Keep it simple, keep it reliable.

Stock Recaro seats - Check!
Oil pan protection - Check!
No nerf bars - Bummer!
14" stock wheels - Check!
CHEAP 14" tires - Check!!!

Barry, I don't think you should even bear the brunt of the cost for the cars. All of your drivers are going out to have fun and abuse your equipment. With 14 drivers, add another $50 to their "prep fee" to help cover that. Trust me, there are going to be enough incidental expenses that will creep up... get money where you reasonably can!

 

Yep it will be 2 cars that are the same year model.. THat way the more experienced drivers can all run in 1 car and the newbies in another. Less pressure and stress.
I have been working on these types of cars for years now and have alot of spares laying around. So I plan to bring out an extra engine, Trans ECU. 2 sets of front strut assemblys. These are all from a $150 car I parted out a while back.

However I want to put new timing belts and drive shaft guilbos on both the cars.. about $80 in parts..

Ill be meeting with the cage guy the end of the week..

B

 

think we should do cars by driver size. we have a small sparco seat (drivers of your size will probably fit it) you could do in one car. then maybe a bigger seat in the other one. I know when I started looking for my seat my dad said to look for something comparable to the recaro evo2. thats what he uses.

as for the wheel cage thing to prevent tie rods from being broken, i suggest reinforcing the area inside the wheel well so it doesnt cave in, then make sure the wheel doesnt stick outside of that. shouldnt have a problem if the wheel cant be hit.

maybe do a custom little bit wider body on there and instead of running 195s or whatever, maybe run 245s. say on a scale of 1-10 you get an 8 for grip out of a 195 tire thats like a toyo proxes ra-1 (120 treadwear). Run a 245 and then maybe you can get that same level 8 of grip out of a good street tire with a 200 or 240 treadwear.

you have my number so feel free to call me with anything, also we have an enclosed trailer if we would need it for anything.

 

I'm with Loren. I'd rather use cast away 14" race rubber then bad 17" street tires. Although I do have my extrta set of 17" rims that are dual drilled and will fit an e30 if we need spares

 

doing anything in terms of brakes? what brakes fit under 14" wheels?

moroso has at least 3 hard braking spots coming off of straightaways

 

Well here is the problem RE tires..
There are NO 14 x 205 tires rated at 160 to 200 treadwear. All the 14s are 60 series sidewall or 65. VS 15s i can find 50 series. Also we are not suppose to run R compounds.. but an agressive street tire is OK. Tires really make a big difference on the e30.. the car really understeers. So Id like to get a set of tires that will grip.

There are 15 inch tires that will work.. I am working on getting 2 sets of 3 rims for free. So we would need 2 more rims.. I have heard the 80s 4 lug mustang rims will work with spacers..
Also remeber that Rims will get banged up since there still may be some car contact. Even with the new No nerf bar or wheel protector rules.

LD stock brakes are OK with a set of good pads. They can skid a set of R compounds. Also we would not be running the full course at Moroso. They want to keep the speeds at 70 and below.. so It be the top part of the track..

Ideally Id like to start with a good set of tires on 15 or 16s.. Im guessing they would wear out. then we can go to the spares.. the stock 14s.. if needed. I have 3 sets of 14s with OK street tires.

Loren, I think there is a $75 fee for pit persons. So id rather use that $50 fee ( you brought up ) to pay for a pit crew rather than to pay for the cars. Most people that are the drivers can work on the cars. But ther are a few people that are interested in working on the cars Vs driving. Id like to be able to cover their costs , since they are helping out.

Last of all. Does any one know any body with a Camper.. it be nice to be able to sleep during this thing.. Tom has a VW camper bus we could use. But its limited in size- room..

B

 

I think it would be a really good idea to study the BMW racing forums to pick up some setup tips. Things like:

Brakes: Yeah, they'll lock up a set of race tires. That's irrelevant. Proper stock brakes with cheap pads will do that at least once... what's important is that they handle the heat that comes from doing so repeatedly. I'm sure a set of race pads will go a long way, but it would be good to know from someone else's experience if that's enough, or if we need to consider brake ducting or other cooling options.

Tires: Is the trade-off of the lighter 14" wheel/tire combo worth considering? Azenis are dirt cheap in 195/60-14... keep in mind that we have the ability to remove several hundred pounds of weight from the car. If 205's are what you want on the car in it's stock form... 195's might very well kick ass with some added lightness.

Suspension: You're complaining of understeer. I guarantee that it can be cured. Find out how. Alignment? Can't get the alignment we need without fabricating? Find out what to fabricate. Spring rates? Find out if we can get away with some free spring cutting. Swaybars? Big honkin' rear bar can do wonders for understeer problems, though that will require us to learn to be gentle with the throttle on corner exit. Best to find out what others have done that works to minimize the experimentation that we'll have to do.

I'd be up for doing a test event at Sebring sometime to feel things out and get things set up. If both cars are the same, we only need to test one... just set the other one up to match.

 

hmmm dont know of anyone myself that would loan one. only people i know are through dave whites, and they have baller ass campers that i highly doubt they would let us use.

good deal on the half course, although the pit area is on the straightaway section. maybe they would turn the entire second half of the course into pits since there are so many cars, which would make sense.


also if we run spacers on the mustang wheels will those wear out the bearings? may be something to look into, i know on some cars running spacers just destroys bearings.



for tires if you could get 15s that would be awesome. here are some 205/50/15s. they sell the proxes ra-1 in that size as well which is great, because since they are DOT approved competition tires, i dont think they classify as R comps. Get them full treaded like I do and they should last a while. I know they last about 8 hours on my car and it is 3300lbs. On a light E30 they should last a while. If they do classify as R comps, I know the falken azenis rt-615 were made to compete in a stock tire autoX class, so they should be very sticky.

 

btw if you have a car ready ill take it to sebring on the 10th
my tranny may not be back together in time lol

 

I believe I have 2 good Guibos, and some Mustang rims. I'll PM you.