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NASA 944Spec Road Racing: Turn 7 Girl Memorial Road Atlanta 2018

Road Atlanta is a special place for me. It is a litmus test of sorts with lots of competitive drivers. The track is also very demanding and very rewarding to race. This is my second time as a racer at Road Atlanta and it is amazing the difference time and practice makes. I found the track exhilarating instead of scary this time and put some pressure on the local talent during the two, very...

NASA 944Spec Road Racing: Cardi Gras at NOLA

Ah the annual pilgrimage to NOLA Motorsports Park. This year we did things a little different and brought the wives down early for a little race-cation. The trip was met with a few lows and many highs and the racetrack as well as the French Quarter did not disappoint. But if you want to get straight to the racing, skip below. The Road to new orleans The lows popped up before we even left town...

NASA Midsouth: Shake and Brake at MIR (Apr 14-15) CANCELLED

Car prepped a week early. Check √ Rain tires mounted. Check √ Driver mentally prepared for another battle in the rain. Check √ Event cancelled 5 days before race. Wait What! Disappointment would be an understatement. There is a lot of mental and physical energy that goes into racing and this energy needs to go somewhere. So I kept my mouth shut about the decision for a few days. I had an idea of...

NASA 944spec Road Racing: Bourbon Barrel

The Bourbon Barrel is the second event of the NASA Midsouth season. Taking place March 24th to 25th at the National Corvette Museum (NCM) in Bowling Green, Kentucky. This is a crossover event with the NASA Great Lakes region and always pulls large fields for 944spec. Saturday/Race 1 Rain is becoming thematic this season and Saturday did not disappoint. Warm-up, Qualifying and Race 1 all took...

NASA Road Racing: Summer in February

What a weekend!  After what seemed like an extra lengthy off season, I was getting so antsy I would have raced in a blizzard; so the torrential downpour wasn’t an issue.  This was the season opener for the Mid-South region at our local track located in Millington, TN.  Pretty much constant rain on Saturday made the 944spec class especially interesting.  At Memphis...

MEV Exocet: Introducing the New Track Car

Background This last year I spent countless track days pushing project Lotus Elise as much as possible; and as much as the Lotus shines on the track I have yearned for something more raw, more simplistic and as anyone with a Lotus knows, easier to work on and more importantly, less fragile. At first I thought of building another dedicated track car in the same manner as project 240sx but as I...

The Last, Last Hurrah for Project 240sx: CA18DET Teardown

The Obituary of Project 240sx was supposed to be the last iteration of Project 240sx on the site but I came up with a little something extra. What we have here is a basic teardown of the bare ca18det that was found in Project 240sx in a quick photo journal style. You can read the comment below each picture to get an idea of what you are looking at. This may give those that follow a little insight...

Lotus Elise Larini Decat and Club Sport Exhaust (6in)

The Larini decat and club sport exhaust serves two purposes on project Lotus Elise. For starters, this combo along with the rear panel delete can easily yield weight reduction values approaching 25 lbs. The other purpose is to wake up the exhaust on the Elise because frankly, a car like this needs to be heard. Now what you won’t hear me talking about is power gains because the Lotus...

Lotus Elise Jack Stand Guide (The “Step” Method)

This guide is a prerequisite for many of the Lotus tutorials on this site. Placing the Lotus Elise on jack stands is a little trickier than most production cars. Due to the Elise’s design and flat underbody there are really only 8 designated “safe” lift points. Also, since the Elise has an extremely stiff chassis, I have found that a “stepping” method is the safest procedure to place the...

Lotus Elise Engine Oil and Filter Change

Changing the oil in the Lotus Elise is a relatively simple proceedure but first you will have to remove the rear undertray. Also, you can skip to the bottom for my recommendations on oil type and change intervals. Tools and Supplies 4 quarts oil (I use Mobil 1 15w-50) Oil filter (K&N HP1003 or HP2009) Filter wrench or 25mm socket for K&N 12mm wrench Oil drain pan Funnel Rags for cleanup...

Lotus Elise Rear Undertray / Rear Splitter Removal

The Lotus Elise is one of the few production cars that comes with a full body undertray. So when you look under the Elise, instead of seeing exposed lines and pipes (fuel/coolant/brake/exhaust) what you are met with is a flat sheet that runs the length of the car. This design feature is a blessing for aerodymics as it smooths and speeds the flow of air underneath the car. However, parts of the...

Introducing Project Lotus Elise

This is perhaps the most difficult project introduction I have ever written. There is so much emotion wrapped up in this car that no matter what I write it just seems wrong. I want to tell the story of how I came face to face with a pristine Type 72D Lotus Elise that had sat on the dealers lot since 2008. Or that my wife literally made me test drive it because I was being “too responsible...

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