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

[lambo]

This car is SO cool!

[irish44j]

Today was the first day of the two-day "Conquer the Summit" rallycross at Summit Point (WDCR). Car was running well. The event is the last one before the summer break here, and for it we run all three courses over the two days.

Today we ran the "Barn Course" first. I don't think a lot of rallycrossers like this course, but it's my personal favorite. The surface tends to be very hard (like rough concrete, pretty much) during the summer and it would probably be just as fast on most parts of it running with Star Specs or other tarmac rubber over rally tires, lol. Anyhow me being a long-time autocrosser I feel right at home on this course because I can really control the car. And it showed. We got 7 runs in this session, and after the 7 runs I was only 3 seconds TOTAL behind the class leader (Shawn) and about 10 seconds ahead of the 3rd place car (another RX-7). Overall was very happy with my morning runs.

In the afternoon we ran the "gravel course" which is my least favorite, but a favorite of the guys who are good at getting the tail out on the cars. Gravel course is soft and loose and gravelly (and dusty as hell). My first few runs I really struggled with corner lines and got bogged down in deep stuff several time outside the fast line....and with an M10 under the hood once you get bogged you're gonna lose alot of time. I lost 10 seconds off first on my first two runs before I figured out a line. On the 4th and 5th runs I was running faster than anyone else in the class based on the prelim results, and was really starting to feel it. I was only 7 seconds out of first and 3 seconds in front of 3rd in class after 12 total runs for the day. Pretty good. Then......



Due to SCCA club racing on the main circuit, Summit is pretty strict with watering. The water truck does not "wait" for a run group to finish its session. At most it will wait for everyone to finish the same number of runs. So it was that the water truck came through before our 6th and final run. Did 2 full rounds. So basically we had several inchees of soft/powdery dirt with a few inches of mud on top of it. This equals INSTANT lack of grip, since the tire treads get totally clogged and smooth. I planned to just drive conservative, try not to cone, and finish without any major errors (hoping that my competition was more aggressive and made some mistakes). This would have been a good plan, except on the 3rd turn (a grassy slalom transition) I locked up the brakes and almost slid past the gate. Had to come to almost a complete stop to make the gate and that killed me. I was almost 5 seconds slower than anyone in my class on that single run. In retrospect I shoudl have just laid on it and leveled the cone and gone straight through. The cone penalty would have been 2 seconds, and I figure I lost at least 6-7 seconds by my trying to actually make the gate clean.

Obviously, I don't know how most of the other cars drove and I'm sure they have areas that they would do differently themselves that would have saved them time too. Woulda shoulda coulda.....

Well, at least the water truck cleaned half of the ETA guys' ride. It was the first time it's been washed in years I think :)



Bummer. Anyhow, going into day 2 I'm currently about 15 seconds behind the class leader Shwan (pretty pleased with that with 12 runs in the books, so I'm only 1 second back or so on runs averaging about 60-70 seconds). And I'm 1.5 seconds back of the other RX-7 (Gorka Arrieta, a drift guy who loved the second course due to the excessive sideways action). I'm several second up on Shawn's co-driver (who coned alot). I'm about 25 seconds up on the other e30 in my class (Stuart, in an M42 318is on snow tires vice rally tires). There was also a turbo baja-super-beetle in our our class that was pretty quick, but he had to miss several runs when his exhaust manifold cracked right at the main branch. He ran the car over to the main circuit paddock and found someone with a welder, and got it fixed by the afternoon session. Neat car anyhow.



Here's pics: http://photobucket.com/conquerthesummit
Password to the album is "rallycross"

I'll post up some vids maybe tomorrow after the event is done.

Some of the best pics I took:
















sadly one of the subies killed its engine. I think it was a bad break too :(



I can also say I had a lot more fun in my $1000 Bimmer than this guy had in his $350,000 Ferrari, which just sat there all day parked on a gravel road, getting dusty.

[FunfGan]

Love the coverage you do Josh :)


Also, lol at Spencer running down the corn. Gotta get him to take some pics tomorrow!

[irish44j]

"Conquered the Summit"

(I’ll post vids of all three courses later tonight or tomorrow)



DAY 2:
I came into DAY 2 in 4th place, but we were all bunched up there within 15 seconds or so of the leader (pretty good since we did 13 runs on DAY 1).

Today we ran the "big course" which is a pretty good combination of all the courses - some powder-soft stuff, some rocky areas (really rocky), some gravel, some hardpack, and some wettish muddy stuff. When the full "big course" is used it's usually around 90 seconds or so. We did 8 runs today for a total of 21 for the weekend.

Today's goal was consistency of times and I think I did that. I didn't set any new world records but aside from Shawn (the leader) I was probably more consistent than anyone, with one MAJOR exception:

This came at the end of my 5th run, which definitely was going to be my fastest as I had driven it about as perfect as I can. Then:

(I’ll post the vid once I have it uploaded. Suffice to say, I screwed up royally and racked up a 101-second run when I had been running in the mid-80s.)

DAGGER! Made worse by me not having a working ignition switch, requiring me to lean under the dash and hotwire the car quick when it stalled. I lost about 17 seconds on this total botch, which was more than half the time I ended up behind the leader. In the end it didn't matter since I didn't catch Shawn anyhow. And because I finished 2nd in class after a hard-fought battle with Shawn's co-driver (in his RX-7) and Gorka in the other RX-7. Stuart in the other e30 (318is with M42) was a ways back, but he is the only car in the class not on rally tires (he's on snows) so that probably hurts him.

Total times (21 total runs)
Shawn (RX-7): 1584 seconds
Josh (me): 1611 seconds (+27 seconds, or just over 1 second per run!)
Chris (in Shawn’s RX-7): 1625 sec
Gorka (in the other RX-7): 1628 sec
Stuart (in the 318is): 1669 sec

For comparison’s sake, the fastest car in Prepared AWD (running in our group) was 1554 seconds. My time would have put me about tied for 4th in that class, so that’s not too bad I guess 

Leo (in a turbo baja beetle of sorts): DNF (he didn’t make it through day1 due to a cracked exhaust manifold (welded in the main circuit paddock during the day!) and a blow intercooler pipe on day 2.

Of the E30 guys, here’s Scot Crowner’s rundown. I’m in the ’85 318i obviously. Stuart and Spencer are in the newer 318is, and the other four are driving an ’86 325e. As you can see, the ETA actually took the fastest overall time for the weekend, but it ran in the opposite run group and had different conditions that were apparently faster (or so I will tell myself to justify losing, haha). I am “JayJosh” to the ETA guys.

Fastest E30 single lap time per course
Barn Gravel Sunday
61.647 Jay Josh 63.841 Chris 84.383 Chris
64.026 Stuart 64.191 Spencer 85.663 Steve
64.238 Chris 64.217 Jay Josh 86.306 Jay Josh
64.246 James 64.594 Steve 86.927 James
64.484 Scot 66.902 Stuart 87.158 Spencer
65.937 Spencer 67.029 James 89.222 Scot
66.460 Steve 68.571 Scot 89.847 Stuart

E30 Two day totals, There will be surface differences, but who cares:

1576.292 Chris (PR)
1611.453 JayJosh (MR)
1645.413 Spencer (PR)
1653.810 Steven (PR)
1663.385 Scot (SR)
1664.453 James (SR)
1669.536 Stuart (MR)

The E30 CONE Crazy (highest award):

25 Steven (PR) (A GOD of fun!)
..
..
..
..
16 James (SR)
10 Spencer (PR)
6 Scot (SR)
5 JayJosh (MR)
3 Stuart (MR)
3 Chris (PR)

So....at the season midway point I'm second in season points (of the 5 drivers that regularly show up in this class). Not bad for my first season doing this in the lowest-powered car in my class (and possibly in any class, lol).

Now for 2 1/2 months of "summer break" before the next event. Which is good because it was almost unbearable out there this weekend in the 90s with a crapload of dust, haha. And no AC in the car for the drive home.

The car ran well for the whole event and I had no issues until driving off the course on my last run of the day, when I broke …er…destroyed an engine mount somehow. Luckily for some odd reason I threw a spare one into my parts box the night before. So did a changeover in the field before going home. That was fun….in the 90+ degrees, already worn-out, had to pull my skidplate off to do it, and use two floor jacks and some 2x4’s to get the engine high enough to get the new mount in.



The drive home sucked, as it was very hot and with all the windows open I had a dust-storm going on inside the car for most of the trip home. After unloading I cleaned out the interior as only a rallycross car can be cleaned out: with a hose, with the windows and doors open, and with the drain plugs pulled, haha.







Plans for the summer break: Hood vents (to keep my electric fan off longer), maybe a pop-up vent on the roof, and some other random stuff. Stay tuned!

A few other of my best pics from the day of other people:

[irish44j]

[Mark 42]

There's a big E30 picnic next weekend here in the Seattle area...
I'm thinking I need to go find some mud to drive in until all of
the worn out paint on my car is not visible anymore.

Otherwise, I may have to wash it & just live with exposing the failed clearcoat to public ridicule.

Plans for the summer break: Hood vents (to keep my electric fan off longer)

I saw a Pontiac with hood vents I thought would look good on an E30

[irish44j]

Vids of all three courses from the weekend. Not necessarily my best runs, just random ones I picked to use.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7kbYAlmES8&feature=youtu.be

[silence]

Awesome, looks like you had fun... Time for some solid motor mounts. Hit me up if your interested.

[irish44j]

Thanks, I probably will hold off for now since the car is getting an M42 swap this winter. Hopefully the new OEM one will last me for the second half of the season :)

I may hit you up for M42 mounts when the time comes though. Do you do poly as well?

[silence]

Thanks, I probably will hold off for now since the car is getting an M42 swap this winter. Hopefully the new OEM one will last me for the second half of the season :)

I may hit you up for M42 mounts when the time comes though. Do you do poly as well?

All my mounts are UHMW, it's like Delrin.
Sure let me know when you do the m42 swap, maybe we can work out a mini-sponsorship :)

[irish44j]

will do :)

[E30_Pare]

I <3 m10. 100hamster pwr

[shEck3lls0]

All my mounts are UHMW, it's like Delrin.
Sure let me know when you do the m42 swap, maybe we can work out a mini-sponsorship :)

I rallycross too. :) We're practically on the same team. :p

[Mark 42]

All my mounts are UHMW, it's like Delrin.
...maybe we can work out a mini-sponsorship

How does UHMW Plastic hold up over time under such high loads?
Does it have the longevity of Urethane (or is it a type of urethane?)?
Does it creep? Will it work for suspension bushings... or just for
motor & trans mounts?

People have had really good results with it on racing sailboats, but most
of the uses are not for the high load applications. Mostly stuff like rails
for sliding hatches. A heck of a lot easier to maintain than teak!

[irish44j]

a bit of fun