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Lotus Evora 400 first drive

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Last week Tom Sutton from Boardwalk Lotus invited the GGLC to swing by and take a look at the new Evora 400 which will be begining US deliveries later this summer. This particular car was one of two euro-spec demo cars that have been going all over the US to attend the auto show circuit and had 21000 kms on it. I got the chance to drive it for a few miles and wanted to write up my thoughts on the car. These are all my personal opinions and will be coloured by my experiences from owning an Elise for 10 years and an Evora S IPS for ~8 months.… Read the rest

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cars personal review

Lotus Elise Suspension comparo: Base Vs Nitron 46mm SA Vs Penske SA

One of the great things about being a car guy in CA is that there is a large number of fellow addicts around. This means that if you ever want to put some high dollar upgrades on a car you can usually find someone with a similar setup and get some first hand info about it. The latest to take advantage of this was Vincent from the GGLC who has been thinking of getting a set of single adjustable coilovers for his Elise and was having a tough time deciding between the Nitron 46mm Race Pro 1-Way and the BWR Penske Single Adjustable.… Read the rest

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cars personal thoughts videos

Lotus Evora S IPS on track – Take Two

In my previous post about the Evora S on track I spent a lot of time complaining about the 400 treadwear tires that the car was on. I was getting a lot of tire lock under braking and the car generally did not have enough grip on the track. Luckily I was then able to replace the tires with a set of Michelin Pilot Super Sport tires on the optional forged “sport” wheels for the Evora and hit Laguna with the GGLC once more.

As you can see from the video I was able to pull a 1:48 lap without really maximizing any of the turns.… Read the rest

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work

Spring 2016 EKO Hackathon report

Building on the success of the Fall 2015 EKO Hackathon, I was privileged to help organize the Spring 2016 EKO Hackathon. This time we kept the same event structure for the hackathon but conducted the bulk of the hacking and the presentations at the offsite EKO location. We did have some of the inevitable wifi challenges that offsite events bring but in the end it was a successful event with a lot of great work being done by the hackers. As with the last hackathon we made it a point to invite folks from outside engineering and had healthy representation from groups like support, services, education and BTC in the final list of 44 hacks.… Read the rest

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cars personal thoughts

Shelby Mustang GT350R Track Review

A few weeks ago Ford invited GGLC members to come down to Laguna Seca and drive the new Shelby Mustang GT350 as part of their North American track tour. I immediately signed up for it but having done a few of these manufacturer events I was not expecting much more beyond some power point presentations and a couple of lead follow laps – boy was I in for a surprise 🙂

I showed up at Laguna Seca with some friends in the afternoon and after signing the usual waivers we got down to the days program. It started with a large tent that contained several Ford performance cars including the Focus ST, Fiesta ST, Raptor pickup and a couple of the new GT350s as well.… Read the rest