Meets, Other Events, Drives
Victoria Vo
West Coast Lotus Meet 2024

We were thrilled to finally attend the West Coast Lotus Meet, hosted by the Golden Gate Lotus Club, and it truly exceeded our expectations! Jon and I have long wanted to join this event, but in the past, scheduling conflicts, distance, and not owning a street-legal Lotus kept us away. To be clear, you don’t need to own a Lotus to participate. The Golden Gate Lotus Club is incredibly inclusive, welcoming all makes and models. However, there’s something extra special about fully immersing yourself in the activities when you have a Lotus to share the experience with. What made this event even more special was our decision to close the shop and bring our entire team along to join the experience. We had an incredible time!

West Coast Lotus Meet 2024
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
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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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Trackspec's Exige S240 Project: Part 1, Rebuild

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Trackspec's Exige S240 Project: Part 1, Rebuild

My first encounter with Lotus cars was when I was 18 years old and I signed up first my autocross in my 1996 Acura Integra with the Golden Gate Lotus Club (GGLC). I always thought they were “cool” looking and after going on a couple ride-alongs, I could already tell how fun it would be to drive one. ...

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Ending the Season at Sonoma

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Ending the Season at Sonoma

This event marked our second attempt at the Sonoma 4-hour enduro, part of the NASA Western Endurance Racing Championship series (also known as WERC). Last year, we attempted to run this race with 2 cars (my ST4 Honda S2000 and Liam’s ST4 Honda Civic). Unfortunately, both cars had to retire early because of parts failures. I broke two differentials (my main and my spare) and Liam lost a gearbox.

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Developing the new shop car

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Developing the new shop car

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)…

Lotus Exige SpeedSF Challenge S2

Lotus Exige SpeedSF Challenge S2

Another SpeedSF Challenge time attack is in the books! The Exige returned to Laguna Seca on 6/17 to test the chassis changes, again competing in the S2 class. The winning time was a 1:39.7, besting a Porsche Cayman GT4 which took second place. Note that the lap shown is a 1:39.8 which could have been even faster if it were not for the need to pass an oversteering M3 just after the corkscrew.

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