About summer (2) - The first hillclimb

As summer reached it's mid point the hill climb event was approaching. The car had the same old tires and the same damaged gearbox. I was also lacking a critical safety equipment...  A race suit.

I managed to find a suit that still had valid homologation, but it was quite expensive. With race day fast approaching, in the end I bit the bullet and bought it.

My good friend Artan, who helps me with the mechanical side of things managed to extract a few more horse power out of the 210 000 km old engine. But this meant that we had no more time to change the gearbox.

I was going to complete in what was the most competitive class 1.6 to 2 liters 2 wheel drive mostly against hot hatches. So in order to at least keep up with the competition we decided to change the diff to a shorter ratio one. I managed to find a rare 4.44 ratio one and I promptly welded it up and installed it. It was late at night when we finished installing the diff... Next day was race day

With all the suspension settings done I headed out to the local touge. The car felt good, when I was accelerating the car was oversteering just a bit, in a very controllable manner.

Race day came... So I packed my stuff and went out to the hillclimb event. I was all alone so I started chatting with the other competitors. I told them about my mods and because I welded the diff they all said that I would be oversteering all over and that I will be slow.

And they were right I was all over the place... I was oversteering in every corner whatever the gear I was in. On two occasions I actually went offcourse. So I let some air out of the rear tires and that solved only 20% of the oversteering problem.

But I was not slow... Not at all... In my class there were two 200 hp + cars and the rest of the front wheel drive were all at least 250 kg lighter and had around the same power I had.  I did more than keeping up to them... I managed to beat all but the 200 hp cars...

I was competing in the debutant class where one of my adversaries was a 300 hp 4wd Subaru. I ended up being just. 0.02 seconds behind him with my 150 odd horse power BMW, earning second place.

I was amazed that not only I could keep up with the fwd competition but even beat them if we had similar power.

Next up will be the Covasna winter rally, a 90 km or so rally held on snow and that will be quite a challenge for me with no rally experience and no real snow driving experience... 

About summer (1) - Now let's race

This summer came with a lot of changes for me. I moved to a new city and left the car back home, but this didn't prevent me to start testing my skills and my metal.

I managed to register my car as a competition vehicle, a friend kindly gave me a set of old racing tires. They had plenty of thread left, but due to their age they were really hard almost like plastic. The good thing about them is that once they are warm they grip unlike any tire I've had.

With the car ready, me and a couple of friends headed to Făgăraș rally, which was more like a city special stage. It ended up being a battle between drift and grip. After the first timed run I went to check the time and I had quite a surprise... I was first and I had a 6 second lead.

The main competitor ended up being one of my friends with a Toyota Aygo. The small car is very well suited for this kind of event. It's light has quite a bit of power for its size and turns on a dime.

My drift buddies stole the show, but the clock wasn't ticking in their favor.

As the course got cleaner the times started to improve and the Aygo was improving at a faster rate than I was. 

So I pushed harder and harder until I shifted from first to second gear hard and damaged the synchro mesh in the gearbox.

I was still first but would the gearbox hold till the end?

Although a sharp noise accompanied every gear change from first to second the gearbox held. In the end I managed to win the event by a healthy 10 second margin.  

As the event ended I set sight to a way greater challenge... A hill climb, but that in an other post.

Race car getting ready part 2

In the last episode we discovered that I really needed a better suspension. I managed to find a KW rebound adjustable suspension front and rear for a good price. I also renewed the front control arm suspension joints with Meyle HD items and I replaced the stock bushings with eccentric polyurethane ones.

The car was feeling loose in the rear so I designed some solid steel rear subframe bushings. This makes the car predicable and crisp and also raises the rear subframe 6mm to improve the rear roll center.

It all fitted like charm.

A simple trick to improve steering lock is to add a shim to the steering rod.

The stainless steel shock body does look really nice.

The exhaust sound was too muffled and made  a wooshing sound like you hear on newer cars, especially Audis, so I made the cheapest sport "muffler" ever, a 60mm piece of pipe.

Now the engine breathes better and sounds a lot better if a bit loud.

I tried to raise the car a bit, but the suspension adjustment rings are stuck solid. I tired to persuade them in every way but they wouldn't budge. Here's a picture with the car running rally slicks on the front tires.

The kill switch needs to also be accessible form the outside, so I decided to fit it near the lower part of the windscreen. It needs to be attached quite sturdily, so I made an aluminium bracket for it.

The fitment is perfect!

This is the way I installed the kill switch in the center console, I also made a bracket for this. 

Then my attention turned on the fire extinguisher, the mounting bracket and the extinguisher came RRS and they are up to FIA spec.

This is the way I installed the handbrake, a wilwood item with a homemade 600mm lever.

The interior is done!

My friend you see here managed to get us back on the carting track.

This time it was much, much better, the car handled way better, although I think I'll need some stiffer antiroll bars.

The better suspension gave me more confidence so I started to push it. I was able to raise the entry speed to about 110 km/h 

I naturally pushed the car even faster, but I ended up in the kitty litter big time..

A few videos of the day:

 Next up I'll try to enter a hill climb event and after that swap the engine for something with more oomph.

Race car getting ready part 1

Spring has finally arrived and with it also come the spring projects. I've done a lot of work to the car, but I just haven't posted it, so this next post will be split in two parts covering almost 2 months of on and off work on the car.

The first thing to do was to weld the diff. I've ran a welded diff on the E30 and I was very satisfied with how the car handled with it.

Next came a ridiculously big box, for what was in it... a FIA homologated helmet.

I also replaced the visco fan clutch with an electrical one of an Opel Astra.

I then set about to install the master kill switch, which required to solder some very thick wires. I connected all the wires and zip tied it under the dash.

Next I tried to install the dash, but of course, the rollcage was in the way. I proceeded to hack the dash and to my surprise I did not have to cut any of the heating vents. 

The cage clears the vents with just a few millimeters to spare. I am more convinced each day the the E36 was designed with motorsport in mind.

One of my friends booked an hour of track time at our local carting course. So we gathered up for what was our first track day...

My cars suspension was 100% stock and I only had a welded diff help me drift a bit better. 

The very soft stock suspension posed quite a challenge

My friends Nissan going all out. We used the same part of the track that the drift championship guys do. 

The entry speeds were at around 90 km/h and that was enough for the leaning tower of drift...

After the track day it was clearly that I desperately needed better suspension. I managed to find some used KW V2 coilovers kit for both the front and the rear. But more on that in the second part of the post.

Brasov Rally 2014

When the winter comes to a close Brasov, my home town, comes alive with the smell of race gas and with the roar of race engines. For many years the stage in Brasov has been the opening stage of the Romanian rally championship.

A significant change this year is that historic cars are allowed in the rally. Here we see a BMW 1600 basking in the morning sun while receiving some attention in the service park.

The heart of a Skoda S2000 rally car.

The weather couldn't have been more different compared to last year. This time snow was replaced by the warm sun.

This change in weather encouraged the drivers to push harder.

And harder.

The day was coming to a close and all the colors got warmed by the golden hour.

As always the super special stage that is held in the center of the town attracted a lot of spectators. The difference this year is that the SS stage is held at night

This posed quite a challenge to the photographer (me), as there was not enough light to capture nice photos. The lead runner, Francois Delecour, kindly provided some extra lighting...

And I did my best.

The top runners pushed incredibly hard on the tight course, to the delight of the spectators.

The sound of the Mitsubishi's anti-lag was echoing through the center of the city.

Lucky! I caught a fellow photographers flash, the spectators were packed!

"Good news, it's the Dacia Logan" and it's actually going fast.

Faster still, were the top guns going, Dan Gartofan eventually ended up in third driving his Skoda S2000.

Showing great promise is Edwin Keleti behind his Ford Fiesta R5.

Sideways though a corner is not the fastest way, but it is surely the most fun, for both the driver and the spectators.

The 4 wheel drift looks a bit more boring but it is way faster.

Up close and personal with an Evo. This livery suits the car just great.

One thing missing form tarmac rallies is the dust that creates great views (and breathing problems), but rest assured there will always be ways to add a bit more excitement to the tarmac stages.

On the second to last stage the Evo is making great progress.

2WD at its finest!

This finesse was rewarded with the first place.

Francois Delecour wins the Brasov rally again, followed by Marco Tempestini in second and Dan Gartofan in third.