SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote: Man, this thread makes me want to get into RallyCross even more.
I'll 2nd that...envy, I has it!
SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote: Man, this thread makes me want to get into RallyCross even more.
I'll 2nd that...envy, I has it!
So.....I just went for a quick test drive. And all I have to say is "damn." All the wallowing of the stock springs is gone, the car sits pretty flat in corners (not like the WRX, but still a vast improvement), and the rear end doesn't "jack up" on hard turns any more....feels much more planted.
I went and found some rough roads and tested a bit and the ride is firmer for sure but still soaks up the bumps with little effort. All in all, my initial impression of this setup is "very pleased"
Ok, so first some pics of the car as it sits now, for those interested:
Today I went out to my great-uncle's old farm once again, this time with truck and trailer, to scrounge up some scrap metal and other stuff I can use for projects.
The place is full of old cars and such, even one my uncle drove in high school in the 1970s
new and old
loading up the trailer with some random stuff
the haul: - new in box (well, the box was destroyed from sitting outside) Harbor Freight air compressor. Nothing too special, but it was free and I can use it for small jobs - a bunch of angle iron, steel bar, and other material - some 2x3 stainless steel sheets (probably about 16ga), should come in handy for underbody protection on the car. - a 1950s cast-aluminum spring rider (playground piece) that I plan to restore for my daughter to use. This brand/model actually goes for $500+ on ebay here and there, so I'll call it an "investment" for the future, since nobody makes these things anymore.
also got a big stainless (12ga) industrial kitchen tabletop or something. I got it thinking it might come in useful for a workbench. And as luck would have it, it is virtually a perfect fit for my wooden roll-away/tuck-under workbench that hides under my main workbench. How about that? :)
Also found an old trailer gearbox (to mount on the front v-neck). I cleaned it up, painted it, and fit a new platform onto the rally-trailer. A good fit. Need to find some latches for it since the key to the lock was missing.
off with the spare mount
on with the box
loaded up with my toolbox that usually goes in the car, and with the big box still packed and tires on the trailer, has a tongue weight of about 60lbs....which is damn near perfect for towing this trailer, IMO.
Tomorrow I'm off to Maryland to help the ETA boys work on their e30 LeMons car that I may get to take some laps in later in the season if time and money allow. THey're heading up to Watkins Glen (IIRC) next week for the Chumpcar race, so a lot of stuff to do on that. I'll post a few pics. At some point I'll be the "style consultant" for this car I think.....they do the hard work, and I'll make it look cool :) We'll see.
Went over and spent the day at Chris Helgesen's place with a bunch of the e30 crew working to get the LeMons/Chump e30 ready for next weekend's race at Watkins Glen. I won't be going, but hopefully will get to run the car at Summit Point LeMons in June.
I always like going to Chris's house because he has the most epic garage. Everytime I go there I feel like mine is totally insufficient, lol
and there is a 3-bay actual garage up top...
Spoth cutting steel plate with some big steel-cutting machine
The LeMons car
Rust repair on an e30...shocker
Their rallycross e30 hiding up in the trees
The master at work
I'm envious of your life
lol....well thanks I guess. But notably absent in this thread is any trace of females or a social life, it seems.....
But, being married 10 years with 2 kids (and all my friends likewise) will do that to you, I suppose. It's sad that today, saturday night, I basically watched baseball, watched basketball, made a new spare tire mount for the trailer, and now am watching BBC. Meanwhile.....millions of people are about halfway through their nights out at pubs everywhere :)
In reply to irish44j:
Seems we've been married about the same amount of time. I've been cleaning out the company truck (nasty smokers have ruined it). But I do have access to some moonshine so I have that going for me
lol......well, then you won't be so jealous if I tell you I'm a nasty smoker, lol.
it's about the only vice I have left these days Hell, I don't even think I've had a drink of alcohol in a month or more, lol.
on an unrelated note, looks like I'm not going to make it down to tennessee in June. WIth the guys today, I was reminded that's the same weekend as the LeMons race at Summit Point where I'm supposed to be driving so had to cancel out of the rallycross. I'd love to go down there, but I can't pass up some wheel to wheel racing at a track an hour from home!
I hear ya man, I hope I'll have the car ready by then. Lots of little things and a couple big ones need to be done.
As far as the smoking thing it's kinda weird. Both my parents smoked in the house growing up and it never bothered me. My wife smoked when I met her and it never bothered me. But now I'm getting to the point where I can't stand it. I used to be so appalled by the government telling people where and when the can smoke and now I am the ONLY person in my company who doesn't smoke and I kind of agree with the Gov. I mean you get six or more people all in the same area smoking together and it gets pretty unbearable.
I'm not judging because I've taken my turn with the cancer lottery only mine was smokeless tobacco. I've been off of it for a while and it is by far the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. Every day it is a struggle and it never gets any easier.
Nice weather, took the afternoon off today to do a couple things.
First, headed up and hit Crazy Ray's in Jessup, a big local pick-and-pull yards. Only a couple e30s there but managed to fill up the backpack with random stuff....a few dozen nuts and bolts for the "spares" bin, a couple poly exhaust hangers in new shape (in the trunk of a Honda), some good-shape pedal covers, a map light setup from an e36 (this will go in the rallykar, since I have no interior lights and it's annoying), a handful of other random stuff for the car, and the real score was three more of the yellow glass fog light inserts from the W-series Benzes, which are great for converting stock fog lights on many cars to lexus-style yellow while using stock bulbs. I happen to need one of these since my WRX fogs with them got smashed by a rock and one was destroyed....And I got a second set, since I can sell them pretty easily for $30 or so on the forums.
All in all, I paid $6 for all the stuff I picked up. This is some of it, the rest is just random fittings, accessory pieces, nuts and bolts, wire harness straps, etc.
my broken WRX fog light. The lenses, I found, can be replaced by using some off the ultra-cheap "ricer" fog lights at Advance Auto, which are a perfect fit for the groove in the OEM lights.....so will fix those this week.
with the base for the yellow inserts installed:
After the junkyard, headed over to Chris's place again to help out more on the LeMons e30, since the guys now have 2 days to finish it and tow up to Watkins Glen. I worked with Jim on making up a center gauge and switch panel out of aluminum. I had to leave before it was done, but it should turn out looking pretty good...
workin workin...
the Dons of the dirty e-thirties....Chris and Scott...
How are you liking the M42 over the M10?
A lot....the M42 in a car this light feels very quick and peppy, and I enjoy running it hard. The M10 really didn't have much oomph anywhere in the range, honestly. I'm not going to win any drag races, but at least now I'm not getting left in the dust by minivans at stoplights, lol.
Also, the M10 when going up hills to Summit Point REQUIRED a downshift into 4th or even 3rd to keep up speed with my gear in the car. The M42 will hold 60 or 65 no problem on the same hills while towing my gear trailer with even more weight.
And the car is substantially quicker on course, especially in sections that are "between gears" and the M10 would take forever to get back into the powerband. The M42 is said to have most of its power up high, but with the Conforti chip it seems to pull pretty hard from low-middle on up.
Awesome build thanks for posting all of this! Will be of great assistance to many E30 builders.
Thanks!
Thanks, that's the hope.......and as a reference for me.....I've had to go dig through my own thread a few dozen times to find out "wait, what did I do there?" or "what the hell is this that I did and have now forgotten about?" ...which is why I photograph even seemingly dumb little stuff
well, the weather shaped up and finally got around to doing something I've been wanting to do since last summer: paint the damn roof white. With no A/C this car gets extremely hot sitting in grid in the summer (and driving in general in the summer). I've seen how much a white roof can do for cooling an idle car so that's what I did.....
Not quite done, still need to touch up/finish a few details, but here it is. Reminds me of an old Chrysler LeBaron now, lol...
today I was bored with not much car stuff to do. Change the 4Runner and WRX's oil, and then decided to play.
From a project long-ago I had a PIAA rear LED fog light sitting around. Figured I'd put it to some use and add a bit of safety to my drives with a high-mount brake light on the trailer (since the standard ones are so damn now)....
as an added bonus, it provides some "upright" support for the tires, so they will have a harder time moving when strapped down. Anyhow, just some "free project" stuff, nothing all that exciting but whatever. Busted out the welder and some steel stock, and the result:
brakes on
After the debacle at the first event this season, had to hope that my improvements to the car (and hopefully my driving) would pay off at the second event. As luck would have it, today we were on the Barn Course, which is known to be pretty hard-packed surface, fairly tight and technical with most setups, and the course I usually do best on for some reason.
Adam set up a very technical (and very long) course with about a million cones on it, and I'd be surprised if anyone didn't pick up a handful of cones during the day, or more. In the morning it was fairly compact surface but a bit damp/loose. That quickly dried out as the morning went on. We only got four runs in the morning, but I was fastest (as far as I know) in the class of 11 MR cars in all four runs and had a 10 or 12 second lead on the pack at lunchtime.
In the afternoon, the water truck came through over lunchbreak but I had a good grid position (thanks to my lousy first event) and it wasn't terribly wet. The course was a bit shorter and with some very tight hairpins, but still fun. I really do love courses on Barn, they tend to flow really well and the tight setups are favorable to a light car like mine.
For the first run or two (out of 6), knowing I had a good lead I took it easy and made sure not to spin out or do anythign terribly dumb, hoping it would dry up. And it did...by the end of the afternoon it was like tarmac in most areas.
In short, for my run group (about 30 cars, including modifed FWD and stock AWD and MR), I think I had the fastest afternoon time (or maybe second fastest), even with some very fast cars driving. Roberto and Spoth upped their games too and put down some fast times, and in the end I managed to knock out a great final run and win MR by about 15 seconds all-told.....
Had a few cones on the day (maybe 5 or 6 total) but they didn't hurt since everyone had cones.
Anyhow, really pleased with how the car handled, and running Barn Course is always good to get me on-track with my driving. I think I'm going to add 1/2" spacers to the rear springs since I did hit the exhaust a couple times on some real rough sections, but otherwise the H&R sports and front spacer really turned out to soak up the terrain while significantly improving handling and reducing body lean.
A few pics I took (not many since I was doing grid/starter)....
subie field
Jesse and Spencer on drive-through
Croo
Alex
Field
MF Del Sol, with Ridgeline Tow :)
Also saw some GRM'ers visiting to watch/ride along, and also on the way home spotted a track-setup STi on a trailer (being towed by a Toureg), with a GRM sticker in the license plate spot, and the driver gave a wave as I passed him going up the mountain. Anyone here?
In for competition reviews of the new springs. The car certainly looks way lower out in the dirt.
all told it's about 1.5" lower front and rear than it was stock, but still sits as high as the other guys with stock 325e's that were there, if not a tad higher (thanks to lightness). I will probably put a thin spacer on the rear as well at some point.
Overall they felt great and are supple enough to soak up bumps with the progressive section of the spring but then firm enough to make the car much more responsive and flat than the stock springs. Over the two large mounds (where a few cars were lifting a wheel or two), I really flew across these uneven big bumps in total control and the car felt really settled.
There was one section through the grass that had a deep compression and I definitely hit the front bumpstops VERY hard there, but I think everyone did. Examination of my skid after the fact showed that it hadn't hit down though, so maybe it wasn't as much of a compression as I thought.
Will tell more once we run a rougher course, as today's Barn course is really like a bumpy tarmac road that's been torn up a bit with loose dirt on it.
Overall though, for street and rallycross I MUCH prefer this setup, though it's too soft for any high-speed track work, IMO.
today's morning and afternoon courses. First one is my first run, so there are a few mistakes for sure. Second one is my fastest run in the afternoon, as I recall...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2-Dl4VTZEQ&feature=youtu.be
stole a few pics that Spencer took with Pat's camera
Not much new to report. After the success last weekend I'm reluctant to make any real changes until I see if I can duplicate the effort at the next event.
In the meantime I've been rounding up my race gear for LeMons in June....so basically I needed to re-buy everything I either never had or don't have any more (nomex suit, closed-face helmet, etc etc). The garage is a disaster area at the moment for no apparent reason and I just can't get motivated to go clean up anything since I have no car projects on tap....
Anyhow, spent a bit of time tonight installing the comms and the helmet mounts for the DefNder retraint (like HANS) that we'll use for the race. Nothing all that exciting, but it's something to do.
I know, try not to get too excited, ok?
Also trying to talk another buddy (Fred) into picking up a rallycross car. I (along with Nick) autocrossed against Fred for a few seasons (he in a Mazdaspeed3, me in the WRX) and he finally came out to the last rallycross and did a lot of ride-alongs and now I think he's hooked and wants to pick up a cheap beater. While we're steering him toward getting an e30, of course, I also suggested a Volvo 240-series and he also mentioned a Benz 190 as possibilities. We'll see. The more RWD, the merrier....
A few little projects today:
It's always annoyed me that I have no interior lighting, especially in the early mornings departing for events. So, I pulled the map lights off an e36 last time at the junkyard (total cost: $1.00). And installed it in the e30 using the OEM wiring for the seat belt warning light on the overhead console (attached to constant power under the dash).
So, now I have light. And these really are pretty excellent map lights, to tell the truth.
Attachment was some cut-off L-brackets with a rivet into each side of the plastic housing. For attaching to the car I just used double-sided 3M trim tape. This stuff is plenty strong enough to hold the lightweight light up there.
Installed
Also did a little project I was thinking about doing. Again, cost was almost zero (other than a new metal blade for my saw). Used some 1/16" steel that used to be part of a gas fireplace in our house (I've used other pieces of this fireplace previously for other things), and the bar section of an ebay strut bar that I bought a while back that didn't fit, so I had cut the ends off of it.
Anyhow....mocked up the plates in cardboard, then cut them...
Put them on the car and tacked the crossbar in position
Took it off and did the rest of the welding in my usual extremely sloppy, un-pretty style. Definitely had some issues with wire heat and speed on this one. I do fine on thick, thick stuff, but thinner metal I continue to struggle welding with.....
Painted up
On the car
I'll note that clearance is VERY tight, which is why most bars go around closer to the firewall. I didn't have a long enough tubing piece to do that, so I "made it fit." There's about 1cm clearance over the intake manifold, and with the hood closed I can't exactly tell, but I'd guesstimate about 5mm. It doesn't touch but if you press down on the hood in the middle you can make it touch. I might shave the top of the bar just a bit with a grinder if it becomes an issue.
Was out of town for the last week, so nothing new to report - though I really don't have any real projects to mess with right now and have been doing other things. Still almost 3 weeks until the next event, so kind of bored.
Today, made a run to Yoshi's and picked up some stuff for the LeMons car that the ETA guys are building and that I'll be driving. I'll be doing some "cosmetics" for the car next week while the wife and kids are out of town at the beach. These are mostly spares and such, got for pennies on the dollar in one of Yoshi's "firesales" that he posts up on the local e30 facebook page, lol.
Some little stuff on the car:
Nick at the last rallycross asked me if I wanted some random Sparco pedal cover for e30s since it wouldn't fit his car. Free, so I took it. Installed. Mad bling yo....adds 10whp!
Also had an old piece of tubular bar (was a handle for my toolchest that I never used) so I made a "brace bar" for passengers to give them someplace to brace their feet when riding with me. Just welded to the floor, nothing too exciting. Will eventually make a flat "plate" as a better footrest.
Painted with some bedliner to give it some grip. Might get some skateboard grip tape since I doubt this stuff will hold up.
not much new on my car as a couple weeks before the next event, so a quick update on the Lemons/Chump e30 we're working on (owned by James Spoth et al), which I'll be running with at Summit Point Hyperfest LeMons and the VIR 24-hour Chump in August.
With the wife and kids departing this morning for a week at the beach I headed up to Rockville for a jam session of e30 work. Jim took the engine out last night to do some oil pan work, etc so today's task was to put everything back in, hook it all up, and get the car running again, as well as some other tasks.
The final interior product after we painted the cage the other week and Jim painted the floors/interior safety blue:
The gauge panel we made :) Also showing our one "bling" part :)
Ready to load engine...
Engine in with white bay.
exhaust
Tomorrow this car comes to my house for a week so we can do exterior paint, cosmetic touches, and perhaps build a wing for the back...
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