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

[silence]

Haha! yeah, I did see it on Facebook. I'm glad you kept the old ones as spares. I keep everything, you never know when you're gong to need something. I feel your pain regarding the blades, UHMW is difficult to saw through, it's even more difficult to sand... Let me know if you need anything else.

[irish44j]

Here's another video view of one of my faster runs. This is one of my new camera positions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHBKN0tRKhA&feature=youtu.be

[ForcedFirebird]

How is that repairable? lol

I have seen much worse repaired. It's often less to pay a frame machine/body man than it is to build a new shell and transfer all the stuff over.

[irish44j]

ok back to it. I'll have a complete write-up of the event tonight or tomorrow, depending on whether or not I decide to work on the e21 tonight.

In the meantime, here are some good pics that someone else took of the car

[dirty30]

AWESOME!!

[irish44j]

M42 powah! lol...

[irish44j]

Ok, now that I’ve had a couple days to reflect and chit-chat with the other competitors from last weekend’s Great Lakes National Challenge RallyCross, I guess it’s time for the complete event wrap-up (at least, from my point of view).

The event was held in Hebron, Ohio (outside Columbus) across from an NHRA dragstrip, where Ohio Valley Region (OVR) usually runs their events. While most of the competitors were from the Great Lakes Division (running from Ohio up through Michigan, I think), five of us came out from DC region – Jim and Mike Golden in their GC 2.5RS Subie, Josh Sennett in his bmw 325e turbo, and me and Nick.

Nick coming was kind of a “deal” I made with him since we’re tied locally in points and there was a WDCR event on the same day. I would have had to skip it and drop that event, and Nick could have gone and won it easily without me there and gotten the points. He didn’t want to drive his e28 all the way to Ohio so I offered the co-drive of my car since I know he’s fast in it (see: last local event where he beat me in mine after his car broke). That way we both drop that local event and remain tied.

So we loaded up the trailer and the Sequoia and did the 6-7 hour haul through the Blue Ridge mountains (which was uneventful except for 15 minutes of torrential downpour where we couldn’t see 10 feet in front of the car).



Upon arrival we had a chance to quickly walk the course in the evening to get a feel for it. Since we run in DC on gravel, this grassy course was kind of foreign to us, and it would prove to be foreign to me for sure. Ran into some other guys from GRM at the site and had a beer, then headed to the hotel to sleep.

The next morning it was cool in the 60s, and the grass was soaking wet and soft – promising to be very slick. We did the course walk a few more times (with sopping feet) and then one course drive-through at slow speeds, where it didn’t feel all that slippery. There was a random-draw for start order, which proved to be pretty crucial as the course dried out quickly once we tore up the grassy areas and cars ran through it. I’ll caveat by saying that I don’t like the way the draw was done overall, rather than within each class. That meant the classes got broken up with rwd, fwd, and awd cars running throughout the head. As luck would have it I drew #4 (out of about 30 cars) so had to go very early in the heat when it was still grass and still very wet. Most of the other MR class cars were much further back in the run group, which (looking at times) proved to be pretty advantageous as the course dried out very quickly once runs started. The course was VERY long and curvy, with a number of turnarounds. It was actually a great course, one of the most fun I’ve ever run.

As to the MR class competitors, they consisted of Evan Arthur (last year’s national runner-up) and Chris Hastings driving Evan’s turbo Miata; Pete Remner (a perennial top national and divisional driver) in his RX-7; me and Nick in my car; Josh in the turboETA; and Kevin Schmidt and Pat LaMontagne from Detroit, driving Kevin’s RX-7.

So my first run started and it was clear that the course was much slicker than expected. First runs have been my downfall for a number of events over the last couple seasons as I tend to be over-aggressive and trust my traction more than I should. I would normally have backed off, but with such a strong field in MR I couldn’t risk going slower than the rest of the class so I pushed it.

Too hard:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZQJAHczTiU&feature=youtu.be

Yup, got outside the line in the deeper wet grass and couldn’t recover it. By my count I lost about 12-13 seconds getting back on course, which was pretty sucky since it essentially put me out of the running for the whole weekend, or so I thought. On that run I was 125 seconds, while the fastest cars that didn’t spin were 113-115 seconds being more careful.

As a bit more grip developed throughout the morning, I slowly clawed my way back into the competition with some good runs, and my 5th run at 101.92 seconds turned out to be the fastest in the class for that session. But I was still a good ways behind the leaders. Meanwhile, Evan had one really sloppy 4-cone run that prevented him from running away from the pack for the morning.

Pete getting it sideways



The morning course, and my fastest run:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gi7MAzSJkLE&list=UUZDzORFSilgFFHMqcT8uyIA

another fast run from inside:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHBKN0tRKhA&list=UUZDzORFSilgFFHMqcT8uyIA

In the afternoon, we basically ran the same course but with one section cut out so it was somewhat shorter. As it had dried out, the Mazdas got faster and Chris and Kevin started putting down some fast times. My times were pretty good but nothing special. No major mistakes though. Nick kept running consistently and he and Kevin were neck and neck for the lead after Saturday. Evan had an electrical issue at lunch so he had to take some runs in Pete’s car (which were similar in times to Pete’s runs), and Chris took some runs in Josh’s car (also pretty fast) . Unfortunately Josh had some overheating issues, which we’ll talk about in a bit.

Evan getting down some turbo power



By the end of the day Nick was holding on to a several-second lead over Kevin and Pete, and I had managed to get back to within 5 seconds of the leader or so after driving with nothing to lose.

So as it turned out, Josh had broken both motor mounts and his engine shifted to the left, causing his fan to get caught on the shroud and mild overheating. After asking around the other competitors and making a fruitless run to Advance auto, it was clear that nobody carries 1980s bmw parts in the middle of Ohio on a weekend.

So we improv’d by taking my spare Condor Speed Shop UHMW solid M42 mount (which is about twice as tall as the M20 mount he needed) and cutting it in half with a hacksaw. Four people sawed for about 20 minutes, and we broke the blade 3 times.



But in the end, we got it ghetto-rigged and he was good to go



So on to day two. The course was reversed with some changes. I needed to make up some time and it was going to be difficult. I laid down the 2nd-fastest times for the first two runs, but Pete was almost 2 seconds faster (I do hate running clockwise, lol) and was on the verge of taking 1st from Nick and Kevin. But then he de-beaded and had to take a bogey time, essentially putting him out of the competition (or did that happen late on the first day, I forget). Meanwhile, Josh continued to have problems with his car and eventually just bailed out for a while.



As we came down to the last few runs, Kevin and Nick were fighting for the top spot and I was a few seconds back in 3rd. Nick hit a kind of plateau in his times and couldn’t seem to go any faster. Kevin kept putting down really fast runs and I kept pace and was within a second of the lead. Then I got a cone in the slalom, which is something I NEVER do (I love slaloms), which knocked me back to 3 seconds again.

On the last run I was down around 1.5 seconds to Kevin and ½ a second to Nick. With 3rd place guaranteed no matter what I did (short of de-bead), I decided to go for broke on the last run. Nick put down another decent run around 80.4 seconds. Then Kevin also put down a run around 80.5 seconds. Driving all-out, I pulled off a 79.3 on the final run (clean), which leapfrogged me in front of Nick by ½ a second. But left me ½ a second behind Kevin. So that’s how it finished, with the top three separated by 1.01 seconds after almost 1,500 total seconds of time over the weekend.

Evan ended up around 30 seconds back thanks mostly to his cones and having to drive Pete’s car for a few runs, but was running times just a shade slower than mine all day. Pete ended up about 100 seconds back primarily due to his de-bead bogey and I think a partial spin once he was out of it. The rest of the pack was a ways back due to various driving issues and mechanical issues. Chris didn’t drive Sunday, which is too bad. Would have been interesting to see if he could have taken Evan’s car to the title or not.

I’ll also mention that the Golden brothers from DC took 2nd and 3rd in stock AWD class, which was a good finish but I’m sure they’re disappointed in it. Lost to a WRX.



All in all, it was a great event and was good to finally see how we matched up against some of the best MR class drivers in the country. Also got to meet a bunch of cool people, hang out, work on cars, drink beers, and talk shop with a lot of national-level guys.



Next year the GLDivs are in Detroit area so we probably won’t haul that far, and Nationals this year are in Nebraska so that’s a no-go. Northeast National Challenge is at WDCR’s home venue in a few weeks, but I have to go to a wedding so can’t make it. I think Jim Spoth may drive my car in that one, and Nick will be back in his e28. Sucks I can’t compete for the title on my own local surface, but that’s how life works.

Oh, and Pete bought my old beat-up e21 wheels for $100. In quarters.



Of interest, Pete is one of the favorites to win Nationals, according to SCCA’s website



Overall, happy with how the car performed and held up with no mechanical issues whatsoever. In fact, Josh had to drive my car 7 hours home (which I don’t envy) since his car was still having issues – so I put it on my trailer and towed it back to my place.

So that’s it for now. Good times, and I have a few ideas for the car coming up (nothing too big, don’t’ get too excited), so stay tuned.

[phenryiv1]

:up:

I miss the fun of the runs but not the long weekends. I am glad that you guys had a solid event and and represented the D.C. Region well.

[irish44j]

Since I'm a numbers-cruncher, a few other interesting notes:

First, apparently OVR at normal events drops the worst run from each heat. In national competition no runs are dropped. Nonetheless, just for fun Evan posted up the total times with worst runs dropped:

HICKEY, JOSH 1,164.36
SCHMIDT, KEVIN 1,170.57
DRYMALSKI, NICK 1,173.92
REMNER, PETE 1,185.71
ARTHUR, EVAN 1,196.46
LAMONTAGUE, PATRICK 1,264.94
SENNETT, JOSHUA 1,328.56

So, that again shows how much that spin killed me. Oh well, that's the breaks.

As to the rest of the times, here are the session totals:

Saturday
Kevin: 971.7
Me: 972.7
Nick: 967.2
Evan: 988.0
Pete: 972.7
Pat: 1045.7
(leaving out Chris and Josh since they had DNF runs due to mechanicals)

So, pretty damn even on Saturday with the four fastest total times within 5 seconds of each other.

On Sunday:
Kevin: 487.1
Me: 486.7
Nick: 492.7
Evan: 505.1
Pete: 573.6

Fastest single runs of each session:
Saturday AM: me (2/10ths faster than Pete's fastest run)
Saturday PM: Pete (1.3 faster than Kevin's fastest, and 2.3 faster than my fastest).
Sunday: me (by 1/1000th of a second over Kevin's 2 fastest runs, lol, and 0.8 faster than Nick's fastest run).

Not sure what any of that says about our driving, but what the hell....

[irish44j]

Ok, how about some updates here. I've actually been doing bodywork on the e21 for the last couple weeks and the e30 just sitting there, but finally got around to addressing a few things that had been lagging.

First: For the last couple years there's been a slight "clunk" at the front right wheel when the wheel is pulled (by hand) outward. No other noise or whatever, but thought maybe it was a bad bearing, since the bearing didn't feel all that smooth. So I went ahead and replaced it.

The old bearing was pretty nasty:


had to get the Motorsport Hardware studs out of it (red loctite)


New FAG hub/bearing assembly


Installed


Unfortunately, the clunk is still there. Balljoints are tight. Top hat is tight. So I'm thinking it's just the spring clunking against the seat or something. I'm done worrying about it...

Also, with two rallycrosses in November in the mountains of Frostburg, a bit trepidatious about my street tires being Star Specs. I had a white-knuckle drive home last March in the flurries, and don't want anything to do with having to drive these in any real snow on the roads.

So.....scoured craigslist and found a full set of Winterforces in 15" size for $100. Excellent. About 75% tread left. They're 195/65/15, so a bit taller than the star specs but should still fit fine since this car isn't lowered.



I kind of didn't want to deal with changing tires onto my Euroweaves for winter and then putting the star specs on in the spring, so looked around for some cheap 15s that would fit the car. Not as easy as you'd think to find cheap old wheels for e30s. But eventually a GRM member came through with some old "vintage" almost TSW Blades (15x7), which used to be one of the old Spec Miata "spec" wheels in the late 90s and early 2000s. So the bolt pattern was right and since they were track wheels, the usual 40-45 Miata offset is actually 35mm on these. Also they had hubcentric rings for the MIata's smaller hub bore, but after knocking those out they're dead-on for the e30's larger hub bore.

So, they fit. Barely. About 1mm from the front struts and the inner rim wheel weights make light contact. So I'll have to score up some 10mm spacers, which is fine since I have the extended MH studs with about 20mm of extra thread anyhow.

In surprisingly good shape for $175. Two are curbed a bit, two are very nice. A few minor lip bends but nothing I'm concerned about. Also they came with some Falken 512s, two of which are pretty new, and the other two are decent. I'll keep those around for the e21 next year, and put the Winterforces on these.

And yes, I plan to paint them. I'm thinking for winter wheels I might as well go with White :)





clearance is "barely" lol


So that's it for now..

[shiboujin]

I doubt it's the spring. likely something on the shock or the top hat or something.

[irish44j]

Yeah IDK. I've checked the shock collar and there is no movement in the upper mount from above. I'm inclined to not care at all since it's not a wheel bearing :)

[irish44j]

Got bored this afternoon so I scuff-sanded the wheels, cleaned them up, sanded down the curbed edges (kinda) and hit them with a few coats of white paint. Because.....rallykar winter wheels? Eventually I'll get around to having the Winterforces transferred onto them..

[irish44j]

Also, rooting for the other local e30/e28 guys this weekend at the Northeast National Challenge held at our home venue in Frostburg. I'll be at a wedding tomorrow so can't make it up there to try for the win. Too bad too, since there are no RX-7s running in MR class at all, just a bunch of BMWs (e30s, e28, e36).

[irish44j]

As I mentioned before, I couldn't go to the NE National Challenge rallycross this weekend due to a buddy's wedding on Saturday. So instead I worked on the e21 and some other stuff. Managed to keep tabs on the action from afar via a few people there and session updates posted by WDCR. In the end, Nick took with win in MR in the e28, followed by Stephen Nichols (running up a class in the PR ETA) and Josh Sennet (apparently running Day 1 without any turbo boost...)

Hopefully one of them will jump in here and give some details. Now I have a month to get ready to roll for the next one, with three events left this season.