95maxrider's Rally-x '88 E28 build- caged, head swap and more

[irish44j]

That said, for a rallycross car a reverse-rake is desirable to give you better weight transfer to the rear. I put 1" spacers in my front suspension to GET the reverse rake and it significantly improved....well, everything.

Personally, I wouldn't bother. You want travel and height in the front.

[95maxrider]

Got a few updates on the car, so I figured I would post up.

We finally got some carpeting down over the sound deadening in the trunk and back seat to keep the SD from getting damaged or torn up when putting things in the car. The carpet in trunk and on the lower portion in the back seat aren't glued down, due to ongoing water leak concerns, but at least the SD is protected.





We also installed some HD roll cage padding at helmet level.


And then we did some redesigning of the interior. We removed the remainder of the center console that housed the window switches and the tacked on aluminum dash panel that our ex-third member installed to make room for a storage container. Oh, and some much needed sound deadening on the firewall and trans tunnel! Bobby (the co-owner) had a spare set of floor mats from his E46, so we threw those in the car as well. Every little bit of sound deadening helps!





And we finally got back to doing some more blackout work on the chrome trim. I used more of the blackout tape around the windshield and paint for the front Roundel, which had completely stripped down to the chrome. From 5' away it all looks good enough for me!

Oh, and we took the car through a car wash after the last event. Doesn't it look nice?

[phenryiv1]

Will the milk crate pass tech?

[95maxrider]

Will the milk crate pass tech?

Hmm, I'm not sure how Bobby attached it, but I think it's pseudo-secure. We shall see. It's not like it's hard to remove :)

[phenryiv1]

I emailed you the two pics from the last event.

[irish44j]

For your backseat, you should just make some quick-remove panels like I have. Flat surface to hold any gear you want to carry (I put my pop-up and tool kit there), and I can take it all out in about 45 seconds.

[95maxrider]

For your backseat, you should just make some quick-remove panels like I have. Flat surface to hold any gear you want to carry (I put my pop-up and tool kit there), and I can take it all out in about 45 seconds.

Yeah, that's in the plans further down the road.

But for now, I got some pics from the last race. Thanks Patrick!

[95maxrider]

Updates!

Well to celebrate the snow day here in DC, I'll be doing some long overdue updates to my build thread!

Due to a combination camera malfunctions and poor video quality (vibrations) resulting from too many hinges in my GoPro mount, I haven't really had many videos to post, but I got things straightened out by the end of the season, so I've got vids from the last two events of the year, plus one bonus event!

Rally-X #6 10/20/13
By this point we had our 25/19 sway bars on the car, and were loving the body control. No other mods had really been done to the car.

So coming into this event I was pretty solidly in third place for the season behind Roberto in 1st (2nd gen RX7) and Josh (E30 318 w/M42) in 2nd. The wild card in our MR division was Chris, who had previously ran a V6 swapped MR2 (and done very well with it) but the motors kept dying and he sold it, leaving him without a car for the season. For the 4th event I let Chris co-drive the E28 since my co-driver was out of town, and Chris beat me pretty handily in my own car. I watched him drive, and I learned I simply wasn't abusing the car enough, so I've tried driving more aggressively since.

Anyways, for this event, Josh let Chris co-drive the E30, and guess what? Chris smashes Josh in his own car and comes in 1st for the day, earning himself enough points to tie me for 3rd for the season! I came in 4th, behind Josh and Roberto. Here are the results. After 13 runs of about 60 seconds each, Josh was 12 seconds behind Chris, Roberto was 2 seconds behind Josh, and I was 11 seconds behind him. I only hit two cones for the day, which is quite a bit less than others in my class. Maybe I need to drive even more aggressively!

Towards the end of the day, the gas pedal was coming off the floor and flopping around, occasionally making the throttle stick, which added a few seconds to my final runs. The metal bracket the holds the pedal to the floor had rusted off, so there wasn't much holding the gas pedal in place. We had planned to get a hinge from Home Depot and do a quick fix before the next race, but never got around to it, and it came back to bite us. More on that later.

Another problem area with the car was the lack of ABS. There were a few sections on the course where I really was going easy on the brakes for fear of locking up, which was costing me valuable time. As of right now, the issue still hasn't been resolved. I also got tired of having my foot to the floor for so much of the run, and starting wanting more power. But what else is new?

Here's a video of my best run in the AM, followed by my best PM run.

[95maxrider]

Taking the rally car to auto-x!

For whatever reason, I auto-x my Infiniti I30, but when the final Solo event came around, my front brakes were metal to metal and the new Wilwood pads/rotors hadn't arrived yet, so I decided to bring the E28 out on its snow tires and have some fun. I'm pretty sure I set the slowest times of the day, but the car sure made people laugh! Three other people from rally-x also come to Solo events and they got a kick out of seeing the E28 come out. Anyways, times didn't matter this day, so I'll let the pics and video do the talking. Watch the video to the very end!!

One of these things is not like the other




Here we go!

[95maxrider]

And finally a video of that magnificent run

[95maxrider]

Rally-x #7 - Final event

After all that hoonin' around, our tires were in pretty miserable shape, and although we now owned a near-new set of REAL rally tires, we didn't have any wheels to put them on, so we finished off the season on our balding snow tires in a class full of cars on rally tires.

As you might remember, Chris won the 6th event in a borrowed E30, tying me for third place for the season, so I had to beat Chris if I was going to win anything. Josh, knowing this, decided against letting Chris co-drive again, so Chris was forced to drive his clapped out 80s Celica that he had mostly broken at a previous event (control arms, steering links, etc). Apparently those old Celicas are no match for rally-x. I had beaten him before in that car, so I knew it was possible, but our tires were in worse shape than ever, and Chris had more seat time in his new car, so anything was possible.

Thankfully the water truck gods smiled upon me that day, and we made it an entire event without the water truck coming through to wet down the course (to keep the dust down from coming onto the main track at Summit Point). Our car (big, heavy, on snow tires) is at a huge disadvantage after the water truck comes through, often falling 20 seconds behind after a single run compared to the 400+ pound lighter cars on rally tires. So a dry course gave me the best shot possible at holding onto third and getting close to Josh and Roberto ahead of me.

By the end of the very short AM session (with only three runs), I was in 4th behind a guy who had never beaten me before (Jim) who has an E30 on rally tires, but I was still ahead of Chris and the Celica. I really wanted to beat Jim, so I drove like a madman in the PM session. I quickly pulled ahead of Jim, but was still losing a little time to Josh and Roberto on each run. On my third run, semi-disaster struck; the throttle got stuck, and badly. At the beginning of the run it was justly mildly stuck, adding something like 5-10% throttle when I let off, but as I drove it got even more stuck to the point where I was braking with my left foot just to keep the car on the track. After one WOT section it got so bad that I almost lost control of the car, so I threw it in neutral and shut it down in the middle of the course. The throttle cable had gotten pulled out of the rubber grommet on the throttle cable bracket on the throttle body and was getting hung up, so I pulled it back out and was able to limp the car to the pits. But I still had two runs left to do, and no car to run in, and if I didn't get those runs, I would be disqualified for the day, thus ruining my chances of getting third for the season.

Luckily, Josh is a generous fellow and allowed me and my co-driver to use his car for the last two runs. His car is fully prepared in terms of suspension tuning, and he has nice rally tires. The car is just very tight compared to our loose E28, and drives completely different. I had only driven the car for about 2 minutes on the street earlier this year, so I wasn't sure if I was going to know how to drive it in the dirt with all that grip and response. I got in, and drove the piss out of it, and ended up setting the fast time of the PM session for a 2WD car on my first run! Apparently all that fine tuning Josh has done paid off, because that car is stupid easy to drive fast. The grip from the rally tires, combined with the tight suspension and responsive steering, plus very low weight equals a formidable package. Unfortunately for Josh, I beat his fast time by over a second on my first run in his car, and after having the same thing happen when he let Chris drive it earlier in the year, he wad forced to concede that he's better at building cars than racing them. Still though, I know Josh is going to be my main competitor next year now that Roberto sold his RX7 and is moving on.

When the dust settled, I was in third place for the season, feeling pretty good about the way I finished the day and the season. I now know that I can set fast times given a properly prepared car, so my goal is to get the E28 to the level of Josh's E30 by the beginning of next season.

Oh, one thing to note. At the lunch break we threw a set of spring spacers/deadeners in the front springs in an attempt to firm up the front of the car, as I haven't been happy with the feel since we put on stock springs. They WORKED! The front end was tighter and there was less dive under braking. Whether or not they contributed to the other problems that showed up, I'll never know, but we had other problems once we were back in the pits, aside from the stuck throttle cable.

First, the trunk latch mechanism decided to separate from the body ever so slightly, making it impossible to open the trunk. After much jiggling and pushing the button it caught and opened, but not before something else broke. We had to do a drive through of the course to find a number that flew off, and while on the slow cruise I noticed a clunk from the front end. Oh shit, is that the dreaded sound of a broken sway bar frame mount??? We get the car back to the pits and I start yanking on things until I realize the PS front end link is loose. We said "fuck it" and decided to fix it later. Then, when we got on the road, we realized our old exhaust hanger problem was back, and the exhaust was hanging on the freaking drive shaft. If you're ever heard the sound of a drive shaft rubbing against an exhaust while going 60 mph for 1.5 hours, you will know how terrible a sound it is. Oh, and then the throttle cable we thought we had fixed decided to unfix itself, and the car was back to driving itself. A few zip ties later and we were back on the road, but damn was that a stressful end to the season.

Anyways, here's a video showing my best run in the AM, followed by the throttle stuck run in the PM!



And here's what the throttle cable looks like. I'm not sure if the bracket is supposed to be bent like that or not, but I'm wondering if this might be the result of the 885 head swap raising the cable up a bit. There is just no slack in the line, and I'm not entirely sure how to approach this one. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

This is after we took off the zip ties holding the grommet in place.









And here's my list of things I would like to have fixed before next season:
-Obviously fix the throttle cable/gas pedal
-Get those rally tires on some wheels
-Fix the ABS
-All new brakes
-Get some more spring isolator rubber for the rear springs, cut a coil from the fronts???
-Adjust valves, get an O2 sensor on the car
-Remove sunroof (save weight, get headroom)
-Make driver's seat height adjustable (car was built for a guy who was 6' 6", and my co-driver is some 5" taller than I am and our seat has no height adjustment, so I have to sit on three folded up towels just to be able to see where I'm going).
-Get proper hangers on the exhaust
-Get different style steering wheel
-Fix the god damn water leaks in the trunk, get turn signals to work
-Reinforce sway bar frame mounts

That's all folks, thanks for reading!

[irish44j]

I always know to look for an update on your thread whenever you post up in my thread, lol.

Josh let Chris co-drive the E30, and guess what? Chris smashes Josh in his own car

hey hey hey now. I think "smash" is a bit strong, lol. I beat you by 13 seconds and you didn't say I smashed you ;) lol....

It's not my fault that I can build a fast car but just can't drive it fast, and that Chris can drive a car fast but can't build a car that doesn't break :)

Another problem area with the car was the lack of ABS.

what is this "ABS" you speak of? :D

[irish44j]

Unfortunately for Josh, I beat his fast time by over a second on my first run in his car, and after having the same thing happen when he let Chris drive it earlier in the year, he wad forced to concede that he's better at building cars than racing them.

From now on, when someone's car breaks, they have to drive Russel's old Supra. Not mine

Still though, I know Josh is going to be my main competitor next year now that Roberto sold his RX7 and is moving on.

You seem to be forgetting someone else, who almost certainly will be looking hard for a fast car in the off-season. I suspect Chris is not going to run next season in the Celica after not being very competitive. He's too fast of a driver to stick with such a slow car and finish 3rd or 4th every event. I would suggest that you worry about him, not me. I'm not doing much work to my car this winter, so it's not going to get much faster. And I don't see my driving getting much faster (though I am considering taking a couple shots of whiskey before the events to help me drive less tight, lol)

[SCCA officials: I kid, I kid!]

so my goal is to get the E28 to the level of Josh's E30 by the beginning of next season.

You're giving me a bit too much credit though - the only true "upgrades" on my car (other than the M42, which is still way down on power to most of the class), are the bilsteins and H&R springs, e36 rack, and a few bushings. It's "tight' because everything is pretty fresh and it's a light car.... So bringing yours "to that level" should be fairly easy. The biggest difficulty you're going to have is to get the weight down. That's about the only things I"m doing this off-season: quick-remove front bumper (since I need it to keep the car street legal), maybe remove my passenger seat, and a few other minor things. I expect to take another 100lbs out of my car for next season, though it's not all in places that I necessarily need to. That said, I will officially be the lowest-powered car next year in the class with the wanker....uh, wankel gone (and he's probably higher power than me as well, lol).

The thought of a $1.5k light-boost turbo is starting to look more appealing by the day ;)


And here's my list of things I would like to have fixed before next season:

-Get some more spring isolator rubber for the rear springs, cut a coil from the fronts???
![/QUOTE]

You may want to think about cutting the front springs 1 coil to gain rate, but then adding in a spring seat spacer like I did to get the height back (and gain a bit more rate, depending on the setup). That really improved things for the balance of my car, as I was about 2 second per run faster vs. Roberto after I put the new suspension on (if I had only done it before the FIRST event, where I threw away the season!!!!!) I would suggest you drop the rear end down rather than the front, honestly. That will settle the car better, IMO.

[irish44j]

as for the throttle cable, that definitely doesn't look like a good angle. You may want to look into either a longer cable (so it can curve more gradually), or perhaps some kind of "router" that allows that carries the cable around closer curves - though this would probably require you to make some cuts in the outer cable sheathing and put more end caps on, as well as some brackets.

[95maxrider]

I always know to look for an update on your thread whenever you post up in my thread, lol.

hey hey hey now. I think "smash" is a bit strong, lol. I beat you by 13 seconds and you didn't say I smashed you ;) lol....

It's not my fault that I can build a fast car but just can't drive it fast, and that Chris can drive a car fast but can't build a car that doesn't break :)

what is this "ABS" you speak of? :D

You didn't have to say you smashed me; it was a given :( But you're right, it is a little strong, maybe 'consistently beat' would have been more accurate.

Thank god you and Chris aren't a team, because you would be freaking unstoppable. ;)

Maybe with your lighter weight and rally tires ABS wouldn't help very much, but in our pig with worn down winters, grip under braking was rather limited. Being able to dive into a corner and brake 100% at the last second, and knowing that the car will figure it out, is a huge help. The ABS on the E28 seems to be vastly superior to the system in the I30.