2024 Year End Summary & 2025 Projections!

 Another year has come to a close and I am grateful that we are still kickin' asphalt!  Purchasing a building in Temecula assures that we can continue to support this community for decades to come.  We introduced some new parts, completed several car builds, enhanced our services and either hosted, sponsored or attended dozens of events.  It has been a productive and fun year!

Parts

Tuning advancements were one of our biggest accomplishments in 2024.  We were the first to tune an EvoraGT to 500hp using the stock ECU.  Brent@Xclusive has made significant steps on both Evora and Elise/Exige ECUs.  Our CARB plans were delayed as the building purchase demanded money that we had saved - City Code compliance is an expensive investment!  We are excited to say that this partnership with Xclusive will continue to bear fruit as Brent plans to move out West in 2025!  

Our Nitron 46mm Singles - S111 Spec was a great hit for us.  This suspension has been on our 111RS for a couple of years and has performed well on the dozens of canyon runs, track days and road trips that I have taken.  Our batTRAY product is working out great for clients who want to run full sized batteries.  Our TEMPkit and OILPTkit are two solutions designed to integrate with the AiM MX2E and provide needed info.  

We redesigned and reintroduced the much requested V2subFIX2.  We've redesigned our baffled fuel tank with no moving parts (see above image).  Our 111tank is the right way to fix fuel starvation as it requires no modifications to your existing fuel system.  Our DW65c Fuel Pump is a natural upgrade to install at the same time.

We have also been looking for lower cost solutions.  We introduced a lower cost fix for the factory oil lines with our oilLINEfittings.  Plus we have a new supplier for 1 piece brake rotors that are a great low cost alternative to OE.  Our new 111Rcoil is an excellent value - we've been running it in our 111RS all year long.

Emira parts were added to our offering now that the cars are on the roads.  We have a CAI, Muffler, Decat, Nitrons, Wheels and Springs!  Now that the AMG-engined cars are being delivered, we hope to see even more excitement.

Service
We serviced over 125 cars which is a 25% increase over last year.  Our goal is to become the best performance shop in the Temecula Valley area for driver's cars.  We've added an additional lift and our own AC Machine which allowed us to develop a comprehensive diag service.  Clients from around the country continue to send us their cars.  We're humbled by their willingness to send us their cars.  Every car that comes here gets our TLC - and thankfully we stock so many of the parts needed to upgrade them quickly.  Though if I am honest, servicing old cars can sometimes be a real challenge!

Our new building has been key to our increased abilities and efficiency.  With a fully fenced in yard, with space for a 40ft container, we have the room to add the tools and equipment to properly service our clients cars.

Car Builds

We completed three 111RS builds this year and a Drakan (almost two)!  Refreshing the 111 platform is a key goal of ours.  Giving worn out Lotus a new lease on life is what our 111RS program is accomplishing.  These cars have been amazing and the tribute 111RS (see above) that we built to honor a fallen Navy Seal was especially heart-warming for us.

Drakan #9 was completed and shipped to her new owner in FL.  This was a new color combo that we had not done in the previous 8 cars.  It looked really fantastic in those colors and with the aero kit.  Did I mention it remains one of the most ferocious yet driveable car I've ever driven?  Clearly I am biased!  We plan to build 5 more in 2025 - supply chain headaches be damned!

An Electrogenic EV conversion was also a big accomplishment for our team this year when we completed a '66 Jag XKE.  We have another Series 3 car and a Defender 90 that we will be completing in early 2025.  They introduced a Miata and classic Mini kits that I look forward to installing soon - anyone interested?

Events

This was an EPIC year!  I had the chance to meet and drive with many of you around the country.  The highlight had to be the trip I took from Lotus of Detroit to the Lotus vs the Dragon event in TN.  Wow!  It was one of the best road trips I have EVER taken and will be lodged firmly in my grey matter forever.  I also attended LOG43 and WCLM which were wonderful events.  These events require so much planning and effort - kudos to all who slave away so that we can have so much fun.  

Hanging out with like-minded enthusiasts is something I truly enjoy.  I love the thrill of driving these cars but the comraderie that comes from these events is a close second!  I had the true priviledge of spending time with so many of you this year!

We hosted several events including our Grand Opening and 2econd Saturdays events at our shop this year.  This monthly gathering has been fun as we change up the format each month.

The Tech Seminar with Nitron was a treat for us tech geeks as Guy Evans took us all through the basics (and then some) of suspensions.  We hosted several artist exhibitions at these events in partnership with my other company Brand Assassins.  

Other

I have started many businesses since 2000, many of which launced on the coat tails of an existing business I had.  Sector111 started from Filter Market.  Drakan Cars came from Sector111.  Other companies, including Rev111 or KappaSphere were ultimately sold while others shut down.  Sector111 has been repositioned as a Lotus focused parts brand.  

InoKinetic continues to spawn other companies, including Brand Assassins and my wife's venture, Stacy Sorts.  Stacy has been pivotal to our success and longevity.  She start a professional organizing business a few years ago and it has found it's legs in 2024.  Stacy Sorts grew by 25% and continues to thrive with Stacy more energized than ever before.  She has found her calling and I could not be more proud of her!

We have been fairly active with new Youtube videos, IG and FB posts along with Forums.  Though I prefer to hang out and talk in person, I know that these other methods of interacting are critical.

2025 Projections 

I have a great team that I know will continue to provide premium parts and service to you.  Our Core Values: Integrity, Quality, Communication, Resuts and Persistance drive us to serve all of you.  We have plenty more new parts, car builds and events that we plan to commercialize, host or support in 2025.

Emira is high on our list for some TLC.  I think an AMG-engined Emira will make it's way into our garage for tuning.  It seems to the right choice for track use and Brent has already cracked the AMG engine ECU so we feel we have a good shot at it.  He is already working on the V6 engine car's ECU as well.  This will be first.

Alfa 4C parts and service are high on our list for the new year.  Jorge is one our techs that is Alfa/Maserati/Ferrari/Fiat Dealer trained.  He knows the 4C so we need to promote our capabilities!  

The other car that is going to get some attention is the C8 Vette.  This car impressed after a weekend of driving Nitron's Stingray.  We plan to invest some resources into these cars to provide support to the thousands of cars that are on the roads in SoCal!

The 111 platform will, no doubt, get more love.  We now have the space to scale-up our Lotus Boneyard effort.  These cars remain at our core and always will.  We believe that cars like them will not be seen, new, again.  I'm committed to help keep these cars on the roads/tracks for as long as I am alive.

Your support and enthusiasm keeps us pumped and glad to be working on things we love.  Thanks to all of you.  Never hesitate to reach out with your questions, comments and suggestions!  Have a great New Year!

Evora GT Tuning: Power & Compliance

 We have been working on a '20 Evora GT to increase power but also improve handling for this client.  He wanted better front end grip and more compliance for the rough tracks that he frequents.  We received the car and started our upgrades and tuning.

Power

We installed parts from Komo-tec along with sending out the SC for a port and polish.  A slightly smaller pulley was also installed along with a Cold Air Intake, Headers, Sport Cat. and Sport muffler.  Brent came down to tune the car once we had the upgrades installed.  We were able to get the car up to 450rwhp on a local dyno, which translates to about 500hp at the crank!  We believe this is the only 500hp Evora in the US running a stock ECU.

Handling

The owner of this car has a fair amount of experience driving race cars.  He loves this car but felt the front end was not gripping the way he wanted.  He also wanted more compliance to absorb bumps and rough sections.  We sourced a set of Nitron Triples and he secured new upper wishbones to be able to add more negative camber.

Nitron stopped by to see the install and we were able to optimize the routing of the hose and reservoirs. We used our V2mounts to make securing the reservoirs even better.  Dialing in the ride height went well with the client requesting 5mm more rake than stock.  The car's ride height was dropped more than stock.  We were able to add much more negative camber as well thanks to the wishbones.

Checking ride height

Supercar Performance

She drives great with excellent compliance.  The turn in is excellent and grip superb.  The power is also very good.  This combo on an Evora 400/GTs is pretty impressive.  I think it is a perfect supercar combination!  These Evoras may be the hidden trackday gem that many people don't realize exists!

Why Competitive Tunes Must Be Reflashed to Stock

We have been getting more and more ECUs coming to us with competitive tunes on them with client's wanting improvements.  This is something we can accomodate but it does require additional steps.  We are able to develop tunes but our PG3 Programmer can only read ECUs with stock files.

If your ECU is tuned with a non-stock file, it will need to be reverted to stock.  We have found that some competitive files use Euro tunes as their base.  This causes several issues the least of which is our PG3's inability to read it.

If you have an ECU but don't know if it has been tuned previously, you can send it to us to read.  Reading the file will reveal if it has been modified by others.  See the attached image.

 If your ECU has a competitive tune, you will need to revert it to stock.  If you are unable to do it, we can do it (at additional cost) for you.

A stock file will look like this image below.

Once your ECU has a stock file in it, you can use our PG3 to read the file via your OBDII port.  You will read the file and email it to us.  We then modify it and send it back to you.  You can then upload it into your ECU via the OBDII port.

The best aspect of our PG3 system is that you can flash back to stock at any time and revert your car without reliance on anyone else.

2023 Summary & 2024 Projections

snuck in a 111glass here...

 Another year passes as we continue to make advances!  Honestly, it has been a tough year but your support and some good ole 'nose-to-grindstone' has made 2023 a decent one.  We grew ever so slightly but it certainly took some 'small business hustle' to get it done!  A grey recessionary cloud has been over our heads for the last few years, leaving us somewhat nervous - but we're now slowly, but surely, finding the courage to invest in the future.  I've summarized some of our achievements below and wrap up with projections for 2024 and onwards.  We continue to build this company to support the 111 platform and grow further to become the go-to shop for niche and supercars of all types in the Temecula Valley.

Parts

We introduced 11 new products or production derivations in 2023.  We launched a couple of big items, a few medium items and a few small easy to do bits as well.  The shiftR111 2.0, 111glass and RS343 were probably our biggest new products.  The DOT glass windshield required a huge tooling investment that will take years to pay off but we are glad we made the leap to ensure you have access to a critically important component.  The RS343 turned out even better than we thought!  Our Tcable fixes an ever increasing issue that is plaguing earlier cars with higher miles.  The LEDkit is another tasty bit that makes these cars fun to drive at night - fixing those woeful stock lights.  We reissued the subSTIFFY2 and created a Special Edition ETHOS wheel.  Our Emira  Decat landed before the actual car - at least in North America!

Driving the Tail of the Dragon was a hoot!

R&D

We completed the tune for the KATANA3 and have been really happy with how it is running.  Kits are shipping in early Jan.  A related development is advances we have made with tuning the ECU.  Our partner, Brent@Xclusive Tuning has advanced our abilities to the point that we believe we are the leaders in our control and understanding of these ECUs.  We continue to learn more and will be attempting CARB certification for the KATANA3 this year.  The Evora Stage II tune that we developed showed a 40hp bump and promises even more.  A couple of new Nitron innovations are coming.  We have been testing a new 46mm Single on our 111RS and will release it this year.  Their Emira solutions are also coming together.

Service

We serviced over 100 cars in 2023.  Cars from all over the country have been sent to us for work.  At the time of this writing, we have cars from CA, TX, OR, GA and SD.  We're proud to work on these cars and flattered that owners are willing to send their cars across the country to get our form of TLC.  We want to see these modern Lotus on the roads for decades to come and continue to invest in our service capabilities to ensure we can meet your needs.  To that end, we've added another excellent technician who hails from Ferrari of SanDiego.  Jorge joins Carlos to give us a team that can service sportscars of all types.

Collision

We repaired a dozen cars in 2023 that needed collision work.  Keeping these cars on the road is important to us.  Bringing a few back from being totalled warms our enthusiast hearts!  

111RS #002

Cars

We finished another 111RS and started two more builds in 2023.  These cars are getting real attention from drivers looking for a pure driving experience.  Our comprehensive upgrades enhance the cars and are winning over many owners.  As we find new improvements, we have been incorporating them into each build.

Equally important is that we restarted production of our Drakan Spyder.  We had secured all the remaining IP that we did not own, during COVID, but it took until last year for us to gather the resources to restart production.  Cars #8 & 9 are in build.  Supply chain challenges remain the biggest hurdle as we discover certain parts are no longer available - the steering rack has confounded us much of 2023 but we have a solution in the works.  We plan to build up to 6 more this year if the Lightweight Gods remain smiling...

Drakan #9

Another new project that we've managed in 2023 is selling an ICE to EV conversion for a Jag XKE.  We partnered with Electrogenic to offer their bolt-in solutions for several classic cars.  I believe there is a market for these products as most people are getting accustomed to the ease and reliability of EVs vs ICE - especially in old cars that often sit broken.  These conversions are breathing new life into cars that have otherwise been languishing unused.

Events

We hosted or attended over 10 events in 2023 not including the cars & coffee events!  From Miami, to TN to Detroit to Fremont along with England and more.  It was great to meet up with many of you and see your cars.  One of my great joys with this business is getting to hang out with like-minded car folks.  The Tech Seminar we hosted with Brent was our first where we allowed clients to attend on-line.  Expect more of these in 2024.

  

2024 Projections

We will be doing more of the same in 2024 that we accomplished in 2023.  

We are shooting to deliver 3-6 111RS in '24 and 6 Drakans.  EV conversions are in our gun sights with one already booked in for Feb.   We will expand our Service offerings into more sports cars with the goal of becoming the best shop for supercar service in the Temecula Valley.  

I plan to travel as much, maybe more, to see many of you.  LOG will be in Austin this year and we will be there with a 111RS.  I'm sure another trip to England will happen along with a much overdue trip to Japan.  A trip to Canada is possible along with my hometown, Detroit.  West Coast Lotus Meet will be held so a NorCal trip is guaranteed.  At least two Tech Seminars and a new HQ Warming Party (see below) are planned along with a Track Day or two and possibly a Wine Run.

We've identified several products that we plan to develop and introduce in 2024.  Our goal to keep the 111 cars on the road helps focus what parts we work on.  Expect some sexy items and a few more mundane items.  Emira parts are high on the list as they begin deliveries.  We sold our first tasty bit in 2004 - 20yrs ago!

The biggest recent development is that we should be in a building of our own.  We have found a building and opened escrow in Dec '23.  We will share it with my other company, Brand Assassins, as they need space as well.  Assuming the SBA loan process goes smoothly, we should be holding keys in March!

Needless to say, 2024 is going to be a fun year.  Delivering high quality parts and service remains our key mission and we appreciate all of you who continue to support us!  

Broken OEM Shifter

 The factory shifters on 2008 and later Elise/Exige/Evoras all feature a blue plastic pivot ball.  These are failing on cars.  We have a '09 Exige with only 7k street miles that is beginning to crack.  See the pictures below:

Though the shifter continues to work, it will eventually fail.  The shift cables on this car have also begun to fail and the client complained that the car was hard to shift on ocassion.  We've documented this even on the Evora: HERE.

So it is important to inspect not only the cables, but also your shifter on a occasion.

Shifter Update 10/24/16

Original concept/prototype.

We have been busy working on our shiftR111 for the Lotus Elise/Exige. The first prototype has been in the car for a while now and we are happy with its function. It is much improved over stock and anyone who has sat in our car has said as much. Almost everyone has gotten out of the car and asked "when will you have production parts" and "how soon can I get one!". The issue we have with the first iteration is it just costs way too much. Figuring that no one wants to buy a $2,000 shifter no matter how good it is, we have put a great deal of time and brain power into simplifying the design.

We redesigned the shifter while keeping the function and core concept the same, and reduced cost and complexity. After much discussion with our manufacturer and much internal brainstorming, we were able to come up with a lot of solutions. Version 2 has 73% less machined parts, 79% less welding and costs 35% less to make. The upside to this is that the shiftR111 is now much less complex which makes it much more cost effective and reliable. The downside is that we now have to spend another large chunk of money to get the machine shop to make us a new prototype. In the end, we think all this time, effort, and money will be worth it.

Here is a side of the new concept that has not been seen before.
Little treat for you blog readers. 

Eagle eyed readers will notice a number of changes. Note the retention of the stock reverse lockout collar and the provision for the hand brake. When the center console and shift boot are installed, the shifter will look stock. This setup can use any stock or aftermarket shift knob, but of course we recommend The Bollock. It will also be compatible with stock cables, our TRANScables, and our Shifter Re-Enforcer. The ultimate solution is combining all of these parts with the shifter to really bring the shifting to another level.

We have also tested the prototype with the LETSLA short throw shifter and it looks to be a good match. (Look for a kit coming soon to adapt our TRANScables to the LETSLA shifter.)

We will also have parts available that will facilitate running the shifter without the center console and/or without the handbrake. These parts are in development and we expect to have them shortly after the shifter is available for sale. The second prototype is currently being made, we will have to test it and then make production parts. We are shooting to have production parts done by the end of the year.

It also looks like with a few tweaks, it will fit in the Evora...

Evora Track Car Bodywork Mods

WIn our previous post we talked about an Evora track car we have here in the shop. In an effort to focus the car more for track use, it was decided to do a few modifications to the bodywork.
     The goals were:
          1) To make the clam easier and faster to remove.
          2) To improve air flow and heat extraction from the engine bay.

After looking the car over (and taking most of it apart to do the clutch replacement), we decided that rather than do a true race car quick release style of system, we keep it more simple. The basic plan was to essentially eliminate some attachments that we feel are just not needed on a track only car. We also switched out some attachment methods. For instance, in the trunk, we replaced 6 bolts with a 4 studs and nuts. There are a few advantages to this: the studs capture the shims so they don't fall out and they help align the clam when it is installed. We deleted the two in the center for simplicity.

We also had to address the things that attached the clam to the vehicle other than the fasteners. Namely the battery, coolant tank, and truck release cable.

The switch can be reached from the driver
seat or through the passenger side window.

We decided to relocate the battery to the passenger compartment behind the passenger seat. This setup has a number of advantages besides making it simpler to remove the clam. We are able to reduce weight, better weight distribution, and increase reliability with this modification. Moving the battery inside the car reduces the vibration and thermal stresses on it, it also gets a large bundle of wire out of the already crowded engine bay. Moving the battery gets weight off the rear of the car which helps with the polar moment of inertia of the vehicle. The battery switch we installed will also prevent the car from draining the battery while stored.

Nice little unit from Moroso really cleans up the
engine bay and gives a high performance look.

The coolant expansion tank was another issue we encountered as it too is attached to the clam. We looked into relocating the stock tank but opted to replace it entirely with a nice offthe-shelf unit from Moroso. This tank fit cleanly against the firewall and should last the life of the vehicle. Here again we were able to move weight off the rear of the car and increase reliability by getting rid of the stock plastic tank.

The truck release cable that runs inside the cabin to under the rear seat was the final small thing that we wanted to move to make clam removal simpler. We decided just to re-route the stock cable so it can be pulled from the rear of the vehicle. In the future, the hatch will probably be replaced with something a bit lighter and we may do away with the stock latch, but for now, this will work great.

Stock heat shield in place.

While we were at it with these modifications, we wanted to do something that would help reduce engine bay temperatures. We decided to reconfigure some of the heat management. Since this is a track only car, we do not have a trunk to keep cool, we were able to get rid of some heat shielding and do some ventilation. Lotus obviously had a tough time controlling engine bay temps with this "big" V6. Our plan was to remove all this heat shielding and ducting and allow the heat to escape out the back of the car, rather than through just a few small ducts.

Much cleaner.

We drilled several holes in the clam and also removed an access panel in the truck to vent the engine bay to the trunk area. We then removed the bumper and drilled several holes in it to vent the trunk/engine bay area to the rear of the car. Since this vehicle also has a muffler delete setup on it, we vented the floor of the trunk to give the hot air another option for exiting. We aligned the holes that we cut with the holes that were in the subframe.  These mods were inspired by the GT4 version of the car and should help lower engine bay temperatures. We also happen to think it looks pretty cool.

Deburring the edges with sand paper
is a pain but gives a finished look.

Rear bumper vent holes.

Swiss cheese.  We also painted the rear black so the orange would not show through the rear bumper holes

Luckily, the only thing this car will be
hauling is ass around the track.

The end result of all this is a car that is lighter, more reliable, and easier to work on.