Event #5
Went into the event tied with Nick in overall points (2 wins each, tied if you drop each two losses, though I’m leading in total points right now). Left a bit earlier than the rest of the crew along with Jason, towing his “new” Miata to its first rallycross. We met some other roadsters along the way, who asked us if we were heading “to the local drag strip” lol
Anyhow, first day of this weekend was a test-and-tune where we were breaking in a “fresh” area of the venue. It was rough as hell though the car was handling it fine, until an issue: A terrible grinding/screeching noise from under the car, which I could feel through the transmission tunnel either going forward or reverse (the sound changed a lot depending on throttle and direction). At first I thought the transmission was self-destructing, but eventually managed to rule that out. After that, based on location I figured it had to be the center support bearing seizing up (4 years of dirt and dust could cause that, I suppose, lol). So put the car halfway up on the trailer and got underneath. Of course had to pull the heat shields above the exhaust first, and managed to dump about 5lbs of gravel (and a few bigger rocks out that were sitting on top of them. Nice.
As it turned out though, that must have been the culprit, because here’s what I saw on the driveshaft:
Apparently a larger rock somehow got itself wedged in there in a manner where it wouldn’t kick out going either forward or backward. So…..a good opportunity to delete the heat shields altogether I guess. Though I may put a smaller shield up there later just to keep direct mud and rocks from the CSB itself.
So with that fixed, I proceeded to run the faster, smoother afternoon test course.
We had some fun on it (I’m hoping someone has me hitting the middle of this little lake at 50mph or so, lol)
Also since running into twilight got to test out the lights a bit for the first time
And as it got darker, with all the lights on I’m in the middle of a run and start smelling something, like there is an electrical fire or something (hard to tell when mixed with dust). At the same time my right leg and feet started to get very hot and I was like “E36 M3, I think something is on fire down there!!” So killed the lights figuring the new wiring was shorting or something.
Nope.
Heater core go boom. Thankfully I had my gore-text hiking shoes and long pants on so I didn’t get burned. But ended up with a gallon or more of coolant inside the car. Yay. Guess BMW’s brilliant “bypass valve” installed in the hoses specifically for this eventuality didn’t do crap….
So in the dark we managed to loop the coolant hoses behind the engine, fill it back up, and got that all running. And pulled the drains and rinsed the front floor with a gallon of freshwater, lol
Oddly, few to no other cars were having any real issues out there mechanically during the test&tune.
Oh wait. Except the other M42 guys, Jeff and Jeff. Apparently the brand-new tie rod end they put on the passenger side was a bit taller than the old one. And it ground a good 2-3mm of aluminum off the inside of the wheel, lol. Lucky for them, I had a couple spare Moog tie rod ends with me, which they used one of to get back going.
Look closely at the inside of the wheel on the ground!
So that taken care of, it was time for some drinks at the rather pathetic local bar scene. It’s pretty sad for a “college town” (Frostburg State University) on a Saturday night, but did result in a nice semi-hangover the next morning for me. D’oh.
We did have a bit of fun with fellow competitors whose cars were at the hotel, of course…
Next morning perfect weather and about 50 cars (well, 50 drivers, probably 40 cars) there to run for the real event.
Morning course had a ton of cones, lots of slaloms and offsets, but at the same time was very high-speed. It promised to be one of the most challenging courses we’d had in a while to be consistent on. And I was the first car out in the run group, so I got to sweep the loose gravel where course changes from the first run group had taken place. But I did have better tires than last event, with 80% DMacks on the front with nice sharp shoulders. It’s been a LONG time since I had fresh tires with good shoulders, and the steering bite was a major improvement over the last few events for sure.
Oh, I didn’t mention that Josh S. (aka “TurboJosh”) was co-driving with me since his M52 swap isn’t “quite” done. We knew he could drive when he had a running car. We were about to find out for sure. Not to mention MR had a strong 13-car field – mostly e30s (none of them first-timers) Nick in the e28, Brandon Flicker in his 2nd gen MR2, Jason in the Miata, and a couple of RX7s.
In the morning it was a shootout, with me, Nick, Josh S., and Eric Helgesen (ETA) all within a few seconds of each other at the lunchbreak. Nick I think had about a 2-3 second lead at the break. The rest of the field was running pretty well, but having various car troubles. Eric Eisele and Drew broke a motor mount and a diff mount but managed to push on. Jason on his first event with the Miata immediately blew his front left shock and cracked a radiator piece while running mid-pack. I think the other M42 guys had some issue, but kept running. The RX7 blew something up as well. And Ozgur and Alp in the caged soon-to-be Rally America e30 were having issues mostly due to terribly worn old rally tires with no shoulders or grip, lol.
Eric fixing a motor mount in the morning before breaking a diff mount
Jason in the Miata
So on to the afternoon with 5 or 6 cars in striking distance of first still. I’ll mention now that Josh S. all day put down times slightly faster than mine here and there, but with more cones. Nick had been running fast and clean as well. I think I was actually in 3rd just ahead of Eric H. at lunch.
First run I started out with the 5th-fastest time in the group AND a cone, so that dropped me even farther back. I did some tire pressure changes and then decided to really drive aggressively, especially in the U-turn horseshoe at the back, which was tricky and between 1st and 2nd gear. Also it was not a “rhythm” course by any means, so it was hard to make the car “dance” well with a lot of tricky offsets and kinks.
Started clawing my way back in, gaining on Nick in small increments. Meanwhile, Josh continued to pull ahead and Eric H. kept staying with us as well in the ETA. Nick was clearly a bit slower than the other three of us though he seemed to be driving as he always does. Maybe the tires, IDK….
Midway through our 9 afternoon runs Josh S. took out a few cones and dropped back (I suspect he did it on purpose so as not to beat me and Nick and mess with season points, but he swears otherwise). Meanwhile Eric H. kept charging on and I was about as consistent as I’ve been all season with solid times over and over and over, almost all clean – while Josh S. kept on laying down the fastest times in the group, but picked up cones here and there. I managed to pull back ahead by 2.8 over Josh and Eric H. (in a virtual tie) with Nick a second or two behind them with one run left. For once, I didn’t do anything dumb, just drove a fairly-fast and clean run. Josh put down a nice clean run as well, and Eric put down an even faster run…..but got a cone, one of his few of the day. As it sorted out, I won and Josh S. (in my car) took 2nd 1.8 seconds back. Eric after the cone was 1.7 behind him, and Nick another 1.7 behind Eric. So all in all pretty close top-4 there, after 14 total runs and total time around 800 seconds for the day! The rest of the field either had issues or just were a bit slower. “The Jeffs” took 5th and 6th in the 318is about 30 seconds back of the lead group, and the rest of the cars had a variety of problems and finished farther back, though Neil, Eric E, and Jason were all running respectable times before bowing out with mechanicals.
Now one thing to note is that PR and MR ran in the same group. Shawn Roberts (just recently returning from 2nd place nationals finish in PR) generally beats the entire MR field in his Miata. But not today. I got him by 4 seconds :) Now you say, of course he’s in PR and I’m in MR. But he’s the best RWD rallycross driver in the mid-Atlantic at least (well, in my book), so I consider it an accomplishment.
What we didn’t expect, though, is that Shawn didn’t WIN PR. Jeremy Sitar did, in his ratty e36 318i. So a heavier, full-interior, M42-powered car (albeit I think he had fresh gravel tires) dominated the day, about 10 seconds faster than me in the same run group. Pretty impressive driving there for sure.
Here’s a link to full results if anyone wants to see:
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B0DAjl8siZI9YWFnYlNIbHRENzA&usp=drive_web
So, that’s about it. I’m sure Nick will give his take in his build thread on R3V, and Josh S. may comment on his thoughts, but in the end, it’s nice for the car to take 1-2 in a strong group, and even nicer that for once my co-driver didn’t beat me, lol
