Featured Cars, Street Legal K20 Elise
Jon Vo
Last 111, First Street Legal K20 Swap? (Part 3)

It’s been a while since we had an update on this car and a lot of people were starting to wonder what happened to it. Between the many obstacles to overcome, developing some custom parts, going back and forth on decisions, the owner of the car (and myself) having two having kids, this became a sideline project in the shop. Our usual chats shifted from the K20 swap to sharing our experiences raising two young children. Although progress was made slowly throughout, I wanted Part 3 to be the final part of the blog.

Last 111, First Street Legal K20 Swap? (Part 3)
Tom Tang
10:31.372 at the 102nd Running of the Pikes ...

The team arrived back in Colorado Springs on Saturday, June 15th and we were greeted at COS airport by some really cool window artwork promoting this year’s race. After leaving the airport, we immediately headed over to our home-away-from-home: Winslow BMW of Colorado Springs and we were met with another fun surprise; this year’s “Signature” car, a BMW Z3M coupe and “Parade of Champions” car, a new BMW i5 M60 electric performance sedan. The liveries for both cars were unique for the 102nd Running of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. Legendary PPIHC Hall Of Fame Inductee, Clint Vahsholtz, was this year’s driver of the “Parade of Champions” car; which meant that after the race on Sunday he would lead all of the competitors down from the summit of the mountain back to the start-line. It’s an incredible honor, and I can think of no one better for the job considering Clint has raced Pikes Peak 30 times. And out of those 30 times, he’s won his class 24 times and he was King of the Mountain in 2020. Wow!

10:31.372 at the 102nd Running of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb
Tom Tang
Pikes Peak: First Test Weekend At The Mountain

Following several successful planned test days at our home track of Sonoma Raceway in April and May, we finally arrived at the first Official Test Weekend ahead of the 102nd Running of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb (PPIHC). This weekend took place on Saturday and Sunday June 1st-2nd, and as a rookie I was informed by the event-organizers that my performance across both days would be evaluated in order to make a final determination of my eligibility to race on June 23rd. No pressure or anything, but game on.

Pikes Peak: First Test Weekend At The Mountain
Featured Cars, Motorsports
Tom Tang
Pikes peak build: part 4

Over the 2023 winter holiday break is when things got really serious for our Pikes Peak car. We used the downtime to get a lot done, including a full rebuild of our Drexler rear diff.

Pikes peak build: part 4
Featured Cars, Trackspec Exige Project, Motorsports
Jon Vo
Trackspec's K24 Exige- Emtron ECU and AiM PDM32

It’s been over 3 years since I put the Honda K24 into our Lotus Exige and it was the first car that I made an engine harness for. Although the harness was reliable and never gave me any issues, I felt that my harness building skills have improved much since then. What I really wanted to do was get rid of all of the unused wiring and the mess under the dash.

Trackspec's K24 Exige- Emtron ECU and AiM PDM32

lotus exige

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Last 111, First Street Legal K20 Swap? (Part 3)

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Last 111, First Street Legal K20 Swap? (Part 3)

It’s been a while since we had an update on this car and a lot of people were starting to wonder what happened to it. Between the many obstacles to overcome, developing some custom parts, going back and forth on decisions, the owner of the car (and myself) having two having kids, this became a sideline project in the shop. Our usual chats shifted from the K20 swap to sharing our experiences raising two young children. Although progress was made slowly throughout, I wanted Part 3 to be the final part of the blog.

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One-Two Finish at the 2020 NASA Pro Racing Season Finale

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One-Two Finish at the 2020 NASA Pro Racing Season Finale

With the 25 Hours of Thunderhill postponed to 2021 (thanks, COVID) the final race weekend of the year took place at Buttonwillow in the form of a double header, Super Touring sprint racing and a 3 hour and 15 minute night endurance race as part of the Western Racing Endurance Racing Championships. We were able to use the month of September to properly prep both the Lotus Exige and the E36 BMW M3.

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Trackspec's Exige S240 Project: Part 10, K24 Swap (2)

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Trackspec's Exige S240 Project: Part 10, K24 Swap (2)

When we left off in part one of the K24 swap, we had the engine in the car and started getting things connected. Although it seemed like it was close to being done, there was quite a bit left to do. We decided to keep the factory dual oil coolers. This may change in the future, but we wanted to make sure the temps were stable even on extremely hot days. Moving along on the track is one thing, but following closely behind another car in “dirty air” and it can get hot pretty quickly. Because these cars are known to over cool engine oil, we installed a thermostatic sandwich plate with a 200F thermostat to help maintain proper temps.

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Trackspec's Exige S240 Project: Part 10, K24 Swap (1)

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Trackspec's Exige S240 Project: Part 10, K24 Swap (1)

If you grew up in the 90s and were into cars, then you’ve heard of the Honda B-series engine and how amazing it was. It was the “hot rod” engine of its time and my gateway into modifying cars. The planning, researching, parts sourcing, building, and then seeing how it improved the car’s performance is what got me hooked. In the early 2000’s, Honda came out with something even better..

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Trackspec's Exige S240 Project Part 9, Brakes

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Trackspec's Exige S240 Project Part 9, Brakes

In Part 8, we were waiting on a driver net before we could have the tech inspection done. The Schroth net with the new quick release mechanism that we originally ordered was still undergoing testing and its availability was severely delayed. So, we went with a equally good option- Safecraft.

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Trackspec's Exige S240 Project Part 8, Roll Cage

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Trackspec's Exige S240 Project Part 8, Roll Cage

With a year of rebuilding and developing the Exige behind us, we were excited to begin our “winter project,” the roll cage. When the car came back from the last track event of the year (a very wet Laguna day), we gave it a good wash inside and out before getting into it. We also had to do some homework and make sure that what we build is safe and legal for the the local sanctioning bodies we plan to race with. We followed NASA’s Club Codes and Regulations handbook as a guide.

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Trackspec's Exige S240 Project: Part 7, Clutch, Trans, Misc.

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Trackspec's Exige S240 Project: Part 7, Clutch, Trans, Misc.

At the last two-day track day at Buttonwillow with Speed Ventures, shifting in the Exige started to get notchy. It would sometimes be difficult to get into gear, but we kept driving it. By the last session of the day, we were not able to get the car into gear after pulling off into paddock. If the engine was off, it would go into all gears, so we suspected it to be a failed clutch that was not fully disengaging...

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Trackspec's Exige S240 Project: Part 6, Fuel and Oil Control

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Trackspec's Exige S240 Project: Part 6, Fuel and Oil Control

Fuel starvation is a well known problem with this platform. It’s mostly noticeable on long left hand corners because the fuel pick up is on the left side of the tank. It’s typically not an issue if I keep the fuel tank full, but every time our got down to about 70%, it would starve. This can cause a lean condition and be harmful to the engine, especially with forced induction.

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Trackspec's Exige S240 Project: Part 5, Cooling

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Trackspec's Exige S240 Project: Part 5, Cooling

The Exige S is known for heat soaking and extremely high IATs (intake air temps). The stock intercooler is mounted on top of the hot engine and doesn’t get nearly enough airflow through the small roof scoop. It also doesn’t help that the hot air from the radiator exits in front of the windshield and makes its way into the roof. There are some things you can do to help like a larger intercooler, additional ducting from the side scoops, larger roof scoops, or adding fans to the intercooler…

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Trackspec's Exige S240 Project: Part 4, Completed Aero

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Trackspec's Exige S240 Project: Part 4, Completed Aero

This past Monday, June 24, we decided to take a team day-off to go to the track with Golden Gate Lotus Club. In addition to drives, meets, and fun outings, GGLC hosts great track & autocross events. Only three run groups, so you get SEVEN sessions! Not to mention, they always offer snacks, coffee, fruits, and sometimes even lunch!

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Trackspec's Exige S240 Project: Part 3, More Goodies

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Trackspec's Exige S240 Project: Part 3, More Goodies

It’s no secret that Reverie makes high quality (wind tunnel tested) aero parts for the Eliges and I’ve always liked their front splitter design. Although Reverie’s mounting solution works great and is solid, I decided to attach the splitter directly to the chassis, and not to the front clam. My reason for this is so that I can easily remove the front clam without having to remove the splitter first. This did require cutting the front lower portion of it so that it could just rest on top of the splitter…

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Trackspec's Exige S240 Project: Part 2, Wrap

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Trackspec's Exige S240 Project: Part 2, Wrap

When we first acquired the Exige, Victoria and I had multiple conversations about what we wanted to do with it. Our original plan was to keep it street-legal, and just use it for canyon driving and the occasional HPDE events. I knew that it would have a much higher resale value if it was kept street-legal. Plus, being that this is our first Lotus, we liked the idea of being able to take it out every now and then. We also wanted to take it on long road trips and enjoy some of the fun back roads we have here in California. …Well, that idea didn’t last too long.

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