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

I hate it when I do that. was almost done writing last weekend's rallycross up and then accidentally closed the tab. I have 5 monitors on my desk at work and usually don't have to deal with a bunch of tabs open so I'm forever doing this when on my laptop. So now prepare for my second attempt at this, which will be less amusing because I'm annoyed now :/ And this time I'll write it in Word and paste it here. ....

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So, back to Panthera! After some early-season cancellations and a bunch of conflicting rally events in this region, DC SCCA finally got a doubleheader scheduled – risky mid-July event which meant either hot as hell or torrential thunderstorms. We got the former, with highs around 100 degrees both days, so everyone was prepared for dust and heat (some more than others...Nick has A/C in his rally car!)

Well, it was nice when I got there at 8am Saturday morning after an uneventful tow

But, it ended up being hot and dusty as expected

MR class had about a dozen entries, which is big for most regions but pretty light for DC, with the Helgesens missing, Stevie missing, and once again no Jim/Amanda (still trying to get them out this year), plus a few other regulars. But of course Nick and Eric and others were there, so still not an easy group to win in. Also Eric's e30 wouldn't start so he ran in a subaru in MA all day, and Neil still has back issues so didn't drive (but did show up to drink beers).

This thing was there too – the guy just imported it from the Netherlands (it won a stage rally there in 2022). Pretty neat.

Oh, if you've followed this thread since the start, you may remember a teal-colored Ford Econobox. That was Jim Kelly, the MF (?) champ way back when, he later caged that car, rallied it, and wrecked it. Well, he was back last weekend after a decade with his now-driving son also competing. So that was cool.

And of course you'll recognize another GRMer in a cameo here

So, as I usually do, I went fast out the gate and beat the entire class by 2+ seconds raw time. Unfortunately, I didn't heat up my HP+ pads and at the first major braking area I coudln't stop for the transition and plowed a couple cones (and got another one). Even with 3 cones still had the 3rd fastest time in the class, amazingly. This was the story of the day – I drove really fast, but I picked up 8 cones – most of which were “barely” hits, most with the back of the car that I couldn't quite get in check (not sure if it was the old tires, too high pressures, or my rear shocks are getting weak). In the end, I finished 2nd to Nick D in the M3. My raw times were over 12 seconds faster than his, but he only hit one cone all day somehow (which is more than he usually does, in truth), and he won by 3.7 seconds. 3rd place was Mike P. in his e30, 17 seconds behind me. Remember him being 20 seconds off the pace on Day 1.

All in all, the 11-car MR class in 88 total runs took out a whopping 177 cones, so you do that math. On the last run of the day the class collected 33 just in 11 runs. So, lots of cones, I guess 8 isn't so bad for me (nobody except Nick had less than me, and still don't know how he only hit 1). Guess that's why he's the class champ.

Subie crew, always need to cool those engines in the desert heat

Having beers afterwards in paddock, Neil showed up with a prize for the class winner, Nick. :)

I had the truck water tank full, but forgot to cover it so the sun made it hot as hell – no shower. But we all drove down to the nearby river and took some beers out and washed off

Many had gotten hotel rooms since it was hot, but a handful of us camped out and the weather turned out to be really nice all night, we ended up sitting around til 2am or so drinking and listening to Brian B. talk politics and smoke cigars.

In the morning, another GRM'er you may know showed up after not making it out Saturday (see his build thread for why), though he would end up with a DNF unfortunately.

Day 2's course was basically a reverse of Day 1, so more of the fastness, and still lots of cones. On Run 1 I took off fast again, beating Nick by over 2 seconds with the rest of the class a couple seconds behind him.....wait....what? Except Mike P (the guy who finished 20 seconds out on Day 1 and has never won a DC event)......who was 2 seconds faster than me. Well, that's a surprise.....

Long story short, I drove pretty fast again, about 5 seconds faster than Nick on the day..... but picked up 5 cones while Nick picked up none,, so once you do the math you see that I lost to him by about 5 seconds. BUT....Mike was a madman. Like me, he picked up 5 cones. But he was putting down some blistering times, and even with the 5 cones he ended up beating Nick by 10 seconds!!

So, IDK what Mike did, but I hope he doesn't make it something he does all the time haha.....this class is hard enough! Overall MR hit less cones on Sunday only about 80 for the class, so I guess that's something.

We packed up after watching Tyler get his rig into his rig, always amusing when his carb was having issues and he kept stalling it going up the ramp, and then did a burnout ON the ramp to get it in, followed by his signature shut-down backfire.

And then headed home. Overall a fun weekend, very hot and dusty but some great courses and competition. For the last year I've kind of felt like I've been driving slow (with not many cones) so happy I was actually FAST this weeekend, if a bit less precise than usual. Had a good shot at winning both days (well, at least Saturday) if I tidied things up a bit, but such is racing.

I think the car needs some love before the next event. The rear end is sounding awfully clunky so will need to investigate that. Just got a pair of replacement rear Ford Econobox Mk1 gravel shocks from Nick (didn't fit his M3) so we'll see if I need those now or if its something else. I should probably consider using some better tires next time as well, but sometimes I'm just too lazy to change them haha

btw, the action shots of my car were taken by Tyler.

Ugh, that's the worst when you lose a big post.  The replacement is never the same!

Buckler told me Mike just installed the Z3 steering rack to replace the stock E30 rack, so I'm guessing that helped him out quite a bit.  I'm also worried about him!  It's hard to comprehend how fast he drove on Sunday.  But I guess having almost as much HP as me in a car that weighs 600 (?) pounds less will do that.

well, another weekend of lots of friends out at a rally and I'm not. Haven't had much motivation this year for some reason (well, there are reasons, but not worth rehashing). Anyhow, today was a good day to get some motivation. The car has felt kind of "junky" recently - lots of squeaks, rattles, clunks, and just generally feeling old (yes, it is 39 years old, of course......). Most worrying at the last rallycross was a metallic sound, as if there was metal-on metal when the rear suspension was at full droop. I was somewhat worried it might be a trailing arm mount tearing, or the shock upper mounts seizing (they're spherical) so figured I'd pull the rear shocks and check all that out today. Upon pulling the shocks, the issue became instantly clear:

Looks like the bushing rubber pulled itself through. Keep in mind these Ford Econobox shocks you have to press in the e30-size bushings into (taken out of some regular Bilstein HDs), so maybe I just didn't totally seat the "lip" on this one or something. In any case, it resulted in the actual shock housing rubbing against the face of the trailing arm mount at, causing the wear visible and (very likely) the noise. Note that this was only on one side, not the other. 

Incidentally, even after 3-4 stage rallies and 3 years of rallycross these gravel-spec bilsteins seem to have full pressure, good damping/rebound, etc. They feel just like the brand-new ones I have here - so that says a lot for how well they hold up vs. the Bilstein HDs, which I had to replace basically every year. Sice I don't have any other bushings here, figured I'd just throw in the set I bought from Nick recently and put these two in the "good spares" box. While I was at it I disassembled and cleaned the upper spherical mounts, which seem to be in great shape. 

I also cut out some 1/4" material out of my multi-use urethane Truck Mudflaps - to give a bit of NVH insulation, to add 1/4" of droop travel (insignificant, really), and to seal the shock tower totally from the minimal amount of dust/mud that sometimes ekes through.

So, all that back together, some other little projects. The cover over the fuel vapor "tank" is also 39 years old and barely holding on...

So back out with the urethane mudflap and some cutting and bending and now there's a " new" one there...

Found this little thing in the bottom of the trunk side "pit".....not sure what it's from, not a sticker, more like it went on something (??) 

Also spent a couple hours figuring out every single thing that could rattle, clank, or otherwise make annoying noises behind the driver's seat. And I actually found quite a few things....the bilstein jack I strapped down better. The hooks for the helmet net definitely were doing some rattling, so wrapped them up in weatherstripping and electrical tape...janky but it works

And ziptied/padded a number of other things, so hopefully this car will be less annoying when transiting and/or generally driving without a helmet on when you can hear everything....

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Porsche thing: Added a couple-inch front air dam using some industrial wall footing - flexible enough a curb won't do anything, but stiff enough it won't push back in the wind. The 924 has always had a lot of front-end lift over about 70mph - air under the front and the big Turbo spoiler on the back so wanted to see if this would help, as I headed out for a 3-hour each way road trip. 

Bottom line: made a BIG difference.....car much more settled up to (speeds too high to post here), so very happy with that. 

Oh also, a small trailier project. When towing the rallycar I like to have a bit of extra gas/water with me "just in case." I generally just throw my two Rotopax tanks (from the Raider) in the rallycar so I don't have to hear them sloshing around in the tow rig, but saw an old hitch basket main tube sitting under the deck and figured I'd do a bit of welding and make something up to hold the Rotopaxes on the trailer itself. one less thing to unload or whatever (and gets rid of some junk under the deck...)

So after some welding with some scrap tube pieces, basically re-made the same mount that I have for the Raider (the smaller one on the left)

I already have an upright receiver on the trailer (if you've read this whole thread you may remember why), so it basically just drops in there, easy peazy

With some trailer-hauling trips coming up, and several nice days, and an open weekend, I decided to finally re-deck the trailer. I bought this thing a decade ago, and it was 10-15 years old then and had been used hard. I've replaced all the brakes, one of the axles, and plenty of other stuff but the deck was functionally fine (if a bit grungy looking). But in the last few years it's been cracking quite a bit and some of the board ends are pretty rotten, so it was a good time to replace. I considered getting some rough-cut oak or one of the fancy hardwoods, but way too expensive and heavier to boot, so rules that out and just went with P/T. I did go get some "better" P/T at the local lumber yard rather than the garbage at the big-boxes though, so at least they'd be straighter. So $230 later, I had 11 16-foot 2x8s.

Let the stripdown begin. Pretty sure this was the original deck , so the screws were rusted in place, but the boards were dry/rotted enough I mostly just cut halfway down and pried them out by hand, and then used my cutoff wheel to knock off all the old rusted screws. Then I painted the whole frame (admittedly a bit half-assedly, but whatever, it's a trailer). 

With the deck off a few discoveries: First the crossmembers for the ramp storage were damn near paper-thin from rust and I broke one just stepping on it. 

Luckily, the extra one I welded in years ago when I got longer ramps was still in good shape. This is probably my fault, as I had long ago wrapped them in old carpeting to reduce the ramps clattering around on rough roads. Lesson learned. 

Also the main wiring.....was basically run over the frame and sandwiched by the wood

I've never had any issues with it, and don't want to replace it all at the moment. So for the new boards I got my router out and just cut some reliefs where the boards go over the wires, and no more problem there (sorry, no pics...)

While waiting on some materials I decided to do the undersides/sides of the boards with some old Penifil I had around from a prior attempt to save the old decking some years ago. Figure protection on all sides will be better in the long run.

With that done, I cut to length (diagonal insert method) and put a few in, and then welded in some new ramp crossmembers

then got the rest of the deck in place, bending the center one to get it in.

I had gotten some self-tapping Reamer-Tek screws last week, but it turned out the ones I got were a bit shorter than I like (only a few threads of bite in the frame crossmembers) so I had to wait a day for Amazon to deliver some new ones. After much elbow-grease (aka body weight) on my drill, I put about 50 of them in .

WIth that done, was able to coat the topsides. I was out of the Penifil, so I got some Timber Oil with stain. I know the "real GRM" would do the old motor oil + diesel thing, but I don't want to smell that or wait months for it to not be slippery. $60 is worth not doing that. So after a couple hours on my knees with a brush, it's more or less done.

Oh, I also addded these little metal half-triangles under the forward tiedown eyes, since my strap hooks had been digging into the wood because of the low mount angle. Hopefully this will fix that issues.

So, decking done

This guy came and visited me: this is an "Assassin Fly" and they're big (like 2" long) and have a moustache. They apparently eat baseically any kind of bugs (even grasshoppers, bees, praying mantis, etc) and hunt in the air, catching their prey on the fly. Pretty crazy...

I'm also doing another trailer project for the upcoming 2-night rallycross down near Ohio/W.Va.. This will involve a couple pieces of DOM, and a couple scrap pieces of the nexxt-size-up DOM.

Large ones in the stake pockets as such, welded in:

The long ones go through those to the ground, and are a bit over 6' tall.

For this project I'll also need a crossbar to connect them. I'm cheap, and don't have any angle iron long enough for the job, so I took four smaller scrap pieces from other projects and welded them together....

(hope you get the LOTR reference...)

So, more on that project when I finish it this week.

So let's finish that other project. At multi-day race/rally/rallycross events, I use my 8' awning off the Sequoia with the ARB "room"

The downside is that if you want to run out and get some beer, or breakfast, or whatever, you have to pack it all up sinct it's attached to the truck. Well, I have a 6' version of this on the Raider that I use for 4x4 camping, so decided to make a setup so I can mount it on the trailer for multi-day events, so I can just leave it up if I need to drive the truck someplace. 

So, I had some old DOM tubing sticks, and some old angle iron. DId some zapping, did some bolting, and this is what I ended up with: Janky crossbar with captive bolts, welded with crappy flux core since I'm out of gas...

bolted to the two upright DOM posts, that go in those seats I showed in the last post way up there on the side of the trailer

And took the awning off the Raider and bolted it on here

So since i don't want this up while towing. it comes apart by removing two nuts and I'll just wrap it all up in a 6' long tarp "bedroll" and strap it onto the trailer deck for transits (or something similar)

I have a "notch" on the top that you can't really see that the angle iron kind of sits in so even with one bolt the whole assembly is quite stiff. I may put a ratchet strap from one pole to the other side of the trailer to further stabilize it but not sure that's necessary.

I'll take some pics next weekend with it all opened up and the "room" attached, not any space where the trailer is at right  now. 

A bit more messing around with this concept. The ARB room, when mounted on a vehicle, as an inner zip-out door that allows you to go right into the vehicle. SInce this isn't on a vehicle, it would be good to have a vestibule of sorts to put muddy shoes or other outside stuff, especially with some rain forecast this weekend. So dug out a 6x8 tarp, some rope, and some cheap carabiners and made one that works pretty easy. 

Then I can just roll it up around the awning and cross bar, unbolt the two bolts, take the legs off, and wrap it all together. I could fit this pretty easily inside the Sequoia, but a trailer mount is better in case it's all dirty or wet. I have some ideas about a little "rack" inside the trailer fender wells, but not much time left this week, so just did it the easy way - with some eyebolts through the deck (a bit of shudder drilling into the new wood...). wrap it up with some titan straps, and I think it should be good to go. 

I'm intrigued by the idea. Looking forward to seeing how it shakes out in practice. 

Motojunky said:

I'm intrigued by the idea. Looking forward to seeing how it shakes out in practice. 

ditto. This weekend will be a good test since there will likely be some rain, but I think I thought it out fairly well using literally only crap I had sitting around the garage :)

I did add some $8 Amazon plastic/threaded insert knobs on the two bolts so I don't have to use a wrench to assemble the upright. So that was the final convenience feature on that project. 

Plan is to unhook the trailer and pull the Sequoia around parallel so its 8' awning can go right next to this 6' one and essentially give me a big "front porch". We'll see :)

I decided last week to go down to the SCCA Rallycross Naitonal Challenge event in southwest West Virginia. A few guys from this club come to our DC events (including Steve Parsons, who runs it) so a handful of us headed down there to return the favor, and also to hang out and do some camping and racing. Along with me was Mike Golden, trying out his MR-S in stock class that he's going to use at nationals. Andy Thomas in his Celica, Mike Julian in the GC, and Tyler in the Dale Earnhardt Jeep Pickup. Plus Shawn and Katie, who will also go to nationals.

So we headed down on Friday, getting there separately throughout the evening. The drive up was uneventful other than a ton of holiday traffic (taking the highways was a mistake, should have taken the mountain roads).

Did spy this thing on the way:

The place is a big fairground in Cottageville, WV not far from the Ohio border and a bit of a hike for sure, but the venue is really big, with a good grass surface that would prove to hold up well over the weekend. The course laid out would prove to be similar in size to what we run at Summit, if not bigger.

So we all set up camp. This was the chance to try out my “race glamping” setup using both awnings (one on the trailer, one on the Sequoia) along with my smaller camping “room.” The fact that we were in the paddock area in the middle of a field worried me a bit, since this area and this time of year gets a lot of pop-up storms.

Once set up, we drank some beers and shot the breeze. The DC crew all camped, as did a few others that we know (from GRM too) – Evan, Pete, and a guy with a Fiero towed by a Raptor. A barn cat showed up and hung out for a while too.

In the morning, the weather was very nice, though pretty hot. In MR class with me was Tyler, along with a father-son team, one of which was driving a gutted but caged 318ti and the son was driving a gutted lightweight 318is e30 – basically identical to what my car was 10 years ago in almost all ways, including the M42. The 318ti had a 2nd driver as well. In addition, Evan in the turbo Miata and Brock in a less-prepared 330i – so the BMWs made me feel like I was in DC lol.

I'll note here that the only tires I brought were two old gravels and a set of Maxsports that I've had for years, that are probably about ½ tread at most. I immediately noted the BMWs sitting on fairly fresh Indysport grass tires, and with other knobby tires with them. They're Ohio guys and used to driving on grass/dirt/mud courses so they have the tires for that. At Summit and Panthera it's usually hardpack, so we tend to just all use gravels (or at least I do).

So Saturday morning, it was a big and flowing course – not too technical, and almost no outside cones (also a change from DC). No real straights to use my superior power in. We got four runs in the morning session, and I was fastest in class in all four – but the other e30 was very close on a couple of them. By lunchtime, I built up a lead of about 7 seconds over him, and 6 seconds over his dad in the 318ti. The rest of the pack was further back. So, pretty happy about that since their tires were probably better than mine there, at least to some degree.

We all had lunch, and then the storms came. SERIOUS storms. It rained hard for 2 hours, with winds going 30-40mph pretty constant and lightning everywhere. We saw them coming and I battened down my camping setup with a dozen of my big tent spikes and ratchet straps as best I could – plus an extra tarp as a windbreak. Then parked the rally car next to one side to give me 3-side wind breaks.

In the end, Tyler's truck-side awning was mangled (since we coudln't get it collapsed)...

…...and those who had tents out had swimming pools in them. My setup held up well, though my exxtra tarp got shredded and a bit of water did make it into the “room.” I hid in the Sequoia most of the time since there was lightning everywhere.

After a delay, they announced we would resume runs. The course was soft and wet, with some standing water – though not as much as I expected. But still, it was clear it would be VERY slippery. Usually I'm pretty good at mud, but the tires on the car were pretty “meh” for the conditions. Meanwhile, the other BMWs quickly changed to tires specific to mud (I forget what they are....some European brand with giant square blocks that clear well). Great.

The hope was that I could lose minimal time enough to maybe comeback Sunday. As it turned out, I was first off since I was last in the morning.

So yeah, it was slippery. Really slippery. I almost parked it twice on the first run but the other guys made mistakes too and I lost two seconds to the e30. I did get the car just pendulum'ing back and forth pretty well, but it was soooo slow with no turn-in and no acceleration or braking traction to speak of. I did three runs like this, though they got faster as the surface drained/dried surprisingly well, but not enough. In the 2nd run I lost 13 seconds to him, and another 13 in the next run. Luckily only three runs.....by the time that misery was over I was about 20-22 seconds behind the e30, and about 4 seconds behind his dad in the TI. Somehow I stayed ahead of the other TI driver by 0.7 seconds and stayed in 3rd – the other guys in the class had just as crap tires as I did, and Evan, Tyler, and Brock had just as bad a time as I did.

Minor point: somewhat annoying they put the group with all the RWD cars first. By the 2nd run group it had dried out a LOT and was not too bad – for the class full of AWD cars and the side-by-sides. It would have made more sense to put them first, honestly, but whatever.

So that put a damper on things. Then it rained for another 2 hours (but less wind this time) and we sat around and drank and talked and waited for dinner up the way. Andy and I hit the fair's bath house for showers and found a bunch of wasps hanging out on the light fixture above the shower stalls as we did so. That was a bit unnerving lol.

It rained more overnight, but not too much. In the morning, the field was wet, but not too wet so thought I'd have a chance to move up a bit, as the other guys' mud tires came off since they wouldn't work well. It was a larger, faster course too, so that could help perhaps.

First run I was fastest in class by about ½ a second over the dad (Jeff) in the TI, and the son (Brian) was about 4 seconds slower and got a cone, as was the other TI driver. So that was a good start. 2nd run I beat the e30 again, but Jeff actually got me by a second there. Third run again got the e30 by a few seconds again, and was abou the same as Jeff. Final run I put down the fastest time for the class by about half a second and it was over. Unrelated photo:

In the end, Brian in the e30 won, with his dad Jeff 10 seconds back, and me 2.7 behind him. I did run away from the other TI driver, adding 9 seconds to the gap. Evan was 22 seconds behind him, and Tyler 5 back from him. So third. This is the way national-level rallycross goes – those who pick the tires right often get the win. In my case, I don't even OWN the right tires for that, so it was a moot point, but overall pretty pleased with winning six of the eight non-muddy runs (and losing the other two by under a second). Word is these guys may show up at Panthera next weekend, so we'll see how we match up on hardpack/gravel with no mud/grass.

The drive home I took the scenic way over the Blue Ridge up by Mount Storm, so that was nice. Overall a fun weekend, didn't break anything, and got to test the camp setup.

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I'll also note that Mike J. won Mod AWD, Mike G. won Stock RWD in his first event in the MR-S (beating the Fiero and a Crown Vic lol), and Shawn and Katie went 1-2 in PR over Pete's RX7. Andy took 2nd to ZB Lorenc's supercharged VW – ZB designed the course and runs a TON of events on this surface and was fast AF. Tyler succeeded simply by keeping the pickup running all weekend, and actually put some great runs down to boot.

Hopefully I'll get some good action photos from a few folks there taking pics...

Nice writeup!

The Saturday afternoon puddingcross was interesting to watch.  Mike Golden and I were working corner 3 where the lake was.  First run, we see a procession of BMWs and a lone chirpy Miata (that occasionally jetted a couple feet of orange fire from the exhaust) doing painfully slow meanderings that were also too fast for the corner.  (high five to the blue E30 driver who spent about 15 seconds trying to avoid a cone after washing out the left turn, because we didn't want to have to go spelunking to reset it!)

Then we hear an angry supercharged whine from the starting line.  Here comes ZB going like three times as fast as the rear drive cars.  He's coming up to the lakeside corner... turn-in, handbrake, turn-in and handbrake the other way, and he's through like he was riding a TRON bike.  It was amazing yet demoralizing to watch.