RALLY|SPEC: Cutting my teeth in grassroots motorsports with an E30

[Trigsby]

Don't mind me, just beastin' on that ham n cheese sandwich. Thanks for letting me have a run in the car today, man. Had a damn blast.

[C-Hutch]

I WENT. I SAW. I CONQUERED. A GUY.

Got the car sorted out and ran my first event today! It was a RIOT. Some of the most fun I've had in a car. Laid back guys and girls, awesome course, beautiful weather and the car performed wonderfully.





I was a little shaky at first, braking too much and stabbing into the throttle too much, leading to a slow, sideways run. From then on, my runs got faster every time I went out, with my last run almost 10 full seconds faster than my first.





There were only 2 other stock class RWD cars there, and we were all fairly competitive, but the MR2 had snow tires and the other guy was in a Scion FRS and they both had experience over me. I was on all season street tires and wound up posting the fastest time in my class for the morning session.





I came second out of three overall for the day. They total up your times for all 8 runs, and my slower start cost me a potential win, but it was an absolute blast, and next month I think I'll give the other guys a run for their money. Going to make a few tweaks here and there to try and dial in a little better grip. My cooling system was also giving me trouble all day, which led to very hot temps and probably cost me some time in general concern for the longevity of the engine if nothing else.





I will absolutely be back for more in the next event. Need to budget in some snow tires as well. They're soft and have an aggressive tread pattern but you can still run them in stock class and they cost a fraction of what actual rally tires do. Got to do a ride along in the modified e30 pictured above that a cool dude named Gary was driving. He was running wide snow tires and a bunch of other suspension and power mods and had a cage and a lot of weight reduction, but you could feel that the time difference between us was thanks in huge part to the grip advantage he had.

[imolae30]

Much excitement coming from this build! Im excited...

[Pseudonyms]

Glad youre gettin this thing together. I wanna come play rally games with ya'll.

[Nick475]

I just wanted to fly the damn plane!!!

Not-on-my-watch by nfglaudemans, on Flickr

[Trigsby]

Love this thing. Can't wait for round 2.

[C-Hutch]

i killed you in gta like 4 times the other night

I just wanted to fly the damn plane!!!

[Nick475]

i killed you in gta like 4 times the other night

[C-Hutch]

Not quite dead yet

the scuffler is back in action. There's a local shop run by a guy named Donnie called Das Auto that specializes in all e30 stuff and he had a new pan and a 3.73 limited slip diff hanging out on his shelves waiting for me. The old one was pretty busted, as you can see here...



This skid plate used to have a lot more bend in that angle below the pan





after cleaning, you can see the damage. There's actually another crack on the top where the level sensor is with a stress fracture that goes almost all the way to the back of the block.



C HUTCH TOP TIP OF THE DAY::::::

when installing a gasket that is hard to place, you can use bread ties to hold it in position and get a few of the bolts started around them, then once everything is lined up, simply pull out the bread ties and tighten everything up!



new pan installed



and back on the road





with a little LSD testing, for science



here are a few more from the 4 minute rally stage a couple weekends ago

[C-Hutch]

picked up a new pan and a 3.73 limited slip last night!

[Hotsauce]

Motherfuuuu. Never predicting anything ever again.

[BettyWhitE30]

i hope this is a good as the e21. can't wait for more!!

[Lobster]

so nice! more rattlecan paintjobs pls

[C-Hutch]

another piece of food for thought.... spacers under the motor mounts, to raise the motor up?

that's actually a good call. I've done that on lowered cars with success, so I guess it could help out on this one too.
Wouldn't have done much for it in that jump over the weekend though haha.

You could also try an e21 323 sump? I'm pretty sure it'll clear the e30 subframe.

are they steel? Never thought of that.

[e21mark]

You could also try an e21 323 sump? I'm pretty sure it'll clear the e30 subframe.