Rally / RallyX Build

[atxE30]

@Kershaw,

Yeah, I grabbed the nicest one I could find in central TX. It will get pretty much stripped. I'd do manual windows if I could get my hands on regulators. They don't seem to be available anywhere.

Basically, I'm going to do all of the stuff under the car in phase one, so all bushings, front and rear sub-frame re-enforcements, skid plate, few bits here and there that are just tired. brakes, new billy HD's and first pass rubber (snow tires on the weaves that came with it). And now of course the new steering rack.

Phase two will be the stripping interior and getting the cage put in. I can weld, so will do the sub-frames add-ons myself, but will have the cage properly done.

Thanks for the tip on the ac lines. I'll get rid of those in Phase II when the dash is off.

[Kershaw]

You might want to rethink the cage. That's a lot of extra weight and unless you really intend on doing stage rally I wouldn't do it. You definitely don't need a cage for rallyx.

[paynemw]

Do you have the 1987 3 Series Electronic Troubleshooting Manual yet? You'll REALLY want that during "Phase II"
You can remove the central locking system harness, the side view mirror harness, and significantly modify the harness connection at the door. It corrodes easily but is an awesome design. That way you can retain the OEM power windows without having to really worry about anything else.

While the dash is out, you can remove the whole Premium Stereo Harness and the Cruise Control Harness. I'd retain the 13button if I were you.

Did you decide to do the Z3 rack?

What pads are you going to run?

Sway bars?

What bushings?

[gte175x]

What are those jackstands you have?

[atxE30]

What are those jackstands you have?

It's these: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

They are well worth the dough.

[atxE30]

Do you have the 1987 3 Series Electronic Troubleshooting Manual yet? You'll REALLY want that during "Phase II"
You can remove the central locking system harness, the side view mirror harness, and significantly modify the harness connection at the door. It corrodes easily but is an awesome design. That way you can retain the OEM power windows without having to really worry about anything else.

While the dash is out, you can remove the whole Premium Stereo Harness and the Cruise Control Harness. I'd retain the 13button if I were you.

Did you decide to do the Z3 rack?

What pads are you going to run?

Sway bars?

What bushings?

Just grabbed the PDF of that manual, thx for the heads up. I did already have a general trouble shooting manual for german cars and the bentley of course, but electrical is my weak spot so the more the better.

What specifically about the 13button is valuable?

Gonna end up doing the z3 rack, it just makes too much sense since the subframe will be out of the car anyway for re-enforcements.

was planning on leaving the sway bars stock for now. for bushings thinking i will do solid for motor/drive-train and the 93a stuff i think for everything else. the car came with offset CA bushings, so not sure if i'll do those just yet.

edit to add: for pads i grabbed a set of EBC yellowstuff. i've used them before and they are decent. also just the standard ebc disks, no slots or dimples.

[atxE30]

On the topic of brakes:

Spent the day yesterday out at Rally Ready (https://rallyready.com doing some training.

The cars were all manual brakes. Gonna have to pull that trigger. I can't see how power brakes would be good in a rally car.

The Chase Bays kit looks nice. Are there any other bolt on kits out there worth looking at?

By the way the facility out at Rally Ready is really nice and seems like a good group of guys. Feeling lucky there is a facility like that near me.

[kid8]

I know Lee offers a setup as well for eliminating the brake booster. I run one of his brake setups and I'm happy with his workmanship. Seems a lot of other are using his booster delete kit also.

http://www.massivebrakes.com/brake-systems.php?p=brake-booster-delete

[kts]

It's these: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

They are well worth the dough.

I can confirm. I have these and love them.

If you want to protect the pinch weld ECS sells these which fit on top of the Torin jack stands perfectly: https://www.ecstuning.com/b-schwaben...MaArltEALw_wcB

[atxE30]

Update and Pivot!

OK,

So after some contemplation time following training out at Rally Ready, I've decided that based on 1) Rallying the 325 would destroy it due to my being a newbie and all but surely doing stupid things, 2) after driving a FD and demoing in an AWD, it's clear an RD really can't be competitive and 3) the dearth of opportunities in TX to actually do rally stage racing, it's time to pivot to making the 325 a chump/champ car.

Fortunately, I was not committed to rally path with equipment purchases yet! To that end made excellent progress this weekend on the interior strip:







Also met some cool folks from the ATX e30 group this weekend.

[irish44j]

If I found a car in that condition, would leave it as stock as possible. Original cars are getting hard to come by, but it is yours so have fun with it.

Yeah I'll be honest it's kind of a shame that one that nice is being rallied

Yeah, that car is too nice for rally-cross.

Man that thing is clean! Hell of a better start than mine, I feel like you could just flip it and make a healthy profit to fund your rally build.

What a f**kin sin to turn that car into a rally car. IS cars in that condition are becoming pretty valuable and harder to find. I bought a beat 318i when I wanted to go sideways through the woods.

There is no point in starting a race or rally car with a salvage/rusty/beat-up e30. If you're going to invest a bunch of money into building a race/rally car, you start with an e30 that is in very good condition to start with. I wish I had - it would have saved me doing rust repair, etc.

Just sayin.

[irish44j]

@Kershaw,

Yeah, I grabbed the nicest one I could find in central TX. It will get pretty much stripped. I'd do manual windows if I could get my hands on regulators. They don't seem to be available anywhere.
.

I did manual conversion (orderd the regulators from the UK, actually). They certainly save some weight. That said, if you ever plan to cage the car, don't bother. Door bars get in the way of manual cranks, at least in a rally cage. I ended up re-installing power windows in the front doors (fixed lexan windows in the rear doors), as you know.

[irish44j]

You might want to rethink the cage. That's a lot of extra weight and unless you really intend on doing stage rally I wouldn't do it. You definitely don't need a cage for rallyx.

Agreed, for rallycross alone, I would at most do a 4-point rollbar, if that. Extra weight is the killer in rallycross. Ask me how I know.

[irish44j]

was planning on leaving the sway bars stock for now. for bushings thinking i will do solid for motor/drive-train and the 93a stuff i think for everything else. the car came with offset CA bushings, so not sure if i'll do those just yet.

.

I replied to you in my thread regarding bushings. As to sways....don't sweat thinking about it too much. You'll eventually remove them both, like almost all e30 rallycross/rally drivers do.

On the topic of brakes:

The cars were all manual brakes. Gonna have to pull that trigger. I can't see how power brakes would be good in a rally car.

personal preference, really. e30 power brakes have good feel to them with the right pad setup. I haven't even considered going to manual, personally. YMMV.

[irish44j]

OK,

So after some contemplation time following training out at Rally Ready, I've decided that based on 1) Rallying the 325 would destroy it due to my being a newbie and all but surely doing stupid things, 2) after driving a FD and demoing in an AWD, it's clear an RD really can't be competitive and 3) the dearth of opportunities in TX to actually do rally stage racing, it's time to pivot to making the 325 a chump/champ car.

Ugh, sorry to hear that you feel that way. But let me throw some alternate out for you:

1. So are yo saying you're not going to rally at all? Because that's the risk for any car. And a Fiesta or WRX rally car costs a lot more to replace than an e30 when you hit a tree. I know we're here on R3V, but let's not pretend that the e30 is some kind of magical and rare car that cannot be risked. Go drive the fuck out of it, and if it gets wrecked, it gets wrecked.

2. Comparing AWD to RWD and "which is competitive" is irrelevant. They don't run in the same classes either in rallycross or in stage rally. so unless you have an idea that you're going to take an overall win at a stage rally, it's a pointless argument. FTD in rallycross is just for bragging rights and nobody cares if you are FTD.

If you mean RWD (e30) can't be competitive in stage rally 2WD classing, you need to look closer at rally results. Look up Michael Hooper or Jesse Yuvali or Dan Downey. They have plenty of recent podium finishes in major rallies in e30s against other 2WD cars.

Or ask the STi that lost to my 318i in the STPR Super Special last year, lol....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9CKnQSjSLk

3. We run an e30 325i in Chumpcar. Years ago when we started e30s were competitive. They aren't all that competitive any more in Chump/Champ or AER. Go get an e36 or e46 if you want to WIN road-racing a BMW. The are cheap enough to get into these budget series now, and simply put an e30 is outclassed by them on the track, unless you are HEAVILY modified or your team is full of awesome drivers or Randy Pobst.

Your car, do what you want. But the only decent reason for your decision is the lack of local rally events, as you note. But that's the case for rally no matter where you live, unless you live in New England. Closest one to us is a 5-6 hour drive :/