of sanding and blocking and primer and such. In the meantime had to fix a few things....this part of the door had cracked where the window track attaches so would flex every time the window went up or down. So I just tacked it real quick, then smoothed, ground, primed, etc.




Also had to do some fiberglass repair on one corner of the sunroof



ok, that's boring. Let's go back to the e30 for October's rallycross. This was really the last-chance event for me to get back into the points running and have any chance at holding on to my 2-time championship. With 5 events down I still had no wins, with four of my competitors each having a win (and one having two). At very least, the parity in wins and finishes has kept it pretty close. Heck, even Neil Cox, with two event wins, also has a couple really bad finishes. This group is so competitive you can be top dog one day and then finish 7th the next day even if you drive at a similar level.

Another damp morning, with some newcomers - that MR2 belongs to Andy Thomas (on of the fastest FWD rallycrossers in the country) and Mike Golden (one of the top local Stock AWD guys)....who will both be joining us in MR next year. Mike brought the car out for a shakedown. He didn't win or get close, so we'll talk about that car next month or next season. Not now...



As always, MR was one of the biggest classes with a big and competitive turnout of mostly e30s. Nick also got his e36 M3 back running and out to compete. And lots of other interesting stuff.





Yeah, this Bronco ran. And actually wasn't too slow



josh Sennett has an M52 e30, and also lots of green stuff



Anyhow, it's been a few weeks so I'm not positive on details. But the long and the short of it is that we all battled it out all day long, in changing conditions, with water truck visits, and a really good course layout that was a favorite of many people of all our time here at the Rally Farm.

In the end, I finally managed to pull off a win (!!). What does that mean? Well, it feels good to know I don't totally suck these days and can still win here and there. But due to the other finishing order and season drops, it turns out that four of us are within one point of the championship lead going into the last event (which was supposed to be tomorrow the 12th, but has been pushed back a week). So yeah...on the 19th myself, Eric Eisele, Neil Cox, and Stephen Nichols will all be going for broke in the final event, with winner taking the championship.

There is some indication that we will see SHawn Roberts and Bee Thao also running in MR in their very fast PR Miatas, as well as Mike and Andy in the MR2, and Jim Golden in his daily driver S2000 (since he's already clinched the SA points win).

So yeah....



With that said and done, a bit more Porsche stuff.

So I towed it up to PA...



And we did some masking and stuff



In this kinda creepy garage with a cool old Audi out front



Then things got primed



Then things got painted



Then I came back a few days later and towed it home, making sure to use the local landmark to find Don's house, lol. BYOB strip club? hey, why not.





So as expected, the paint looks decent from a distance, but I will have to do a good amount of color sanding, blocking, and buffing to make it look better from closer up. I have all winter for that.





So I've been putting things back together, and it's almost back to being a complete car



Tucked back in the garage as the leaves come down...



And rallycar gets to live outside this winter. Now sitting on the Alpine Arctics...though it will get some garage time soon so I can get the steering rack removed and rebuilt...

[econti]

Proper daylight under it. Nice

[irish44j]

ok, so I wrote a super-long update on GRM forums (where I carbon this thread), but due to non-vBulletin software there I can't copy it over with all the photos, and I'm really dont' feel like re-uploading all the photos here.

I usually write the updates on here and copy it over there (which works). But for this one time only, please check out my GRM thread at the following link for the last month updates and I promise I'll do it right next time lol....

1. AHR inaugeral rallycross
2. Black River Stages
3. DC rallycross #5
4. Some car fixes, some car damage
5. Some trailer and tow rig work..

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/build-projects-and-project-cars/mein-e30-mein-sammlungkreuz-baugewinde-my-318i-ral/40440/page84/

There are pictures there like these (by Connor Dowling):





and a bunch of others....

[irish44j]

That car is almost entirely stock, other than the tires and a few other things. Jeremy just picked it up. He was previously driving an e36 318i that more or less rusted into pieces (literally). It even still has working A/C (jealous)....

Reminds me I have some updates to make on this thread. We're departing tomorrow for Black River Stages so will do a catch-up after I get back!

[allmotorguy]

This one is so awesome to read. Amazing thread! Hat's off to you Sir.
What engine is inside that awesome looking e36 with hoosier rally tyres?

[irish44j]

Yeah, may or may not roll up there. At this point, time to spend some time on other projects and make sure the car is 100% good to go for BRS!

[Kershaw]

There is an August 19th Event at Susquehanna I'm thinking of going to. July to September is a long stretch.

[irish44j]

So I guess I'm over due for an update here. Two weeks ago was the SCCA East Coast Championships, run by the national office. I won this event last year by mere tenths of a second over John England in his Miata, at our old gravel venue in Frostburg. Also there, I will note, was Vaughn Micchie, a relative newcomer to rallycross in a stripped-down Porsche 924S, who finished 7th or 8th, as I recall.



Fast forward to this year. DC once again hosted the event, but this time at our new venue, the Rally Farm. Rally Farm is not gravel. It has a surface, as you might expect, of a farm field. So far this year it has proven to be a difficult locale for me, as I think higher-powered cars benefit a bit more here vs. frostburg, where the gravel negated traction. Indeed, I haven't won a DC regional event YET this season after winning 5 last year. Not sure if that's the surface, me getting slower, or the other guys just getting faster (most likely).


(faye chilcote photo)

Anyhow, this event had over 70 entries - including the aforementioned England and Micchie, as well as the large and fast local crew, mostly in e30s, who have been dogging me all season. England, after last year's loss, added a supercharger to his Miata and went on to win the SCCA national championship in 2016. Vaughn continued to develp his car, stripping it of all but the rallycross necessities and getting a ton of practice in up north at Team O'Neill rally school and other venues. Vaughn showed up with his car probably the most-prepped-to-mod-RWD-class car I've ever seen. Bare shell, all glass replaced with lexan (except windshield). No interior, one seat, no bumper, no lights, gutted hood and doors, no accessories, some remote-reservoir dampers, a couple good sets of tires, etc. I'd guesstimate his car is pretty near 2000lbs now, still with the 165hp 944 engine, and a weight distribution that is probably about 52-54% REAR biased. He's really built the truly ultimate rwd rallycross car (no offence to the miata guys).

Vaughn


So anyhow, our class had 14 cars (largest class there) and it was sure to be a shootout. And it was. We ran first in the morning, in wet grass and some mud and Vaughn put that weight distro and drive wheel traction to good use, jumping out to a several-second lead after the first couple runs. England, meanwhile, was fast but picked up 5 cones on his first run (and would pick up 5 more through the rest of the event). The rest of us spun some tires, slid in some mud, but were low-cone-count and not super fast. By lunch on the first day I was sitting in 6th or 7th behind those two guys and a bunch of e30s....so, the usual for me :/





As the day dried out, England and I clawed our way back up - both of us with early deficits and nothing to lose. At the end of the day, Vaughn's lead was down to 3 or 4 seconds, and I was in 2nd, a few tenths ahead of England with a couple local e30s right on my tail.

England



Chris Nonack in his stage XRatty, killing cones everywhere with boooooost...



Josh Sennett, in the hunt



I will mention about course design: The first day's course was designed by a former national champion from the midwest. I personally didn't think it flowed well and it had a couple "gotcha" parts that did "get" some people. I don't think many people were a huge fan of it, to be honest. Not that I can say if it made me slower or faster - it just wasn't much fun.

e30 croo



Jeremy doing something on his e36



Day 2 course was designed by local FWD hotshoe and autocrosser Andy Thomas. Andy is all about flow and linking turns, and true to form the Sunday course was a lot of fun and really allowed everyone to get their rhythms on course. We helped Andy a bit with the night setup (ok, we drank beer and hooned around in Eisele's car in a field - not at the same time!)







Andy testing the course



So we battled. I don't have the times on-hand at the moment, but my recollection was that England put down THE fastest times in the class, but kept picking up cones. With it dried out, Vaughn's advantage was less and we were slowly catching him, albeit by tenths of a second at a time. In the end, not enough runs left and Vaughn won it, with England a couple seconds back and me a second behind England. Local Eric Eisele in his 325i was right behind me, and several more e30s right behind him battling it out to the last run.



So that's that....great weather, a good time and I enjoyed seeing everyone out there and competitive. MR class on this half of the country is truly, in my opinion, the deepest field in terms of class parity. And that was without former national champ Evan Arthur and Pete Remner there, as they decided not to trek out from Ohio as they had the previous year.

--
Spent the next day thinking about little mistakes that cost a few seconds and the win for me - though I'm sure everyone else has siimilar thoughts. Then decided what the hell, let's tow up to Harrisburg for the Susquehanna Region Northeast Divisional event. Never been there before, so why not. Plus, Vaughn stayed local and was signed up before heading back up north home, so another chance against him.

To make it more fun, Shawn Roberts (miata) and Jeremy (e36 328i) from DC came up (having gone 1-2 at Easterns in PR class) and decided to run MR class. Add in Bee and Theresa Thao in a supercharged Miata, Katie Orgler co-driving with Shawn, and two guys in a beat-up BMW 2002 and it looked to be a fun field.





Another stage car :)



So the Harrisburg Farm Show field is fairly hilly. And it's not all that big. So the course started on a wet/grassy uphill and the course was ridiculously tight. I mean....tighter than the smallest autocross parking lot I've ever been to. No place to get any real speed. Even the small cars spent a lot of time wildly spinning the steering wheels to lock to make tight turns, with not enough speed to trail brake/rotate many cars. Must have been hell for the Subaru guys there.



But such is life, and we run nonetheless. At least the weather was perfect and hung out with cool people, as usual.

MR class







From the first run, it was clear Vaughn had it. On the uphill wet start and other uphills, he absolutely annihilated all of the other MR cars, and by lunch break he had a 14 SECOND lead over Shawn, who I generally consider to be one of the best rallycross drivers I know. I think I was in 3rd at the time. After lunch, though, I think we all knew it was a lost cause tryin to catch Vaughn (though he did lose his exhaust on one run), so the rest of the class just started swapping cars on every run since none of us were going for divisional points (Vaughn was).

So, I got to drive Jeremy's e36 (working A/C, pretty heavy, awesome traction on new Hoosier Rally Tires, and amazing torque that was never lacking at any speed). And I finally got to drive a Miata on a rallycross course. Shawn and Katie's "unicorn car." First time I'd ever driven a Miata anywhere, ever. And I immediately put down a time pretty much the same as in my own car the run before. Well, that's discouraging. The Miata slides so predictably, and answers every wheel movement. All I had to do was throttle steer half the time. If Shawn actually ahd some decent belts in that car (aluminum seat with stock seatbelt so I was banging around int he car over every bumpy area) I coudl probably have knocked a couple more seconds off....

My last run back in my car I pushed and got back 3 second, so I can still drive it faster I guess.....

The unicorn


Shawn and Jeremy trying out Bee's supercharged Miata



Other random cars there



So......that covers that. No more rallycross until September, after we get back from Black River Stages. The car held up well to the last two events with no issues, so I'll be tinkering a it but probobaly mostly working on the Porsche and continuing to fix annoying shit that keeps going bad on my 150k WRX.......

[econti]

Also, Downey one-upped all of the 2WD cars (and most of the AWD cars) with his jump. Flatout....major distance and height...

That looks like it'd hurt.
I wonder if they were designed with doing that in mind? Probably not. But who cares

[irish44j]

you mean the unfinished welds? I mean, I certainly wouldn't worry about it for rallycross at the farm if that's what you mean. If you were doing stage, that would be another story.

[95maxrider]

Also bent a wheel AT THE RALLYCROSS, one of my weaves :( .....as the first car on course, I got to "discover" a rock in the tall grass section we were cutting out, which apparently nobody noticed on walk-through or drive through. That wheel ran 160+ miles of STPR with no issues and then gets bent immediately on my first rallycross run. Figures!

Did you figure out the engine stand? ;)

Well that sucks! Damn.

Yeah, the engine is safely on the stand, just gotta order parts and play the waiting game.

So, I take it you probably won't be available come by with your welder to fix up my skid plate u-brace any time soon....

[irish44j]

Also, Downey one-upped all of the 2WD cars (and most of the AWD cars) with his jump. Flatout....major distance and height...

[irish44j]

Congrats on the solid finish at STPR, and that jump pic is great!

So on day 2 of rally-x did you switch back to M3 springs in the rear?

I thought about it, but damn it was hot and didn't want to bother. If you take away my off-course penalty (and the cone I got while being angry about it and driving like a wild man), my total time would have been within a second or so of the class winner (Neil, who beat Sennett by 0.08 seconds on his last run for the win).

Car felt odd due to the tall/stiff springs up front and the shorter/soft springs in the rear. Phase two of this test will be to change to 200# front springs (replacing the 250# springs on there now) in the front, later this week once they come in. These changes, I'll note, are directly oriented toward stage rally - not rallycross. We had too much rate at STPR in the bumpy sections and I'm trying to see how I can calm the car down. It may (or may not) hurt rallycross performance. It defintely doesn't feel as good on the softer springs, but it may be just as fast. we'll see.

I also need to pull my rear trailing arms and get some grease into the bushings. They are squeaking something fierce now that it's hot and dusty. That will not be a fun job, and not sure if I can get it done before the next event (mom just had surgery so will need to take the fam down to visit in the next week or two). Also may have a sticking brake caliper so need to pull that off and check it out. Little things that need inspection after a stage rally. Plus the spring swap.

Also bent a wheel AT THE RALLYCROSS, one of my weaves :( .....as the first car on course, I got to "discover" a rock in the tall grass section we were cutting out, which apparently nobody noticed on walk-through or drive through. That wheel ran 160+ miles of STPR with no issues and then gets bent immediately on my first rallycross run. Figures!

Did you figure out the engine stand? ;)

[95maxrider]

Congrats on the solid finish at STPR, and that jump pic is great!

So on day 2 of rally-x did you switch back to M3 springs in the rear?