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

[Lof8]

Serious question: Do they take penalty laps for running a $300 shifter in a car valued at $500? I don't think it would fall under the safety category.

[irish44j]

AFAIK the shifter falls under "driver comfort" or some other exempt category. I asked about it and they said it wasn't an issue. Then again, it's an ETA. So it's slow and nobody probably cares :)

I actually don't much like the AKG shifter - I much prefer the z3 one I have in my car.

EDIT: 2013 Lemons rules exempt:

Driver comfort & information (steering wheel, shifter, gauges, pedals, cool suits, vents, heaters, radio)

[kts]

Interesting I never would have thought that shifter would have fallen into driver comfort.

[irish44j]

Yeah. Though in reality, a shifter isn't really gonna make the car any faster than it would be with any other functional shifter. I have shifter upgrades on all my cars and they don't help me shift faster, they just give me better feel.

Not positive that Chump rules are the same, because they were calling it their "one cheater part" before they took the car to Watkins Glen last month...IDK.

[Lof8]

In chump, any upgrade over stock counts to the budget wether it makes the car faster or not. Aluminum radiators, shifters, etc all count.

The car looks great btw!

[spoth]

In chump, any upgrade over stock counts to the budget wether it makes the car faster or not. Aluminum radiators, shifters, etc all count.

The car looks great btw!

False. In chump, balljoints, u-joints, brakes (calipers, lines, rotors), and wheels are subject to the 2X rule, meaning you can install any aftermarket part that costs within 2x the cost of OE new. For "operationally critical" components (including radiators), you can replace with OE new. Our radiator was completely cracked, and I bought the cheapest new aftermarket E30 radiator I could find (It was only $5 more than the junkyard charges around here) and I was informed at Chumpkins Glen tech that the spirit of Chump rule 4.4.8.2 was more of a "1X" rule, and they wouldn't have dinged me for a $120 eBay aluminum radiator that's still cheaper than a Behr. But of course, as with all cheap car racing, I get the impression that your milage may vary in tech. Having an eta certainly helps.

Of course, trying to run a car in Chump with rule 4.4.8 and Lemons ($500 with lowered residual values after Lemons races only) is challenging. My approach is simply to come with a seriously bribey Lemons theme and accept my penalty laps like a gentleman. (Frankly, if I wanted to really compete at Lemons, we wouldn't have built a stock looking BMW.)

The shifter's completely wide open in both series, though:

Chump Rules:
4.7.1.3. Driver comfort & information items are open and do not count towards the $500 value (i.e. - steering wheel, removable steering wheel adapter, shifter, gauges, pedals, cool suits, vents, heaters, radio communications, etc.)

24 Hours of Lemons Rules:
4.2.1: Beside the items and processes listed in Section 3, the following are considered safety-related and therefore exempt:

• Omitted for clarity
• Driver comfort & information (steering wheel, shifter, gauges, pedals, cool suits, vents, heaters, radio)

[kts]

But of course, as with all cheap car racing, I get the impression that your milage may vary in tech.

^^ quoted for the truth.

[irish44j]

Jim, on a side note - I'm going to be working on some rear windows this weekend, unless you already bought plexi for that.

[Lof8]

Spoth, thanks for the clarification!

[irish44j]

btw if you hadn't figured it out already, the car that I painted all the stripes on is Spoth's :)

[kts]

The gauge panel we made :) Also showing our one "bling" part :)

Reviewing this, do you have an externally accessible kill switch as well? Looking at the rules, Chump wants the kill switch in the area like you have it, but Lemons wants a switch accessible from the inside or outside of the car, which is why the cars I've worked on the switch was between the steering wheel and the door about where a vent would normally be. (Since we were too lazy/cheap to have internal and external kill switches.)

http://www.24hoursoflemons.com/pricesandrules.aspx

3.23: Master Electrical Kill Switch: All cars must have a racing-type master electrical kill switch easily turned both off and on by the belted-in driver. The control for this switch should be red; the OFF position should be clearly indicated; the switch should be easily accessible from outside the car; and the switch should be clearly marked by a three-inch or larger lightning-bolt symbol. All electricity must be interrupted by the kill switch (if you don't do that, the engine may still run off the alternator even after the battery circuit is disconnected). Don't put the switch where it's likely to be hit by another car in traffic or crushed in an accident.

[spoth]

Reviewing this, do you have an externally accessible kill switch as well? Looking at the rules, Chump wants the kill switch in the area like you have it, but Lemons wants a switch accessible from the inside or outside of the car, which is why the cars I've worked on the switch was between the steering wheel and the door about where a vent would normally be. (Since we were too lazy/cheap to have internal and external kill switches.)

http://www.24hoursoflemons.com/pricesandrules.aspx

Good eye. I'm aware of this, but been putting off taking care of it. This weekend, I'll be installing a fire-extinguisher pull cable that will actuate the center kill switch exactly where you describe, on a plate welded to the cage. (not sure if driver or passenger side would be better, but I think passenger would be a little easier to install) That way, we get best of both worlds, in that a big crash won't be able to mangle the center kill switch, and course worker will have to trouble reaching the outer switch. I can reach the kill switch from outside the car without too much trouble, but I'd rather play it safe and have an external pull.

[kts]

Good eye. I'm aware of this, but been putting off taking care of it. This weekend, I'll be installing a fire-extinguisher pull cable that will actuate the center kill switch exactly where you describe, on a plate welded to the cage. (not sure if driver or passenger side would be better, but I think passenger would be a little easier to install) That way, we get best of both worlds, in that a big crash won't be able to mangle the center kill switch, and course worker will have to trouble reaching the outer switch. I can reach the kill switch from outside the car without too much trouble, but I'd rather play it safe and have an external pull.

I'd drop a line to the Lemons folks to make sure they are OK with this plan, and if they are bring a print out of them saying it's OK to tech inspection incase whoever is inspecting the car disagrees and is not OK with this plan.

It makes sense to you and me but what the Lemons folks and what the tech folks think can be wildly different and at the end of the day as you hinted at before that's what really matters.

[unevolved]

I'd drop a line to the Lemons folks to make sure they are OK with this plan, and if they are bring a print out of them saying it's OK to tech inspection incase whoever is inspecting the car disagrees and is not OK with this plan.

It makes sense to you and me but what the Lemons folks and what the tech folks think can be wildly different and at the end of the day as you hinted at before that's what really matters.

That's a fairly common setup, I've seen it on quite a few Spec Boxsters. So long as it's direct acting (i.e. not a relay) there shouldn't be a problem. But I agree, you should have the email saying it's OK with you in hand at tech inspection.

[irish44j]

So one last LeMons car shot for the moment, as we did some work yesterday (though I wish I could be up there longer to get more done....)

Car is coming along and should be good to go, mostly thanks to Jim and Chris's major efforts. The race is next weekend, so probably some updates on that next week before we get back to rallycross, with the 2-day "Conquer the Summit" event the weekend after.



Helped my buddy Gabe do a balljoint on his fiancee's civic (got to try out my new OTC balljoint seperator, which worked great).

Then a side-project today when working on the car. Years ago the ski shop I worked at was tossing out some of our workbench hutches, and I grabbed them and they've been sitting in my shed ever since. Today I pulled them out, assembled the upper sections, and mounted them on an old floor dolly I cut apart. Now I have a "bridge" table/shelf that just fits over the GT6 and can be rolled where I want it. For the next month or two it will be used to hold all the parts from the M42 engine I'm rebuilding, so the parts don't get mixed up with other stuff on my other workbenches