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!

Drakan Aerodynamic Testing

Since day one, people have been requesting an aero package for the Drakan. We finally had some time to work on this project and we think the result is pretty awesome.  Naturally the wings needed to work and look good.  Ensuring that they were safe and offered proper aero balance to the car was critical to us.  The best way to do this was to go to the track with our driver and test.

Rendering of the car with wings and proposed mounts.

We decided to use a standard top mounted straight wing up front with F1 style mounts. The rear wing is a top mounted style as well, the lower surface of the wing is the most important for generating downforce so moving the mounts to the top and using a "swan neck" mounting solution is theoretically the most efficient. However, due to our car having a wind shield and roll hoops in the way, the effectiveness of the center portion of the rear wing is likely a bit diminished anyway. We chose this style anyway since frankly it just looks so good.  Due to the windshield, we raised the rear wing as high as we could to give a good balance of form and function, we did not want it looking like an F1 car from the 60s.

Lotus 49 from 1969 

Our goals for this test were: 

1. Test aero balance the of car with and without wings
2. Ensure the mounts were stout enough
3. Determine a good front wing mounting height. 

The production mounts will be made from CNC'd 6061-T6 aluminum, but for this test we simply water jet some parts of the same shape and thickness.  We designed three different height mounts for the front.  These prototype parts were installed onto a car at our shop to confirm fitment and position.  It met our expectations so we called our Ride&Handling Engineer, David Thilenius and headed to Spring Mountain.

Dave ran a total of 12 sessions and covered 93.5 miles on track. We tested on Spring Mountain's West 1.5 mile course. While not a particularly fast track, we did have at least one good 100+mph corner in which to judge the wings.  Since this was our first test of these wings, we felt it would be prudent to run at lower speeds to confirm the aero balance.  Not that we were concerned about our driver's safety!.  8^)   

Our wing mounts have fixed Angle of Attack positions that can easily be changed.  We tested every wing configuration and landed on a good setting.  We could not make the handling of the car dangerous. (We consider a tendency to oversteer a dangerous situation). The wings definitely helped to plant the car in the faster sections of the track and raised overall grip levels.  We hit tops speeds of 115mph and lateral acceleration of 1.5gs.  

Watch our video below.

Our mounts did appear to be plenty strong and stable so we have signed off on the design. We tested the different height positions for the front wing and we found that our lowest proposed position was just a bit too low and saw some minor scraping of the leading edge of the end plate. We put on different mounts that raised the wing 1.5" from the ground and never saw another issue, this will be our "track" mount going forward. We will also offer another mount that raises the wing 1.5" further from this position in case someone wants to run the front wing on the street.

Tufts and Smarty Cam

We also did some testing with an AiM Smarty Cam and some really high tech pieces of string to see what the air flow was doing around various parts of the car. We were happy to see that the strings for the most part behaved how we had expected and showed good air flow going into the radiator ducts and engine oil cooler.  Integrating the SmartyCam into the Drakan was easy since it is prewired for adding it.  We are big believers in using the data and video to improve driving on track and monitoring your car.

Overall it was a good test and we think Drakan customers will appreciate the performance of this upgrade.  The balance is safe and adds enough performance to make our gentleman racer clients feel even more confident on track.  Of course we know that it also looks superbly aggressive - and that never hurts!  Our next step is to head back to SMMR and test on one of their faster configuration and our man, Dave is ready - as soon as he gets back from racing at the Nurburgring.

Nose off for a quick inspection

Drakan Performance Test Results from MotorTrend

We met with three of the Motor Trend staff to conduct testing on the Drakan Spyder at Auto Club Speedway.  Nate Martinez was a our point man along with Kim Reynolds and Chris Walton.  Kim and Chris conducted the dynamic testing which was done at the end of the drag strip and in a large parking lot.  The car was instrumented by the guys and run through the paces.  Here are the results:

I am pleased with the numbers as they are close to what we estimated/measured in our testing.  Having an independent company verify as well conduct additional tests helps us validate our beliefs.

2015 Drakan TEST DATA
ACCELERATION TO MPH
0-30	1.4 sec
0-40	2.0
0-50	2.5
0-60	3.0
0-70	3.9
0-80	4.7
0-90	5.5
0-100	6.5
PASSING, 45-65 MPH	1.1
QUARTER MILE	11.1 sec @ 128.8 mph
BRAKING, 60-0 MPH	108 ft
LATERAL ACCELERATION	1.09 g (avg)
MT FIGURE EIGHT	22.9 sec @ 0.93 g (avg)
TOP-GEAR REVS @ 60 MPH	1,980 rpm

Drakan Cars East - Our Partners on the East Coast!

Developing, building, selling and servicing a car takes a real team of like-minded people/companies.  Much like Palatov Motorsports, Drakan Cars East (DCE) is another key partner for us with the Drakan Spyder.  Bill Thomas and Kurt Nehlig are partners in this venture and support the NorthEast region for us.  Not only will they sell and service the Drakans, they are fully capable of installing the powertrains.  DCE have proven to be more than just a dealer and have helped to make the Drakan more complete.  I've worked with Bill for nearly ten years on Lotus and knew that they would become a great asset for us.

powertrain installation at DCE

A key feature of the Drakan is that it is available as a Rolling Chassis without an engine or trans.  The engine that we recommend is the eRod LS3 from GM Performance Parts.  This is a 50 state emissions compliant engine that is availalble from your local GM dealer.  Clients can select this engine or other LS variants that may suit their needs/desires.  The transaxle choices are various Getrag gearboxes but others are available as well.  In fact sequential solutions have been run on the Palatov D2 and will be tested on our car as well.  DCE have full capability to conduct powertrain installations.






DCE took delivery of their Drakan Spyder as a Rolling Chassis for their client, Adrian.  This was the second Drakan that has been built.  They completed the full powertrain installation at their facility.  Their extensive experience with boutique cars helped us finish some incomplete features (windshield wiper).  Additionally they also suggested improvements like a rubber cap that finishes off the rear of the headlight housing (see below).  I attended their Drakan unveiling and was pleased at how well they had finished the car.  These improvements will be incorporated into all future cars.

See rubber cap on backside of headlight housing - a DCE innovation!

DCE & Adrian went to the track to put it through its paces.  The Drakan is a powerful car but the handling is predictable as the car communicates clearly.  The guys had some fun playing around with the suspension to tune it to their liking.  They have also been testing out a new paint protection coating that is working well on high impingement areas - which is an important consideration on an open wheel car with sticky tires.  They have had the car out for 2 or 3 track days so far and have been suitably impressed.  Needless to say, they can't wait for their track season next Spring!

Bill and Adrian making tweaks to the Triple Adj Fox Racing Shocks

Power to spare!

  DCE are a great partner for us and I'm confident that our collective clients will be well served by them.  

Exhaust Development: Lotus, Alfa & Now Drakan

We have been working with an exhaust specialist who designs and manufacturers systems here in CA for many years.  We've had them make the RACEpipe for the Lotus, our new Alfa 4CRpipe and now have handed them our Drakan to develop a track system.  Chuck designs each system and has a keen ear for good sounding systems that don't drone.  He started back in 1983 so has tremendous experience.  Sound is tested on each car and then undesirable frequencies are tuned out.  The Alfa system he developed for us is excellent as it kills the annoying drone that exists with the factory 'race' exhaust.  Each system is built from T304 Stainless that is either MIG or TIG welded.

I dropped off the Drakan this week so they could develop a track oriented system that would delete the catalytic converters and add a more melodic/sporty sounding muffler.  The Drakan is designed to use the eRod LS3 with the factory cats from GM along with a larger off the shelf muffler that is quiet enough to meet sound at Laguna Seca or Lime Rock.  This new track system will be louder but we requested a sound that would also be a bit more exotic.  The stock LS3 exhaust manifolds will be used to maintain reliability.

I snapped a bunch of random pictures.  I was asked not to shoot everything as they produce exhausts for many tuners including some popular German-focused tuners.

Naturally, I can hardly wait to get our Drakan back to hear it roar!

Drakan Spyder (Project Dragon) Update #13: Street Testing

Dave and Joe heading out

 We are long overdue with an update, sorry as we have been overly busy!  We helped finish assembling the first production Drakan up at Palatov.  Joe and I have made Portland our second hometown with the ramp up of this car.  Luckily Portland is a cool town to visit - shame we are usually too busy working!  Since the car arrived to our shop in Temecula, several items were finished including side view mirrors, lights, venting, exhaust testing, suspension tuning and heat management.  We'll cover some of these in this blog.

Dave working on his tan

Dave is a happy engineer

David Thilenius came out to run the car along a street test loop that he had used while doing Ride & Handling work at Hyundai.  Dave now has his own consulting company, you can visit his website: Thilenius Group.  

This test loop is a great place to tune ride quality as it has many different conditions and road surfaces that challenge a car.  Most people believe that CA roads are smooth - in fact they can be very rough.  They can be pretty unforgiving to many cars that were not tuned for these conditions.  Dave and Joe drove together with some tools in hand and made adjustments to the Fox Racing shocks and even a slight tweak to front toe.  Street testing is done at civil speeds and lots of boring steady-state speeds.  This allows Dave to really feel what is going on with the car.  After several hours, they landed on settings that I would then get to try out. 

Some of Dave's comments about the car included that the car was not as 'buzzy' on the road as he thought it might be.  The LS3 is not hard mounted to this chassis so the car remains smooth.  He also commented about how flat the car handled as it sways very minimally with almost no perceived squat or dive.  The suspension compliance is really remarkable and makes the car very comfortable.  It does not have the stiffness you might expect in a car that is designed to be so elemental and pure.  We think this along with the flat cornering will be very much appreciated by our clients.

Naturally I needed to test out Dave's work.  So I decided to drive the car up one of my favorite mountain roads: Mt.Palomar.  This road is frequented by sport bikers and has plenty of tight turns and elevation change.  You may recall the humorous video we made years ago at Palomar.

Gas cap is in the center!

I drove the Drakan down the 15 freeway and was immediately happy with the ride quality.  The car is quiet and smooth at freeway speeds and holding a conversation with a passenger is easy.  I exited at 76 and went east to Mt.Palomar.  I filled her up at Pala and enjoyed the fact that I can park the car on either side of the pump thanks to the center mounted gas cap.

The car ran through the bumpy roads comfortably.  The suspension simply soaked up the irregularities.  This car is a torque monster and I was able to go up the 'slow' side in 3rd gear.  It had enough power to pull the car from each corner exit without necessitating a downshift.  The grip levels were very high and fully confidence inspiring.  The rear of the car could be convinced to come out under power but only if you provoke it.  Steering effort builds as the wheel is turned and provides excellent feedback.  The steering needs some effort but is so direct that you feel truly connected to the road.  We had requested that this effort get reduced and Palatov responded with a geometry change that works nicely on the road as well as track.

Dave's tuning really made for a compliant ride.  Dare I say it may be the most comfortable sports car in our stable?  This is a testament to Dave's tuning but also the basic suspension design by Palatov.  The Fox shock dampening and soft spring rates were selected by us from our track testing and I think they really work well on the street.  This chassis is essentially the same raced by Palatov this year at Pikes Peak - they took the win in the Open class.  The Palatov D2RS runs heavier springs but is basically the same chassis as our Drakan.

Sportbikers love light sports cars!

Of course, not everything went as smoothly as the ride.  We had chosen a new high temp shifter cable housing to test on the car.  The manufacturer felt it may be a better solution for us.  We had been running a good cable from them on our test mule but also used an additional insulation sheath and had great track performance.  These cables are the same construction as the ones we spec on our Lotus TRANScables.  We thought the new cables without insulation might suffice.  We were wrong.  The cables began to freeze up when I was at the top of the mountain.  So I drove home with a few less gears than normal.  We'll swap back to standard cables + insulation to insure this does not happen again.  

Other niggles that I noted included side view mirrors that vibrate a bit, the lack of a dead pedal and the need for grip tape on the clutch pedal.  The side view mirrors will soon get thicker metal on the base plate and should help stabilize the mirrors.  A dead pedal is in the works and adding grip tape is simple enough.

What's with the different spoke count on those HREs?

Overall we are happy with the car and have some additional tweaks to make to it.  Many of our clients are asking for wings.  We'll get to that later this year.  The cornering speeds of this car are already so high that we think most of our clients will be happy enough.  Slicks and wings are in our plans - but first we need to catch our breath from getting this car fine tuned...

Project Dragon (Drakan Spyder) Update #12: More Track Testing &Improvements

We are working hard with the Drakan and a few weeks behind on our updates.  We been back to the track earlier in April for additional testing and up to Palatov/Lancair for body fitment two weeks ago.  We go back again next week to begin building the first official production car.  Keep reading to learn the latest...

More Track Testing

Joe and Dave went out to Spring Mountain once again to verify some changes that were made to the car. We had to test our new oil pan baffle, front suspension arms, and HRE wheels. 

Our previous test on SMMR's East Course 2.1 showed oil pressure dropping to 11 psi when the car was subjected to two quick successive left hand turns under hard braking. This drop in oil pressure was unacceptable to us - Dave is a pro and is driving the car hard so we know this is an extreme case. In all of our previous testing with Dave, oil pressure data was acceptable.  In fact we posted about our good performance on this blog entry.  Clearly this specific combination of left hand turns was too much for the stock pan to handle.  We got in contact with Improved Racing and had them send us an oil pan baffle and crank scraper kit. With the new baffle installed, our lowest oil pressure in the same corner was 24 psi. The Improved Racing baffle will now be standard on all Drakan Spyders with a Dailey Engineering dry sump offered as a future option.

We had a few handling related tweaks to try out as well; a new set of front wishbones and our new HRE wheels. The steering was a bit heavy on our test mule - even compared to similar cars with no power steering. Palatov redesigned the new front wishbones with different geometry that has less caster built in. These new arms are a drastic difference, the steering is now much lighter, and this should contribute to less driver fatigue both on the street and track.  Dave appreciated the reduced effort at the end of the test day!

The new HRE wheels were also slightly different. The front wheels have a bit more offset and the rears are 0.5" wider than what we were running in previous tests. Dave was pleased with the new wheels, he said the wider front track provided more grip. Admittedly, some of this improvement may have been due to fresh rubber, but the wheels definitely did not hurt the handling. 

Ultimately we turned 1:28s time on this circuit.  This compares favorably with a new Lotus V6 Cup R that is running slicks and a sequential.  This car is turning 1:27s at the hand of our good friend & Lotus Cup champ, Jack.  With slicks, we're sure we can shave a second or two off of our time.

Other updates

The new switch panel is in and operational. The backlighting looks awesome and the switch location and action is spot on. The ignition switch is locking so you can't accidentally shut off the car.  The horn and turn signals can be actuated without removing your hand from the wheel and all the rest of the switches are well within reach. The left hand panel which is home to our master kill switch and brake bias knob turned out well also.

The switch paneling is nice but the new dash from AiM has certainly stolen the show.  We posted a quick video on our Instagram page: HERE.  The MXS is now in production and it is a bolt in swap from our old MXL2. Functionally, it is almost exactly the same; visually, it is in another league. The MXS features a beautiful TFT display that not only looks gorgeous but offers more flexibility for different page displays. There is a street page with a conventional style dial tachometer, a race page with a sweeping tach, and a test page that can display 11 different parameters at once.  We are really pleased with this kit.  The Drakan will will be ready for AiM video so owners will be able to add any of AiM's cameras easily.

The other notable upgrade since our last post are the new rotors. We decided to up the braking performance of the Drakan with some 12.88" rotors from Girodisc, the same people who make our ULTRAdisc rotors for the Elise/Exige, Evora, and soon Alfa Romeo 4C (testing now). These disks are high quality, well proven pieces that add to the performance and reliability of the Drakan. Another plus of our rotor setup is that they are the same front to rear, this ultimately means that replacement rotors are going to be less expensive.  We are thinking about you guys who keep spares and are properly prepared...8^)