With CMP approaching fast, Black Flag Racing is once again racing the clock to get the #86 car ready. From installing the RBB3, Accusump, and oil cooler to fabricating mounts, building custom baffles, modifying the power steering line, and somehow fixing a solenoid with fuel line, a spare cap, and JB Weld, this is race prep the only way we know how: chaotic, stubborn, funny, and just functional enough to inspire confidence.

Halfway through the K24 RBB3 swap and—suspiciously—everything is going according to plan. With key components retained for simplicity and reliability, and critical upgrades already in place, Black Flag Racing is setting the stage for a strong finish. Next up: tuning, cooling, and making sure it all survives South Carolina.

The backup plan is dead, and honestly, good riddance. Instead of settling for a K24A8, Black Flag Racing scored a proper K24 RBB TSX engine from JDM in Springfield, Virginia. Now the mission shifts to making the crossover smart, simple, and fast: retain the Accord-side hardware, sort the ECU tuning, and get ready to drop in a stronger, higher-ceiling K-series this weekend.

We went to pick up our dream K24A2 and left with a profound sense that the universe had conspired against us instead. With the clock ticking to our next race, we’re pivoting to a low-mile K24A8 arriving Monday—less glory, more reliability. It’s not the engine we wanted, but it might be the one that survives.

After New Orleans, we learned two things. First, a K24 can apparently convert itself from “engine” to “evidence” with very little notice. Second, nothing strengthens team morale quite like standing in the rain, staring at a hole in the block large enough to make you question your life choices and your parts budget at the same time. So naturally, we responded the only reasonable way possible: by trying to source another K24A2, clearing the schedule, and preparing to do it all again before South Carolina. At Black Flag Racing, catastrophic failure is never the end of the story—it is just the moment the next bad idea starts looking really attractive.

Black Flag Racing turned an abandoned 2007 Honda Accord into a 24 Hours of Lemons race car in just five weeks, then hauled it to New Orleans for a weekend of chaos. After a catastrophic K24 engine failure, a rain-soaked paddock engine pull, and a heroic push across the finish line, the team still brought home 17th in Class C.

Good weather finally showed up, so Black Flag Racing called in the cavalry—friends and family with gloves, grit, and a worrying tolerance for chaos. In one productive Saturday, we installed the battery cut-off, ran the trunk power cable, finished primary roll cage welds, wrestled the oil pan (yes, the engine got lifted), swapped in a new oil filter and belt, wired the radiator fans, and cut hood holes for a “novel” cooling idea involving the resurrected heater. Next up: fire suppression, final welding, seat mount, and transmission fluid.

Rain tried to cancel Black Flag Racing’s plans, so we upgraded the 2007 Honda Accord anyway—soaked driveway, wet tools, zero excuses. The factory air box and resonator got evicted, a cold air intake went in, and the ignition system got a refresh with NGK spark plugs from Advanced Auto Parts and Mishimoto ignition coils from Summit Racing. Did this add a mountain of horsepower? Probably not. Did it add confidence, reliability, and just enough intake noise to convince us we’re faster? Absolutely. If race prep required sunshine, we’d all be driving stock.

Three weeks out, the doubters are getting loud—but so is the metal work. Last night we cut, fit, and tacked the roll cage piping with the cage in place, thanks to a SolidWorks-backed plan from our race engineer that turned “driveway chaos” into something dangerously close to precision. HVAC is gone, the battery’s relocated, the race seat is dry-fitted, the steering column came out and went back in, and the Accord is officially past the point of no return. We’re not hoping to be ready—we’re building a machine that will perform.

Black Flag Racing logged a productive winter weekend on the 2007 Honda Accord build despite high winds, snow, and sub-20°F temperatures. The team dry-fitted the roll cage and confirmed the kit will require substantial fabrication, then pivoted to other priorities to stay on schedule for NOLA.

We spent a frozen weekend continuing to turn our 2007 Accord into a race car: new calipers, hubs, and coil-overs—plus a stubborn strut bolt that required an absurd amount of drilling and mild emotional bargaining. We fixed the headlights, bent the fender back, then got a Kirkey Racing seat and a “prefab” Summit roll-cage.

With snow and ice making outdoor work miserable, race prep took an unexpected turn indoors—straight into the kitchen. What followed was a low-budget automotive cooking experiment involving brake calipers, an oven, and a lot of misplaced confidence. The goal was simple: warm the metal, make the paint behave, and avoid freezing fingers. The result was bright yellow calipers, a house that briefly smelled like hot steel, and renewed faith in our progress on the Honda Accord. Questionable decisions were made, progress was achieved, and the oven lived to see another day.

The car is free…soon it will be time to get back to work

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