Differential Refresh
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.
We got a brand new 3.85 ring & pinion set from BMW Motorsport and then decided to WPC treat them.
Carbon Widebody
We also began installing our gorgeous Flossman GTR CSL carbon widebody kit. Thank you for making these beautiful pieces for us, Dominik and team!
Overnight parts from Germany? Just kidding. The crate for this kit was huge!
New Rear Firewall
Mike did a great job of finishing up the new rear firewall section to keep the fuel cell isolated away from where I’ll be sitting in the car.
Shout-out to Isaac for doing all of the bodywork alongside Will from Cubanobuilt who helped cut and roll the rear-quarters.
Built & Beefy S54
Nate from Steeldust Machine finished building our new S54 with Supertech Performance, VAC Motorsport, and MAHLE goodies during this time and sent it back to us.
Chassis-mounted GT Wing stands
Jon mocked up a new chassis mounted rear-wing design which will work better with the new lightweight carbon trunk.
Updated sequential gearing
Our friends at Drenth sent over new drop-gears for our DG500 6-speed sequential gearbox. They also sent us a new standalone gear indicator.
So. Much. Carbon.
New Shoes
The old 18x10 T-S5 wheels look pretty small in the back now that the car is so wide. Fortunately, new wheels also arrived from our partners at Titan-7. The T-P10 design is so damn good looking! And they are ridiculously light and strong for their size! These are our new fronts, 18x11 +20ET. We will be running 18x12 in the rear later once those arrive.
Built engine and supercharger setup back in the car.
I absolutely love how savage these carbon fenders look.
We did a quick mock up of the wheels with the front splitter. We also got our new APR GT1000 dual element wing (thanks KC) on the car.
special new livery for the 102nd running of the pikes peak international hill climb
Afterwards, it was off to SS Customs in Redwood City for a new livery and vinyl wrap treatment with the best in the business. Shout-out to Alli, Shareef, Sean, and team!
Once the car came back, we began to finalize the fitment of the wheels using hub centric spacers from our partners at Eibach.
Dyno tuning
Then it was time to prepare for our first shakedown of 2024. We brought the car over to Jei at Blacktrax for break-in and tuning of the new built motor. The Flossman kit is so wide, the car just barely fits on the Dynapack. Phew!
Mike did an awesome job of heat shielding the headers with inconel. Look at that red glow!
finalizing the new high-downforce aero package
We added titanium pucks and strikers to the front splitter because it’s going to be bumpy at Pikes Peak and we want to protect the splitter from getting damaged.
Mike finishing up the final piece of the puzzle, the carbon rear diffuser.
New muffler setup. We tried just a straight pipe for about 5 minutes, but everyone went deaf. Haha.
first shakedown of 2024
We decided to sign up for Sunday, March 10th at Sonoma Raceway with our friends at SpeedSF as our first shakedown of 2024. It was an early day, especially because of Daylight Savings.
Spaceship mode: engaged. We showed up to the event with 295/30/18 square Toyo RR tires. The new Proxes R in 295 and eventually 315 are showing up later.
Nick from Cahill Films (alongside Austin at Rapt Visuals) capturing footage for our upcoming documentary short-film about our 2024 Pikes Peak effort.
Throughout the day we gathered tire temperature and pressure data, as well as engine health data. Jei spent a lot of time working with my feedback to improve the tuning parameters, with particular focus made on the shift-cut timing and traction control. The Drenth box and boosted S54 combo rips! We also gathered valuable tire temperature and pressure data, which will help us fine-tune the alignment setup in preparation for the new Proxes R tire.
We ran all 6 sessions on Sunday and I drove 40+ laps. The car ran seamlessly from a mechanical standpoint. We just kept adding fuel and going back out. While the main purpose of the day was shakedown & testing, we did enter my car in the Time Attack Challenge and ended up taking 1st Place in the Unlimited (X) Class. It was definitely the cherry on top to an already great day.
I think the entire team was really proud to see months of hard work come together, with some really incredible results. We also captured a ton of great photos & video footage; shout-out to Edgar and Nick for driving all the way down (from Lake Tahoe and Oakley nonetheless) to work your magic. And special thanks to Marc for also making the trek to come and help out for the day.
coming up next
Hard to believe, but as I write this we are just 14 weeks away from Pikes Peak. We plan to do 3 or 4 more test days before we have to get on the road for the official rookie test weekend at the mountain in early June. We have a lot to do still, but I remain really excited and confident in our team’s ability to be ready. Check back soon for more updates, and thanks for following along!