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.
New Toyo Proxes R Competition Tire: 2024 Debut With Trackspec Autosports E46 BMW M3
Last Spring, I announced that I was once again teaming up with Toyo Tires for the 2023 and 2024 seasons. Together, we have been working together to prepare for the upcoming 102nd running of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb which will take place on June 23rd.
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.
Pikes peak Build: Part 2
Picking up from where we left off in Part 1…over the past few weeks we have continued to work on ensuring our BMW E46 M3 survives the thin-air and increased cooling demands of Pikes Peak. I sourced a KSR hood vent (thanks Ken) which is the perfect size to serve as a ducted exit for the v-mounted intercooler. We also added an inlet to the driver side carbon fiber lens to feed the hungry Active Autowerke Rotrex C38 supercharger.
Pikes Peak Build: Part 1
Back in March, we announced our plans to tackle one of the most difficult motorsport events in the world; the 102nd running of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb in 2024. In preparation for this grueling challenge; which will test us as a team, me as a driver, and the car we build over a distance of 12.42 miles and around 156 turns on the way to a summit elevation of 14,115 feet, we decided to spend the next year taking our time to thoughtfully plan for a successful race to the clouds. While my mental-state and physical conditioning are equally important, for purposes of Part 1 let’s just focus on what most people care about more…the car!
25 Hours of Thunderhill Documentary Short-Film
For Immediate Release: Tom Tang and Team Trackspec Autosports to summit Pikes Peak with Toyo Tires in 2024
I am thrilled to announce the return of Toyo Tires to our race program for the 2023 and 2024 seasons. I have had the pleasure of working with Toyo for many years previously, and this partnership renewal marks a commitment on both sides for shared success.
Podium Finish (3rd in E1 Class), 9th Overall: NASA 25 Hours of Thunderhill
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.
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…
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.
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.