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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
If you follow us on social media, you know that we recently acquired a 2001 BMW 330i sedan. The car has already gone through some major transformation in the last couple of weeks. We're not sure where this car's origins are from exactly (it probably spent most of its life driving people to and from work, or the mall)…
JRZ recently released “095 edition” dampers to commemorate the first-ever JRZ shock designed and developed by company founder, Jan Zuijdijk, back in 1995. The “095 edition” dampers are available in two trims: double adjustable as the RS PRO, and with the addition of low-speed compression as a triple adjustable shock in the form of the RS PRO3. As a longtime JRZ partner, I was honored to be chosen as the recipient of and test driver for the world’s first ever set of RS PRO3 dampers; built for my 2016 F80 BMW M3 6MT, “Betty.”
The team hasn't been to Buttonwillow Raceway in a really long time, since March 2016 to be specific. We also rarely do trackdays on a Sunday, but yesterday, May 14, 2017, was a great day with OnGrid. This event was special because it was the first time that our Trackspec Autosports Honda S2000 “Irene” was debuting after a complete refresh during the off-season.
This past Saturday, March 18, we went to OnGrid's Thunderhill West trackday. Despite fears of wet weather, it only rained a couple minutes in the morning. The sun actually came out towards the end of the day.
This past Saturday, February 4, we went to OnGrid's Season Opener event at Thunderhill Raceway. The week before is always hectic at the shop.
We had an amazing time out at OnGrid's trackday at Thunderhill West. It was pretty hot, around the 90s, but it was also really windy so that helped. Everyone did really well and beat their personal records.
This past Saturday, on May 7, OnGrid through yet another fun and smooth event at Thunderhill West. Three factors made this day incredibly fun: 1) It was almost everyone's first time at this section of Thunderhill, 2) the track is short and windy, and 3) it was slippery due to on and off rain.
Co-founders of OnGrid, Marios and Sina, hosted their first event at Buttonwillow and it was a huge success.
Monday through Friday
7am to 4pm
