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

trackspec autosports

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2024 Pikes Peak Documentary Short-Film

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“Have fun. Don’t die. Finish. And then run a respectable time." -@tomchutang

These were the straightforward, and yet powerful goals Tom set for himself as he faced the 2024 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb for the very first time. Join us for an exclusive, behind-the-scenes journey with Tom and his dedicated team as they tackle one of the most challenging and legendary races in the world with their Eibach powered, AiM Sports Data and JRZ Suspension equipped E46 BMW M3 on Toyo Tires, built by Trackspec Autosports.

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Trackspec's K24 Exige- Emtron ECU and AiM PDM32

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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.

P2 and P5 in ST4 for our E46 M3 on the Yokohama A055

P2 and P5 in ST4 for our E46 M3 on the Yokohama A055

This year seems to be just flying by. We last raced at the end of March, and since then the team has been busy with a wide variety of cool projects at the shop. Personally, my calendar has been filled with work, travel, and everything in between. One event in particular that transpired during this time was the official launch of the Yokohama A055 tire.

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First Race Of The 2022 Season For Our New E46 BMW M3

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First Race Of The 2022 Season For Our New E46 BMW M3

Thanks to the power of smart phones and social media, Jon and I were reminded that we were at Sonoma Raceway exactly 1 year ago for the first race of the 2021 season when an unfortunate accident resulted in our E36 BMW M3 race car being totaled. At the time, we felt two things. Relief, because Jon was safe and uninjured. But also disappointment, because we had just finished a complete refresh of that car and we were looking forward to a full season of racing…

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Trackspec's K24 Exige- Global Time Attack

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Trackspec's K24 Exige- Global Time Attack

A few months ago, we decided to register for this year’s 2021 Global Time Attack and Super Lap Battle Finals at Buttonwillow. The Exige wasn’t built for time attack, but we thought it would be a fun place to compete and see how capable the Lotus with a K-series really is; even if it is heavily outgunned in its class (because of the rule set, the car falls into Limited, a class that normally sees cars with forced induction engine setups making well over 600whp). We decided to set our own goal of a sub 1:50 lap, which may be the first naturally aspirated Elige to do so. The best time this car had done previously at Buttonwillow 13CW was a 1:51.7 on Falken RT660s.

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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 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.

Team Trip to COTA Formula 1

Team Trip to COTA Formula 1

Every year, we like to take the team on a fun trip. For the past four years, we’ve been going to SEMA in Las Vegas. We’ve always had a good time there because we like to win free tools, and every year, we’ve won something amazing: OTC diagnostic tool, Hunter tire balancer, and CP power tools. Not to mention, Vegas is a fun location…there’s always a little something for everyone to enjoy in Vegas! However, this year, we wanted to do something different. With half the team following Formula 1, and the other half discovering it through the Netflix docuseries, Formula 1: Drive to Survive, it seemed like the best thing to do was watch a Formula 1 race at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, TX.

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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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