Looks great.
Looks great.
Thought I'd share some pics of the Lemons/Chump car, 4 days into my paint job on it. Still a lot to go (and 2 days left before the wife is back from the beach, so really....2 DAYS!), but it's getting there. A few snaps of the unfinished product.
Rust-Oleum and 3M should freaking sponsor us...
white side mostly done
black side a ways to go
trunk
some blue shadowline detail on the hood, late-night mini-project.
a new friend arrived today.
it'll get it's own build thread in the near future....
I was going back and forth cleaning out 7 years of dirtiness on "Rusty" and loading up "Dirty" for tomorrow's rallycross :)
cool!
Hopefully I didn't miss an answer to this, I went back and looked.
How did you attach the brackets for your Hellas? I've been thinking of getting a set of the 500 driving lights for my E30, but I can't find a way to get to the backside of the bumper without taking the whole thing off the car, is that what you did? Or am I missing something?
Mine are bolted right into the bumper. I clearanced them just enough to sit back far enough that when the hood is opened it would not hit them (it is about 2mm from the covers when opened).
Are your bumpers tucked? I added mine with them tucked, but might have pulled the "pins" on my shock pistons which lets you pull the bumper back out to normal "diving board" placement to put the lights on, and then pushed it back in. I honestly don't remember.
Though, thinking of it I can still get my hands back there with a wrench - I had to tighten the bolt on one of them last month and I know I didn't pull the bumper out to do that.
Or do you have a facelift car?
The third event weather was great. We ran the full "Big Course" - the longest course at Summit when used in its entirety. I've never been great on this course (as compared to Barn Course, where I am very fast), as the surface is pretty rocky in many areas, and there is a long, fast downhill section that I tend to be too tentative on (and lift too much, but more on that later).
Chris Nonack returned (albeit arriving late) with his V6-swapped MR2 AW12 after blowing his engine at the first event and driving Shawn's RX7 at the second (I think he finished 4th at event #2). So a good 4-way shootout for first was going to happen with me, Roberto, Chris, and Jim Spoth in a PR-prepped e30 ETA. Nick in the e28 was close as well, with Jason, Pat, and Margarita a little bit back but getting faster with each event.
In the morning session Roberto made a mistake on his first run so Chris and I were pretty close at the lunch break. Not sure of his times (since he got there late due to multiple issues, he ran his runs after most of us already had a couple done), but I had about a 10 second lead on Roberto.
In the afternoon Chris was supposedly having some issues with his engine being way down on power, but I'm not sure what his times ended up being. He's very fast when the car is working. Roberto had a PM course more to his liking and put down some fast times. My times on the first few runs were good but a little slower than his as I tend to be less aggressive on the long, fast, downhill 1/8-mile or so section running down the treeline, so I lose time there every time on this course. (of note, when we run it reversed and uphill, I'm very quick through there).
Coming into the last run we were in a dead heat for first and Roberto had put down an 80 flat, same as my fastest time of the afteroon. So I really had to go for it on my last run to take the win.
ON the first half of the run (comparing my in-car vids) I was almost 2 seconds ahead of pace....did it really fast and aggressive. And then the downhill. I made myself push it through there, but that meant at the turn at the end I lifted much harder than usual and lost the rear end. I recovered it off the course and smashed through about 10 feet of tall grass to get back on course (no cones, no gates missed), but I knew it was over and then I got really reckless on the finish slalom and punted 3 or 4 cones, basically just not caring and going faster than is possible to do that section clean.
In the end Roberto pulled another 80, and my off-course dalliance put me at 84 (which means I was really ahead of his pace before I did that, since I lost lik 7 seconds there). But I had three cones as well. So AFAIK he won by 10 seconds overall, all 10 seconds coming from my last run botch. Not sure if I beat Nonack or not, but I'm pretty sure I was still safe from the other e30s/e28/RX7 who were farther back.
There were some timing and course issues at this event, plus a big field (60 cars) and long start gap due to dust, and two water truck passes (which didn't really affect my class much). I have a bit of an issue with something unrelated to my own driving, but that's not really worth going into detail about here, and it probably wouldn't have changed the final result anyhow so whatever....
Next event is our big 2-day first-half ender....where we run 3 courses in 2 days and comp time for all three. This year too many people will be there to run "Gravel" course, so I'm really hoping we do Barn twice and Big once, though I suspect it will be the opposite.
This is the event that, last year (IIRC), I blew 2nd place on my last run (out of 20) and lost by 1/10th of a second!!! I am clearly not a "closer" at this point.
So, results when they're posted and good pics of my car when they're posted as well.
A few I took myself, and the rest are here if anyone wants to see: http://s78.photobucket.com/user/irish44j/library/BMW%20318i%20RallyCross%20Project/26%20May%202013%20Rallycross%20Big%20Course?sort=3&page=1
reppin
the water truck literally drifted this turn on his second pass. that's how slick it was
dirtay
oh look, a blue GC Subaru. Never seen one of those at an event before, Jim Golden :)
With Brian McNamara and Amber Stacy's stage rally car, there for a T&T
Evo parts deposited on course
And he managed to ram his very low tow hook into a berm
This guy was very fast, impressive driving
turbo SR5 pickup in PR
reppin
water truck +1
Work kinda got in my way for this one, But i have to ask what were are issues aside from the shiny happy person watertruck?
JtspellS wrote: Work kinda got in my way for this one, But i have to ask what were are issues aside from the shiny happy person watertruck?
I'll hit you up on PM....though again, the main issue is my sucky driving on the last run 
irish44j wrote: Mine are bolted right into the bumper. I clearanced them just enough to sit back far enough that when the hood is opened it would not hit them (it is about 2mm from the covers when opened). Are your bumpers tucked? I added mine with them tucked, but might have pulled the "pins" on my shock pistons which lets you pull the bumper back out to normal "diving board" placement to put the lights on, and then pushed it back in. I honestly don't remember. Though, thinking of it I can still get my hands back there with a wrench - I had to tighten the bolt on one of them last month and I know I didn't pull the bumper out to do that. Or do you have a facelift car?
I have an untucked diving board car. Mine has an IS valence, maybe it needs to come off before I can get access to the inside of the bumper. I looked under the hood and behind the valance and didn't see an obvious means of access.
By clearanced, you mean you actually shaved material off of the brackets? Or just in terms of placement?
In reply to irish44j:
Crap happens i suppose, seems like you can still gain plenty of ground with this next event!
Max_Archer wrote:irish44j wrote: Mine are bolted right into the bumper. I clearanced them just enough to sit back far enough that when the hood is opened it would not hit them (it is about 2mm from the covers when opened). Are your bumpers tucked? I added mine with them tucked, but might have pulled the "pins" on my shock pistons which lets you pull the bumper back out to normal "diving board" placement to put the lights on, and then pushed it back in. I honestly don't remember. Though, thinking of it I can still get my hands back there with a wrench - I had to tighten the bolt on one of them last month and I know I didn't pull the bumper out to do that. Or do you have a facelift car?I have an untucked diving board car. Mine has an IS valence, maybe it needs to come off before I can get access to the inside of the bumper. I looked under the hood and behind the valance and didn't see an obvious means of access. By clearanced, you mean you actually shaved material off of the brackets? Or just in terms of placement?
If you're untucked (and don't plan to tuck) you'll probably have to mount them so when the hood opens, the lights sit in front of the front lip of the hood. For my tucked ones, I had the lights about 1" from the grille, so they sit behind the hood when it's open (see pic below).
I don't have that valence, but without it you can easily just reach behind the bumper and put the nut on using a box-end wrench to tighten. Should be really easy when you're not tucked, with the valence off.
My positioning (I drilled a smaller hole with a rubber grommet in the bumper to run the wires through behind the bumper)
with hood open:
In reply to irish44j:
Gotcha, thanks. I see now why the tuck matters, I never thought about it but there's nothing under that rubbery trim strip between the grille and bumper without it, huh?
I'll have to see if I can get a working placement in front of the hood. I may have to see if I can find a bar for it to clear, which seems to be harder than you'd expect considering how many of these cars have been rallied. Maybe everybody just welds up their own or something, but I don't have that capability.
yeah, that's just a giant gap there without the "spats". I'll also note that I took mine off and trimmed them down (as you can see), so if you plan to tuck in the future, and have the fogs mounted there, the "spats" will interfere unless you trim them (and it looks better, IMO).
I've seen some people just bend a piece of tubing and bolt it to the license plate mount area on the front, and mount lights there. Doesn't seem too tough.
Or you could mount them under the bumper, which I've seen on some euro rally e30s from back in the day.
If you're untucked, the lights should fit fine about midway on the bumper's width and clear the hood in front. I'd just open the hood and place them and see how it goes.
I got lucky - I totally forgot that the hood opens down like that, so I mounted mine not even thinking of it and it was pure luck that I tucked them back far enough to clear the hood, hah....
Yeah, under the bumper is an option but I really like the look with them above, and since mine will be driving lights the height is a good thing.
I'm probably not going to tuck the bumpers, I actually kind of enjoy the '80s awkwardness of the diving boards.
yeah, ditto.
I tucked the bumpers mostly because my spats were a mess and also because it gave me an extra 6" to work with in my garage (which is tight, as I'm sure you've seen, so every extra inch is good).
I would say with your color scheme, you may use that black plastidip on your bumpers, tucked or untucked would probably look good.
Results posted.....and MR was a shootout to the end.
Going into the last run of the day, the standings were:
Chris Nonack 1st me 2nd (2 seconds behind Chris) Roberto 3rd (1 second behind me)
On the final run Roberto ran a clean 80 seconds (which was a very fast run). On the final run I spun, ran 84 seconds including the spin, and got 3 cones after that for a total time of 90.5 seconds. So he beat me by 10.5 seconds on that run, and he beat me by 10 seconds overall.
Even worse for Chris who must have had a disaster right behind me as he put up a 95 with 4 cones on his last run to drop from 1st to 3rd.
Nick in the e28 finished clean and ended up in 4th by 2 seconds and Jim Spoth only 8 seconds behind him.
So the top 5 in MR finished within 25 seconds of each other over 600+ seconds of comp time. Pretty damn close.
Jason and Pat are getting faster, but since the rest of the field was so packed up at the top I think it didn't show how just much better they drove, as they finished in 7th and 8th with comps about 38 seconds behind me but within 1 second of each other. Don't sweat it guys, you ARE getting faster.
All in all pretty pleased with my overall times if not my last run. For the second straight event I finished with almost exactly the same time as one of the Golden brothers (who go back and forth at the top of stock AWD in their GC 2.5RS's), who drove in the same run group as I did. I consider it a good measuring stick for me personally, I suppose.
PR class went to the e30s as Stephen Nichols drove the ETA to a first-place finish beating defending MR class champ Shawn by 27 seconds (I doubt he's ever lost by that much before, since he rarely loses!), and the ETA co-driver Chris Helgesen took 3rd a ways back from him. Spencer in the other M42 car finished 5th (behind Shawn's co-driver in the RX7) and Jesse finished back in 7th almost 100 seconds off the leader. They had the water truck a couple times in that run group, so I'm guessing that the course conditions were rapidly changing, causing such a wide spread in the same class.
MR didn't really get the water truck to any major extent, which is why we were all pretty close I suppose.
I was first car out after the water truck in the morning session :(
Stephen was running as second driver behind Chris so was a good 6-10? cars back in the start order.
moxnix wrote: I was first car out after the water truck in the morning session :( Stephen was running as second driver behind Chris so was a good 6-10? cars back in the start order.
I figured that was the case (and also why Chris finished behind Stephen, which is unusual), but couldn't remember what the start order was. You and Chris were getting killed down in that grassy section with traction, for sure.
The guy in the Golf should be quick. He has been a regular competitor in Rally America and NASA Rally events.
Lights. Here is how I did mine on my Outback.
Parts:
1) Scrap flat steel from a garage door opener
2) 3" bolts
3)nuts, fender washers and extra washers for leveling
It was so strong I could stand on it (and I am over 300 lbs). No vibration or movement. Light bar mounted with bolts and nuts to mounts shown. Off in under 5 minutes so lights didn't "walk" away.
NGTD wrote: The guy in the Golf should be quick. He has been a regular competitor in Rally America and NASA Rally events.
True, but some stage rally cars that come out to our rallycrosses are decidedly not all that quick on course - I think a lot of it has to do with the much stiffer spring rates and shock valving that aren't as effective at lower speeds, as well as probably the gearing of the cars that aren't set up for the lower speeds. One war or the other, the Golf was very well-driven. He beat last year's SF champ Jim Kelly (who bumped up to MF this year due to interior delete) by a good 50+ seconds overall. And Jim is a very good driver in his own right.
today's project was to use the e30 to tow the e21 out of the shed up the hill, so I could turn it around. Did fine :) Note: only done because it would have been extremely tight to use the truck back there....my backyard isn't terribly large.
Also AJ at Squared Away Photography finally uploaded the shots from last weekend. Got some good ones :)
I don't hit cones often, but when I do, I prefer to punt them far away...
This is where I spun. Note, however, that I'm still "looking ahead" haha...\
diggin out
So one last LeMons car shot for the moment, as we did some work yesterday (though I wish I could be up there longer to get more done....)
Car is coming along and should be good to go, mostly thanks to Jim and Chris's major efforts. The race is next weekend, so probably some updates on that next week before we get back to rallycross, with the 2-day "Conquer the Summit" event the weekend after.
Helped my buddy Gabe do a balljoint on his fiancee's civic (got to try out my new OTC balljoint seperator, which worked great).
Then a side-project today when working on the car. Years ago the ski shop I worked at was tossing out some of our workbench hutches, and I grabbed them and they've been sitting in my shed ever since. Today I pulled them out, assembled the upper sections, and mounted them on an old floor dolly I cut apart. Now I have a "bridge" table/shelf that just fits over the GT6 and can be rolled where I want it. For the next month or two it will be used to hold all the parts from the M42 engine I'm rebuilding, so the parts don't get mixed up with other stuff on my other workbenches
You'll need to log in to post.
