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

[irish44j]

Next project will start this week: Lexan rear windows (just the back doors and quarter windows). I managed to score a reasonably cheap 36x36" piece off ebay (as luck would have it, the e30 rear window area, including the frame, is about 18"x36") and ordered 2 pairs of pop-out lexan vents from an aircraft supply place for $30 or so. So if the weather cooperates, that will be this weekend's project.

I'm taking a guess that doing these windows in 1/8" Lexan replacing the glass, vertical support, and cranks/tracks will net me about a 20-25lb weight loss up high in the back where I don't want it. I know there are other places to lose weight, but this is specifically meant to offset part of the weight of the rollbar, which is roughly in the same area of the car.

Other weight-reduction would cut into the street legality of the car (bumpers, lighting, etc). I may do the rear windshield at some point, but for the time being I prefer to keep the rear defrost for winter events, etc.

Another thing I plan to do is drop another 10lbs or so from each end of the car by replacing the piston-style bumper supports with some simple steel L-brackets, but that's down the road a ways.

In other news, with season membership signups for this season open for 4 days now, we have 21 season memberships already - which is pretty strong (I think last year we had around 25 or so). So I foresee full events all season again, though probably less people from the eastern DC/Baltimore areas and more from Pittsburgh/Western Maryland area.

Also 2 new e30s signed up for the full season - one is Alp Seyvan running initially in PR, who is a Fairfax County local that I've met and a newbie to rallycross. The other one is an 86 ETA but I don't know the owner (I don't think!) who also appears to be from the DC area.

More updates in a few days!

[irish44j]

ok, what's say we do a bit of work here already.....

started the lexan rear window project. This involved stripping off all the rear door trim so I can get a flat mounting surface. I managed to get a 36x36" piece of Lexan off ebay for cheap, and some pop-out aircraft vents from a plane supply place.

I kind of consider this a test project to see how I like them, so this is just standard Lexan with no UV or anti-scratch coating. If it gets scuffed up (which it will, badly), that's ok. This is a 29-year old rallycross car, lol.

Vents pop in and work well, though one of them I sanded a bit too much on the inside of the cut hole (3 1/8" hole saw/drill press) so it's a bit loose. I ran a thin piece of electrical tape around it for the moment to make it tighter. That kind of thing is why I bought the cheap Lexan for the first version of these, haha...

cutting in half...


after the main profile cuts (by the way, I used a jigsaw with bi-metal blade at low speed. Worked great. Clean cuts and no melting or anything.



one vent hole cut, and the black edging painted on (VHT epoxy paint)


the "final" product before it goes on the car. I pre-drilled the holes, and I'm going to use rivets. Since Lexan does expand and contract a bit due to heat, I am using 1/4" holes in the lexan for 3/8" rivets to avoid any cracking/spidering around the rivet holes (and will use rivet washers). If I remake these next season, I'll weld in some tabs and use countersunk screws. Rivets are easier for the first version.

The window piece will sit in the outer slot at the bottom of the door (just inside the "lip") and the rest of it will be attached to the outside of the frame with the rivets and sealant. I think this will give it decent rigidity (for 1/8"). Guess we'll see, lol.

More when I install it, maybe sunday, and do the other one..

[irish44j]

Got one installed today. Made a few little mistakes along the way with my drilling, but overall went pretty well and it's in there nicely, sits flush, etc..

Oh, and 12.5lbs weight reduction (per side). And keep in mind I had already converted to manual roll-up windows (which were 10-15bs or so lighter than the electric windows+wiring+switch)

Me on scale with the new window and hardware:


Me on scale with all the old hardware, windows, crank, etc.


Installed:






pop-out vents work great, though I suspect they may leak a little bit in heavy rain....as if I really care.

[silence]

26 lbs removed from up high, that's where it counts!

[Nick_S]

Windows came out fantastic!!

[irish44j]

Last update before the season starts. A few minor things:

- tightened up the motor mounts, which were surprisingly loose.
- noticed a good amount of oil down the timing cover on the engine and some dripped on the skidplate. Looks like it's leaking from the valve cover oil cap (I surely hope so, vice the timing case that I worked extremely hard to seal up perfectly!) Will warrant some investigation after this event.
- sold my old set of rally tires/wheels to Alp, who is a new e30 recruit to local rallycross (325is coupe), but has experience stage-rallying a Fiesta over in Turkey.
- added a bit more underbody protection (cut-out rubbermaid bin tops) around the fuel and brake lines. I'm really a bit paranoid about the large gravel at our new venue.
- still have a leak in one of my DMacks, but it's slow enough (at the bead someplace) that it can make it through events. I'll have my air tank with me for sure.

Also met Josh Sennett, who is running his 325e TURBO with us this season. The car was a GRM Challenge build, so it's a low-budget setup with a turbo and stock ETA engine. Should be interesting.

Also while down at the marina visiting the parents this weekend, dad had pulled the 200-gallon fuel tank out of the boat (it had developed a hole) to replace it with a new one. Nice heavy-gauge aluminum, and I had to bust out a sawzall and cut some good pieces out for future use (as yet unspecified).



always love working in dad's "garage"


wish that was my boat in the foreground. Sadly, mine is in the background....


Looks like about 40 cars are signed up for the first event, which is pretty good considering how far out it is from where we used to run. I know some guys gave it up this year due to distance (all our events last year had 60 cars) so we'll see how this goes. Hey, more runs for the rest of us now!

MR is shaping up to be pretty interesting this year. Signups so far include me, Chris in the monster Mustang, Russ in a 1st gen MR2, someone else in Russ's old Supra, Josh S. in the turbo ETA, Eric in the "regular" ETA (a PR car), a Benz 190, and a few other interesting cars.

PR as usual is a bunch of e30s and RX7s.

And someone is running an 83 Celica in SR, by himself.

Oddly, of the 40 cars signed up, only two are FWD. FWD just aren't very popular in this region....

[phenryiv1]

Oddly, of the 40 cars signed up, only two are FWD. FWD just aren't very popular in this region....

If I ever RallyX again it will be in stock FWD.

[irish44j]

If I ever RallyX again it will be in stock FWD.

well, one thing is for sure.....you'll win every event!

[phenryiv1]

well, one thing is for sure.....you'll win every event!

I'd find a way to lose.

[irish44j]

I'd find a way to lose.

aw....:(

[irish44j]

So here we go, the 2014 Season begins!

So first off, we’re at a new venue this year in Frostburg, MD, which is about a 3-hour hike (or more) for most of us (about twice as far as Summit). The venue is a 500 (IIRC) acre area that was once a strip mine up in the mountains, and then was a storage lot for FEMA trailers. So it’s huge, quite flat, and all gravel and some small shrubbery. And it’s gravel with a fine black substate….so some areas compact good and get hard, and other areas just keep sinking into pits of gravel deep enough to catch some cars once they get rutted up by the mod-AWD guys.

Second off, MR class looks a bit different this year. Roberto is gone. Chris Nonack returns, but now with a beastly 400-hp foxbody Mustang on big tires (a former E-Mod autocross car, so it’s light too!). Nick is back too with his e28 refreshed. Josh Sennet is a newcomer (but known to GRM’ers) with his GRM challenge e30 ETA…with a TURBO. Kyle Salerno took over Russ’s Supra from last year (Russ has a 1st gen MR2 that couldn’t make this event). Eric Helgesen is getting to know his dad’s ETA, and we have a few other cars in MR.

PR has Chris Helgesen and Stephen returning in the beat-up ETA, and Shawn and Katie in the beat-up RX7. Also we have a newcomer, Alp, in his 325i e30 (now with my old rally tires on it).

So….first weekend was a test&tune and then event. Saturday’s test let us familiarize with the new venue. The gravel and substrate is MUCH different for most of us from Summit’s grass and red clay, and required a new driving style (and attention to traction, big time). But I like it. The gravel surface suits me much better than the clay did, I think (though when it gets deep the RWD cars with low power can really get stuck…)

Saturday it was cold and 40mph winds (the hills around the venue are lined with wind turbines, if that tells you anything). So we tested and tuned  No major issues for any of us as Chris learned the new car and threw rocks at everyone around (400hp + no mudflaps = better not be behind him anywhere within 100’). Only issue was with Alp, our new e30. He didn’t get one of his wheels torqued down well, and it rattled loose and eventually off on a test run, while breaking three studs and stripping another. Luckily the new venue has 2 auto parts stores AND a harbor freight within 3 miles so he got some repair stuff and got it back on the road for the competition day.

Sunday the courses were set up pretty well I think. A lot of kinks and slaloms as they tried to keep most of it on the harder-packed material, but some areas did get really deep and rutted. I came out of the gate strong and by lunch had built a 20ish second lead on the class. Chris was running fast but coning a lot. Nick was running strong as well, and Josh S. in the turboETA was surprisingly fast, and we was running on worn-out all-season tires. If he gets rally tires we’re gonna have a tough time holding him off. Eric is getting faster in the ETA as well, and Kyle is driving Russ’s old Supra doubly hard, and very fast.

In the afternoon I laid down a couple good runs (though Chris and Nick were holding pretty even with me), but with a few runs left I basically honed a bit. I’m rarely in a position to drive with a bit more….uh….entertainment value, since my style is more precise and less power. But with a 25-second lead I ran a few runs putting the car sideways at every opportunitly. Hopefully the photographer (AJ) got some good shots 

So in the end, I pulled off a win by about 25 seconds or so. Not sure how the final standings will shake out, but here’s more or less what it looked like near the end:

Me
Nick (25 seconds back, his last 2 runs he drove my car since he had a problem)
Chris (about 45 seconds back from me)
Josh S and Kyle were both only a second or two off of Chris last I saw, so not sure how that shook out
Eric is getting faster in the car.
Am I forgetting someone…..?

So…..that’s a good start to the season for me and the car feels good. I’m going to be doing a lot of checkin things in the next few weeks,……this new venue is HARD on the cars. In addition to Alp’s wheel-off…..the ETA boys put two cracks in their front shock tower (get that welder out) and kept knocking their fuel pump relay loose (killing the car). Nick managed to have a coolant hose rub up on the alternator and cut a hole in itself too.

So….some pics. I’m sure AJ will have better ones but I like to share some of my crappy ones

Chris and me


doh


Nice morning….but cold


More pics when I get some time….

[MattAvino]

Those are some really cool cars for rallyx.
Im assuming there is a 5.0 in the fox?

[irish44j]

Those are some really cool cars for rallyx.
Im assuming there is a 5.0 in the fox?

Yeah, 5.0 with trickflow intake manifold, built internals, etc. The word is that it's somewhere in the neighborhood of 400hp, and I don't doubt it. It also only weighs 2600lbs.



So here's a video of one of the courses (this is from the test&tune, but we used the same course today for competition in the morning). You can see how huge this venue is, as we're only using about 1/4 of the usable area here. I was pegging the limiter in 2nd on a few occasions (and that's 7000rpms with a 3.91 rear, so somewhere around 65mph)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLoIoUm_840&feature=youtu.be

[MattAvino]

Awesome. Five-oh stang must make a badass rally car.
I'm in the middle of building a 302 for my e30.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

[irish44j]

Awesome. Five-oh stang must make a badass rally car.
I'm in the middle of building a 302 for my e30.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

We'll see how it pans out. The driver (Chris Nonack) is in my estimation one of the best rallycross drivers locally (recall last season, he beat me in my own car by a pretty good margin having never driven it before). But it's a lot of car to handle, especially on technical courses. He finished behind me and Nick's e28 by a substantial margin today, mostly due to taking out cones all over the place (I only had 2 cones all day, Nick had 5, and Chris had 21!).

I'm sure he'll learn the car, but it's still never going to be a precision driver. He'll have to overcome that fact with sheer raw power on course. I'm not doubting that he can/will, but will be interesting to see what happens.

He jokingly said that his car has 80% of the weight at the front with that much power, and that's probably not TOO far from reality. For rallycross I like having a good 50-50 weight distro or so (which is close to what I estimate I have) for the handling, but that suits my driving style better. I'd suck with a 300hp V8 e30......