Strike_Zero wrote: Your E30 has made it to FB!! Condor Speed Shop . . .check it out!
everyone liked it until they found out it was an M10, non-IX, haha...
Strike_Zero wrote: Your E30 has made it to FB!! Condor Speed Shop . . .check it out!
everyone liked it until they found out it was an M10, non-IX, haha...
I like it BECAUSE it's not an IX and has an M10. Prefer driving over worrying about the fragile front diff and transfer case.
in addition to the e30 stickers, we have some other new decorations. For a couple of years I've used "Finn&LexyRacing" as my "sponsor" on autocross/rallycross signups. This name was created by my daughter Alexandra. Finn is the dog. She wanted stickers, so I got a few made.
She wants one of them on mom's 4Runner. Mom said "no" haha....Will put 1 or 2 on the e30.
Today did a few little things on the car (silicone some squeaky door trim, etc), but spent the afternoon over at a buddy's house. He's a "fast car" guy but I've been trying to talk him into rallycross for a while. He finally gave in and went and bought a rally beater....the same car as his first car when he was a teenager: 1983 Nissan (Datsun) Sentra. Welcome to the dark side, muwahaha....
So we did a bit of work on it today, including AC delete, audio system delete, and some other random things. It's going to need a bit of work (new clutch, new front shocks) but overall seems to be in pretty good shape with a bit of rocker rust but nothing too terrible. He's going to freshen it up on the cheap and doesn't want to do anything cosmetic to it, but I'm not gonna let him not make it look like a rallycar, lol. That would be no fun. We will definitely be doing a "fun with spraypaint" day sometime this summer at my place on it, whether he wants to or not :)
He won't make it to next week's 2-day event, so he'll have a couple months to work on it during the "summer break" until September. And though he's a car guy, he likes me to work with him on the down-and-dirty things (rust, fiberglass, suspension). So since I have little to do (or money to do it with) on the e30 or WRX, I'll probably kill time working on his car.
His other "performance" car has a bit more performance, lol.
oh, and some stickarz installed. Though I'm not sure I like where I put the one on the right.
I'm diggin the sentra, is he going to run SF or are you driving him towards something that'd result in MF?
Also, what's the deal on those ramps in the garage? Looks like a useful setup.
He has to run MF, since the car didn't come with a backseat or any interior panels or headliner and he definitely isn't going to try and find any (or pay for any) And he's going to rip out the carpeting. I'm thinking that thing may be sitting at about 1600lbs by the time we're done stripping it down.
He's not big on build threads or taking pics or posting about his cars on the net, so I'll have some occasional updates on his in between my own updates....since I'm sure I'll be lending many hands over the next few months, lol.
I forget what the ramps are called. He got them for the Z06 so he could do oil changes and stuff easily. They're kind of neat in that you can use a floor jack to lift the rear end of it too, so kind of like a drive-on lift that gives you 3-4 ft of clearance under the car.
That said, They take up alot of space, and are heavy as E36 M3 (ask me how I know, I helped him put them there), and cannot be easily moved out of the way by 1 person (unless that person is Magnus ver Magnusson). I personally wouldn't have them unless I had several other empty bays, since it's pretty difficult to do work on jackstands and such with the ramps there.
This was just posted on the local forum. Made me think of you. Hmm...
http://www.phillyscca.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=7423
interesting.....if I wasn't swapping to M42 this winter I would definitely be checking it out :)
happened to watch some old TG last night, and it was the episode where the Clarkson in an e36 gets owned by the e30 guys. Had to do some screen captures :)
All packed up for the big 2-day "Conquer the Summit" rallycross this weekend. This weekend we run all three courses and it's a total time for both days, so consistency is going to be crucial if I want to have a chance. Looks like my class (MR) is going to be me, Stuart in the M42 318is, two or three RX-7s, and a baja beetle of some sort (or so I hear). Should be interesting.
One small mod before the event - went and bought some cheapo seat covers from Wal-Mart, since the black leather gets hot as hell sitting in the sun all day, and my duck-tape repairs are curling up at some edges which makes them stick to my shorts when I'm in the car, lol. They are true pimpin!
It's amazing how much can fit in an e30 though, compared to (for instance) my WRX. IN the car currently are 5 rally wheels/tires, my 60-gallon (or larger?) gearbox, a race jack, a pop-up shelter, a toolbox, a pair of fold-up chairs, helmet, a couple coolers, and a bookbag of change of clothes and other smaller stuff. And the front seats/footwells are still empty, and the trunk still has room to fit a small child. The WRX would be overflowing with this much stuff in it!
Anyhow, gonna be hot this weekend so I expect to be exhausted after 2 days out in that, doused in DEET 30 bug spray and high-SPF sunblock, haha...
loaded deep in the back, I hope I can steer :)
Today was the first day of the two-day "Conquer the Summit" rallycross at Summit Point (WDCR). Car was running well. The event is the last one before the summer break here, and for it we run all three courses over the two days.
Today we ran the "Barn Course" first. I don't think a lot of rallycrossers like this course, but it's my personal favorite. The surface tends to be very hard (like rough concrete, pretty much) during the summer and it would probably be just as fast on most parts of it running with Star Specs or other tarmac rubber over rally tires, lol. Anyhow me being a long-time autocrosser I feel right at home on this course because I can really control the car. And it showed. We got 7 runs in this session, and after the 7 runs I was only 3 seconds TOTAL behind the class leader (Shawn) and about 10 seconds ahead of the 3rd place car (another RX-7). Overall was very happy with my morning runs.
In the afternoon we ran the "gravel course" which is my least favorite, but a favorite of the guys who are good at getting the tail out on the cars. Gravel course is soft and loose and gravelly (and dusty as hell). My first few runs I really struggled with corner lines and got bogged down in deep stuff several time outside the fast line....and with an M10 under the hood once you get bogged you're gonna lose alot of time. I lost 10 seconds off first on my first two runs before I figured out a line. On the 4th and 5th runs I think I was running faster clean times than anyone else in the class based on the prelim results, and was really starting to feel it. I was only 7 seconds out of first and 3 seconds in front of 3rd in class after 12 total runs for the day. Pretty good to be that close on Shawn since driving as fast as him is the goal that the rest of us trying to attain in this class.
Due to SCCA club racing on the main circuit, Summit is pretty strict with watering. The water truck does not "wait" for a run group to finish its session. At most it will wait for everyone to finish the same number of runs. So it was that the water truck came through before our 6th and final run. Did 2 full rounds. So basically we had several inchees of soft/powdery dirt with a few inches of mud on top of it. This equals INSTANT lack of grip, since the tire treads get totally clogged and smooth. I planned to just drive conservative, try not to cone, and finish without any major errors (hoping that my competition was more aggressive and made some mistakes). This would have been a good plan, except on the 3rd turn (a grassy slalom transition) I locked up the brakes and almost slid past the gate. Had to come to almost a complete stop to make the gate and that killed me. I was almost 5 seconds slower than anyone in my class on that single run. In retrospect I shoudl have just laid on it and leveled the cone and gone straight through. The cone penalty would have been 2 seconds, and I figure I lost at least 6-7 seconds by my trying to actually make the gate clean.
Obviously, I don't know how most of the other cars drove and I'm sure they have areas that they would do differently themselves that would have saved them time too. Woulda shoulda coulda.....
Well, at least the water truck cleaned half of the ETA guys' ride. It was the first time it's been washed in years I think :)
Bummer. Anyhow, going into day 2 I'm currently about 15 seconds behind the class leader Shwan (pretty pleased with that with 12 runs in the books, so I'm only 1 second back or so on runs averaging about 60-70 seconds). And I'm 1.5 seconds back of the other RX-7 (Gorka Arrieta, a drift guy who loved the second course due to the excessive sideways action). I'm several second up on Shawn's co-driver (who coned alot). I'm about 25 seconds up on the other e30 in my class (Stuart, in an M42 318is on snow tires vice rally tires). There was also a turbo baja-super-beetle in our our class that was pretty quick, but he had to miss several runs when his exhaust manifold cracked right at the main branch. He ran the car over to the main circuit paddock and found someone with a welder, and got it fixed by the afternoon session. Neat car anyhow.
Here's pics: http://photobucket.com/conquerthesummit Album password is "rallycross"
I'll post up some vids maybe tomorrow after the event is done.
Some of the best pics I took:
sadly one of the subies killed its engine. I think it was a bad break too :(
I can also say I had a lot more fun in my $1000 Bimmer than this guy had in his $350,000 Ferrari, which just sat there all day parked on a gravel road, getting dusty.
Looks like an awesome weekend, looking forward to hearing how sunday turns out.
"Conquered the Summit"
(I’ll post vids of all three courses later tonight or tomorrow)
DAY 2: I came into DAY 2 in 4th place, but we were all bunched up there within 15 seconds or so of the leader (pretty good since we did 13 runs on DAY 1).
Today we ran the "big course" which is a pretty good combination of all the courses - some powder-soft stuff, some rocky areas (really rocky), some gravel, some hardpack, and some wettish muddy stuff. When the full "big course" is used it's usually around 90 seconds or so. We did 8 runs today for a total of 21 for the weekend.
Today's goal was consistency of times and I think I did that. I didn't set any new world records but aside from Shawn (the leader) I was probably more consistent than anyone, with one MAJOR exception:
This came at the end of my 5th run, which definitely was going to be my fastest as I had driven it about as perfect as I can. Then:
(I’ll post the vid once I have it uploaded. Suffice to say, I screwed up royally and racked up a 101-second run when I had been running in the mid-80s.)
DAGGER! Made worse by me not having a working ignition switch, requiring me to lean under the dash and hotwire the car quick when it stalled. I lost about 17 seconds on this total botch, which was more than half the time I ended up behind the leader. In the end it didn't matter since I didn't catch Shawn anyhow. And because I finished 2nd in class after a hard-fought battle with Shawn's co-driver (in his RX-7) and Gorka in the other RX-7. Stuart in the other e30 (318is with M42) was a ways back, but he is the only car in the class not on rally tires (he's on snows) so that probably hurts him.
Total times (21 total runs) Shawn (RX-7): 1584 seconds Josh (me): 1611 seconds (+27 seconds, or just over 1 second per run!) Chris (in Shawn’s RX-7): 1625 sec Gorka (in the other RX-7): 1628 sec Stuart (in the 318is): 1669 sec
For comparison’s sake, the fastest car in Prepared AWD (running in our group) was 1554 seconds. My time would have put me about tied for 4th in that class, so that’s not too bad I guess
Leo (in a turbo baja beetle of sorts): DNF (he didn’t make it through day1 due to a cracked exhaust manifold (welded in the main circuit paddock during the day!) and a blow intercooler pipe on day 2.
Of the E30 guys, here’s Scot Crowner’s rundown. I’m in the ’85 318i obviously. Stuart and Spencer are in the newer 318is, and the other four are driving an ’86 325e. As you can see, the ETA actually took the fastest overall time for the weekend, but it ran in the opposite run group and had different conditions that were apparently faster (or so I will tell myself to justify losing, haha). I am “JayJosh” to the ETA guys.
Fastest E30 single lap time per course Barn Gravel Sunday 61.647 Jay Josh 63.841 Chris 84.383 Chris 64.026 Stuart 64.191 Spencer 85.663 Steve 64.238 Chris 64.217 Jay Josh 86.306 Jay Josh 64.246 James 64.594 Steve 86.927 James 64.484 Scot 66.902 Stuart 87.158 Spencer 65.937 Spencer 67.029 James 89.222 Scot 66.460 Steve 68.571 Scot 89.847 Stuart
E30 Two day totals, There will be surface differences, but who cares:
1576.292 Chris (PR) 1611.453 JayJosh (MR) 1645.413 Spencer (PR) 1653.810 Steven (PR) 1663.385 Scot (SR) 1664.453 James (SR) 1669.536 Stuart (MR)
The E30 CONE Crazy (highest award):
25 Steven (PR) (A GOD of fun!) .. .. .. .. 16 James (SR) 10 Spencer (PR) 6 Scot (SR) 5 JayJosh (MR) 3 Stuart (MR) 3 Chris (PR)
So....at the season midway point I'm second in season points (of the 5 drivers that regularly show up in this class). Not bad for my first season doing this in the lowest-powered car in my class (and possibly in any class, lol).
Now for 2 1/2 months of "summer break" before the next event. Which is good because it was almost unbearable out there this weekend in the 90s with a crapload of dust, haha. And no AC in the car for the drive home.
The car ran well for the whole event and I had no issues until driving off the course on my last run of the day, when I broke …er…destroyed an engine mount somehow. Luckily for some odd reason I threw a spare one into my parts box the night before. So did a changeover in the field before going home. That was fun….in the 90+ degrees, already worn-out, had to pull my skidplate off to do it, and use two floor jacks and some 2x4’s to get the engine high enough to get the new mount in.
The drive home sucked, as it was very hot and with all the windows open I had a dust-storm going on inside the car for most of the trip home. After unloading I cleaned out the interior as only a rallycross car can be cleaned out: with a hose, with the windows and doors open, and with the drain plugs pulled, haha.
Plans for the summer break: Hood vents (to keep my electric fan off longer), maybe a pop-up vent on the roof, and some other random stuff. Stay tuned!
A few other of my best pics from the day of other people:
I love this thread.
Today I sent an old G5 Dodge Omni off to a home where it may rallycross again, and I feel pretty good about that. While I was digging through parts and packing things up I noticed the air intake for the heater. When it was set up, it drew air from under the car, through a filter and then blew it out the vents. The idea (when it was cool enough) was much like positive pressure life boats on oil rigs that I trained on. Keep the cabin positively pressured with clean air and keep the dust out. Maybe have a way to draw in air and have it bypass the heater core for a source of nice cool clean air? Maybe something to think about?
Anyway, return to the thread in the fall. It's good reading.
mazdeuce wrote: I love this thread. Today I sent an old G5 Dodge Omni off to a home where it may rallycross again, and I feel pretty good about that. While I was digging through parts and packing things up I noticed the air intake for the heater. When it was set up, it drew air from under the car, through a filter and then blew it out the vents. The idea (when it was cool enough) was much like positive pressure life boats on oil rigs that I trained on. Keep the cabin positively pressured with clean air and keep the dust out. Maybe have a way to draw in air and have it bypass the heater core for a source of nice cool clean air? Maybe something to think about? Anyway, return to the thread in the fall. It's good reading.
Thanks, Yeah, that's the general idea with the roof vent as well. The low vent would be great for autocross, but on these courses I'm often going through dust left from the previous car which would then get pushed through the vents I would think. I'll toy with some designs and see what works!
I'll be updating this with "build" stuff for the next couple months, and then back to the action!
Vids of all three courses from the weekend. Not necessarily my best runs, just random ones I picked to use.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7kbYAlmES8&feature=youtu.be
Vids of all three courses from the weekend. Not necessarily my best runs, just random ones I picked to use.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7kbYAlmES8&feature=youtu.be
This could be why I was having some rear traction issues on the RX-7 this weekend. Maybe that is why I ended up with 9 cones today.
Damn, how the hell did you do that? Was that from the Barn course on Saturday? I didn't notice any significant wear on any of my tires from this weekend - then again, I'm not sideways at full power nearly as much as you are 
Guess it's time to pop those Yokos on, haha.
How's Katie's car? Any big damage? We were working 15 feet from where it happened and saw the whole thing - rear end popped about 2 feet in the air, hardest bang I've ever heard from a car, and then the tree branch clobbering her camera off the roof. Sketch!
I don't know when that happened. I did not look at them until I pulled the car on the trailer today and somebody mentioned it to me. Yeah I need to swap at least 2 different tires on there. I was thinking about just swapping them to the front but they look a little worn for that now.
Katie's car - I'll find out in a few weeks when I take a look at it. The car already had a blown strut from Saturday so I need to figure out what people use on the impreza for stock class replacements before I go digging to deep into it. Some people mentioned the drivers rear side looks like it might have a bent strut or link (this is the corner with the blown strut) but we could not see anything bent just looking at it and it drove home ok.
Here is the video from the tree run. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gy7BeyqiIYs
lol.....love my cameo at the end haha.
is it just me (or youtube), or does that camera have really bad video quality? It's like watching the run in a fun-house mirror or something.
That was the ONE run where I didn't follow her through that area with my camera. It was odd, I couldn't really tell how she got way out there since her original line seemed decent.
That video is from a Swann FreeStyle 1080p Action Cam. It seems to have some image stabilization issues with the rough rallyx runs. I think it does decent at autox http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_F-SpTF75hs but rallyx seems to cause it issues.
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