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

[irish44j]

Got the radiator installed today with no issues. As expected it was a drop-in fit other than drilling a couple holes on the upper lip for my top mounts (same as the old one), since I don't use the OEM-style setup plastic thing, since it seems pretty weak.

Here's a couple comparison shots of the one that's been in there for years vs. the new one.










Say what you will about "Chinese quality" (or lack thereof), the old radiator survived probably 50 rallycrosses and around 10 stage rallies with no issues at all. no cracks, nothing broken or whatever. Anyhow, now I have a spare as well, which I haven't had previously.

Here's it fitted in the car. Since I'm on isolation right now can't go pick up any antifreeze for it (I run an 80-20 mostly water mix in the summer, but will go full 50-50 for winter). So will have to bleed it later.

A little tighter fit, but sill probably 2" of clearance from the radiator to the nearest engine part. Other than that, dimensionally it's the same as the old one.




Ah, also - don't think I mentioned it, but early Black Friday shopping and picked up a second halo seat for Jim's side of the car. Same as the one I got for myself earlier this year.




So, that's installed now. Still need to order new harnesses before the next rally, but may wait until Chrismas/New Year's sales and let the parts budget recover a bit. Between this, the Raider, and the Sequoia I've spent more on car stuff in recent months than I probably should have lol.

[irish44j]

So still doing break-in on the diff, but with the new higher-strength Bellvue washers, as-tested right now the breakaway torque at the hub is slightly over 100lb-ft (compared to ~60 for a stock 2-clutch one and half that for my old tired one). Havne't done anything crazy since I'm still breaking it in, though, so can't say yet how different it feels on the street or dirt.

In the meantime, got a few things from my friends at Condor




So that's just a replacement diff mount bushing for my other diff (3.73 LSD) which still had a OEM-style bushing in it. I also added mounting studs to it for easier swapping, if needed.




So a couple weeks ago I ordered an ebay radiator listed for a Z3M. Unfortuntately, when it arrived it was only a 2-row, not the 3-row I expected (my mistake, not theirs, for not reading the listing well). Anyhow, the vendor basically just returned half my payment rather than pay for return shipping so that's now either a spare or one to sell to someone else. It's basically the same as the one that's been in the car and worked fine for about 7-8 years now. No complaints on the Chinese radiators.

That said, I've never liked how warm this car runs. It may be in the "normal" range, but I'd like it a bit cooler. So I want a 3-row radiator. So today the correct on arrived...a full 3-row knockoff from China. Yeah, I'd love a Mishimoto but not spending triple on something that may get impaled by a tree branch at any time. Also, pretty sure these are made in the same factory but sold as an off-brand, lol. IDK.

In any case, there it is. MAybe I'll put it in tomorrow. Should be drop-in fit since I don't have an OEM crank-driven fan.




\

[irish44j]

Finished up the diff today. While waiting for DHL to get here with the clutches I disassembled. Fluid looked good, but the old clutches are clearly worn on the contact side with little friction material left. On the cheap I could have flipped them and used the other sides, which looked decent, but that's not what we're doing...




The DHL showed up with some new clutch packs and pressure washers (I forget the actual name for these things) from RacingDiffs over in Europe.







The ramp plates looked perfect, so didn't need to use the little shim pieces the kit comes with (which requires some minor machining). So, after dousing everything in some fresh fluid, assembly is reverse of removal, other than a third set of clutches replacing the 6mm big thick washer/spacer thing.




And all back together







And easy job putting it back up in the car (if you don't have studs on the top of your diff to replace the stock bolts, you should). Also, the access holes down through the trunk make tightening the upper nuts much, much easier (not shown)







Another item for the car came today as well, but not going to discuss at the moment since they sent the wrong thing so I'll have to do a return and wait for the right one.....grr.

[irish44j]

Dropped the 4.10 diff today. It's nice not having the spare tire well there any more. I did the whole thing with the car sitting on the ground :)



After much de-mudding, got to taking it apart. I thought my new LSD clutches would be in today, but I guess not....in any case, the bearings feel good and the seals weren't leaking so I'll probably just leave them as-is.



Nothing else to do late-night so got out there and cleaned and painted the case and cover. Seems kind of pointless since it's going to get dirty/muddy/sandblasted in no time, but hey, it's something to do.





While I was out grabbing some cash at the ATM, this nice M4 followed me into the lot and stopped next to me. He had seen the Condor Speed Shop sticker on the side of it, and apparently he went to high school with the owner (Carlos). Not a huge surprise since Carlos is from this area originally, but still very small world.

[irish44j]

Some great shots from Alan Olson from last weekend!

[irish44j]

Well, that's a wrap on the 2020 Rallycross season. Thanks to COVID, our usual 8-event season was condensed into four 2-day (individual) weekend events, so still 8 separate scoring events. Coming into this weekend (events 7 and 8). Stephen Nichols held a strong points lead thanks to a pair of wins and mostly other top-3 finishes, with me in 2nd a few points ahead of Nick in the M2, and Eric Eisele in 4th with an outside shot at the championship still. With all of my results this year in the top-3, and two drops available to everyone, it was going to be interesting. Stephen's worst finishes were a 3rd and 4th, Nick had a 5th and 7th, while my worst two were both 3rds. So basically anything worse than top-2 this weekend would just be drops for me, for all intents and purposes.




This weekend the weather was absolutely perfect, in the 70s - unusual for November around here - and we were back at Summit Point Motorsports Park to run the two courses there that we know well. Saturday's event had over 80 entries - another huge entry list, with Mod RWD, as usual, with a about 15 drivers. We were on the old "Barn Course" - which we've run for years and I really haven't done too well on in recent times. The top several drivers in class came out of the box with similar times, but I picked up a cone on the 3rd run (as it would happen, the ONLY cone anyone in the top-5 got all day), when I caught a rut and get pulled into it. Otherwise, the top-5 were knocking down similar times. After a few runs the car started feeling a bit odd, having a lot of trouble hooking up traction exiting turns and really getting the tail side-to-side accelerating hard on the big straights. This was the first event in a while I've done on gravel tires (vice Maxsports) so that may have had something to do with it - but I was running tire pressures below 20psi and don't usually have traction issues like that. It felt a lot like my LSD had finally bit the dust - the car reacted similarly when my old 3.91 LSD finally burned out. In any case, I pushed on through the day but couldn't quite keep the car in check and had to take it easier on corner exit than I typically need to. In the end, Nick pulled off the win by almost 3 seconds over Stephen, and I was one second back of him.


For Stephen, this 2nd-place finish locked up the championship for him. He's been doing this for over a decade in a couple of e30s and had won SR and PR class a few times over the years, but hadn't won the class since joining MR 5-6 years ago. But he's always been one of the fastest/most consistent drivers and probably could have won a couple if he didn't miss events here and there that hurt his points.

Going into Sunday on the smaller, looser, and more turny "Tree Course," Nick and I were battling for 2nd in class. Basically, whichever of us finished higher than the other would win the class. I've done well on this course previously and Nick (to my recollection) hasn't really loved it. Eric's bad finish on Saturday knocked him out of the chase for 2nd/3rd so it was really down to us. I considered bringing my other LSD diff and installing it in the morning at the venue, but that just seemed like more work than I felt like doing to try to get 2nd, honestly. I also thought about putting the Maxsports back on, but didn't feel like bothering.


We went out of the gate hard again, but I got a cone on the first and the second runs, though I was a bit faster than him. Both cones were cones I would not normally hit, but the car really just was not staying "in line" the way I'm used to and both happened under heavy throttle when the car stepped sideways. I'll check the LSD lock torque this week to be sure it's shot, but I really can't see anything else that would cause the rear end to step out and/or not hook up under off-camber acceleration like that.

In any case, with those two cones, I knew it was over. Nick was running similar times to me, but he almost never hits cones (he didn't hit one all weekend, as it happens). So after a couple more runs just to see (one of which I picked up about 1.8 seconds on him), and Nick leading the event by around 4 seconds (Stephen a ways back after 3 cones early), I pretty much conceded 2nd place for the season. The upside is I got to jump in some other people's cars to try them. First up was Nonack's BR-Z, with a fresh, tight diff and stage suspension (not yet caged). Man, that car handles well and is very intuitive. It drives a lot like a slightly bigger Miata but with way more power, especially with Chris's short gearing in the rear end (requiring 3rd even on the small course). My time first time ever in a BRZ was just a shade behind what I had been running in my own car earlier.....

2nd up was Mike Golden's MR2, which is 2ZZZ-swapped (so, about 200hp). Never driven an MR2 in anger or on slippery surfaces, so I didn't attack as hard with it (fearing snap oversteer). But I found that the car really drives like a little slot car. So much grip as long as you stay on the throttle. I got into the fluff on the last turn braking zone and lost some time, but it was still a fairly good run, I think. To finish the day I jumped in Stevie's class-winning e30 and knocked down a fast run, so that felt good at least. Those guys all drove my car on the same runs and can chime in on their thoughts. Mike said my car was really tail-happy with little traction (my thoughts exactly, this weekend). Chris wasn't sure it was an LSD issue I was having. Stephen forgot it didn't have ABS and plowed a 6-cone wall in a braking zone when he locked them up lol...

All in all, somewhat disappointing end finishing 3rd (I've been 1st or 2nd for 6 straight years in this class), but goes to show that this MR class is really, really good and really, really deep in talent and fast cars. I've said it all year that any one of about ten drivers can win the class on any given day/course. I think of the 8 total events we had four different event winners, in actuality. So, no 4th championship for me (or 3rd for Nick), good to see Stevie finally winning one!




And a few other random pics from the weekend. I'll add some more thoughts on the car and future plans (?) later this week once I take a look at a few things. All in all, another great season with DC Rallycross - which in my estimation is still, by far, the deepest most competitive MR class in the country (no offense, Detroit and Ohio guys - you have some fast dudes for sure).




Kimmett, disposing of his rear bumper once again, en route to his 7th consecutive MA championship...




The Dirty Industries boys doing a quick tire change after a debead...




Mike Golden taking his run in the e30




me taking mine in the MR2




Riding in Nick's seatless M3 to get back to the paddock...




One of my coworkers dropped by in his 585 (wheel) HP Dinan M4, which has about 100 track days on it (he's an instructor), and is also his daily driver.....

[irish44j]

And some additional photos from Sara Nonack

[irish44j]

Ok, time for some racing. DC Rallycross #5 and 6 (doubleheader) last weekend was at Panthera Training. The weather was clear and crisp with a nice breeze to keep the dust off the course for the most part. MR was, as usual, the largest class with 15 entries out of the 50 total cars there. All the usual suspects were there:







(here's where I apologize for taking very few photos for some reason, since I knew Sara Nonack was taking about a billion of them which I'm sure we'll see at some point)


This was the first event with the new suspension setup. I put a grand total of 5 miles on the street on it so wasn't sure what to expect. To recap, at the previous event it had Bilstein HDs up front with 220# 10" springs and in the rear it had IX stock springs with the Gp4 gravel Bilsteins (no sways). Now it has the Escort gravel Bilsteins up front with 12" 230# springs and the e36 M3 springs in the rear again, plus the weight "rebalance" from the spare tire relocation, etc. I ran all weekend with a rally spare in the backseat area. In short, spring rate up front got a bit stiffer, damping up front got much softer, rear spring rate got stiffer, and front camber went from about -2* to about 0.5* negative. So i was interested to see how it would feel.




The Saturday course was the shorter "back side" course that is basically a hillclimb full of technical S-curves and cutbacks. It tends to favor the more powerful cars since it's pretty much entirely uphill, with a long vertical "drag strip" coming into the finish turn. That said, it also has some narrow areas with large cone walls (to keep people from tumbling down large hills) and "moon dust" on the edges that are time-killers if you go too wide (one e30 did that and got high-centered and stuck). Also many of the turns are blind, so you can't really 'look ahead' all that much, and have to go a lot on memory from the drive-through and early runs.




Everyone went fast out of the gate in this tight class. On the first run Nick, Stephen Nichols (e30 M20, the current points leader), Mike Golden (2zzz-swapped MR2) and me pretty much matched times from the start, with minor variations. The next 4-5 cars in class stayed close behind but picked up some cones here and there while we mostly stayed clean. After 6 runs none of the top 4 cars had any cones, and we went into lunch with me holding a ~2-second lead over Nick and Stevie, with several others close behind.

The after-lunch course was largely the same with some small changes but Nick was clearly in a groove and started laying down consecutive very fast and clean runs, using the M3's power to out-climb the rest of us. Stevie and me both made a couple minor mistakes costing us a second or two and by the last run my lead had been whittled down to 4/10ths of a second, with Nick beating me on every afternoon run. My last run was pretty good, my 2nd fastest of the day. Nick out of the blue laid down a flyer, beating it by 1.6 seconds (the fastest run by anyone in the class other than Golden's MR2). So he took the win on the last run.

So for Saturday, Nick won, I was 1.1s back, Stephen was 2.7s back from me, and the rest of the class were gapped 2-5 seconds behind each other for the most part. So that was pretty disappointing




Here's the top-10 MR results, minus the MR2 and Miatas down at the bottom.




We headed out to grab some pizza and beer and then came back to hang out with the people camping out in the near-freezing temps at the venue. It was cold.




It was also cold in the morning, evidenced by Golden's MR2




Sunday we ran what can only be described as the biggest, fastest, longest course in mid-Atlantic rallycross history. It used pretty much 75% of the entire rallycross venue, including the giant long hillclimbs (and hill descents) that we haven't used in a couple years due to conditions, which had finally been graded. This promised to be an epic course combining huge power-friendly areas with some very tight and technical/cone-heavy/blind turn areas. Course conditions were excellent with dust mostly blowing off the course (keep this in mind). The closest to a stage rally that you'll ever see in rallycross. The early run group was taking well over 2 minutes per run (in grippy conditions, no slippery mud or grass slowing people down)...the course was THAT long. It also had the popular high-speed downhill-into-pin-turn-and-then-straight-uphill. I Ken Block-style nailed it every time in the morning (turning left) but not so much turning right in the afternoon. I hope there are some pics lol.


Still pissed over Saturday's blown lead, I went out of the gates hard. So did Stephen. Both of us ran low 117-second runs, with his co-driver Chris putting down 119. The closest car after that was Nonack's 122 in the BRZ, and much of the class were in the 124-125 zone. This is highly unusual in this class, with everyone evenly matched usually, and I'm not really sure WHY it was the case, honestly. But the trend continued all morning, and at lunch I had a 4-second lead over Stevie and he was about 15 seconds ahead of Nick in 3rd. The afternoon course reversed to the direction I'm typically slower at for some reason. But still, Steve and I went out of the gate hard. Nick switched tires from grasstracks to gravels at lunch and started laying down run times similar to ours with the M3's power and clean driving. The rest of the class continued to fall further behind for the most part. With two runs left I was holding onto about a 4-second lead over Stephen, with nobody else remotely close to the two of us. Mid-run I came over the hilltop crest and got a full-bore blast of dust from the car coming up the hill below me and it was a total whiteout heading toward basically a big dropoff with no marker cones. I'm one who is a proponent of "just remember where the turn is and drive that way" but in this case the total lack of any course markers (or anything) visible made me shut it down. Going off an embankment would not have been fun (and likely would have stopped the event for a good amount of time). So after coming to a complete stop I finished with a 124)-second run (my prior run had been 117). I've only once ever requested a re-run due to conditions before, but in this case with the tight battle I felt like it was warranted. Re-run was granted and I went immediately, made a couple big mistakes, and finished with a pretty slow 119. A full second slower than Stevie. So had the dust run stood, Stevie would have had a couple-second lead going into the last run, but as it was, I maintained a 1-second lead. My last run I went all-out knowing he would as well, and nailed another 117-second run, not knowing what Stevie had run right before me since he was still on course. As it happens, it didn't much matter as he hit two cones in addition to a slow 119 and ended up almost 7 seconds behind me. Even with Nick's very fast afternoon runs, he only pulled within 11 seconds of Stephen. So, I finally got a win this season.

Here's the finishing positions for Sunday's giant course:




So, the takeaway is this: I didn't hit any cones all weekend. And there were some areas where it was possible to hit 6 cones at once if your line was just a foot or two off. I was overly careful in these areas and tried to make up the time elsewhere.

The real takeaway, though, is that the new front suspension is really, really good. The car felt completely controllable, with no surprises from either end, no matter what I did. The softer damping up front (and increased front end height by about 1") really balanced the car well, and the more vertical camber felt like it give better outer edge bite. Overall, the car felt extremely locked-in - ESPECIALLY on the high-speed sections on Sunday where the prior suspension setup sometimes felt somewhat unsettled. Makes sense since this suspension setup is intended for high-speed stage rally. But in short, I'm very very pleased with it and there's no chance I win on Sunday with my old suspension, in my opinion. There are many drivers in this class who are better than I am. But I honestly think I've managed to build the best car at this point (just my biased opinion, of course). I suspect several of these guys (Nonack, Eisele, Stephen in particular) would probably beat me badly if they co-drove my car lol (most of them have in the past, in truth).

In other news, we revived our habit of putting a bottle with flowers in it onto the course right as Julian Zottl is approaching. This is an inside joke among us from the old Summit Point days (and it's only done because he fully expects it to be done and he loves hitting it)...




Also, this thing was there, and it was not terribly fast, but still awesome. Especially with the driver wearing full Speedracer helmet and ascot. This is the one with the locking center and rear diffs, and it looked to have traction for days....




So, here are the season points as they stand. One remaining doubleheader next month at Summit Point, where freezing temps may be a factor for tire choice. Summit is very flat, so the power edge Nick and I have over the class is mostly negated compared to the big hills at Panthera. So, we'll see how that goes and who picks the right tires, I guess.

[irish44j]

Some random little stuff today just goofing around. So I noticed the front suspension make an annoying groaning noise when i bounched on it. With the minimal preload I figured it was the bottom of the spring grinding on the aluminum seat, so decided to make up a couple isolators out of some scrap HPDE sheet. So, out with the hole saws.








Nothing fancy, just some thin "spacers" cut to fit. To avoid having to take the whole assembly apart I just cut a slit in it so I could slip in directly in. Should work. If it somehow comes out (doubtful) won't hurt anything anyhow.




So, that worked, and no more creaking noise.




While I was standing there, "fabbed" up a dust cover for the upper mounts.. This is pretty high-tech stuff, kids....




Oh also, a couple weeks late (and not in time for the beach trip last week), got some new seat covers in for the tow rig. The 2005 Toyota leather was getting pretty crappy...




I don't usually care about high-end interior stuff, but decided for once to get something nice, since our asses spend a lot of time in these seats on long hauls...




Install was easy, they fit great, very comfortable, and look pretty good :)







Things currently on my mind/in the planning stage:

1. hydrobrake and/or brake bias valve for the e30. Still thinking about what I want to do, exactly.

2. headers for the Sequoia, which has a crack in the OEM header(s), like literally 99% of all Toyota 4.7L trucks do. The "sewing machine" sound is really driving me crazy, so I may drop the cash for some good headers to get rid of it, gain some power (hopefully), gain some good sounds, etc. I'm waiting for the place that sells them to run their Halloween sale, so we'll see if I pull the trigger at the time.

[gnmzl]

That's just awesome, was waiting for the stance of the car once on the ground, wasn't disappointed. Can't wait to read your verdict after some action.

[roguetoaster]

Good progress, and still an entertaining read!

[irish44j]

Finally got the springs in, late today. They look like they went through WW2 on the way, and the box was almost totally split open (fuck you FedEx). Luckily the coilover adjuster wrenches in there with the springs somehow didn't fall out....





Installed on the coilovers;




And all bolted up on the car







Here's the clearance to the tire, so looks like I should be able to put some longer springs on if needed (still need to check them with the rally wheels/spacers since those have a slightly different offset compared to the street Euroweaves)




Due to other obligations, I only had time to quickly run the car up the street. Initial impressions are that I literally cannot feel anything on the pavement (cracks, bumps, etc) at slow speeds. Very smooth, but overall on slow-speed maneuvering not much different in feel from prior - of course the main difference I'm hoping for is in bumpy terrain, but will have to wait for that (may try to find an under-repaving road or something tomorrow, since gravel or rough roads are pretty rare around here.


Initial setup was with essentially no preload (just enough to keep the spring from rattling at full droop), and it looks like that puts the car roughly at the height I want it at. I may or may not add some tender springs so they fully unload under full droop, but we'll see. My measurements of coil gap shows that it'll be pretty close on absolute full compression as to whether there is any bind. Another option may just be to do 14" springs instead of 12" to get some additional bind gap. I don't expect it will be an issue for rallycross, and with no stage rally for the rest of this year I have time to make that determination better. In any case, happy with the setup so far.

Side note, at this ride height I measured right under 1/2* negative camber on the driver's side and 3/4* on the passenger side (which is sitting about 1/2" lower at the moment). So once I get it corner-weighed and set up I'll see exactly where it is. In any case, that seems pretty close to where I want it for rallycross/gravel rally and if I'm on hardpack i can just lower the suspension to gain some negative.

[irish44j]

Took a few minutes to bolt everything up loosely today to measure overall travel (since everyone loves the "stuffed" photos), without the springs in. This is with my largest diameter tire so as to check clearances (basically, the stage rally size, which is larger than the rallycross/street/winter tires)

So, full droop. This should be about 1/2" or so more than stock droop, based on my measurements with the other suspension set.



And full stuff, lifting the car's weight. Obviously it'll go a bit further if there is an impact load (with no spring) but in a functional sense I doubt it would be able to. Will also have to measure how much compression the 12" springs have before bind, but I expect it to be more than the overall distance so bind should never be an issue.



With the wheels turned about halfway (jack was in the way of full lock) there's about 1/4" of clearance on the fender lip, or a shade more. The only time I could see the car hitting absolute full compression would be landing a large jump, in which case the wheels would be straight anyhow. This is about 1/2" more compression stuff than the previous setup and I never had any rubbing with that, so don't think it will be an issue.

[irish44j]

So, moving along on the suspension. Headed out to Brian Battocchi's place on Saturday so he could weld up the struts with something a bit more powerful (MIG). Some of you may recognize his rallycar in the background from prior posts in this thread (and us chasing him for an entire stage at the Winter Rally a couple years ago)




Brian is also working on a slow build of an STi rally car, which should be really fast. He's been seam welding it forever, it seems, lol




In any case, Brian got to work with the MIG to put the strut tubes togeter for good. He actually used Docol wire (since he's about to build his cage from docol), so in theory his welds should be far stronger than the actual steel pieces....







And welded up




Once I got home I got out the flap wheel and flattened out the welds so I could add some side braces. I initially was going to go with a full tubular sleeve like Thomas did, but I think the welds themselves would be plenty strong on their own, so just did some quick "triangles" for some additional bracing and peace of mind (this stuff just with my own MIG), two on each strut.




After that was done, painted stuff up




For those who follow rally, you may say "well, that looks like the same color scheme JVL uses for his JVAB custom rally suspensions," and I suppose you're probably right, but whatever. It's the color I had and I don't much care. But just for disclaimer:










And assembled with new hubs, etc. That's the current suspension (IE threaded collars, 225# 10" springs, and Bilstein HDs) in the background.




And a quick test-fit, though I'm still waiting for springs to arrive. I'll be using 240# 12" springs initially, which *should* be about right. We'll see. Test fit reveals I've gained roughly 3/4" of droop vs. the previous setup, and should be about 1/4" additional compression/bump travel upward (I'll check that once I have the balljoint fully seated and installed.

[irish44j]

Finishing up the upper mounts today, basically I chopped each of the three corners to bring it closer to a round orientation so it fits flush under the stock towers




Then tacked on some nuts to the bottom of the holes as captives. So unlike the e30 top hats that have studs that come up, this will have bolts that go down to hold it.




Test fitted, all is good there.




Notably, these are MUCh thicker metal than the e30 top mounts. I had noticed that the top of the shock towers had over the years kind of bowed upward, as had the e30 top hats:




So I took a big wood block and hit it a few times to flatten them out a bit, and then when I cranked down on the bolts for the new hats, it basically pulled the top of the tower flat again. I plan to double-plate all this stuff in the near future, so shouldn't be an issue after that.