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

Because I'm a statistics geek, did some minor number-crunching to look at "mean time." I took everyone's worst stage (relative to other cars) and changed that to a time more typical of similar cars for that stage. Then eliminated any penalties, etc. With that done, it gives a general look at overall time minus screw-ups:

Downey: 1:12ish (e30)

Beliveau: 1:12ish (Golf)

Russo: 1:16ish (Jetta)

Peterson: 1:17ish (Civic)

Nonack: 1:16ish (Xr4ti)

Puleo: 1:19ish (Golf)

Sherman: 1:22ish (Escort)

Us: 1:16ish (e30)

Of course the best part about stage rally is that everything counts and you can't drop that stuff, but just for the sake of looking at actual speed on course, I think it's a reasonably ok measurement to baseline off of...

We have much speed to gain also. I am amazingly cautious on the brakes. Brake super early. Tons of time to be had there. Scotty B was probably running little over 110hp so we suck there.

Right now you are super right. It is about not loosing time. Loosing a min on no brakes and minute and a half not being able to see well(preparation failure). But it about experience on that last part. I was skiddish of the wet stage something neither of us had done. thus the drastically different 11 vs stage 12 times.

Its all very promising and I am just glad to be in the getting better phase and have gotten past the giddy school girl phase of OMG I AM ON STAGE.

As always just for fun, but one must try his best!

BTW all my stages are up on youtube now. https://www.youtube.com/user/paperboy91182

A great shot of us on Goose Pond yumps by Matt Stryker

So....slight change of plans regarding the Porsche project as well, since today's rallycross was cancelled due to flooded fields (rescheduled for December - snow cross, perhaps!?) I had considered just cutting bait with this Porsche and selling it off, but as luck would have it, something worked out that may solve my problem. As noted above, the black car has a decent engine but the interior is so-so and the body has several major issues that I really don't want to deal with.

As luck would have it, though, a spotted a CL post down in North Carolina for an '87 924S for cheap. Got in touch with the owner who said that the body was good, interior was "not too bad" and that he had used the car as a daily driver for years until last March, when the engine started making a knocking noise. Then he just parked it. It's pretty well-knonwn that the 924S/944 engine has problems with the #2 bearings, so that's probably what it is. But I don't much care. It has a good body and complete interior. I already have a car with a working engine.

So after a number of phone calls and texts, today off I went with the trailer, 350 miles south to Yadkinsville North Carolina. Car was as advertised...Had been hit in the rear quarter years ago but the repair looks to be damn near perfect. Other than the primer there is no sign of body damage there, and nothing more than a few small dings elsewhere. The paint is terrible, interior is dirty but all there and in decent shape it seems. Car passed NC state safety inspection less than a year ago and he had receipts from some new things he did in the last year or two (like front wheel bearings and new high-pressure fuel hoses).

So of course, I bought it for under $1k (plus an old mountain bike I threw in for the guy's son).

The tow back was uneventful other than an hour or so in traffic near/behind a gorgeous Porsche GT4 probably coming back from VIR (which was on my route). Love that sound....

Also caught up with a SpecE30 coming from VIR too. Apparently this guy is one of the best SE30 drivers on the East Coast. He is also a very fast driver when towing lol.

So, it's home, it's in the garage, and tomorrow I'll check it out a bit more and see what the plan will be. I do know the plan will be to swap the engine out of the black car into this one (after refurb'ing it over the winter) and take useful parts off the black car, then part it out and/or get rid of it to get my driveway back

Feel free to follow the build on this car further on GRM forum at this link: https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/build-projects-and-project-cars/1988-porsche-924s-build-not-a-bmw-this-time/121739/page1/

So other than being driven a few times, the only thing I've done is put the swaybars back on the e30 (I want to do some test and tuning at the next event since i've clinched the season points, and am doing a track/autocross the weekend after).

Kind of a weak post, after GRM put the car in the magazine :)

You beat me to it!

I read Mr. Wallens' Turn One in the same issue. You were interviewed too?

Next time I see you I'm going to be asking for your autograph

hah....we had a couple email exchanges, but I hadn't gotten to Turn One yet (my issue just arrived today). Totally true though. It's also why I actually maintain a carbon-copy of this thread on r3vlimited (an e30-specific forum). That forum's members tend to give me great e30-specific information and expertise, while on GRM I get both some e30 knowledge, rally knowledge, out-of-the-box ideas, and overall general knowledge of cars at a high level.

Hey, I also got interviewed by Anders on video at BRS

Today put the rear swaybar back on. I've been runnning without them for a couple years now and I like how the car handles and turns-in in the dirt/gravel. But with a track autocross in 2 weeks figured I want the sways on there to check body lean a bit. We have a rallycross this weekend, but I"ve clinched the points for the class already so probably a good time to see how I like the car with the sways on (with the stiffer springs), since I've never tried that combination. So took care of that.

As luck would have it, I was going to test drive the car, turned it on and my brake warning light was flickering, and then the clutch pedal went to the floor. Dammit. Fluid level was low (not low enough to get air into the brakes, thankfully, but low enough that the clutch line was sucking air. Looked under the car and sure enough, brake fluid dripping on the bellhousing. So looks like the slave cylinder is shot....not bad since it's the same one I put on there 5 years ago.

So with a rallycross on Sunday, got online and ordered up a new slave and clutch master (might as well do them at the same time), and also will touch base with Carlos at Condor Speed Shop and try to get my hands on a stainless clutch line fast so I can just do the whole system.

Sucks that the car is out in the driveway near the street, so guess I'll be working in the leaves and acorns. Thankfully it's supposed to be fairly warm this week...

It knew you'd been paying attention to another German mistress..

hah!

At least I'm not the only one having master/slave cylinder issues

That said, it wasn't a new slave even when I put it in 5 years ago....and it's been through 5 seasons of rallycross, autocross, stage rally, and general hard driving. So I'm not really complaining. It's about the least expensive possible part of the car to break anyhow. MC, SC, and new braided line combined less than $100...

Always nice when the cheap parts break.and hopefully Your slave cylinder us easier then the focus, it has the throw out bearing and slave all in on PITA to service package

I love following the progress! I am still due for a frostburg rallyX visit.

fidelity101 wrote: I love following the progress! I am still due for a frostburg rallyX visit.

you may have to wait til next summer since we're doign more of our events at the Rally Farm in nothern Va. these days!

irish44j wrote: A great shot of us on Goose Pond yumps by Matt Stryker

great shot!

So a quick update about DC region rallycross #7. I came into this event guaranteed at least a tie for the season points championship (with an 8th event remaining) - so basically I just had to finish in the top-8 or so to get a point. With that in mind, and the fact that I'm doing a "track-autocross" next weekend, I decided to re-install the sway bars for the tarmac. That said, I've never had the sways on with this current spring setup so wanted to see if they performed well at all on the dirt.

Swaybar install is as easy as ever, so I jumped in the car to test it out and.....the clutch pedal goes to the floor. Strange since I had just moved the car there an hour earlier. Under the car, a puddle of brake fluid. Dammit. It was pretty easy to trace the fluid to a blown seal on the clutch slave cylinder (which wasn't even new when I installed it 5 years ago, IIRC). With a day before the event, I had to get something pretty quick. I decided I might as well do the master and the soft line while I was in there. In retrospect I should have just done the slave and left the rest alone, because the master turned out to be a major hassle. Difficult to get to, difficult to get to the bolts, difficult to get to the feed hose, and with a cage in the car and fixed seats, it takes some contortion to get in there.

So after an hour on my back, head and shoulders scraping on the floor nonskid...it was in. While I was at it I installed a new braided clutch line from Condor Speed Shop that Carlos overnighted to me (thanks!). So it all works fine now, back to normal. Yay.

On to rallycross. NIce weather, nice courses, nice conditions. The whole MOD RWD crew was there, with 11 or 12 cars registered, including Josh Sennett, trying to finish an event in the M50-swapped e30, and Nick finally with the e36 M3 ready to go. Of course Eric/Neil were there in their e30, battling for 2nd in season points, Eric H/Stephen in their e30, a BR-Z, a couple Volvos, etc. SA front-runner Mike Golden sheared a couple wheels studs before the event and asked for a co-drive, to which I said yes.

Anyhow, the long and the short of it is that the car is terrible on grass/dirt with the sways. Damn near uncontrollable, understeering heavily on lower-speed turns then snapping to oversteer with no warning. And it would NOT rotate on command except at high entry speeds with heavy trail-braking. So I was entering corners faster than usual just to try to get the car to snap, which it did inconsistently. And it was awful in slaloms - could not get it to "dance" the way I always can.

So, the long and the short of it is that even pushing as hard as I could, the best I could manage was 3rd, almost 10 seconds behind Eric Eisele and 4-5 behind his codriver Neil. Too bad since the courses would have been excellent for my normal setup.

Interestingly, Mike Golden (who did poorly when he drove my car last year) finished just tenths of a second behind me in the end. I guess as a Subaru driver he's used to the understeer, lol....

All that said, I locked up the points championship for the second straight year, so that's nice.

This coming weekend I'm heading up to Summit Point Raceway for the "refrigerator bowl" autocross, which is set up on two of the tracks (Jefferson and Shenandoah circuits), has very few cones, and no course working. I thought about taking the WRX but nah...taking the rally car with the old Star Specs on it. Should be interesting, and probably very slow haha...

Oh a few other things...

rusty e36s don't like rallycross (though he ran the rest of the day with no rear shock)

Also, don't use steelies for rallycross. This is the second time a car has had this happen in the last few events....

Saw this posted:

http://www.nasarallysport.com/main/racewaypark2016

...was wondering if you were going?

Ian F wrote: Saw this posted: http://www.nasarallysport.com/main/racewaypark2016 ...was wondering if you were going?

look at the entry list

In reply to irish44j:

Sweet. I'll try to get down there to spectate.

Do I see Steven and "Princess" Brian in those images?

paranoid_android74 wrote: Do I see Steven and "Princess" Brian in those images?

lol, indeed. Stephen of course is driving his (with Chris Helgesen) e30, and Brian I think was codriving a Pulsar or a rental car or something.

Went out to Summit Point Motorsports Park today for the BSR Refrigerator Bowl, which is kind of a combination of an autocross and a track day. Basically you run about 1/3rd of the circuits but it's timed like an autocross. No cones and no course work though, and it's on the actual tracks so that's a lot more fun than a parking lot.

Only changes to the car were putting the stock swaybars back on, and slapping on the "travel" wheels (195 Star Specs that are like 5 years old. Even so, the car handled ok and it was nice to get out on a track again, if only for small increments. Haven't seen standings yet but I was actually beating a good number of cars out there I think.

On a related note (which you can see in the vids below), as at Black River, still having trouble getting the 3-2 downshift to mesh, so I assume the syncro is bad. I have two spare G240s so may swap one in this winter when I have time. Until then, need to improve my rev-matching/heel-toe and just deal with the little crunch I get half the time...

Rally car playing on the tarmac at Summit Point.

If you just want to try the swaybars at another event, leave them on. They are easy to remove a bolt from one side and then they are not working on the car.

It's really easy to connect and disconnect the swaybar to test if the car is faster or not just by removing or reinstalling 1 bolt.

yeah, I have no need for them in the future unless I do another track day. Definitely will not use them for rally/rallycross in the future, so will just take them off because it's pointless dead weight.