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

irish44j wrote:

bluej wrote: That's not too bad of a haul to Weedsport. Beautiful up there that time of year, too. Josh, I have a good friend who lives in Avoca who we could almost certainly stay with friday/sunday night of that weekend to break up the travel some. Google says exactly 1.5 hrs. from there to weedsport and he's got plenty of room for trailer parking and people crashing.

Nice, I'll pencil that in. I could go for doing four NEDiv events - ours, the STPR special stage, Susquehanna's, and maybe 1 or 2 of the New York events. All of those put together are barely more distance than Nationals by themselves, so that sounds like a better use of gas money :) We (you, me, Nick, Shawn&Katie, the Goldens, etc) should try to plan out for a bunch of us from WDCR to hit these events. Not sure if any of the rest of them plan to go to nationals though.

I have the STPR one penciled on my calendar for this year assuming everything goes well with the rallyx car. But it is 4.5 hours away instead of the 3.5 hours to the one we just did. I'll be at the WDCR one, Susquehanna and any TBD ones are going to depend on the date. No idea on Weedsport yet since it currently conflicts with the local AutoX schedule.

irish44j wrote: Katie....off the course? I have a hard time believing that

If you want hard to believe try 0 cones

moxnix wrote:

irish44j wrote: Katie....off the course? I have a hard time believing that

If you want hard to believe try 0 cones

well, hard to hit cones when you're not on the course, eh? J/k Katie!

So, in the event that anyone cares, here's my "tentative" schedule for the 2015 motorsports - as much for my own future reference as anything:

Feb 21 - WM Winter Rally (crewing)

March 28-29 - WDCR Frostburg

April 11/12 - Tarheel Sportscar Club (Virginia International Raceway)

May 3 - WDCR Frostburg (though may be out of town for work, we'll see)

May 31 - WDCR Frostburg

June 7 - Susquehannock Trail Performance Rally (poss. crew) + STPR Rallycross National Challenge event (Wellsboro, PA)

June 27 - WDCR Frostburg (NEDiv Nat'l Challenge event)

July - empty/TBD (find an event out of area?)

Aug 1 - WDCR Frostburg

Sep 13 - WDCR Frostburg

Sep 19-20 - Finger Lakes RX (New York) - maybe...

Oct 11 - WDCR Frostburg

Nov 8 - WDCR Frostburg

TBD - Whenever Susquehanna Region has their national challenge event, I'll plan to go.

TBD - Maybe try to do 1 or 2 chumpcar races, depending on available finances and schedule.

TBD - Other national challenge events

So in my other thread, Nick wanted me to talk about this year's class field, since he's too lazy to keep up his own build thread:

I'll humor Nick though, since if I wait for him to talk about it, the season will be half-over.

Anyhow, he's referring to our likely MR field this year:

Me

Nick (e28) - defending champ

Bobby (e28)

Eric Eisele - leaving his SA STi and coming to MR with a fresh e30 325i

Eric's codriver - I forget who is codriving with him offhand, but he has one

Alp (325is) will be returning, but with a fully-stripped and caged car.

Ozgur Simsek will be running in Alp's car. Ozgur stage rallies a Sentra, and I think he rallied an e30 at one point, so he should be fast.

Josh Sennet returning with his e30, but this time the turbo M20 is out, and a N/A M52 engine is in. He was already fast, but his car broke a lot. If the car is more reliable, he'll be even faster.

Rusty will be back with his MR2 after not running much last year and getting rid of the old Supra. The MR2 should be faster. Not sure if he's gonna have a co-drive. I believe this is the only car in the class with less power than mine, but it's also probably lighter and has the weight in the correct place.

Eric Helgesen will probably be running the trusty ETA that carried him to 3rd place last year - though I'm trying to convince Chris (his dad) and Stephen, who drove that car to PR 2/3 finish last year, to bump up to MR this year and let Eric (the rookie) run in PR.

Nonack? - I still have this feeling that Chris will show up with some kind of monster Crown Vic or other totally random car, and then go really fast in it.

Spencer? He may make a few events, who knows.

--

Honestly, it would be kind of fun if Shawn Roberts came back to MR (after winning MR 2 years ago, and winning PR last year), because he's as fast as anyone out there, and would be epic to just have a Battle Royale with a big, competitive MR class

In any case, it's gonna be fun. Almost everyone in that class is a competitive driver with a competitive car. I wouldn't surprise me to see someone different win every single event this year. Obviously I want to win every event, but I think with this field it will be more realistic to try to drive more consistently than last year and go for season points that way. I'd be pretty surprised to see a clear "top dog" jump out this season in MR, so a whole season of consistent top-3 finishes could be the ticket to winning the class, rather than my usual method of "win a few, finish 2nd a few, and totally suck at a few."

WHY U NO GO NATIONALS ???

Knurled wrote: WHY U NO GO NATIONALS ???

I was wondering when you or Evan would have to post that obligatory question, Pete

Answer: same reason as last year. All motorsports are a cost-benefit/budget balance for me, and nationals doesn't pass muster.

Nationals is a bit over 1,000 miles from my house. The COMBINED distance of all five non-regional events I want to go to is a bit over 1,000 miles from my house TOTAL, and I can do any of them in a 3-day weekend (nationals would probably be 2 day tow each way, no thanks).

My budget this year allows one or the other, but not both. The rest of the budget is going to probably 1-2 Chumpcar races and to pay for a cage and to begin the stage buildup on the e30). I'd rather do five national challenge events than one nationals, It's pretty much that simple.

Going to Nats would be fun someday. I just don't consider it to be worth it at the moment and as long as it's out in the middle of the country. YMMV (obviously, since you always go).

But of course if you really want to run against me and the other local MR guys (you know Nick and Josh S, obviously)....well, Frostburg is only a few hours from you, as I recall. And we are hosting a national challenge event.....

Also....Shawn....did I read the results incorrectly, or did you not drive a Miata at the Kempton Challenge last week? Have we seen the last of the RX-7?

EDIT: guess I didn't read wrong. Interesing

Knurled wrote: WHY U NO GO NATIONALS ???

BECAUSE LIFE. srsly, might as well be the moon unfortunately. I do applaud the effort of the regional pts for national championship, though. It's a good idea worth a try.

I'm torn on the battle royales. More competition is fun... but this year I want to WIN.

bluej wrote:

Knurled wrote: WHY U NO GO NATIONALS ???

BECAUSE LIFE. srsly, might as well be the moon unfortunately. I do applaud the effort of the regional pts for national championship, though. It's a good idea worth a try. I'm torn on the battle royales. More competition is fun... but this year I want to WIN.

well, you have no excuse this time if you don't, seeing as you'll have the most powah !

I also like the regional points thing. It's a big country and it's as close as 90% of rallycrossers can come to the top of the heap.

irish44j wrote: Also....Shawn....did I read the results incorrectly, or did you not drive a Miata at the Kempton Challenge last week? Have we seen the last of the RX-7? EDIT: guess I didn't read wrong. Interesing

Was wondering how long it would take somebody to notice....

From Dec 4th in this very thread.

moxnix wrote: Winter plans for my car - Get it to start on it's own or get a new car.

I ran into a good deal on a pre-crashed miata (many multiples of the price a paid for my other rallyx cars but still cheap). About what I would have had to pay for a cheap rebuilt rotary engine. It fixed the two biggest issues I had with the RX-7.

1. Not starting/idleing
2. It was not a miata. (This brings me up to 4 miata's currently)

I still need to figure out a skid plate for the miata and fix some minor body damage but it is not bad.

Now I just have to convince Katie that I should do something stupid with the RX-7 like one of these

This is the one you picked up last season, right? Or is this yet another one? Psh....as if body damage on a rallycross car needs to be fixed :) Honestly, I assumed that at some point you guys would make the move to Miata.

It's going to be sad not getting to watch you tow-start the RX7 or do synchronized driver swaps to keep a foot on the gas between runs.

But I most certainly won't miss the sound of rotary. And....OMG.....no rotary cars at rallycross this year? Could it be true????

by the way, I mentioned it to Chris Helgesen. I think it convinced him to move to MR, haha....

No last year was the CSP AutoX miata. I also have my 1997 daily driver and the 1990 STS AutoX miata.

The body damage not so much worry about but I want to get the headlight fixed so I can actually close them and not have the hood hit them when they are up. So if you hit up any junk yards soon keep an eye out for a full passengers side headlight assembly in black (Other colors would work but might try to keep it looking ok).

Chris is just scared of what I will be able to do with a full 128HP

Talking with Katie the other day we might be thinking of hitting nationals this year. Lots of things still up in the air but it is something we are thinking about.

Yeah, I'm not hitting any junkyards anytime soon, too damn cold

Lol at you joking at 128hp. That's pretty close to what I have!

So, thinking about going for the local-divisional-national championship trifecta, then? What NEDiv events are you guys planning to go to?

It is sort of warm tomorrow....

Pretty sure it is more than I had in the RX-7 (Stock rated at 146). 128 HP is what mazda rated the miata engine at stock. Mazda does tend to over rate engines a bit.

I think it is a bit early to be looking at a trifecta since I only have one snow event in the car so I have no idea how the car will do this year.

Like I said before. STPR Rallyx is in current plan. SUSQ if it falls on a good day as well as any other TBD ones that don't conflict with other stuff on my calendar are possible. The Weedsport one I am putting off the decision on until I see how the fall schedule works out for Autox (It currently conflicts but the redskins schedule is not out yet).

irish44j wrote: Nonack? - I still have this feeling that Chris will show up with some kind of monster Crown Vic or other totally random car, and then go really fast in it.

Funny you mention that, since this thing has been tempting me: just add mud tires...

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ wrote:

irish44j wrote: Nonack? - I still have this feeling that Chris will show up with some kind of monster Crown Vic or other totally random car, and then go really fast in it.

Funny you mention that, since this thing has been tempting me: just add mud tires...

I know you well enought to know

I just got a message from the rallycross gear van: All the cones defected to Cuba after you posted that.

Though seriously....for $1100, why not that e28 535i? Seems like a much better car for the same price, and would (IMO) be far more competitive?

But why do I ask you that, when I do know you, lol.....

On another note, sounds like GRM reader "johnp2," who came out last year in his Audi S4, has decided he wants to have even more fun so he got an e30 to rallycross this year.

MR is gonna be one hell of a class (whether or not he runs in that or SR/PR). I'm really getting pretty excited, and there's still freaking 5+ weeks to go!

This winter is dragging, and still 6 weeks until any rallycross (though will be crewing at the Winter Rally next weekend, so that should be fun).

Today finally got under the car to make sure the catback didn't separate from the Y-pipe again this season. Had planned to put flanges on there and have it bolt together, but that's a pain in the ass. In the end, I thought about how easy it is to simply drop the whole exhaust at the bottom of the header (those bolts are easily accessible), so no real point to have the catback separate anyhow.

So I just welded that E36 M3 together. Done and done (assuming my welding didn't suck, which I can't guarantee).

Then I went inside. Because even in my in-house, insulated garage, it's still only 35 degrees right now.

In reply to irish44j:

I don't feel so bad about Detroit cancelling today's rallycross. I went out to the Volvo and my thumbs were completely numb by the time I cleared yesterday's snow off. Outside temp gauge was hovering between 0 and 1F. (I wish I could switch it to metric) Power steering was making horrid noises and it uses the fancy thin synthetic Pentosin. And the rallycross was a few degrees of latitude further north than down here on the 42nd parallel...

Your exhaust goes under the rear axles, right? Heck yeah make it all one piece. Less to fail, as long as the hangers are good.

Yep, under the rear.

And FWIW, even my 09 WRX's power steering was making bad noises for the turn out of my driveway this morning. Supposedly (*I say this with complete sarcasm since our weather people here suck), we're supposed to get about a foot of snow tomorrow night. In which case we'll see how the e30 deals with real snow. So far it's only ever been in my cul-de-sac on Star Specs. It's on winterforces now :)

And no, I don't envy you guys up toward Detroit....I like some cold here and there, and some snow here and there, but that's just too much cold up that way!

So I am officially PRETTY berkeleyING EXCITED today.

Was sitting aroudn the house watching the kids and decided to browse CL, out of the blue, to see if anyone posted up some cheap race seats in the middle of a snowstorm.

Found a post for a pair of Sparco Evos for $400 "including two four-point harnesses". Call the guy excitedly to set up a pickup, then notice that he has $400 EACH. Still a good deal, but not in my current budget. So I ask if he'll sell without the bases (for a 370z) or harnesses for a lower price. He says "berkeley it, my wife wants these out of the living room...come get it all for $400."

So I get in the car and head to Georgetown, thinking this is way too good to be true.

But it isn't.

Two 2010 build-date Sparco Evos. Passenger one is pretty much mint. Driver's one has a brand-new cover on it (and the old cover with one small tear included), plus a box of spare plastic parts (for the harness pass-throughs) still in the Sparco bags.

Bases: They have nice adjustable side-mounts, bolted to a very nice slider base for a 370Z ( a trackday-style base with the harness eyebolts in the base, which of course is not legal for most road-racing)..

To boot: The harnesses aren't 4-points. They're Sparco 6-point camlocks that don't expire until the end of 2015.

All of this...$400.

The plan: Eric is going to buy my current seats for $200. Sell the 370Z slider bases (those list for like $200 each new from what I can tell) Sell the harnesses to someone who wants them for this season at a good price.

I figure I'll come out ahead on the money side, and still have two very nice, FIA-certified seats that are legal for stage rally, and are way lighter than my current seats.

I really am pretty psyched about this score. I never find the good deals on CL. Finally did for once!

Oh, and some Italian guy wrote on them

wow

NICE SCORE

i troll craigslist daily for stuff like this, and haven't gotten nearly that lucky yet!

What are they putting the seats in?

Their rallycross car, which still has stock comfort seats even though it's in PR/MR class, lol.