E36 M42 Build *Clears throat* Hello, My name is Garrett! There, now that my formal introduction is out of the way... ANYWAYS, I decided it was time for me to rally. With that being said, my weapon of choice is a 1995 BMW E36 318i 4 door m42 1.8l $600. I am trying to do the minimum required to get my first rally under my belt, but there are so many "What ifs" to cover. The car initially didn't move due to a messed up clutch and blown tranny. Got it to the shop after being towed through Dallas traffic. :awesome: Sadly, I do not have a lot of handy fabrication tools at my disposal, so cleaver ways have/had to be improvised. This is also a very large learning project for myself and co-driver. Starting, we just knew the basics of a car and had no idea how things actually worked. Over the past winter is when a lot of the repair work was done. ***GOAL: Show-Me 16 Rally Oct. 1st*** Here is a list if crap that needs to be done AND what has been done: [u]DONE list:[/u] [list] [*] replaced transmission [*] new rear main seal [*] new pilot bearing [*] new light weight flywheel [*] new clutch assembly [*] all the clutch fixn's [*] new guibo [*] hood pins [*] replaced oil filter housing gasket [*] replaced power steering pump and hoses [*] changed fluids [*] stripped car [*] bucket seats [*] harnesses [*] seat mounting brackets [*] fixed outboard lights [*] inspected/insured/and state registered [/list] [u]NOT DONE list:[/u] [list] [*] coolant flush [*] a/c delete [*] finish removing wires [*] roll cage [*] anti sub mounts for harness [*] paint interior [*] skid plate [*] diff plate [*] under armor [*] mud flaps [*] suspension [*] gravel tires [*] spill kit [*] med kit [*] fire extinguishers [*] front windows need repair [*] bushings replaced [*] remove sunroof and install cover for hole [*] secure battery compartment [/list] I will update this list every so often. Okay so I'll catch you up on my little adventure once I figure out how to document with pictures instead of attachments. ha.:spin: https://www.rallyanarchy.com/phorum/read.php?5,111496,111496#msg-111496 Wed, 13 May 2026 15:05:27 -0500 Phorum 5.2.15a https://www.rallyanarchy.com/phorum/read.php?5,111496,116796#msg-116796 Re: E36 M42 Build https://www.rallyanarchy.com/phorum/read.php?5,111496,116796#msg-116796 DanielSL Construction Zone Thu, 05 Apr 2018 06:22:06 -0500 https://www.rallyanarchy.com/phorum/read.php?5,111496,116795#msg-116795 Re: E36 M42 Build https://www.rallyanarchy.com/phorum/read.php?5,111496,116795#msg-116795

I pulled the engine with the transmission because I figured it would be a lot easier to take off, and I was right. After one rally, here is the $1000 flywheel and clutch assembly I paid way too much for back when I didnt know anything. Its still pretty looking, ha.



After a few phone calls, I sourced a ~175,000 mile m42 from central Texas. A few days later, I got a crate engine :D I had no idea if it ran or not. I took the junk yards word and started getting it ready for the install.


I have two engines now! cool! The newer engine is on the stand, getting prepped to be installed. I figured I would go ahead and replace everything I could without tearing too much of the engine down; hoses, gaskets, water pump, things ect.


I took the valve cover off as part of the tear down process and start learning this M42. I have never taken an engine apart fully, so it was all new to me. It looked to be in good shape. No obvious signs of broken things.


So after I replaced everything, it was time to take the water pump out.....and it kinda came out...half of it. It has a few places to back the pump out with a bolt, so I started doing that, but it seems that it was stuck in the block. Eventually it "started coming out" little did I know, it had split in two and the front half was coming out. Great, so now I have half a water pump inside the engine...now what? I started chipping way, with a small flat head, at the soft aluminium. It took like 4 hours until I figured out I should start driving the flat head into the aluminium until it splits. Eventually this worked, and I could fish everything out. I got a scuff pad and cleaned the inside before installing the new one. When I started putting the engine back together, I found like 5 threads had been destroyed by someone else..and one was on the water pump area. So like 3 of 4 bolts would tighten. This ended up leaking once I get the whole engine back in. I took the pump back out, and filed down one of the bolt flanges so the bolt would reach deeper into the threads to get some grip. This worked thankfully. The engine fired up and already sounded healthier than the previous one. I had 4 weekends to get this job done, one was to pull the engine, the next was to get the engine in and prepped for install. The 3rd was to install the engine, and the 4th was to pack for Show-Me...or something like that. Once the engine was installed, I drove it for like 12 miles and said, "eh, good enough to rally" and parked it. ha.

Griffith Rally Team is welcoming sponsors! Say hello to Condor Speed Shop, a BMW performance shop where many upgrades are available for many chassis models. Say hello to Wooter Apparel, A fully custom, fully sublimated apparel company that makes anything you would like! With BMW performance parts and Wooter providing GRT with an image, I can start acting like a rally team now ;) Condor sent over some tire stencils and a windshield banner before the rally. Wooter sent 10 custom polos for the GRT crew to wear. Pretty awesome to help these companies share their products.







So now its like a few days before show-me and I have everything packed up. I will be meeting Hong Cho and Brad Fast (another texas team) along the way to Missouri. The car looks pretty sweet if I do say so myself.


This event was crazy, the night before the rally, I lost the tow truck keys (fell out of my pocket at a gas station) and I was running around all night looking for them. Im so thankful somebody turned them into the gas station clerk. Now that im all stressed out, let rally!
Here is the car at Parc Epose

SS 1 was the Potosi super special. Right before the start, Kyle Williams (co-driver for this event) and I noticed we didnt have a working intercom. awesome! more stressed out! And I have a straight pipe on (it was loud). We got through SS1 no problems. new engine was working good I guess, ha.
Now for SS2

oops
I might have enticed the ol BMW to fight some trees at 70mph during a turn. On the bright side, it won against a few! This sucked. 9 miles into a 10 mile stage we crashed. New engine, new inside, new like everything. It was so fresh and awesome. now its...less.

debeaded and bend the rear lower control arm and (not pictured) hit the right rear quarter panel which actually split the batter in half!

Thanks to GRT and sweep crew, we cut the car out of the woods. The front left suffered destroyed fender, bent tie rod, recessed frame rail.

We were towed the last mile of the stage and then went to get the tailer to take the car back to service. It was a bad hit, but a lot is damaged. On the plus side, I brought spares for just about everything.

We were able to get the car up on the trailer on its own power...more or less.
Once we arrived at service, all of the other cars had just left, so like 3 different crews jumped in on fixing my car! It was awesome, It reminded me of a WRC service. So many people fixing so many thing. We had a time limit if we wanted to reenter the rally...because that was our goal :D After an hour and a half, the tie rod, rear control arm, battery, light bars, metal removed, and lights hooked back up, we got the OK to rally on! Talk about POR! Toss the car into some trees, pull it out and fix it in time to run the last remaining stages! ha woohoo! Although the steering wasnt exactly straight, and I couldnt see much over the bent hood, we still rallied hard in the dark! We even passed a car on stage!

from left to right: Kyle Williams, Garrett Griffith (me), Joe Williams, and his father Dave Williams. The last two Williams are unrelated to Kyle, ha. There are a lot of Williams in Missouri. This is the GRT crew for Show-Me...and the car in the finished state.
Here are some youtube videos of the short event.




Is this video showing? ^^^

video: https://www.facebook.com/GriffithRallyTeam/videos/503344430025549/

Here are some pictures of the quick event. Still got some sweet shots.




Welp, that was that. 2017 Show-Me done. Now to start repairs. I bought wanna be e36 325i drift car to lend parts to my rally car.

Here is some post race damage pictures




You can see how far the left front wheel has been pushed back. I couldn't turn the wheel left more than 40% of the way before the tire would bind.



here is a good shot of the rear damage.
and below is the front left fender skirt I cut off the donor.

I then got some condor parts in! Wheel stud conversion. These are 90mm and way too long haha, I got 68mm to replace them a bit later on. Its like December time wise now...fyi.

and here is the car at the body shop

This guy fixed the car in a week! and for $1200. Not too shabby. Ill need to keep his #...well hopefully not.






So now its like Feb. 2018 and I am preparing for the 100 arce wood rally. All the damage has pretty much been fixed. The front left wheel is till an inch closer to the fire wall than the other. I hope there are more left handed turns in 100aw! haha.
Since I never got to use my new headlights at Show-Me, I got some more.....
maybe I can use them this go round



I want to start fabrication on my own, so I bought a welder to start learning.

I had to make a light bar brace since the hood support was cut out from the 'drifter'.

First weld isnt too bad.
bar is fab'd up

now to fix the damper issue where the bushing would hop over the small washer still.


This should do it!
Here is the car about 3 weeks before the 100aw rally.


I had to paint the new rubber since the old tires are messed up from the crash. Heck, one of them has a massive gash in the side wall...AND IT SITLL HOLDS AIR! HA
Oh yeah, I had a close call at 2017 100aw with a jack stand not having weight on it and falling. So since the BMW already has the sill holes, might as well get stands! I went back to the same bloke who welded the cage, and he fab'd up some stands. They are sweet!
I like these stencils


They make boring tires look cool for cheap! ha

now to paint the primed rear quarter panel.

I sealed off everything but the area I was painting, it worked out well! ha.

Also, I got the straight pipe turned back into a muffler, because it was just too loud.

Now it sounds like a Honda! lol
I does look cool. This was just a random muffler the small town shop had laying around. Ive heard those WRC cars have upward sloping exhaust to add 7lbs of downforce. So I did it too?? lol
Here is the car all ready to go for 2018 100aw! Carl Payne is co-driving again.






Okay, Its getting late and I have work. I will post later the details of the 100aw rally next update. Hopefully in a few hours ha. PS. I didnt proof read any of this, so sorry for spelling, grammar. Im just typing what im thinking.]]> Da_Elderly Construction Zone Thu, 05 Apr 2018 00:33:53 -0500 https://www.rallyanarchy.com/phorum/read.php?5,111496,115926#msg-115926 Re: E36 M42 Build https://www.rallyanarchy.com/phorum/read.php?5,111496,115926#msg-115926 Robert Culbertson Construction Zone Thu, 31 Aug 2017 00:13:47 -0500 https://www.rallyanarchy.com/phorum/read.php?5,111496,115924#msg-115924 Re: E36 M42 Build https://www.rallyanarchy.com/phorum/read.php?5,111496,115924#msg-115924 lets C

During the rally (or the last two stages), Carl and I noticed a clanking sound. The car drove fine so we just kinda ignored it because the end was so near. Once those stages ended, I noticed on the transit back to parc ferme, that when I pressed the brake, the wheel would shake pretty badly. It wasnt until the car was trailered back to Texas and I started cleaning the car and doing a damage report that I found the control arm was coming loose. ha whoops. I should start putting some lock tight on crap now. Let the pictures begin!


I only found this thanks my pal Dash! Other than that issue, thats all that I found. Not too bad, but then again I didnt really push that hard.




Oh yeah, turns out I was stupid and didnt put the rear damper bushings on in the correct order and the bump stop thingy ended being eaten by the rubber bushing. I still want to see if the car handles any differently now that this is fixed.


And this was also an issue..
Again, sprouting from the same source, the dampers were like shooting out of the towers, ha :beer: When I lowered the car, it ended crushing some live wires and made a big spark, this is how I found this problem. I know it was staring me in the face but took a big spark to say hello.


Okay, now for mechanical talk. My engine is trash. I bought it this way. Just didnt know how trash until I actually pushed it. Yeah my stage times were just shy of national records, but Its because of my 350,000? mile engine with....get this... 15% compression loss and leak down percent on all 4 bangers. You go ahead and tell me how bad it is. ha.






so thats cool. Ill put a lower mileage m42 in during this winter before next 100aw. Oh yeah, I should say I am going to do Show-Me rally and Hallett rally sprint. (I guess on this weak engine).

Any who, I later did a rallycross in late may as a graduation gift to myself. It was a good mental break after senior year finals and project. Super cool setup. Around 2min course and head to head style. All in all, I won 2wd. not too many people came out, but hey a wins a win and I had fastest time of the day 2wd...with that engine. so yeah.






^ post champagne spray, ha. Now time for cleaning again. This thing really leaves a dirt trail whenever she gets back from an event.


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Okay now for the most time consuming thing I have been working on. Interior renovation. I through the car together last minute (literally) for 100aw. The car it sat was not how I envisioned it. My goals were to take everything out of the inside, paint it white, flock the dash, and wire crap up correctly. Here are some before, mid process, and after pics.





yes, I learned the hard way. I should have covered EVERYTHING because I later had to clay bar EVERY INCH of the outside to get over spray off.....








Had to fix the dust issue as well.




and den I got a wing! cuz race car! More over I have recently become fascinated with fluid dynamics.


And then rats struck....
THEY SUCK. a lot.
They tried to get inside the car through the firewall...where all the wires were.


This was a pain to fix.


Prime day was great! $30 tablet with some hackery to get google playstore on it so I can install rally apps. Pair that with the garmin GLO and boom! coolness.


Im pretty happy with the inside of the car now. Almost dont want to get it dirty....nahhhhhh :D

I picked up a LSD 4.45 diff as recommended. Look how it shipped.... like wtf!
Only damage I could find through the 1/4" oily dirt was two of the cooling fins broke during shipping.



ahhh. who ships a heavy car part by just putting it in a box and saying good to go. I hope once I clean the case I dont find any cracks. Also, whats the best way to clean something like this? royal purple?

and then last weekend I decided to get new tail lights (lights kept falling out) and headlights (old ones were too weathered). I forgot to take front pics, but here are the new rear lights. I had to re-wire them because you get what you pay for.





And here are my two beauties as of current. I call it, the wild vs. the tamed. But yeah, the wild one REALLY needs a fresher engine. Uhh so yeah.



next stop is show-me!]]> Da_Elderly Construction Zone Wed, 30 Aug 2017 21:31:54 -0500 https://www.rallyanarchy.com/phorum/read.php?5,111496,115921#msg-115921 Re: E36 M42 Build https://www.rallyanarchy.com/phorum/read.php?5,111496,115921#msg-115921
Although I might have forgot about this thread for a brief little while (cuz nobody talks on dis one), I assure I have not been taking it lightly.

So where to begin...I suppose I need to look at the last phot DOH! its been since 100aw?? wow! okay, hmm..

After 100aw I cleaned up....






and thats it! see you in 5 months!]]> Da_Elderly Construction Zone Wed, 30 Aug 2017 20:21:19 -0500 https://www.rallyanarchy.com/phorum/read.php?5,111496,114819#msg-114819 Re: E36 M42 Build https://www.rallyanarchy.com/phorum/read.php?5,111496,114819#msg-114819
Quote

so all in all....I FINISHED! ha out of 54 cars that started, only 33 finished. I was one of those! I still cant believe I did 100aw rally with no racing/motorsport of any kind. I just had a feeling I knew I was capable of racing rally without actually racing lol.

Phat like a sumo.]]> Pete Construction Zone Tue, 28 Mar 2017 12:11:59 -0500 https://www.rallyanarchy.com/phorum/read.php?5,111496,114818#msg-114818 Re: E36 M42 Build https://www.rallyanarchy.com/phorum/read.php?5,111496,114818#msg-114818
-Ryan]]> dunhamr1 Construction Zone Mon, 27 Mar 2017 21:20:54 -0500 https://www.rallyanarchy.com/phorum/read.php?5,111496,114814#msg-114814 Re: E36 M42 Build https://www.rallyanarchy.com/phorum/read.php?5,111496,114814#msg-114814
Quote
Da_Elderly
Me too, ha. The first time was my first EVER launch on gravel. That's why we went to shakedown, lol

Oh yeah, I knew that and most everyone else standing there did too. I gave a shortened synopsis of the story before you even started.]]> NoCoast Construction Zone Sun, 26 Mar 2017 03:29:33 -0500 https://www.rallyanarchy.com/phorum/read.php?5,111496,114813#msg-114813 Re: E36 M42 Build https://www.rallyanarchy.com/phorum/read.php?5,111496,114813#msg-114813 G4Disco Construction Zone Fri, 24 Mar 2017 23:53:33 -0500 https://www.rallyanarchy.com/phorum/read.php?5,111496,114811#msg-114811 Re: E36 M42 Build https://www.rallyanarchy.com/phorum/read.php?5,111496,114811#msg-114811 Da_Elderly Construction Zone Fri, 24 Mar 2017 15:52:14 -0500 https://www.rallyanarchy.com/phorum/read.php?5,111496,114810#msg-114810 Re: E36 M42 Build https://www.rallyanarchy.com/phorum/read.php?5,111496,114810#msg-114810 I'm glad we stuck around to see you second shakedown stage start.]]> NoCoast Construction Zone Fri, 24 Mar 2017 13:32:16 -0500 https://www.rallyanarchy.com/phorum/read.php?5,111496,114798#msg-114798 Re: E36 M42 Build https://www.rallyanarchy.com/phorum/read.php?5,111496,114798#msg-114798 DanielSL Construction Zone Wed, 22 Mar 2017 09:30:51 -0500 https://www.rallyanarchy.com/phorum/read.php?5,111496,114797#msg-114797 Re: E36 M42 Build https://www.rallyanarchy.com/phorum/read.php?5,111496,114797#msg-114797 Eric Ewert Construction Zone Wed, 22 Mar 2017 07:30:21 -0500 https://www.rallyanarchy.com/phorum/read.php?5,111496,114796#msg-114796 Re: E36 M42 Build https://www.rallyanarchy.com/phorum/read.php?5,111496,114796#msg-114796 pat244ti Construction Zone Tue, 21 Mar 2017 21:33:07 -0500 https://www.rallyanarchy.com/phorum/read.php?5,111496,114795#msg-114795 Re: E36 M42 Build https://www.rallyanarchy.com/phorum/read.php?5,111496,114795#msg-114795
Well done.

The "rally" part will take some getting used to. Don't sweat it. As long as you don't DSQ... don't worry about penalties at first. Don't "always" follow the car in front of you... ;)

Driving quick, who cares... yer having fun, that will come with time.

Congrats]]> Mad Matt F Construction Zone Tue, 21 Mar 2017 21:26:14 -0500 https://www.rallyanarchy.com/phorum/read.php?5,111496,114793#msg-114793 Re: E36 M42 Build https://www.rallyanarchy.com/phorum/read.php?5,111496,114793#msg-114793 Da_Elderly Construction Zone Tue, 21 Mar 2017 16:51:51 -0500 https://www.rallyanarchy.com/phorum/read.php?5,111496,114792#msg-114792 Re: E36 M42 Build https://www.rallyanarchy.com/phorum/read.php?5,111496,114792#msg-114792
My first rally lasted 33 sec. (stupid VW CVs)]]> fliz Construction Zone Tue, 21 Mar 2017 15:47:07 -0500 https://www.rallyanarchy.com/phorum/read.php?5,111496,114791#msg-114791 Re: E36 M42 Build https://www.rallyanarchy.com/phorum/read.php?5,111496,114791#msg-114791 Da_Elderly Construction Zone Tue, 21 Mar 2017 12:49:38 -0500 https://www.rallyanarchy.com/phorum/read.php?5,111496,114790#msg-114790 Re: E36 M42 Build https://www.rallyanarchy.com/phorum/read.php?5,111496,114790#msg-114790
You just finished this one....now, what's next---aside from school and that sweet young thang Suzy Creamcheese ? (they're all Suzy Creamcheese)

(pssst the answer is MOAR PRACTICE)]]> john vanlandingham Construction Zone Tue, 21 Mar 2017 12:26:14 -0500 https://www.rallyanarchy.com/phorum/read.php?5,111496,114779#msg-114779 Re: E36 M42 Build https://www.rallyanarchy.com/phorum/read.php?5,111496,114779#msg-114779
So finishing the car suspension, John and I decided to try some VW parts on the rear dampers and stay with stock springs because the rear shock towers are too narrow for springs and hats.
I little grinding on the upper control arm and they fit!

Next was time to mount the BR44 black rocket tires. Ha these local tires shops didn't know what hit them! It was hilarious. They jammed all 3 of their fancy red tire mounting machines. After a couple of bodies sitting on the tires later, they were mounted.





They are probably too big but oh well. No clearance issues.

Next I had to mount the dash. Just took a hack saw and went right through where there were clearance issues. I didnt care what it looked like as I was in a hurry. I still dont care lol.

Next it was time to tackle the biggest problem of the build. The fuse box. Custom Cages sent the wrong version the caused the cage to tie into the front strut towers which is RIGHT where the fuse box was....

I can take more picture of the solution if needed, but what I ended up doing was putting everything back into the top section of the box and it just so happen to lay on top of the tube and not have any clearance issues with the hood. Now this left two problems (1. wires are exposed and can short of the cage. 2. there is massive hole in the fire wall) I fixed problem 1 with some then ABS plastic and made a splash shield for water and then laid a piece under the wires so they wouldn't contact the metal cage at all. To tackle the fire wall, I took some sheet metal and cut it to a cardboard template I made. Basically I was two halves that would come together to cradle the wires and cover the hole. I lined the metal with small plastic tubing to prevent wires from chaffing.

To make mud flaps, I bought ikea cutting boards lol. They are $7 per package (1 red and 1 crap green) just ordered 2 for the red. I cut them and used angle brackets to secure them to the car.


next, because I had a light bar, I needed some way to turn it on and off. So I used a piece of ABS sheeting again and cut out a small little switch panel.


I also took the protective film off the lexan


Next I wanted to get a straight pipe. My heart really wanted my car to be a screaming banshee in the woods. so I made it happen.

Unfortunately and fortunately, this revealed a problem. As soon as the smallest amount of gas was applied, the car wanted to die. This could be over came if you just added a little more throttle. But I wanted to know the reason. Any who, my cousin and I made the roof panel with a vent. Once that was on, we went for a test drive with the new pipe installed. It sounded amazing. BUT there was another problem. While heading back to the house, the engine developed a pretty nasty misfire. This was the night I was supposed to car onto the trailer mind you. When we go back to the barn, we looked in the plug connection area. Cyl 2 had about a shot glass worth of oil. this was preventing contact to the plug, so no ignition. We cleaned it out, tested to see if this valve cover leak was minor or major. After 15 min of the car running, it was minor. But the car still wanted to die when a little gas was applied. After my cousin stepped outside to smoke. we both looked at the exhaust and noticed it was sucking in a bit. Whipped out a dolla dolla bill yall and sure enough, it was flapping. My heart sank. the car was supposed to be loaded 3 hours ago. I called my co driver, informed him of the news and we decided to press on regardless. I have yet to do real testing and find the exact problem, but im almost certain it is with the exhaust valves.
The next morning, I put the stock exhaust back on to lessen the problem (straight pipe allowed the engine to suck more exhaust back in). I had to continue with my to-do list and just not worry about the engine issue.
I did a lot of 5 min jobs the next morning (mainly to pass tech) and HAD to load the car if I was going to get to the race.

service truck loaded with like everything I own in life. haha

Time to Rally!

with a few minor details. I still wasnt done with the car! haha We arrived in Salem at 3:30am, unloaded the car, dropped the trailer off, then slept. The next morning was crunch time. Carl Payne (co-driver) and I had to finish getting the car ready for tech.


after adding little things here and there, wiring up so co-driver goodies (camera switch, nav light, ect) we headed to tech!! (after a quick car wash and names of course)

And yes, you guessed it, I was about the throw up the whole time. This was the deciding factor if all this work will have paid off. Mind you I still havent gotten logbooked at this point. It was a gamble.

As it turns out, RA send the logbook in the mail before anyone ever personally examined the cage. I guess thats the benefit of having an FIA MSA Cage Cert.

We ended up failing tech :S
The battery was in a marine box which was secure, but the battery itself has to be secure and the + post must be covered. We register for the race and then head to AutoZone for quick fixes. All in all, after some drilling, cutting, and remounting, Carl and I got the car to pass! It was a green light baby!!!

We headed back to our little work area by the hotel and continued working on the car/ adding the visual package

We worked until I had to go to the novice meeting, then I was dark enough to adjust the LED light bars. We were both pooped after that day. Shakedown was at 8am the next morning and an hour away. Joy!

Shakedown: (lets review my entire racing background real quick: none)This was my first real time in the car suited up, strapped in, and on a gravel road. I had about 4ish hours of manual time. Yeah you could say I was a little nervous. I was really counting on my DiRT Rally experience to transfer over and help out. Ill say this much, it did... A LOT (especially day two). Anywho, we ran the shakedown stage twice so I could get my feet wet...errrr...dirty. After that we headed to Parc.
Again due to my massive race background, I was seeded last, haha. I expected it. no big deal

No despite no knowing any of the big drivers/teams after SRTUSA left RA, I was not expecting THIS many people to be here! I bet this event was a record as far as total spectators go! It was awesome!

me on the left

(Videos of stages will come later)

SSS1: The super special. Man it was short and packed for of people waiting for you to make a mistake! I dreaded the right hand, off camber, up hill turn. I go to watch car after car after car make the ruts deeper and deeper for me. I suited up, warmed the car up, and got in line to stage. I put the car in 1st, revved to 6.5k and dropped the clutch. The rest was history. lol. 1.03 was my time. oh yeah let me post the time sheets... here ya go



SS2-9: After talking to like as many drivers as I could, they all just told me to finish the rally. This wasnt good enough for me though. I set high standards for everything I do in life. I could go 30mph the whole time but this is a race dammit! haha I want to go fast! My plan of attack was to take it 5/10th on Friday. After seeing how things went, go from there. So thats what I did. I was learning to drive the car, on gravel, on new suspension, in a rally. lol. It worked because on the second loop I was much faster despite it being night. But before the second loop I had to go though service. This was hard for me. I didnt have a crew and to make things worse, service was shorted to 30min instead of 45. To make matters EVEN more worse, my parents (crew?) had to set up in the overflow parking....... this means I had to check in, drive around the whole service just to leave where I came in, fight traffic, transit to overflow, and being service all while the clock is ticking. not cool man. So yeah, I jumped out the car and instantly began jacking the car. Luckily, this guy (life saver) named Dan, join me and help give the ol'gal a good once over. He worked for Nick Roberts so I listened to every word and breath he took for advice as I had no idea what people normally check in 30 min on a car thats been through hell. Once we made sure everything was still in working order, we lowered the car and headed back to the original service where I had to fight traffic again, transit, drive the whole service circle again, AND then check out. If you were wondering, no, they didnt give me any buffer.

Any who, the second loop was faster than the first with a few sketchy moments with a pucker factor of 5.4/10. I was learning how the car moved under heavy breaking, tight corners, and small crest. Every second in the seat I was learning more.



We finished day one without any real issues, just a 30 second penalty due to a slow transit on my part.

Day two Parc:

Car is still really clean lol. After talking to others and seeing how we compared, I was pleased to have done better than some!
SS10-17: As soon as the first stage started on day two, I hit it with vengeance. I was working the gears more, climbing to higher revs, and braking later. My times were actually decent! I would go the correct gear on the correct corners to leave with as much power as possible. Two stages were cancelled for me. 11 and 14 (cattle jump). When heading back to day two service 1, the car died once I entered Salem city limits. It was struggling for fuel. I called in a fuel filter swap during service. Once again, now with the help of others, I got out of the car and got to work. I ended up spraying gas all over my face and in my eyes when pulling the pressurized fuel line off, lol. I got out and took a shower with bottles of water. Once my eyes stopped burning and I convinced myself I will have eye cancer now, I went back and finished the swap of the filter. Once the air got out of the system, the fuel problem was fixed and the car idled properly. Also for this service was a tire rotation.


We left service with 1.5min to spare. That was a great feeling! We got a lot done in a short amount of time! really cool to see the help come in and everybody do a job. Team work makes the dream work! list of things we got done in 45 min ( car jacked up, hdpe off, fuel filter off (23 years old!!), shower, new filter on, hdpe on, fix hdpe in the rear, windows and lights cleaned, tires rotated, vital bolts checked for proper torque on all wheels and axles, skid plate checked, air filter checked, car lowered, wheels torqued, suited up, checked out) Pure team work to make that happen!


After that service, we had two stages SS13 and 14 (cancelled). on 13, the honda civic (hoonda) was right in front of us and crashed into a tree two turns from the finish.

Then we went back to service. I am glad we only id one stage the went back in. I really needed a break. We did basic over view and cleaned the car windows again. Then we fueled our bodies as well as the car. I let some spectators sit in the car because I knew I liked that when others let me! idk if thats illegal, but they loved it and thats all that counts in my book.

for the last 3 stages, I was going faster than ever. I still had the goal "just finish" but driving was becoming much easier for me. I knew how the car was going to act, I was feeling the roads more, I was trusting Carl more, we both just went faster! It was great! Carl was pushed hard because he had to adjust his tempo from day one to day two by almost 1.25 to 1.5 times! its a good day when you can say both co-driver and driver got better!







quick gopro edit of highlights:
video: https://www.facebook.com/garrett.m.griffith/videos/10210922730257599/

so all in all....I FINISHED! ha out of 54 cars that started, only 33 finished. I was one of those! I still cant believe I did 100aw rally with no racing/motorsport of any kind. I just had a feeling I knew I was capable of racing rally without actually racing lol.




I owe a huge thanks to John for helping me set up my cars suspension (he really knows what hes doing). The front was amazing, the rear could use some work but the car handled just how I wanted it to! With EBC yellowstuff in the front and some random ass pads in the rear, couple that with JVABs, this allowed me to brake hard and get the rear loose so I could rotate the car how I wanted!! It was such a shot in the dark to not have anything go wrong with the setup up. come to think of it, this whole event was a shot in the dark haha.

Well like I said, ill come back and post videos later, but for now I have some work to do on the car and I also need money. Im poor. lol]]> Da_Elderly Construction Zone Tue, 21 Mar 2017 01:28:01 -0500 https://www.rallyanarchy.com/phorum/read.php?5,111496,114775#msg-114775 Re: E36 M42 Build https://www.rallyanarchy.com/phorum/read.php?5,111496,114775#msg-114775 Da_Elderly Construction Zone Mon, 20 Mar 2017 16:12:06 -0500 https://www.rallyanarchy.com/phorum/read.php?5,111496,114723#msg-114723 Re: E36 M42 Build https://www.rallyanarchy.com/phorum/read.php?5,111496,114723#msg-114723
I already paid and whatnot, so I really, really want to make it]]> Da_Elderly Construction Zone Wed, 08 Mar 2017 17:57:35 -0600 https://www.rallyanarchy.com/phorum/read.php?5,111496,114722#msg-114722 Re: E36 M42 Build https://www.rallyanarchy.com/phorum/read.php?5,111496,114722#msg-114722 NoCoast Construction Zone Wed, 08 Mar 2017 17:54:34 -0600 https://www.rallyanarchy.com/phorum/read.php?5,111496,114666#msg-114666 Re: E36 M42 Build https://www.rallyanarchy.com/phorum/read.php?5,111496,114666#msg-114666 Da_Elderly Construction Zone Tue, 28 Feb 2017 09:37:13 -0600 https://www.rallyanarchy.com/phorum/read.php?5,111496,114662#msg-114662 Re: E36 M42 Build https://www.rallyanarchy.com/phorum/read.php?5,111496,114662#msg-114662
Good luck at 100AW.]]> DanielSL Construction Zone Tue, 28 Feb 2017 06:22:21 -0600 https://www.rallyanarchy.com/phorum/read.php?5,111496,114661#msg-114661 Re: E36 M42 Build https://www.rallyanarchy.com/phorum/read.php?5,111496,114661#msg-114661
So this progress report there has been more work done! still got lots to do but the tasks at hand are small with one exception. The fuse box. ANYWHO lets not worry about that right now!

So I picked up the car from the cage builder and towed it back home.



Here it is unloaded ready for more molestation.



EBC yellowstuff front pads and new rotors are on.



So upon connecting all the wires together, I found out the car wouldnt even crank. My heart legit fell through the floor. Deep down I knew it was too much of a hassle and too much time to fix this problem. I would cost me the race. :down: So I spend a day just kinda staring at it hoping it would fix itself. I went back to school for week and researched about the bmw ews system. I was reading all the depenancies to start the car. I was like, I cut so many wires, might as well just throw the car away. I then watched a video where this dude pulled a green wire from the key insertion doohickey. I was like "Hey! I have one of those dangling too!" I couldnt wait to get home and try it!! I waited all week long just to drive two hours back to the car to realize my wire was plugged in......I was so looking forward to the car just firing right up. Defeated, I went and ate food. After, I went back out and just stared at my dead car that wouldnt race a day in its life. But then!!!!


I went back and noticed THE OTHER end of the green wire was disconnected. I found where it connects and tratratratratratra-wub wub-vroom-bang-pop-crackle-brap-brap-brap. IT STARTED! IM STILL IN IT BABY!!!!

start-up sound: https://www.instagram.com/p/BNFa6JtBAJ9/

Now that the car started, it was time to work on it again. The fun part, ha. First order of business? add motor mounts and remove the old mot....uhm pieces of rubber.




Lexan windows install




30" light bar



cool photo of the resting beast name 'Evangeline'



HDPE mock up template



So I might not get around to painting the rollcage and I am very sad to tell you fine folks that no logbooker people exist in Texas. Therefore I am forced to get it at the event due to every weekend being needed. This is by far the least favorite part as I could have the car ready to go and it not race due to a failed logbook. It should pass fine especially with the certificate from CustomCages. But yeah. I doubt they want a painted cage they havent inspected, so it will have to go in raw most likely. I mean, I might could just paint everything but the welds! Ha, i might do that. idk yet. Time is closing fast. Ill be back at it next weekend to try and wrap things up.

I hope to see some of you guys at the event! please come say hello!

Ill post one final update before the event with completed pictures and maybe some totally legal testing photos ;)]]> Da_Elderly Construction Zone Mon, 27 Feb 2017 22:08:41 -0600 https://www.rallyanarchy.com/phorum/read.php?5,111496,114623#msg-114623 Re: E36 M42 Build https://www.rallyanarchy.com/phorum/read.php?5,111496,114623#msg-114623
Quote
NoCoast
Five weeks to go!

No pressure or anything, ha.]]> Da_Elderly Construction Zone Fri, 10 Feb 2017 19:28:30 -0600 https://www.rallyanarchy.com/phorum/read.php?5,111496,114621#msg-114621 Re: E36 M42 Build https://www.rallyanarchy.com/phorum/read.php?5,111496,114621#msg-114621 That picture is why I leave all wiring in these cars alone. :)
Five weeks to go!]]> NoCoast Construction Zone Fri, 10 Feb 2017 13:41:48 -0600 https://www.rallyanarchy.com/phorum/read.php?5,111496,114609#msg-114609 Re: E36 M42 Build https://www.rallyanarchy.com/phorum/read.php?5,111496,114609#msg-114609
Cage is done. Threads are installed for HDPE. 1/4" 5052 skid plate is installed. Stuck axle is now free. Wiring is uhhhh.....ummmm...."in progress"


]]> Da_Elderly Construction Zone Wed, 08 Feb 2017 00:33:21 -0600 https://www.rallyanarchy.com/phorum/read.php?5,111496,114579#msg-114579 Re: E36 M42 Build https://www.rallyanarchy.com/phorum/read.php?5,111496,114579#msg-114579
Quote
Da_Elderly


OMG... that loom.

This is why I like carburetors... ;)]]> Mad Matt F Construction Zone Thu, 02 Feb 2017 15:22:14 -0600