1985 BMW 318 Stage Rally Build - 1988 Porsche 924S Street Build - Sequoia Build

Uh, so....checked the alignment on the e30, since I hadn't done so since the last rally. Go figure, dead-on to where I set it before the brutally rough WM Winter Rally....

Also drove the Porsche to Josh Sennett's place this weekend for easter brunch. My wife was at her parents and needed me to pick her up, and I showed up in the 924, which she initially was not too thrilled about :) But all we fine, except I decided to drop the tire pressure down about 4psi to make the ride better. 

And managed to take a scenic shot...

I'm planning to take the Porsche on a ~100 mile road trip down to my parents' place tomorrow, but was somewhat concerned about a high-pitched whine coming from the BACK of the engine bay. Usually on these cars you get a whine from the balance shaft belt being too tight. I checked everything I could think of. Not clutch-related. not speed-related. Only changed pitch with engine speed. After runnig out of ideas, someone on the Pelican forums suggested that my speed and reference sensors on the bellhousing could be out of adjustment.

Of course, they are basically the hardest thing on this entire car to get to, on the bellhousing between the heater hoses and the PS booster, under the lip of the firewall under all the vac and power wires. Ugh.

Crammed my hand down in there bloodying several knuckles in the process and yup...the bracket that holds both sensors was loose. And of course held on by allen-head bolts with the opening facing in a direction where no tool in my arsenal can reach. After trying to tighten from the outside with some thin vise-grips and pliers, I used by best dexterity to get them out with my fingertips (they were that loose!), and replaced them with hex-cap bolts that i could snake a small 13mm socket onto (1/4" was the only one small enough).

And yeah, evidence of the reference sensor just barely touching the flywheel....hmm. Didn't seem to do any real damage, just a very light scuff there.

I had to fabricate a longer handle for my 1/4" ratchet to actually get to the bolts, which I tightened about 2 clicks at a time...

So yeah, that sucked.

Took a road trip/distance shakedown today in the Porsche to visit my parents out on the bay. 300 miles round-trip - some 75+mph highway and mostly country 55 routes with lots of curves. Car performed flawlessly, didn't leak anything, and is really a pleasant high-speed cruising car as it currently sits. Also took some cheesy filter pics...

correction, did have a couple minor notes:

1. the VW-sourced signal/wiper stalks absolutely suck (they are the same as the stock ones, which also suck). Wipers worked most of the time in the drizzle, but sometimes stopped halfway until the stalk is jiggled. The high beams are pretty much on all the time, not sure if this is a wiring issue or the (new) switch itself, but it's annoying. Time to investigate options......maybe just put this stuff on toggle switches, IDK....I can't deal with the lousy feel and function of these stalks.

2. I had heard on the 944 forums that the turbo spoiler would cause front-end lift at higher speeds without a front splitter/air dam. I did some..uh..high speeds and didn't notice any issues. The car felt solid and planted at highway+ speeds.

3. Finally got a chance to do some fuel-logging (two tanks since first fillup). On this trip I averaged right around 28mpg cruising at 65+, and the whole way down I had the headlights popped up (i.e. air brake!) and also did some spirited passing and corner-carving on occasion. So pretty pleased with that and it tells me the engine is running efficiently. When coasting, the car takes forever to slow down. This thing is slippery through the air, unlike the WRX and e30, which do not carry speed well in neutral.

Well, weather still sucks. The forecast for this weekend as of wednesday was for a good dump of snow/rain in the area, so WDCR postponed today's rallycross to next Saturday (when I'll be in another country). As luck would have it, yesterday was dry and today is 55 degrees, blue sky, and sunny. So that's some bullE36 M3 on the part of the awful local forecasters relying totally on BS computer models.

So....no rallycross for me until May I suppose. This is getting pretty frustrating. I went and drove the Porsche spiretedly in the windy woodland roads this morning for a while to get at least part of my fix.

In other news, Jim and I have tentatively decided (at the urging of Dan Downey) to do New England Forest Rally (NEFR) in July rather than Black River this year (can't likely afford both). NEFR is up in Maine, so a long haul, and is really more of a power-car rally from what I can tell, with mostly wide-open stages. But our goal is to do as many rallies as possible at least once, so we'll give it a go in this low-power car nonetheless. We love Black River and it really suits this car and my driving, and we'll definitely do BRS many more times I hope, but for this year wanted a change (plus it's a two-day rally vs. one for BRS, which makes the long tow a bit more worth it).

I also installed some new gear pockets on the doors to replace our Husky ones that were starting to tear. Because I had to do something since I"m not rallycrossing today :/

I was gone last week, in Vietnam for work (great trip, but I won't bore you here, though I did make a "cars of Vietnam" thread in the main forum). So I missed not only the first DC Rallycross, but also the first AHR and Susquehanna region rallycrosses, which apparently everyone I know did all three of. So I"m starting a bit behind the curve (heck, haven't even driven the e30 any real distance since WMWR!), but figured I'd do some maintenance checks today and a few projects.

First project was to fix and re-install the driver's door lock, which has been out of the car for a couple years. Not being able to lock/unlock the doors is annoying, even for a racecar, since I park it outside in the driveway and would rather not have stuff inside it disappearing. So I disassembled the cores and rebuilt them, and reinstalled. Not too hard, but getting the clip on the back (that holds the cores in) is very tough unless you remove the whole window assembly (no thanks...). So I got my 10-year old to reach in there with her little arms and do it, and then she reassembled the door panel for me as well

A while later, I went to roll the window down and it wouldn't go more than halfway. I wonder what the problem could be?

oops. 

On the the bigger project. The car's interior hasn't really been fully painted since I started this built (though did some painting when I put the cage in), and the dark red has always made the car kind of dark inside. Since it was due for a good clean-out anyhow, I decided to go ahead and repaint the interior with something lighter in color.

So yeah, I did that today, after much scrubbing and hosing out the interior..

Found a little rust spot behind the navigator footrest, right above the front jack point. I think just a place where mud got jammed up in there and ate it away. So I cleaned it all out, hit it with some POR-15, and sealed it up with some seam sealer, no biggie.

and everything back together

I have a few other little things that I did on the car, but nothing interesting so I'll save you the boringness of reading about them, lol. Otherwise, I think the car is good to go for the first rallycross.  And it needs to be, becauste MR class this year is ridiculous, and Nick D won the first event that I missed in his M3, after not having won in 2 years. So he's back in the game now, along with all the other fast guys from last year and some newbies. Next week's event at Summit Point already has like 16-17 cars in MR class!

In other news, I registered for our next rally. It's a ways off, but it's a long-haul and a bit pricey so I'm not going to do a summer rally (though I plan to crew at STPR, or just go hang out). So yeah....

So some updating.

First, a quick project. Trying to get some old tint off my lexan rear windows, I pretty much ruined them. That adhesive is a bitch, and as I increasingly got frustrated and used stronger and stronger solvents, I found out that Toluene pretty much MELTS lexan, and I totally ruined one window. So time to make some new ones. I've been meaning to do this for a while anyhow since I don't like the two pop-out vents and I want to do some different airflow options, so off to ebay to get some Lexan (well, actually Makrolan, but it's essentially the same).

all cloudy...

making and installing the new stuff....

masking and painting the edges 

new rivets

reinstalled one of the pop-out vents. IN the upper area I'm going to put in some NACA vents for better airflow on transits and road trips..

After those were on, I had to make new names and stuff, so out came the vinyl cutter. While I was doing that, also cut some new warning stickers (electrical, fire extinguisher, etc) and tow decals for the bumpers (which I repainted). Been a while since I did any cosmetic work on the car lol.

Two new posts (one above this if you're skipping to the end)

FINALLY GOT TO RALLYCROSS this season....After missing the season's first event due to being in Vietnam (as well as two other local events), last weekend's second event almost didn't happen, thanks to the weather. After like 8 dry days, it decided to rain heavy the night before our event at Summit Point Motorsports Park. As you may recall from way way back in this thread, Summit is red clay surface and when it gets wet, it is some nasty, slippery stuff! But with other things stacking up behind the event (SOFR, STPR, and other rallycrosses) the organizers made the decision to give it a go. 

Now historically in rallycross muddy events haven't been my strong suit, but with now three years straight of dealing with slippery conditions at WMWR (including this year), I'm starting to get more comfortable when it gets "slippy." 

I had plans in Richmond (2 hours south of me) on Saturday night and drove down to meet some friends for a concert, which luckily ended fairly early. Then rolled  back up to DC to get a few hours of sleep. I had already decided to just tow up there (which turned out to be a good idea due to all the mud on everything after the day), so jumped in the rig and hauled up.

The day started dry, and I helped set up the morning course, a tight/technical course that would have been great for my car and my driving style. As luck would have it, the rain started and that course got torn up too badly during the first run group to actually run any longer, so we built a second course on a different plot of land, which proved to be somewhat better (though MUCH faster and wide-open).

The MR class, as usual, was ultra-competitive with 15+ drivers registered - most of the regulars plus some new people and a few out of town fast movers. Dirty Industries (Eric and Neil) coudlnt' make it, and neither could Josh Sennett, so that was some of the top guys gone. However, Bee Thao was there in his turbo Miata, Amanda in her and Jim's new Miata (formerly Jason's), Chris and Stephen in their 325, the MR2 guys were there with their many MF and SA championships in the past, and several other e30s and miatas, plus Nick in the M3 (who won the first event). Many of the cars had full sets of Maxsport mud tires on, but I only had a pair - so they went on the back and I ran some DMack gravels up front due to the sharp side shoulders that I hoped owuld help with steering bite. 

It was really, really muddy...

other competitors...

seriously, people were even getting stuck in grid...

I decided to go hard right out of the gate and hope I could hold the lines and get a lead. And I did.....got a few cones on places I couldnt' make turns, but my time was the fastest in the class other than Bee, who put up a similar time. The rest of the class was over 10 second behind, as I recall, after one run! Second run went out hard again and more good results (but a couple more cones too). After that one Bee and I were 6/10ths of a second apart. Unfortunately, due to conditions and the 70 cars out there, we were destined to only get three runs. At least they told us in advance, so Bee and I knew to both go hard on the last run, with nobody else even close it was our event to win or lose. I ran fast and clean and put the pressure on Bee, who was several cars behind me and saw the time. Made one big mistake but mitigated the damage with a good recovery. Bee went out faster than I did (by this point it was so slick we had to have push starts from spectators and other competitors!), but he made a mistake in the same place I did and much worse, losing a ton of time. In the end, pulled off the win by a healthy margin!

Subarus lost several bumpers, as usual..

We also did some fun runs in the mud, hitting all the giant puddle/lakes that were coned off for the competitions runs - so hopefully Steven Philips got some good photos :)

After pulling about 20lbs of clay ouf of my wheelwells I packed up and rolled out. Feels good to get a win under my belt early in the season. Even better, the top threat guys were either not present or didn't do well at all (Nick finished 12th!) so it's going to be a points shootout all season I think. Next event it at the big, open Panthera training center where the power cars really dominated the first event. So we'll have to see what I can do there in a few weeks.

Also, cleaning up took a long time when I got home...

Wait.... did I see a Thunderturd in the 5th pic or are my eyes deceiving me?

Bill Mesker said:

Wait.... did I see a Thunderturd in the 5th pic or are my eyes deceiving me?

Yeah, that's a t-bird. He DNF'd because with an open diff and all-season tires he couldn't make it around the course :/ 

That said, the BR-Z with gravel tires couldn't make it around during fun runs either...

Another little thing I've been meaning to do for a while. This isn't for use DURING rally/rallycross, but the car is pretty hot during long transits on summer rallies, and I also drive it to some rallycrosses and around town. With only front windows able to be rolled down, the car gets pretty hot. The little pop-out vents I had before pretty much did nothing, so decided to take it up a notch:

Got some 3" NACA ducts from my man Carlos at Condor Speed Shop and installed

I plan to make a plate on the cage crossbar to allow us to run some neoprene ducting to between the front seats, with some kind of remote block-off plate (haven't designed it yet). In the meantime, need to prevent rain from getting in (and will want to stop dust/mud from getting in at rally/rallycross), so I found a cheap solution: 4" foam baseballs from Target. They push right in and stay securely.

I have since added a piece of thin rope through the middle which is tied to the inside of the door so if they fall out they won't go anywhere...

irish44j said:

Bill Mesker said:

Wait.... did I see a Thunderturd in the 5th pic or are my eyes deceiving me?

Yeah, that's a t-bird. He DNF'd because with an open diff and all-season tires he couldn't make it around the course :/ 

That said, the BR-Z with gravel tires couldn't make it around during fun runs either...

Ouch...

when I post up some on-course photos (once our photographer posts them up), you'll see how slippery it was. The grid photos I put up there don't even remotely do it justice :)

Hey Irish44j

A little off topic but what company makes the AirBags you are running on your Sequoia for towing?

B13Birk said:

Hey Irish44j

A little off topic but what company makes the AirBags you are running on your Sequoia for towing?

They are Air Lift brand. They work well, though I have a slow leak someplace (probably in the lines someplace that I need to track down so I dont' have to refill every couple hours (I carry an air tank in the truck anyhow for racing).

In reply to irish44j :

Awesome thanks so much for the Info. Im working on a dirt cheap DIY on-board air system so pumping up the bags will be a breeze. I love your builds. We think a lot and enjoy many of the same things. Your Sequioa is really great. What have been some of your favorite support vehicle/overlanding upgrades and modifications so far? 

B13Birk said:

In reply to irish44j :

Awesome thanks so much for the Info. Im working on a dirt cheap DIY on-board air system so pumping up the bags will be a breeze. I love your builds. We think a lot and enjoy many of the same things. Your Sequioa is really great. What have been some of your favorite support vehicle/overlanding upgrades and modifications so far? 

Well, I'd be lying if I've done much in the "overland" department so far, since it's a long, long way to find anyplace to use them, so most of what I've done is more aimed at making it a good tow/support/road trip rig.

Favorites? Well, the air bags do make towing much nicer for sure since the Sequoia stock suspension is pretty soft and my trailer is pretty nose-heavy. I did enjoy making the rack and the lighting for dirt-cheap, and have some plans to improve/enlarge it when I get some time and motivation. Unfortunately to keep it a good tow vehicle, I can't really do al lthat much in the "make it great off-road" department since those two things are usually mutually exclusive. I have a lot of storage/stowage ideas boucing around in my head (like the slide-out drawer racks and window grids to hang gear), but I never seem to get around to doing them haha.....

Also it's always a choice on which car to spend money on since I'm pretty limited budget. WRX takes precedence for fixing/maintenance since it's my DD. Rally Car thankfully has been super-cheap to race as it rarely breaks anything. The Porsche took my 2017 car budget for the most part. So we'll see what gets priority going forward. WRX has 160k on it now so at some point I have to think about saving some money for a new DD :)

In reply to irish44j :

Love it! Thanks for the feedback. I loved your roof rack setup. 

oh btw....the ARB pull-out shelter is awesome, and VERY inexpensive (like under $200) for how high-quality it is. HIGHLY suggested if you ever go camping or to the track....easy and quick shade anyhere. 

In reply to irish44j :

That's awesome! I will for sure grab one for both the track and camping. I do a lot of both. 

So, I read all 87 pages last night.   Anyone want to trade an e39 wagon for an e30 set up for rally cross?  Lol, JK. Good stuff and inspiring as well, thanks

Justjim75 said:

So, I read all 87 pages last night.   Anyone want to trade an e39 wagon for an e30 set up for rally cross?  Lol, JK. Good stuff and inspiring as well, thanks

lol...a stock e30 with some gravel tires on the stock wheels is set up for rallycross! But seriously, most of the e30s that rallycross with us are not far from stock.....most have a skidplate + Bilstein HDs + tires. If you're on facebook, there is a group called "dirty e-thirties" that you should join if you're interested. It's a good percentage of all the guys (and girls) who rallycross and/or stage rally e30s and other BMWs here in the US, plus a handful of overseas e30 rally guys (mostly in Germany). Good place to ask questions, talk to people, or just look at pictures. 

B13Birk said:

In reply to irish44j :

That's awesome! I will for sure grab one for both the track and camping. I do a lot of both. 

They come in a few sizes. My suggestion is "get the biggest one, regardless of the car." I got the medium one and often wish I had spent $20 more for the one that's 2 feet longer. They have a rigid aluminum mount plate on the back, so you can get one that is longer than your actual rack, it'll still mount up fine.

Justjim75 said:

So, I read all 87 pages last night.   Anyone want to trade an e39 wagon for an e30 set up for rally cross?  Lol, JK. Good stuff and inspiring as well, thanks

Umm. Maybe..  stick?

In reply to bluej :

No, if it wasnt autotragic I'd keep it

bluej said:

Justjim75 said:

So, I read all 87 pages last night.   Anyone want to trade an e39 wagon for an e30 set up for rally cross?  Lol, JK. Good stuff and inspiring as well, thanks

Umm. Maybe..  stick?