The greatest challenger arrives

Autumn finds me prepping for the last race of the season and that means revisiting the hill climb at Sugas Bai. Being autumn I expected lower temperatures, so I started to scramble to find some better tires that would work in the autumn chill.

Luckily a friend had a pair of used rally tires, 2 soft, 2 medium compound. As race date grew closer I knew it was going to rain. I seem to be competitive in the rain, so I welcomed it. I was feeling quite good about a strong result in the race...

 That until I saw the entry list. There were 3 challengers, one being a friend of mine Vlad Pescaru driving a borrowed Renault Megane with about 190hp, Rosca Florin driving a 250hp ~850kg VW Golf, and way more worrying Serban Andrei, this years H2 class national, champion one of the fastest in the country also driving the same Golf.

So I knew that it would be a battle for 3rd place with Vlad, as the other two could prove to be untouchable, way faster car, way more experience...

So I put on my rain tires and went on the recce run, the car felt great, excellent grip, no under-steer, no over-steer, just perfect. I felt that I might have a shot so I upped the rhythm in the practice runs, even though I held some in reserve.

To my greatest surprise I ended with a best time of 2.08.someting in the practice runs, besting all others' time by about 4 seconds.

But I knew that in the race the Golf would come out swinging. Realizing that I had a chance I removed the passengers seat in order to lose some weight, about 20 kilos.

With the start of the race the rain started to come down harder and that made the course trickier. I gave that run all I got, but I still made two small mistakes. The time for that first run was a 2.08.09.

I impatiently waited at that top for the Golf to make climb up the hill, with Rosca Florin driving it did a time of 2.11.34 and with Serban Andrei at the helm a 2.10.62. Amazingly I was first and by a healthy margin of 2 seconds over a national champion.

Then I saw the Golf changing it's tires, putting on tire warmers, I knew the next run would be crucial... I went up the hill again, without any mistakes, but a bit slower (I need to be more constant with my times) ending up with a 2.08.30.

The Golf did its run and Serban Andrei managed an amazing 2.06.39 while Rosca Florin did a less than stellar 2.14.15.

When the times were added up I was first with a 0.6 of a second over Serban Andrei, Rosca Florin came 3rd and Vlad Pescaru ended up 4th.

I managed something that I thought was impossible, beating a national champion and that would have been impossible without the help of Artan Sergiu, who set-up the suspension.
I'd also like to thank Iulia, Bogdan, Sebi and Ionut for the pohtos and the help they gave that day.

Next a far greater challenge awaits, my first year as a rookie in the national hill-climb championship and that will require further car modifications and finding a willing partner to offset some of the cost and perhaps share the success.

Hill Climb - Sfanta Ana

After a successful first race at Sugas Bai, a new challenge presents itself: The hill climb at Sfanta Ana Lake.

The race is set on the road to the lake, a winding piece of tarmac with a gentle gradient, very twisty and technical, all in all a road that denies the power advantage, perfect for my relatively under powered (in relation to weight) BMW.



Even though it was at the height of summer, I was worried about rain and more important about the fact that I didn't have any rain tires. As race day was approaching the forecast showed rain, so I began to search for rain tires and eventually found a used set in good condition for about 400 euros, the price was steep but I had to had them. They were perfect because the rain would be falling on race day.

Even with the rain a group of friends decided that an outing shouldn't be spoiled by the rain...

In the morning the course was almost dry.

But that didn't last long and by race time it was raining cats and dogs.

So I put on the rain tires and the car was under steering, badly. In an effort to tame the car I adjusted the stiffness of the front dampers and the tire pressures. That kind of did the trick, the car was still under steering but it was controllable.

 By the time of the timed training runs I had the car pretty much dialed in, although I was over steering quite a bit, but still it was fun. The times came in and I had a 10 second margin on my competitor, a WRX STI.

So when the race runs came I didn't need to push. Unknown to me a competitor blew his steering rack pouring ATF all over the course and I being the fastest was the last one to start, I only noticed the oil at the end of the course but I did not let off as it wasn't that slippery...

That run netted me with a 7 second lead and because of the oil on the course, the race marshals canceled the second run of the day. So for the first time ever I was overall the fastest!

Nothing would have been possible without my friend Artan Sergiu and his engine that powers my car.

Hill Climb - Sugas Bai

We all have waited for the seemingly endless winter to come to an end. What better way to celebrate the coming of spring than with a race, a hill climb! 

Approximately 40 km away from Brasov is the resort of Sugas Bai and the most interesting part of it is the road there, a 4 km mix of both high speed straits and mid speed corners, perfect for testing both car and driver.

As usual right before any race there was some modding to do. Earlier in the year I broke the two rear output shafts, so I knew that I needed stronger ones to cope with the new engine, but installing stronger output shaft required a bigger diff. I had prepared for this and bought and E34 LSD with the super rare 4.45 ratio.

The E34 diff case is in no way compatible with the E36 diff even though they look similar, so I planned to move the internals of the E34 diff in and E36 diff. There was no time for that, so we proceeded to adapt the E34 diff to the E36 diff carrier. That required a lot of cutting and a lot of welding. We can see my all skilled father welding a plate for an adapter.

In the end we made it fit, barely... We fitted it all back and Poos in Boots declared that the car was ready to race. 

A very early morning rise later, there we were, at the base of the hill. Unlike last year at Sfanta Ana I was not alone, I had a bunch of friends with me and a few of them would also race.

With the expcetion of a scare on the first reconisance run (where I braked a little too late at the end of a very long strait and the car started to wander left and right), everything was all right.

At the very the end of the reconnaissance runs I kept catching up a competitor, so I knew I was doing quite good. Then I went for the training runs, I was first by a 8 second margin but I had an ominous feeling, like someone painted a big red target on my car...

My competitors kept improving their times and with such a large lead I had no reason to push so I stayed around 2.05.60 on the three practice runs.

What gave me ominous feeling was the presence of a mostly fiberglass Renault Clio 172, a full blown race car with LSD, short ratio gearbox, ITBs, race electronics. The engine is likely a bit over 200 hp and the car should be around the 950 kg mark. That against my 1220 kg 190 hp BMW...

Up the hill I went with a time of 2.05.66, while the Clio did a 2.05.90, I was still first, barely.

The race is split in two runs and the times are added to give the final time, I knew I had to better my time, I knew I had to push. As you will see in the video below, the car had other ideas... When I shifted from 1st to 2nd the gear lever was in the correct position, but the gearbox didn't shift... It was over, but I didn't give up, perhaps I could recover the 2 seconds I lost there...

And I did, I managed a 2.05.30, better than my first run. Was it enough to keep my first place? No, the Clio beat me by 0.08 seconds. Better luck next time....

In the end I came 2nd overall, 2nd in the 2 wheel drive class and 1st non lincenced class. Nothing would have been possible without my friend Artan Sergiu and his engine that powers my car.

It was a great day! I can't wait for the next hill climb event on the 21st of June at Sfanta Ana.

 And bonus, a great video coverage that the guys at 6 Flat did.

Covasna Winter Rally 2015

As January was quickly coming to an end, the date of the rally was approaching, initially set for the 24th, it was moved to the 31st of January.

The car had a blown engine, a never fitter skidpad, a yet to be modified and installed suspension, no snow tires, no rims to install them on, no passenger side seat, no seat rail and no passenger seat belts. The date was the 13th of Juanuary, rally date 31st of Juanuary, days left available for work: 5.

In November 2014 I made a skid plate to protect the engine and steering rack form any damage due to running on gravel and snow, I intended to make it even longer to cover the gearbox as well, but never got around to do so.

Me and my friend Artan worked the next 40 hours with little to no sleep to install a fresh 2.5 liter engine in the car, my friend Robert of Cyclon motorsport  made the parts for the seat rails then my father set about a welding the passenger side seat frame rails. My friend and co driver Cepelin set about installing the raised stock suspension, the skid plate which miraculously fit, I purchased a set of winter tires with a few studs in them and a set of rims. Then on the 23rd the new race seat, belts and intercom arrived from Italy and by the 29th thank to my friends help the car was done.

The next day we faced a 5 AM wake-up call to go to recce for the Covasna Winter Rally 2015, we made it... We were there, both me and two of my friends, Artan Sergiu running a 320i E30 and Vlad Perscaru with a 1.6l Renault 5.

Me and Cepelin, my co driver,  had 0 rally experience, close to 0 snow driving experience. As we set about the recce we realized that there was a very short time to travel the 180km of the rally TWICE.  My Fiat with KW street suspension took quite a beating, but we managed to cover the distance once. As neither of us had experience, the pace notes we made were... less than perfect and bit lacking in detail.

Next day was race day, we woke up at 6 AM and got the two cars, the Fiat and the BMW to the service park, the Fiat was to be the service "truck".

We took to the start of the first stage and it was on! The snow was good, the car was great, I was very cautious as the main objective was to finish the 60 km of stages. Quite soon we caught up a competitor, we were doing good, in spite of a spin.

We still had to do about 20 km of special stages when a one of the rear bolts holding the rear shock in place came undone, so we covered the 20 km left to the service park like that, without a rear shock.

I partially spun two more times and due to a spin I was unable to climb a steep incline without backing up and we got overtaken. The car had plenty of power, around the 180-190 mark, but I had very little grip and coupled with my lead right foot the engine was on the red line constantly while I was trying to keep the car going strait. Even so all the ice tire guys including the 100hp Dacia Logan were all over us...

When we arrived at the 30 minute service stop we scrambled to find a replacement and a fellow competitor kindly gave us the bolt we needed.

The very next stage after the service park I entered a 4 Right a bit too hot and ended in the ditch and unable to get out. We waited for rescue in the form of a 4x4, they got us out. We lost about 13 minutes there so we raced on even on the connecting roads not to get a time penalty.

The next and final two stages I started to get a bit more comfortable with my co driver, the car and the snow and the times really started to improve.

In the last stage which was a quite more open one I managed a 8:52, fast enough for 19 out of 32 still running, beating most of the guys running snow tires and even a few 4WD guys running ice tires. By the time I got used to the concept of rallying on snow it was over...

It was a wonderful lesson for me, I learned that I am quite far from being able to run the car at it's true potential, but I won't stop here...
I'd like to thank the photographers for these wonderful snaps and for braving up the cold!

Some videos and extra pictures:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asL1iuZ2V-M&list=PLzsFupPWg9KofBrH3_kGGbctqhL4vQFmd&t=471

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6dW4QN07Fk&list=PLzsFupPWg9KofBrH3_kGGbctqhL4vQFmd&t=312

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXTH5NXCe7Q&list=PLzsFupPWg9KofBrH3_kGGbctqhL4vQFmd&t=337