Rallycross/TSD in my MINI

[Mudhen]

Have dipped my toe back into the grassroots racing game again...two rallycrosses and a TSD rally in the last few weeks - not sure how much my '05 can handle with its 198k miles and lack of maintenance but until the '80 is done that's all I've got.

A few weeks ago did a rallycross - my first one in 14 years.  Crap I'm old...all these young kids.  I used to be the young kid whooping the old guys.  Now I'm the slow idiot.  It was -7 when we got there - working the corners was awesome - NOT.  And it was a sheet of ice, about -7 on the traction scale as well.  Put it into the ice banks a few times and spent the next few days patching plastic.





Went out last weekend and got some used 15" rims...and then picked up some used studded tires - gotta be prepared for more ice!

Then last Saturday my 13yo navigated for me on a TSD - his first time.  Whined about having to leave his video games, but did awesome running the rally computer and had a great time!  Punching in the CAS changes and pauses, etc and keeping me honest - can't overstate how impressed I was with him under pressure.

The MINI in TSD mode:


Spent Thursday removing the passenger side airbag so he wouldn't get a rally computer in the face if anything went wrong:




At afternoon break - 'come on pup, dump the coffee, we need to go NOW!'


Sunday was another rallycross - what a mess.  Melting snow meant slush, mud, and a complete disaster of the course they had spent so much time preparing - this is what we raced in:


Slushy mud caked everywhere - even over the roof.  What a mess.  On the fifth run I hit a huge hole, apparently catching the front of the skidplate - it ripped it back...dragging on the ground while I limped off the course.  DNF.  SUCK.  I was a couple seconds off second place, too - might have trophied!  Or not.   50.gif.  Spent the next hour lying in the mud taking it off, fighting to get a wrench on it since it had bent back on itself.

This used to be a nice flat skidplate:


The next morning the old girl was in rough shape:


Worst part was the gear shift was frozen in first - had to idle her for 10 minutes with my foot on the clutch, let it sit for 10 minutes while I walked the 9yo to the bus, then was able to get it in neutral to warm up more before I could engage the other gears.  Then get the 5yo to daycare.  (man that pic makes it look REALLY crooked...hope more isn't wrong with it... :D )

Never rallycross your daily driver!   50.gif

[Jims5543]

You are a brave man, that looked downright abusive on the car, and I am amazed you are using it the next day.

-7 and the window is cracked open....  -7.......

All things considered there are worst ways to spend your weekend, I am at a loss as to what but I am sure there are. ;D  Anytime you are in a car trying to go fast, it is fun times.


And good on the kid, jumping in the passenger seat and getting the job done, I could never do that. I would be decorating the inside of your car.

[Mudhen]

It was brutal...I think I might get a trailer and start hauling it to events, just to be safe.  There's a guy running a '11 Coupe, went out to divisionals in Ohio last year and hit the front end so hard he couldn't drive it home.  The UHaul cost him $1k...

Action shot from Sunday:



The coupe is really nice:



That Fiesta is the top car in my class - I'm running in 'Prepared' because of my pod air filter and strut brace...considered switching that stuff back and running in stock but there's a national champion in that class I'd prefer to not race against.   :(

[Jims5543]

I spy a red E30 in the background.  ;D

[Mudhen]

I spy a red E30 in the background.  ;D

Geez...good eye.  Great guy, and helped me when my skid plate went kaflooey on the last event.  Between the two of you I might just have to abandon my BMW hatred.

Maybe.

I spent the last month digging myself out of the lack of maintenance over the years and pain from that slushy car breaker.  Ordered a ton of parts but only got to some of the repairs - sump gasket, valve cover gasket, spark plug hole gaskets, AC delete pulley, serpentine belt tensioner, Ireland Engineering single exhaust, both e-brake cables, and power steering cooling fan.

The vast majority of my time was spent on a front frame for the skid plate, though.  Stupid front end is all plastic - so even if you get a nice solid skidplate, the front is still only supported by plastic (hence, the killing of my skidplate on that last event).  So I took some 1" pipe I had, curved it around the lower front of the radiator and then up to some supports I welded off the crash tubes.  Tacked it all up with my MIG welder and then pulled it off and TIG welded all the seams.  My fab skills leave a lot to be desired - took me DAYS of fighting.  Ugh.

At least I got to see the bottom end...


Oh, and the top end.


Basic design of the skidplate frame between the crash tubes:


Had to waste another $250 on a new skidplate, too (from Rennlist):


Here's the frame, mounted (AC cooler gone - gotta love the nice clean lines of that radiator; lovingly curved by years of gentle use (ignore can of Super Lube that somehow made it into the garage from the bedroom  8.gif )):


Hard to get a good pic, but here it is, all buttoned up - skidplate slides above that 3/16 plate of the new frame:


Got some stickers, too - just waiting on my SCCA ones.  Should be wicked fast now.   77.gif



So after this coming weekends event I have 3 weeks to replace the oil in my supercharger and tranny (which have never been done in 200k miles), and crank position sensor o-ring; and I also just noticed my inner CV boot and outer balljoint boots are torn on the right side so I'll do those, too.  Oh, and weld some new studs for my new exhaust mounts...those were all broken and rotted away...  11.gif

[Jims5543]

Ummmm.... You DO know you are driving a BMW.. yes?

I miss my 2003 JCW Cooper S but I have to say this E30 is the cats meow, it just has a classic thing about it... sort of like a Classic Mini.

Do NOT lump a classic BMW owner in with the newer BMW pricks.  Older BMW's a like classic Mini's it takes dedication and love for the brand to own one.

[Mudhen]

Ummmm.... You DO know you are driving a BMW.. yes?

I miss my 2003 JCW Cooper S but I have to say this E30 is the cats meow, it just has a classic thing about it... sort of like a Classic Mini.

Do NOT lump a classic BMW owner in with the newer BMW pricks.  Older BMW's a like classic Mini's it takes dedication and love for the brand to own one.

Just goofing.  I'd love an E30...or 2002.  Used to have various BMW motorcycles - some of those guys are as nuts over the brand as the car people.

[Mudhen]

Had another event yesterday - and it seems like the skidplate frame held up!  I need to pull it all apart and look it over still, but it didn't break off and I finished the event so successful to some degree.

Picked this up:



Came down to the wire - caught up to the first place guy for the last run - we were down by .9 seconds.  Beat him by 2 but clipped a cone...ARGH!  All good, though - my 13yo had a ball riding along with me.



Now I need to do something about my radiator getting packed with dirt...and guessing my brand new power steering fan is junk from all the dirt packed up in there, too.   ::)

[Jims5543]

Congrats and sorry about the cone...  I have done that a few times myself, one was after the finish!! I had beat the 1st place guy by 1.5 seconds in a national AX event and then clipped a cone putting me in 2nd by half a second. I bummed me out, especially since I had thrown down such a blistering run.

Sounds like you did the same thing, crushing it only to have one of those evil orange things ruin the run.

But, that is how it works.

I would like to know how you know where to put a knocked over cone.  On asphalt we have chalked squares, what do you do in Rallycross?  Just put it near where you think it might go.

[Mudhen]

Congrats and sorry about the cone...  I have done that a few times myself, one was after the finish!! I had beat the 1st place guy by 1.5 seconds in a national AX event and then clipped a cone putting me in 2nd by half a second. I bummed me out, especially since I had thrown down such a blistering run.

Sounds like you did the same thing, crushing it only to have one of those evil orange things ruin the run.

But, that is how it works.

I would like to know how you know where to put a knocked over cone.  On asphalt we have chalked squares, what do you do in Rallycross?  Just put it near where you think it might go.

All the cones have 'pointer' cones 1' away from them.  It tells you which way to go around the cone, but you also then know where the standing cone is supposed to be if hit.  The course is always changing, too - there are a few safety stewards constantly walking the course - after a run group has gone they may choose to move it to get around deeper ruts and holes.

I remember at autocrosses getting there early, walking the course and trying to memorize it.  Doesn't help much in rallycrossing - even from one run to the next the turns could be completely different - I try to remind myself to drive the cones not the peoples tracks that have gone before.  And the other big difference is that the times are cumulative, like in real rallying.  They don't just use your fastest run - they add up all your runs and the lowest total time wins.  One off course and you may as well go home...

[Jims5543]

OK I looked back up and saw some pointer cones about a foot away. I guess it is safe to say you do not get many Corvettes there that are intent on rearranging the place, pointer cones and all.  ;D


So when you run Rally, do you get course notes?  Do you check out the course so you have a rough idea where it is, or do you just run it cold and it is easy to follow?

I know nothing about Rally Cross, I know there are some SCCA events down here for it though.

[Mudhen]

In rally you get a route/notes to follow (20 pages or more of them sometimes) - in full out stage events and a lot of TSD events they use 'tulip' instructions, which are like stick figure diagrams of the important intersections, corners, etc.  In stage rallying they'll give you mileages to each one of those as well so the navigator can tell the driver exactly what they're about to get to.  US rallying used to keep all the routes a secret and you had to follow what they gave you; but that's been changing and they're going to more of a WRC format where the competitors can go out beforehand, prerun the course, and take pace notes.

Action shot from Saturday - not sure why this professional photographer comes to our events; he puts up with a lot of crappy weather for a bunch of amateur wannabe's.  Glad he does, though!

[jeff10049]

Way cool! and throw the power steering fan in the trash, I did 5 years ago it's not needed.

Jeff

[Mudhen]

Way cool! and throw the power steering fan in the trash, I did 5 years ago it's not needed.

Jeff

NICE - thx for that - even with the big skid plate on there that new cooling fan was all crunchy after that one event, bet it won't last long.  I keep watching the thread on power steering removal but after that rallyx I can't imagine being able to flick it around like I needed to without power steering.

I'm now stuck in aftermarket axle hell.  Replaced the CV boot and THEN started getting noise so bought an aftermarket axle from PartsGeek.  Freakin' mess - the carrier bearing bolts didn't line up - off by about 1/16".  Should have returned it but thought I could make it fit by opening up the holes a little.  Then thought I could use my axle with the carrier bearing and the new one with everything else.  Nope, knuckle was too big.  ARGH.

I did manage to get the supercharger out, though:


Now to replace the oil...and put on my new 15% pulley...  :(

[Jims5543]

Whoa..

Good luck!!  You are going to love the pulley.

[Mudhen]

New livery!



Too bad none of you guys are local...but let me know if you need a baggy of dirt or something and I'll talk to my sponsor.   77.gif

[Jims5543]

Looking good sir! Like the Black and White livery a lot.

[ADRay]

maybe I don't want to do that with the Crosstrek... ;

digging the new look.

[Mudhen]

maybe I don't want to do that with the Crosstrek... ;

digging the new look.

Yes...yes you do.   4.gif

With all that height you wouldn't have to worry about breaking all the plastic on the front like I did - I guess rolling it might be an issue, but isn't that why you have insurance?   62.gif

[ADRay]

I'd be more inclined to go find a beater Imp with 200k on it for that.

but the last thing I need is another car 😁

[Mudhen]

Got some new Black Rocket rally tires (made by Keskipinta in Finland) with my fancy sponsorship dollars...unfortunately, they're a tiny bit bigger than stock so would hit with the suspension compressed.  So it pushed me to finally try out adding some shims between the strut tops and the body (which I'd been thinking about since I did the struts in that other thread).  Seems to have worked like a charm!  I have a little more than 1/2" extra room in the fender wells now.

These are my new tires (185/65-15):



I cut some 3/16" aluminum plate that I had on hand.  The only issue was that the strut bushing studs were now too short - so I welded on some longer ones.  Due to the weld at the bottom of the studs the plate actually sits up 1/4" taller - netting me 1/2":



On the back I didn't need to weld any studs in since the strut tops bolt into the body...so I stacked a couple plates (you can just barely make them out above the strut top plates here (I also disconnected by rear swaybar while I was in there - a little birdie told me it would help settle my rear end down in the dirt)):



Of course, I was too excited about trying this out so didn't take a before pic.. 50.gif

But here's the after shot - ya....there was a half inch LESS clearance on it before!



Next event is on Saturday - hopefully I can put a whoopin' on, well...someone...

[Jims5543]

The PF class is all yours get em!!!

Looking good the tires look like serious business.

[Mudhen]

YES!



The MINI did well this time around - 1st in class by 20+ seconds, 10th overall out of 52 cars.  I even beat 23 out of 28 all wheel drive cars.  Unfortunately, still miles behind the FTD car, which was a Golf.  Stripped out shell of a Golf...but he was beating me by about 4 seconds per run.   :(

Next time the sponsor asks what I need I have to remember to say, 'tow rig and trailer!'



Couple action shots:







Next mod?  Limited slip diff...gotta get one...

[Jims5543]

You are kicking ass and chewing gum. ... and your all out of gum.

Nice gains in time I suspect a LSD will be good for a bunch more time.

[Mudhen]

I'm praying it will.  Jumped in with both feet today:



Think I'm going to go with the single mass Valeo conversion...and a Quaife.  Helix suggested going with the stock clutch but even though I've had good luck with the dual-mass flywheel setup it sounds like single mass is the way to go.  Any of you guys do a clutch on a MINI before???