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

Knurled. said:

There's something wrong with the in-car photograph.  You're in a tunnel and not near redline 

 

When I visited Summit Point and Cumberland this summer, I made a point of downshifting a lot and making all the cool noises I could, because tunnel.  OTOH it's also a novelty for me, the most we have around here are long bridges where they built city over the Interstate.

lol.....they're pretty strict about speed limits in the park. Though when I went back through the tunnel, I did make a bit of noise. The Porsche has a stock-like Bosal exhaust though, so it's not very loud. 

I lived in Italy and once did a 15-car pass in a 2-mile-long tunnel (with 6 people in my Lancia Delta - no, not an HF or Evo). So I've had my Tunnel fun :)

Not much to talk about here. It's cold outside. The last rallycross of the season is this weekend, and I literally have not touched the car since the last one other than to move it out of the garage and into the driveway. This event will either give me a 3rd championship, or it will give Nick a 3rd championship (with the other one finishing 2nd) in MR class. The temperatures starting the day will be pretty cold, not sure which tires I'll go with, TBD based on which course at Summit Point we're running.

In other news, this thread got some love from GRM in the print version :) I think it's the 3rd time this car has made it into the mag over the 8 years since I started this build, so that's pretty fun. Hopefully it's been helpful and entertaining to people. 

In reply to irish44j :

You're famous!

So, just a quick stop here, because people occasionally ask me "what is done to this car, I can't read 110 pages of your thread." So here's a quick overview:

Engine/engine bay:  Currently M50TU (previously M42, M10). Some kind of ebay DME chip, supposedly a clone of the Dinan chip.  And a cone filter in an isolation box to keep most dust/water spray out. Electric fan. e36 M3 ebay aluminum radiator.  

Exhaust: eBay stainless header. Pipes are 2.5" all the way back w/very small Vibrant cat. Double-plated in areas that take hits. Vibrant muffler. 

Transmission: Getrag 240 (from e30 318is) - this is the 4cyl transmission but is a direct bolt-up to the M50. Stock-type M20 clutch and M20 flywheel.

Diff: 4.10 LSD and 3.73 LSD, depending on whether rally or rallycross. These are the diffs that work best with this transmission's ratios.

Front suspension: Ireland Engineering threaded lower perch (sitting on stock perch) with 10", 250# Eibach linear coilover springs. Bilstein HD shocks. No swaybar. M3 offset LCA mounts (for caster). Offset OEM upper mounts (for some camber)

Rear suspension: e36 M3 stock springs. Bilstein Gp4 Gravel Rally shocks (from Mk1/2 UK Escort). No swaybar. 

Brakes: Stock 325i front and rear w/Hawk HP+ pads and braided lines (and cheap rockauto rotors that hold up fine).

Wheels: 15" Mini Cooper wheels for rally w/Federal Federally 195's (2 full sets, one set of the tires is opened up for wet/loose events); 14" bottlecaps with Altimax Arctic 195's (2 sets) for winter events; 14" bottlecaps with some old MaxSport grass tires; OEM 15" Euroweaves with BFG all-seasons for street driving. Pair of Yoko A031 mud rally tires (unmounted at present). Set of Integra wheels for whatever.... The Cooper and Integra wheels use a 20mm spacer that is hubcentric on both sides (57.1mm for hub, 56.1mm for wheels). The bottlecaps usually have a 8mm spacer, when I remember to bring them. 

So that's about it mechanically. Nothing too fancy other than the rear shocks, i guess.  Hope that helps people out

Do you know rough F/R weights? I'm think about trying out M3 springs on my 318ti and was hoping to compare before I pull the trigger on some.

shagles said:

Do you know rough F/R weights? I'm think about trying out M3 springs on my 318ti and was hoping to compare before I pull the trigger on some.

Not off hand. Someplace aways back in this thread I did some corner weighing, but I don't remember if that was before or after I had the cage. But now I definitely have no idea what the new engine and everything. The M3 springs in the rear definitely  require a little bit of weight back there. perfect for stage rally but probably a little bit too stiff for rallycross if you are not carrying a spare tire and stuff. When I rallycross I always have one spare tire and sometimes to back there. The Motorsports shocks also make it stiffer.

In reply to irish44j :

Alright. I'll do some digging and see if I can find the corner weighing stuff.

In reply to irish44j :

I found your corner weights and it looks like I should be about the same on the front, and about 130lbs heavier on the rear. You think I'd be ok with M3 springs on the rear without the extra spare in the trunk?

shagles said:

In reply to irish44j :

I found your corner weights and it looks like I should be about the same on the front, and about 130lbs heavier on the rear. You think I'd be ok with M3 springs on the rear without the extra spare in the trunk?

Yeah, probably. That is about the weight of all of our gear. 

shagles said:

In reply to irish44j :

I found your corner weights and it looks like I should be about the same on the front, and about 130lbs heavier on the rear. You think I'd be ok with M3 springs on the rear without the extra spare in the trunk?

Care to share what page it was on? I'm always trying to search for something specific on this thread and have struggled to find a good way to search within a thread.

In reply to artur1808 :

Sure thing. First post of page 62. 
for future use, this is how i search for info in threads on GRM (without the quotes): "few words from thread title" "what I'm searching for" site:grassrootsmotorsports.com.

So to find the corner weight stuff i searched "318 stage rally corner weight site:grassrootsmotorsports.com" and it was the first result  

Up at tall pines tall in Canada today crewing for Brolin and Downey...it's cold here.

CANADA!

For the last week, I drove up to Ottawa for a work trip. It was very scenic and the GTI is a pleasant and comfortable distance car.

Oh, and metric system looks faster (though Canada's roads have pretty low speed limits, even out in the middle of nowhere, and huge fines.

So, that was fun. But more fun, it turned out Tall Pines Rally (a CRC event) was happening right after my work trip ended, and since I drove there I decided to go 2 hours further to crew for Kevin Brolin and Dan Downey's e30. Ian from Ottawa (who has an e30 rally car) joined me for the trip and crewing as well and we headed out to Bancroft uneventfully. 

Upon arriving, Dan and Kevin were on recce, so we grabbed the car and took it to recce. Now....this is Kevin's car, which is very new to stage rally (this rally last year was its first). And I guess it's a bit more put together than Dan's - but these guys spend more time actually RACING and less time like me sitting in my garage doing little projects on the car. Car is fully functional and safe, but plenty of haphazard switch mounting and stuff. It works for them, but that stuff would drive me crazy hahah.....

Anyhow, jumped in with 12 layers of clothes on (it was like 15 degrees at the time) and we rolled to tech

Tech was mostly uneventful. We had to do a few small things and the inspectors had some questions, but passed nonetheless. I'll mention here that EVERYONE in Canada is apparently very friendly, even tech inspectors. They looked closely at the car, but always were chit-chatting and telling rally stories and smiling. Not really what you get in the US haha...

Little side story - that Volvo 142 apparently was driven in the early 70s to some kind of Finnish rally championship by Markku "Maximum Attack" Alen (yeah, he coined the phrase "Max Attack"), one of the greatest rally drivers ever, and still has his name on the hood. For a long time it was in some kind of private museum collection, and then at some point Charles Hammer (who has been rallying for 40 years), bought it from the museum in Finland, shipped it over to Canada, and started rallying it again. A gorgeous car, still with a cage that looks like it hasn't been updated since 1973, but whatever. Really awesome...

\

Also there, "Crazy Leo" Urlichich, who I've read many stories about, and seen many youtube videos of doing epic things, but damn, he's also VERY fast on stage.  And apparently during transits he was live-streaming and telling stories of sexual exploits with his girlfriends (who was sitting next to him as his codriver). Or so I heard. Anyhow, can't miss his car...

So, we stayed at a little house next to a Tim Horton's ... it was still cold

Kev and Dan finished their notes...

Next morning, they were off.

One of the few RWD cars there aside from the Volvo, an RX7, and a formerly Toyota-sponsored FRS drift car. 

The RX7 had intermittent engine isssues, as it did at STPR as well. The FR-S, looked awesome entering corners:

But later in the rally rolled and got a bit messed up.

The Subies were all busy ditch-dipping...

Kev and Dan were going nice and clean, keeping it tidy, but then slid off and got caught up  on some logs. Had to wait a while for a guy with a chainsaw to cut them out and winch them back on stage, and then they re-entered.

Tis but a flesh wound. We took some crowbars and hammers and bent it back into "functional" shape...

And finished.....got on the 2WD podium as well, though in this event there were seemingly like 20 podiums for various classes and series....

Right next to some more of our friends from down this way, Burke and Werner, who were some of the first rally guys we met years ago at Black River Stages, so great to see them on the podium as well.

Celebrations were had, stuff loaded up, etc...

All in all, a fun rally full of polite Canadians and a lot of time spent huddling in the GTI trying to get warm!

Next morning I headed out into the cold morning Ontario sun..

And was still driving into the not as cold evening New York sun...

I did swing by Rochester to visit some family and dropped in on fellow old-German-car rallyist Tony Zanni at his print shop (which was super cool as well).

We compared 'Dubs...

So yeah, over 1600 total miles driven over a week (most of it in the first and last days), got to see a cool city (this time in winter) and go to a Canadian rally, and drink a few dozen Tim Horton's coffees, etc etc. Good times. 

After that experience, any inclination to run an event up there yourself?  I'm always on the fence about whether to start adding Canadian events to my list.

In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :

Cool events, but way too far for me to tow for single day rally . Plus CRC has the same dumb medical requirements that are the reason I'm no longer doing NASA .  I'll most likely try to hit ARA events I haven't yet.. Ohio, maybe the Missouri ones or sno drift eventually. STPR is close and I'm sure we'll do it again. NEFR have to do again and finish!

Thanks for doing a write up for me Josh... As well as crewing. 

Part of the reason there were so many awards is because it is the last event of the year in east Canada; So regional championship stuff. 

If you have ara license then you can use that and pay for permit to complete. 75cad national or 50cad reg. Never filed out any medical stuff. But ya canada is pretty far for you. 

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:

After that experience, any inclination to run an event up there yourself?  I'm always on the fence about whether to start adding Canadian events to my list.

Canadian events kick butt! Keep in mind though that you'd have to run a restrictor (32mm) on the Xratti unless you wanted to ballast up to 2900lb (not sure what your competition weight is), since ARA doesn't require one for 2WD.

In reply to TXratti :

I'd ballast, the car is 2850 as it sits and I could probably manage to mount that much extra weight with a bigger jack and a second spare tire.  Or maybe I could make a "Canada spec" skidplate out of steel and never have to dodge a rock again...

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:

In reply to TXratti :

I'd ballast, the car is 2850 as it sits and I could probably manage to mount that much extra weight with a bigger jack and a second spare tire.  Or maybe I could make a "Canada spec" skidplate out of steel and never have to dodge a rock again...

That's not too bad! I like the Canada spec skidplate idea. This kills my dreams of a CAM-T XR4Ti (min weight 3000lbs), but that's alright.

LIttle side project. After picking up the Raider and having to lug it onto the trailer using a come-along and ratchet straps, that was no fun. I don't really feel like putting an electric winch setup on the trailer though, since I rarely have a need for winching, and I have better things to do with the money for a winch and maintaining a battery, etc. 

So I was down at my parents' marina last weekend and dad had a couple old boat trailers that he's planning to scrap, so I swiped the somewhat rusty but still functional winch off of it to fix up. The cable was pretty much no good but the mechanical parts of the winch are functional if a bit "sticky" due to some rust. I know I can just buy one of these for like $50 new, but I figure I can refurb this one for about $15 (mostly the price of some white vinegar and a new pull strap/cable off Amazon).

So there's the winch as removed

Disassembled

And stuck in a container of white vinegar for a few days to de-rust things. Then I'll paint it up nice. 

Meanwhile, the old cars are buttoned up outside for the winter (though I'll still drive both of them occasionally). The e30 has a cover on it too now (mostly to keep any leaks aways). I usually keep one of them in the garage, but I want an empty bay so I have more space to work on the Raider project...

Well, after a month, I have finally managed to read all 110 pages of your exploits.

What a journey!

I've started to look to see if there are events like these in the UK.

On a tangent. I see you are having problems shipping stuff from the UK. If you do some research on how much it costs for shipping, I can pick anything up and forward them. I own a house in Florida, so have the advantage of a US bank account.

Good luck with the last race of the season.

Fraser

Fraser said:

Well, after a month, I have finally managed to read all 110 pages of your exploits.

What a journey!

I've started to look to see if there are events like these in the UK.

On a tangent. I see you are having problems shipping stuff from the UK. If you do some research on how much it costs for shipping, I can pick anything up and forward them. I own a house in Florida, so have the advantage of a US bank account.

Good luck with the last race of the season.

 

Fraser

Oh I suspect you guys have plenty of cool things to do....anywhere from rallycross (I think it's "grasstrack" or something like that in the UK) to plenty of stage rally in various parts of the UK, plus you guys have those cool "rallycross" style things that are multiple cars on course at once, which we don't get at all :(

the only thing that's an issue shipping is tires, since sanctions and stuff, but not a real big issue. I have a package on the way from Ireland currently that should be here soon :)

Just a quick follow-up on the winch refurbishment. After soaking overnight in vinegar, scrubbed and sanded everything and did some painting:

And reassembled. Amazon delivered a new $10 20-foot tow strap (which is what everyone is using on boat trailers these days instead of cable), which has a sufficient rating for my purposes. So put it all together and it works nicely. So for about $12 in materials I have a winch. Yeah, I know I could buy a new one of these for like $50, but that's $38 I can put toward something else now. Why waste money on something that will not get much use anyhow...

Hey, early Christmas present for the car, direct from Ireland....

Decided it was time to upgrade the safety factor from the Evos (which I'll keep for rallycross). Jim has a Sparco halo seat in his track e30, so figure we'll just swap that into the rally car when needed, and then back out.  It's going to be hard to keep myself from putting this in the car full-time, lol.....

Why not just put this in the car full-time and sell the Evos?