24 Hours of LeMons

[mock_glh]

This weekend I was part of a team that raced in the 24 Hours of LeMons event. Definitely one of the coolest I've ever seen. The cars have to be built for five hundred dollars or less. However, since they are race cars, tires, brakes and safety equipment (roll cage,belts,etc.) are not counted as part of the budget so you can spend as much as you have to on that stuff. In addition, you can sell off some of the original parts such as the interior, wheels,tires, etc. and get credit toward more race stuff. You can go over budget but you will be penalized 1 lap for every $100 of assessed value.

Our team had a '95 Neon 4-door with single cam engine, some stiffer front springs, light swaybars and Hankook tires (minimum 200 wear rating). We had 5 drivers, three local guys and two from Michigan. I was the appointed mechanic and ironically I never had to get my hands dirty. The car ran for the entire 14 hours of racing (not sure why they call it 24 hours) without a single problem. It didn't get hot (stock radiator!), didn't use any oil, didn't wear the tires much, and ran and handled great.

We ended up finishing 8th out of 98 entries and surely would have done better if not for a few black flag penalties (dumb stuff :nod:). The winner was a yellow Volvo with a Ford V8. We won an award for the "Least Horrible Yank Tank" (best American car). Anyway, you had to see some of the creativity to believe it.

[mock_glh]

here are a few more pics:

[Mario]

Great event! I read about it in Hot Rod about a year ago. I've wanted to participate in that and in the GRM challenge for quite some time. Nice to hear how well your team placed. Congrats.

[Badger]

congrats!! fuuny pics BTW

[BadAssPerformance]

Sounds like a blast! Nice pics, nice job on 8th too :thumb:

[2.216VTurbo]

Good fun:eyebrows: Tell Dave his suit is getting a little tight though:yuck: On the RHD Mini, what was the function of the tube going into the exhaust then into the passenger cabin?

[Juggy]

there was a team from windsor that got a car entered in the lemons event lol

it was a 97 stratus...team name was prolly RTP (realtimeperformance)

[mock_glh]

On the RHD Mini, what was the function of the tube going into the exhaust then into the passenger cabin?

Wideband O2 sensor. At first I thought it was a flamethrower but then I recognized a part on the cable that mine has.

[dunny]

Hell Yeah! Looks like it was a blast. Myself and some of my local friends were going to participate but never moved forward with it. We all agreed a 1st gen neon would do well - now you have confirmed it. Nice job!

[Sgt Craig]

My friends mike and Don Howard where there.Im thinking of going to the Nelson Ledges one.

[ATaylorRacing]

Someone on the 3cylinder.com forum built a 600cc Honda motor cycle motored Geo metro and did well in his race....it might have been another versin of this one, don't know.

[t3rse]

My friends do that every year. Check out the video on youtube of them demolishing the bmw (they vote on one car to crush and you have 15 minutes to take off everything you can, but it still has to roll). This car has some serious money in it...big mistake.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4tuap8DVRQ

[mock_glh]

Someone on the 3cylinder.com forum built a 600cc Honda motor cycle motored Geo metro and did well in his race....it might have been another versin of this one, don't know.

It was probably this one. These guys were running near the front of the pack until they broke the trans. They brought it in, swapped in another engine/trans and continued racing. Then it blew the engine (threw a rod). That finished them for the first day but they put the good engine together with the good trans and went back out there for the second day's racing. It lasted until a few minutes before the end of the race when the drive chain broke. Tough luck but real spirit.
http://jalopnik.com/5119427/and-the-arse-freeze+a+palooza-lemons-winner-is-the-metro-gnome-motorcycle+engined-geo