At the last rallycross event, I ran my BMW 5 series and got this cool clip.
The corner took a few tries to put together.

 

ojannen what rear sway bar are you running on the STX JCW?

 

Not actually sure. Sways are the one thing I haven't changed on the car. I know the front is pretty big and the rear is close to stock. This is backwards from the standard setup. The rear end is roughly as loose as it needs to be for my current driving skill with stiff springs and shocks somewhat compensating for the weird swaybar setup.

 

You did well in the Fiat last weekend in H/S, how did it compare to the Copper? Kim got me by 3/10 in D/S so I have work to do. I used a video camera for the first time and saw lots of small errors over the runs, it should pay dividends in the future. On my last run which was the best I forgot to turn off the DSC and wonder how much that cost?? I assume you will be back in the Copper S for the next go?? Are you going to Daytona May7?

 

The fiat was good fun. It had a bit less front end grip than the mini but that makes sense with less tire and less camber. It was my first time driving a turbo car at an autocross so I had a hard time judging when to go full throttle mid turn.

Here is my fast run of the day: . My friend and I compared our two fast runs. We each managed to make mistakes in different places. For me, the start and the sweeper with the cone wall in the middle of the course were the slow bits. I think our combined fast run would have been a low 45. Notably, starting on the right side of the start line was worth a tenth or two.

I have a first gen mini and traction control on just kills power. I have found that once it is on, I can't make it turn off until I get fully off the gas. It is fine at the start but normally activates for me on corner exit.

Should be back in the mini for the next few events. I am doing the rallycross at Daytona in my other car. I am guessing it won't be happening again so I am taking the opportunity. Next month, I am either going to run Martin in Tavares on mother's day or SCCA in Deland the following weekend. It depends on what my mother wants to do.

 

I would never attempt to autocross without the dcs/traction control turned off

 

What size sway bar are you running, and do you have it set up on its stiffest or softest setting?

Also, could you share your alignment settings (camber and toe, front and rear)?

Thanks

 

How did Daytona go for you? I decided to not go when the entry list went past 150. I was hoping to do Deland but life got in the way.

 

I honestly don't know what swaybars are on the car. It came with a big front bar. That is the opposite of what you want for good handling but we have been able to make it work with good shocks and stiff springs. At some point, I will pull out a set of calipers and figure out how thick they are.

Front camber -2.5
Front toe 0
Rear camber -1.5
Rear toe very small amount out (I think)
Rake 1/2"

I could use another degree of front camber but I daily drive the car.

 

I ran at the rallycross in Daytona instead of the autocross. Autocrosses on the cart track aren't that great because there are only one or two usable routes. It is still a good time and I usually bring some friends out. It is one of the more interesting venues for the spectators.

The rallycross was pretty cool. We were running about 30 feet from the infield section of the full track. Speeds were a little lower than normal but it was fun showering all the expensive cars with dirt:

 

As you know I am now using a video camera and mount it inside using a suction cup mount to the rear sunroof. It gives me a view out the front to show both left and right as well as me hands and I think it provides much better info as opposed to outside of the car mounted to the side. Keith Robinson mounts his camera in the same position on a hard floor mount and does it for the same reason.

 

I should probably do that too. I don't have a sunroof so it is a little more difficult in my car. I have one or two mounts that attach to your headrest but I haven't bought one yet.

 

Catching this back up to the present. I ran three autocrosses since the last post. I finished second to two different guys at the first two and beat them both at the third. I managed to stay out of the cones on one of my quick runs on a very slippery course.

Valkaria is a new site for us. It is a fairly narrow runway that only allows one car on course at a time. Grip level is good and there is a section at the end that allows big sweepers.


This month I have been working on getting on the power early out of turns. I have the tendency to stay off the gas completely until the wheel is straight. You can see some of that in the Valkaria video. Just too much time off throttle. I did a bit better in Tavares a few weeks later.


The other issue I have been working on is turning left fairly smoothly but jerking the wheel when I turn right. There was some good and some bad at that event.

Locally, we call the site at the Deland airport 'Dirtland'. The first few cars push the gravel out of a groove and after that the groove is the only fast line. The LSD I put in a few months ago helps a great deal here.


I was pretty happy with the quick run other than getting behind in the last couple pointer cones before the finish. The cone walls about a third of the way in were trickier than they looked. I got them right once out of 4 runs and had off course excursions twice. Here is what they looked like:


My wife is also speeding up. I believe the Deland course was her best PAX finish in this car


She had some cone problems on the day though. The announcer is a friend of ours.

 

Here are the last two autocrosses. I am getting more consistent

I still haven't figured out how much grip I have on the concrete at Brookesville. I took the win
against a small class but my PAX time was not up to par.


The Orange County Convention Center is located in the Orlando metro area so it always draws a big
crowd. STX ended up with 11 competitors. I took the class by a tenth after the fastest guy there
coned away his best run. Working course in Florida afternoon sun was not fun.

 

Now for something completely different. I bought a new rallycross car. A 1996 BMW 318ti.

[IMG width='400']https://i.imgur.com/KeqqCWg.jpg[/IMG]

After about 6 months of searching, I found one with no sunroof, no traction control, a reasonable interior, and working AC. The only thing it is missing is an LSD. This is not normally an issue for BMWs but this car has an E30-ish rear suspension that doesn't fit standard E30 diffs or E36 diffs. It does have a hatch and fits eight tires in the rear

[IMG width='400']https://i.imgur.com/7ZgqHvj.jpg[/IMG]

I was planning on running the car in stock class. It is one of the few cars with fully independent suspension, an OEM LSD, gearing that works for rallycross (55mph 2nd gear), and enough head room for me. The only problem was this car came with sport seats which take up some headroom. They are attached to trim packages in a way that I can't swap them out and stay in stock class. I emailed the rallycross board and couldn't get an answer about how much foam I could cut out of the seats.

While reading up on the rules, I learned you don't need to run headlights in stock class. You just need a strand of Christmas lights that can be seen from the front of the car. I don't even think they need to be attached to power. I don't think I will take advantage of that while I am driving
to events.

On to plan B. This car isn't as ideal for prepared class but it should work ok. The class allows tunes that change boost so turbo cars or very light cars are the ones to have. 2700lbs and 145hp aren't quite right. Here is what I have done to the car so far.

- water pump, thermostat, radiator hoses, coolant
- engine and transmission mounts
- lower control arms with offset bushings for more caster
- lightweight single mass flywheel and M3 clutch
- x-brace with a skid plate attached
- Corbeau A4 from the 5 series

The guy that runs bimmerbum.com lives in Central Florida and he was a massive help finding parts for the car. He specializes in the semi-trailing arm E36s. If anyone has a ti or a Z3 that needs work, I recommend talking to him.

I got one of the older symmetrical X-braces and it works pretty well for a skid plate. At some point, I need to add a bit more metal to the front because dirt is getting stuck between the skid plate and oil pan.

[IMG width='400']http://imgur.com/iNexJwm.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG width='400']http://imgur.com/hzwQ13V.jpg[/IMG]

The first event in the new car was at The FIRM. They ran their standard course that used the skid pad and part of the kart track. I did about 25 runs which helped a great deal in getting used to the car. The course degraded a lot by the time I got a video so I slowed way down for the rutted sections



They also had a . I put together a quick video of while I was figuring out the car.

I managed to catch half of the SCCA rallycross in June. I work as a musician on the weekends and had to leave early for a gig. I wasn't very happy with my driving. I am having trouble adjusting from the E28 where I had to stand the car on it's nose to make it turn. The 318 is much more balanced and the fast way around a corner seems to be a small four wheel drift.



A few weeks later, my wife and I left for the Rallycross East National Challenge. We stopped for a day and a half in Asheville, NC. We drove through the mountains including NC 226A and the Blue Ridge Parkway. My favorite bit was a small gravel road around Lake Tahoma. In Asheville, we enjoyed the Biscuithead cafe, Hole Donuts, the Chocolate Lounge, and Burial Brewery. We have a bit of a sweet tooth. The next day we drove across Virginia to the Rally Farm.

[IMG width='400']http://imgur.com/3JbAU6J.jp[/IMG]

[IMG width='400']http://imgur.com/YPx92TP.jpg[/IMG]

The competition didn't go well for me. I started off slow with cone problems and ended up reasonably fast with cone problems. There were glimpses of speed though. I think the car will be competitive once I figure it out.



I somehow got 5 cones on this run. Even with the near spin it was my fastest run on the third course.



During the event, I found that my rally tires rubbed on the top of the fender liner under full compression. For now, that is fixed with some rubber spring spacers. I am riding on the bump stops on some of the faster turns.

At some point, I am going to replace at least springs with something a little more stiff. That way, I can get off the bumpstops and maybe disconnect swaybars. The other weakness of the car is the open diff. I haven't figured a reasonable cost way to get a diff and stay in prepared. Otherwise, the car feels great.

 

At the beginning of the month, I did an autocross at the Daytona Speedway kart track. It is a pretty cool place to run. Due to safety issues, there are only 2 or 3 legal track setups available. This one happened to match one I did last fall. I improved by about 3 seconds in very similar conditions.

This year:
Last year:
This was happening on the road course around us while we autocrossed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiQn1_0UHXYac

 

The Daytona autox track looks like a ton of fun, I stayed home because of the 165 entries----maybe I should have gone!!!!!!!

 

Dlb is confusing on the 2 day events. It counts you once whether you sign up for Saturday, Sunday, or both. It is hard to tell how many people will actually be there. The last one had 107 registrations with 68 on Saturday and 77 on Sunday.

A group of Minis came from the Brevard group to Daytona and liked it enough that they made it out to the convention center this weekend. Just about everyone is running in novice. The fast guys are winning and moving to regular classes pretty quickly.

 

I am hoping to make Lake Tech and Brockville in September, life has been getting in the way. It would be great if the Brevard group made it----DS needs more entries at least at Lake Tech.

 

Hey Jeremiah, it's Terrence. Nice to see your build thread.

Going to gulf coast autox soon?

 

Hi Terrence. It is tough for me to get down to Ft. Myers because I have to be back in Orlando by 6:00pm. Now that I am pulling a tire trailer, I don't like to go much over 70 and that makes the trip a little longer. I need more practice on concrete so I will find a weekend at some point.

 

Another Orange County Convention Center autocross. This course was one of the better ones. There are a large number of light poles and curbs here so it is tough to design a safe and fun course.

The big left handed sweeper really favored the mini. I gained a bunch of time there compared to the BRZs I usual run against. My best run included a screwed up hairpin just afterwards. If I had been able to combine the good sweeper with a good hairpin, I may have won the class.

My fast run

Danielle's fast run

One of the STX guys put together a video of the full two day event. There is a comparison of the top three runs in class at around 9:45

 

Are you dong the Firm in November? Life has been in the way but I really want to go to the Firm---question----is our course blacktop only?No off roading for the Mini for me. Have you run there before----what is a typical course?

 

I ran there this spring. We us about half of the race track. The back half has a wall on one side of the track that is too close for autocross safety stewards/insurance. The straight bits have slaloms or offsets to keep speeds low. I still got well into third gear. Here is my fast run:
I will be at the SCCA event this weekend but I can't make the Martin event on the 11th. The courses should be roughly the same.

Here is the scca signup through Jacksonville region scca: https://www.motorsportreg.com/events...ccaneer-242486

 

Thanks for the info. I have watched your video several times----is that the typical piece of the track that they use for autocross?

Rob