Rallycross adventures in a 535

[ojannen]

Hello everyone! My wife and I have been rallycrossing our 1986 BMW 535is for the last year and a half. I mostly lurk and and ask dumb suspension questions. People seem interested in the car everywhere we go so we decided to start a build thread.

We got the car in early 2014. It was fairly clean and rust free. Old cars in Florida generally have problems with clear coat and the interior so I was happy to get one without those.



My wife and I spent the first six months baselining the car, then couldn't figure out what to do with it. We debated selling it until I found a couple of rallycross build threads from guys in the Washington DC region. We both did the rallycross school at the FIRM, decided it was awesome and started prepping the car for rallycross. I am fairly tall so new seats were a must along with a skid plate and some suspension improvements.



Our first event ever was an SCCA rallycross in April 2015. Since then, we have run in rallycross and autocross events with SCCA, local clubs, the FIRM, an abandoned military base, Middle Georgia rallycross, and most recently, the Eastern Rallycross National Challenge.

On a side note, is it possible to resize images? Html doesn't work and [img width=200] doesn't work either.

[ojannen]

In early July, we took a long road trip up to Frostburg, MD to participate in the Eastern Rallycross National Challenge in early July.

Car preparation included adding a stripe and attempting and failing to add driving lights. My fog light mounts are long gone and I need 8 lights on the front of the car to be legal in the Prepared class. I took my two broken fog lights with me to duct tape to the bumper in case anyone asked at the event.

We took the long way north so that we could drive the Smoky Mountains and the Tail of the Dragon. As cool as Tail of the Dragon was, Wolf's Pen Gap Road in northern Georgia was my favorite drive.



We stayed in a cabin in Tellico Plains, TN for a few days. It is at the western end of the Cherohala Skyway. It served as home base while we hit the driving roads in the area. The Tellico Grains Bakery was surprisingly good and worth a stop if you are in the area.



I have seen lots of pictures and video of the Frostburg rallycross venue so I was eager to give it a try. I have never driven on gravel before. I was surprised by the difference in grip levels in and out of the ruts and how much the course changed from run to run.





Here are the fastest of my competition runs:

Day 1 morning: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eMmFdAxMTU
Day 1 afternoon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9bCnRLhrmg
Day 2 morning: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4g4q1lQzB8k

I ended up with a solid mid pack finish. I was not in the hunt for a trophy but I was pleased with how I drove and how the car handled the course. I did happen to edge out the other participant in the provisional class, Red Prepared RWD Cars on Snow Tires or RPRST. I am hoping to make it official for the 2017 season.

The trip home was uneventful. At least until the AC fuse melted itself without breaking the wire outside of Savannah. I had a spare fuse but didn't even think to try swapping it. The rest of the trip was hot and uneventful.

[white chocolate]

This is awesome!

And huge kudos for driving the car to and from events, too cool.

[dsmith]

This is awesome!

And huge kudos for driving the car to and from events, too cool.

Ditto! The proper use of an automobile.

[ojannen]

Here are the three different surfaces I run on regularly.



The local SCCA chapter runs in the overflow parking for the St. Lucie county fairgrounds. The venue is huge and allows for two minute courses depending on the configuration. Our average course shows up on [url="https://www.google.com/maps/@27.3650922 ... a=!3m1!1e3]google maps[/url]</a>.



The surface is a sand and shell aggregate underneath grass and a quarter inch of topsoil. The sand moves around enough that ruts don't really form. We just dig big holes. This one started as level ground.




Here are morning and afternoon runs from the most recent event. My wife: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yk1mEO91Cp0 and me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBq7MV912AE

We occasionally make the trip up to the Middle Georgia region rallycrosses in Byron. They run on a red clay lot that is very smooth and predictable.


As the day goes by, the loose layer of clay on top gets swept off and the hard pack underneath has more grip. This is my wife's favorite surface to drive on. The only negative is the clay dust that sticks to everything.



For the Dixie regional event this year, we also ran on the infield of the old Middle Georgia Speedway. It is a banked half mile oval that used to be used for stock car races.

Here I am on the infield and Danielle on the clay lot.

The FIRM, in Starke, FL, runs something in between a rallycross and rally sprint. They are a bit more relaxed with the safety requirements than the SCCA. Speeds hit the top of third gear and the course weaves through trees and other solid obstacles.



A large chunk of each course is their limestone skidpad which is good fun. Usually there are a few turns on the kart track and a jump thrown in for good measure. The longer courses use bits and pieces of their rally stages. I haven't been able to make it out for one of those yet.

Here is a medium sized course and what my car looks like when it runs out of steering angle.

[ojannen]

In between rallycross events, I run the 5 series in autocross. It is not particularly suited to autocross. It is classed in STX due to a few polyurethane bushings and the aftermarket seats. I normally bring up the rear but console myself with the ridiculous lean angles the car is capable of.



The car looks pretty good sitting on it's bump stops. Note how much of the roof you can see.



Here is a fast run from January: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwgpYMX7sQM

In Febraury, I made it out to Carlstromring for their inaugural tarmac rallycross event. The course was 5 minutes long and twisted through an abandoned military base. I only got two runs in before someone hit an electric pole, blew a transformer, and set a field on fire.



I took things pretty slowly and stayed in second gear for the whole course. Too many concrete trash cans used as cones and a 3 hour drive home kept me cautious. Hopefully, they do another event this year.




My second run of the day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rz2dWDp5SW8

[KrautnotRice]

Sub'd. This is awesome!

[ojannen]

After running the e28 in autocross and rallycross for a year and a half, I decided I wanted someing competitive in autocross. I was running mid pack in rallycross but generally bringing up the rear in autocross. I owned a 2001 BMW Z3 coupe at the time which could compete in C Street or STR. After two months of work and a large chunk of change, I figured out there was no way for me to fit in the car with a helmet. Due to the way the rear bulkhead works, there is almost no way to screw in the rear seat mount bolts with the seat in place. I have a bad case of fatlegitis so a sidemount seat was out of the question. That realization made me a bit sad because I accidentally bought the perfect autocross spec Z3. The 3.0 M54 engine has more low end torque than the early M coupes. With no sunroof and a removable spare tire, it is 200lbs lighter.

I started looking for a car that was reasonably competitive in class, fit me with a helmet, was a roughly straight across trade for the Z3 and works as a daily driver in Florida (AC). I don't fit into most of the usable suspects due to legroom, helmet room or both including all generations of miata, s2000, rx8, brz/frs, corvette c4, and the E46 3 series with sunroof. I eventually settled on the first generation Mini Cooper S JCW. I specifically needed one without a sunroof. The JCW package came standard with a sunroof so I was looking for one where the owner specifically unchecked the sunroof option box.

I search for 3 months before I found a car in my price range in the eastern half of the country. My wife and I flew up to West Virginia to pick up the car and drive home. Other than a very stiff ride which I attributed to oversized 18" wheels, the car worked as advertised so we bought it and started driving home. The one weird bit about the sale was the West Virginia transit license plate. It was a piece of paper masking taped to the rear window of the car. The West Virginia pickup meant that we could hit some cool mountain roads on the way home. We didn't quite make it that far.



About 5 miles from our hotel on the first day of driving, the exhaust header detached itself from the cat. We decided to go to bed and deal with it in the morning. On Friday morning, with no cell service, we attempted to get our header welded back together. I think we found 3 shops that would take it off the car and 3 shops that would weld it back together but none that would do both. The nearest replacement part was far enough away that we wouldn't get there before they closed for the weeekend.



Time for a new plan. Other than being extremly loud, the car was working ok. There is a car train that goes from south Washington, DC to north Orlando once a day. We decided to drive 6 hours to DC in a car with a paper license plate and open headers. If I kept the speed below 65, I could drive without ear plugs. My strategy was to speed up, then coast past state troopers to keep the noise down. The rest of the trip home was uneventful. Amtrak for 17 hours wasn't fun but listening to
the exhaust while the car was being retrieved from inside the train made up for it.

Once I got the car to my mechanic, it turned out that the very stiff suspension was actually seized shocks. Instead of preparing the car for D Street, I decided to start on an STX build for the car. I picked up an RMW shorty header, a set of coilovers, and the bits and pieces needed to get the alignment right for STX.

If you are interested, the rest of my Mini posts are going on the mini forum here: http://www.northamericanmotoring.com/fo ... build.html. Next week, back to your regularly scheduled programming.

[dsmith]

I would have suggested an HS Mini. Good, cheap competition to gauge against.

Part of me wants to competitively autox again. Most of me doesn't want to change wheels and stand out in the sun all day.

[ojannen]

My original plan was a DS mini S/JCW. I don't need the extra power on an autocross course but it is nice to have in a daily. There were enough weird problems with this car that I decided to make the jump up to STX instead of replacing everything a second time 6 months down the road.

I would like to suggest competitive rallyx. You get to change wheels, stand out in the sun, inhale a lot of dust, then change wheels again when you debead. The sun and heat sort of sucks in Florida. On the other hand, we get to run year round.

[Shawn D.]

Neato! Looks as if you're having a lot of fun!

[ojannen]

After a two month break, I am back to rallycross. Before I could do that, I had to solve some car problems. During the national challenge event, the car randomly lost power a few times. One instance is on this video from 2:48-2:50: https://youtu.be/m0h9Z1e3uCE?t=2m42s. You can hear the car slow down and all engine noise stop for a second or two.

It always resolved itself and didn't happen on the 14 hour drive home. Once I got back to Florida it happened again a few weeks later. Two tows later, I figured out that the 2 screws that hold the ECU in place had backed themselves out. When the car would go over a bump, the ECU would bounce and disconnect itself temporarily.

I got all of that sorted just in time for a rallycross at The FIRM. I threw everything in the car and headed towards Starke. The events at the firm are closer to a rallysprint than a rallycross. The course was about 3.5 minutes long and wound through their gravel skidpad, on and off the track, and into some of their rally stages. I believe that some of the cars were well into third gear through the trees. I had to drive the car home so I was not.

My first few runs were truly terrible. After driving the mini for two months, I got used to mid corner powerr. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUr4pOSSCts

My fastest run was in the late morning. I am not very consistent with handbrake turns so I downshifted into first and powered around the hairpins. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrCH4vcgIV8.
In the afternoon, the course degraded. The start was a sand pit for 25 feet. The hairpins grew deep ruts at the entrance and exit. I slowed down to save my front valance. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OW6-FqEOdBQ

I ended up in fourth place in stock rwd. About 8 seconds from third place and 20 second from second place after over 20 minutes of driving. I am still searching for pictures of the event. I saw a photographer on course but I haven't been able to find the album anywhere.

[dsmith]

I would like to suggest competitive rallyx. You get to change wheels, stand out in the sun, inhale a lot of dust, then change wheels again when you debead. The sun and heat sort of sucks in Florida. On the other hand, we get to run year round.

I hear you. I was part of the group that wrote the initial rules and classes for SCCA 17 years ago and chaired some of the first events. To get people involved, we bought a Ford Festiva and rented it to people. It was so fun, durable and easy to drive, I could FTD against all but our Open Class Eclipse. After damaging and rolling a couple of vehicles, a few of us would rent a car and co-drive getting the full insurance!

I have owned 2 stage rally cars and ran Performance Rallies in SCCA and Rally America until about 3 years ago. Every year, I try to run a National SCCA RallyX event with a friend's prepared Subaru. Tons of fun. I was thinking of Vintage road racing, but maybe I should get back into rally.

[ojannen]

That is pretty awesome. I can't figure out exactly what happens if you destroy a rental at a rallycross. I am trying to convince some friends to try it out. WE may give the $500 beater a shot.

I am paying close attention to rallycross nationals right now. The competition there is pretty tough. Maybe I can make it up next year.

[ojannen]

Catching up on the blog after some time away. I have run in two SCCA rallycrosses at our awesome venue in St. Lucie. I have been doing more autocross than rallycross recently and it takes me a few runs to get used to rear wheel drive. Then, a few more runs to be really happy with my driving. That is bad news for my standings in rallycross.

October event: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XnxYsCDCB0

In November, there were about 8 people signed up in Modified Rear so I jumped classes for a bit more competition. I did the usual with some slow early runs while running with the pack later in the day. I tried putting a gopro on my helmet for the first time during this event.

Novemeber event: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW7uXpwP2p0
Helmet cam: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUvW_uuGK-A

Based on the helmet cam, I may have the worlds slowest steering rack. I also have the instinct to correct a slide before I need to. Then, I have to make another steering input to get around a simple corner.

I can't make the December event so my rallycross season is over. Now I am in repair mode for the new season starting in January or February. Working on the following improvement for the car:

- Looking into rally tires for next season. I am looking at DMack and Indy Sport (from Rally.build). Any ideas about 195 vs 205 section tires for the fairly torquey M30 motor?
- I have been chasing down a weird problem with my throttle cable for the last two events. After going full throttle, the grommet holding the throttle cable to the throttle bracket pulls out slightly and stops the throttle from fully closing.
- I managed to land some used Ground Control coilovers with Koni sport shocks. I am trying to figure out spring rates and maintaining ride height but that is probably a question for another thread.
- I also have some basic repairs to make like a totally collapsed engine mount, lug stud conversion, and maybe a shifter rebuild

[ojannen]

My last autocross of 2016 and my first of 2017 were both run by the Martin Sports Car Club at their Tavares venue. 3 days before the December event my right rear caliper on the mini stuck hard enough that I trashed the rotor driving the rest of the way home. Hopefully I am getting close to the end of the Northeast/rust based problems with the car.

Either way, I had to run the 5 series in the autocross. I haven't run that car in autocross since March. I wasn't sure what to expect coming back to it from the mini. I am aware that I am getting faster compared to other drivers but I didn't know how much was car vs skill. Here is my best run

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhOpa1HsmVw

Terminal understeer followed by corner exit oversteer and understeer at the same time. It was fun to wrestle it around. Danielle and I finished in 4th and 5th place at the bottom of the class.

Three weeks later, I went back to Tavares in the mini. It was an extremely cold day for Florida in January, around 35 degrees when I left the house. Everyone's tires were just at the line where they stopped gripping. On my second run, I managed my first spin every after some sloppy driving:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fX_zMYTIy4

After another run or two, I finally put everything together and ended up with a reasonable time and 2/6 in STX.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEF5j4yQEkY

One driver beat me at both events. I lost to him by 2.626 seconds in the 5 series and 0.997 seconds in the mini. The big difference between the two cars is that I think I am driving the 5 series as fast as I can but I can still see more time in my runs in the mini. I will see if I can reel him in over the next few events.

[Eta power]

This is really cool! I have been doing SCCA RallyCross with E21s since late 2014 and have enjoyed it immensely! I seem to meet the best people doing things like that.

[ojannen]

Do you have any pictures?

[Eta power]

Here is the orange car, my first E21. I rolled it in a RallyCross event in the spring of 2016.



I bought another E21, swapped everything over and did some sheet metal repair (seat mounts) in one month of weekends and evenings. Both cars have been a BLAST to drive and relatively competitive in MR to boot. Here it is ripping it up in a local SCCA event last September.

[scars_of_carma]

Very cool! It is encouraging to see others racing E28's, inspires me more to aim higher for mine.

I did some rally-x myself back in the day in an SCCA Pro-Rally RX3-SP. It was NOT competitive in the pro rwd class because of the torqueless bridge-ported 12A rotary engine. I had to keep the rpm's up and the tires spinning constantly to maintain any kind of momentum. The poor flaggers/corner workers had to duck for cover to avoid all the gravel and dirt from the rooster-tails off my tires pelting them as I drove past sideways lol.

[ojannen]

Central Florida SCCA just finished our second points event of the season. I haven't made it out in a few months due to schedule conflicts.

It was my first time on rally tires on the e28. They make a world of difference. I noticed the most change on front end grip. It was much easier to place the front of the car. I kept having to correct in the middle of turns because I was expecting the front to wash out.

I ran Racechrono on this event and got a cool overhead view of the course. Morning and afternoon courses are roughly the same except the directions were reversed. The afternoon (counter-clockwise) course redirected around ditch which allowed us to remove the slow kink about half way through.

Morning course:
Afternoon course:

Towards the end of the day, I pulled off a good feeling run around the sweeper on the East end of the course. I felt like I was finally able to place the front of the car exactly where I wanted it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrpwYgFxXzw

I tried mounting a go pro just infront of a rear wheel to see what it looked like. Watch for the cone at 0:05 and the big rock at 0:23. I didn't realize my suspension was moving that much
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEdbAvpXnuk

Here are my fast runs of the day. My wife and I were the only ones in class and MR ran in the other heat so it is hard to compare times. With minimal course changes, the fast MR guys were running about 3-5 seconds per run faster than me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uo13DsyNdkg

[ojannen]

This month we ran a rallycross in the Daytona Speedway infield. The local scca region runs a few
times a year at the speedway. Normally, the club racers run the endurance track and autocross runs
on the kart track. This time, the region was doing a membership and visibility push and they wanted
all three programs in the same place at the same time.

The course was laid out in a fairly confined space about 30 feet from the infield section of the
track. It was mostly 1st gear with a faster section towards the end. It started with a nice set of
sweepers that kicked up enough dust to be seen on the outside of the speedway.

Here is my fastest run: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_is1B0k23A
I had a buddy codrive at his first rallycross ever: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbyXKoMAlxE

I got some pretty good pictures too




All RWD cars ran in the same group so I could directly compare my times to the Modified guys. My raw
time was less than 1 second a run behind the fast guys on an 80 second course. I missed the second
day due to a wedding but, somehow, everyone in Prepared missed the second day so I won the class.

The event ended up with about 60 drivers. We could have had more but we couldn't have multiple cars
on course at once. The venue attracted the regulars, the stage rally guys, and a bunch of people
who would never normally make it out to a rallycross. Among other things, there was a Leh Keen 911,
a Buick Roadmaster and most of a Lincoln Towncar.

Someone put together this video that captures the event nicely:
https://vimeo.com/216338395?ref=fb-share-v

The great news is the board of governors liked rallycross enough that they are inviting us back. We
should be back for a two day event some time next year. This time, day 1 will be in the infield and
day 2 will be in the 30 acre lot just outside the stadium.

[ojannen]

The air conditioner died on the 5 series on the way back from Daytona. After about a year replacing
everything but the blower fan, the blower fan froze up. That causes the fuse for the hvac system to
blow meaning I lose outside vent air as well. I have decided to move on from rallycrossing the 5
series for now. It has been a wonderful journey and I haven't decided what is next for the car.

If anyone is thinking about rallycrossing an E28 in the future, here is why I am getting out of it.

Steering is too slow. I have to turn the wheel 360 degrees for every cone in a slalom. See:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjVUBY6prOg. It is frustrating to miss an apex because I could not
turn the wheel fast enough. A steering quickener or a steering rack could fix this but both bump
you up to Modified.

Limited suspension options at stock height. I could not find an off the shelf set of coilovers that
let me run at stock height. Stock shocks or Bilstein HDs are fine but the car needs a higher spring
rate to work in rallycross. I don't have enough skill to put together a custom suspension myself so
it would be pretty expensive.

I can't heel-toe downshift in the car because my feet are too big (size 15). Downshifts to first
gear are pretty tough.

Second gear is too long. Ideally, it should top out around 55mph. This is solvable with a 3.64 or
3.73 diff but that bumps you up to Modified.

Adding up the costs of the the air conditioning repair and a custom suspension setup, I started
looking for a new rallycross car. I took a serious look at second and third gen MR2s and E36 BMWs.
I decide to avoid the standard Volvo 240/early RX7/E30/944 mostly for air conditioning reasons. I
am not even close to fitting in a miata with a hardtop. There isn't much out there with RWD,
independent rear suspension, and fits 15" wheels.

I haven't decided what to do with the car next. I am interested in trying drifting and the car fits
nicely into Chumpcar. Both of these destroy the car. I am not sure if I am willing to do that yet.
Apart from some cosmetic rallycross damage, it is a fairly nice 535is with a manual, LSD, and sport
interior. I made the mistake of adding up how much the car cost me per month (insurance, storage
unit for tire trailer, etc) so I will probably list it for sale soon.

[ojannen]

I bought a new rallycross car. A 1996 BMW 318ti.



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



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.




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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2W8UVQnvTqc

They also had a water splash. I put together a quick video of pendulum turns 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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRMxPGZO3L0

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.





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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlxiE_o5z0E

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnPHW1FdKmY

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.