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A week or two (or three) after every 24 Hours Of LeMons race , we put up a big, browser-crashing collection of all the photos we were able to scrape up of all the cars. Yes, it's Über Gallery time once again! Because the Jalopnik guys on the scene were pretty busy beating their Celica into shape , we don't have quite as many photographs as we've had from past races (such as New England '08 , South '08 , SF '08 , Thunderhill '07 , and SF '07 ). However, many teams responded to our call for photos and accounts, so there's some good insider stuff to be seen here. Photo credits and thanks to The Mustache Race Team , Micah Jones, Nick Pon, Joey Church, Drew Colwell, Ben Ellinger, Eric Driscoll, Typhoon5000 , Chris Campbell, Alec Peeples, Art Hare, David Spinnett, Chris Droste, David Houser, and Billy Elliot. We had to shorten some of the accounts below, in order to keep our server hamsters from flying off their little wheels due to excessive speed; turns out...
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The Pontiac Fiero may be one of the most perfect 24 Hours Of LeMons racers that very little money can buy. On paper, it looks like it should dominate: mid-mounted V6 engine, lightweight plastic body, and so on… but Fieros always blow up at LeMons. That's what makes them so great, because the spirit of the race is best captured with a sure-to-disintegrate fast car that makes heroes of its team members. And hey, when hell freezes over one day a Fiero will take the checkered flag! Until then, we'll be able to read accounts such as the one written by Seven Lap Fiero team member Eddie Alterman for the New York Times. Be sure to watch the highly entertaining video in the article, and then contemplate the pervasive, STD-esque spread of my term " Malaise Era ," which gets dropped in the piece. [New York Times]
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It's 2:00 AM on race day in a nondescript warehouse farm just outside of Detroit. Bryan and I are bending the roll cage hoop while Bill cuts the mounting plates and Ben notches tubing. Our Celica-turned-race car sits dejectedly on jack stands, gutted and ready for welding. Preparation work that normally takes weeks is being compressed into two days and crucial safety equipment is being fabricated on a college-term-paper timeline. A final pull on our tubing bender and a vital component of the tool breaks. This is racing. It had been 24 hours of non-stop work, final checks and double checks, desperate scavenging for tools and parts which under normal circumstances would take weeks to acquire, but favors are called in, neighbors lend a helping hand, and the impossible becomes possible. We manage the installation with no time to spare, and the skies have opened up and poured down flooding rains upon Detroit, slowing our rush to the track We arrived at Toledo Speedway about an hour after...
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We're still in 24 Hours of LeMons racing season, and that means it's time to show the top finishers in the most recent race: LeMons Detroit-ish, aka LeMons Toledo! In fact, we've got shots of all the cars that managed at least one lap in Toledo last weekend (which featured more Crown Victorias than a typical police chase ). When you're done here, be sure to check out the top cars from other LeMons events, including LeMons New England '08 , LeMons South '08 , LeMons SF '08 , LeMons Arse-Freeze-A-Pa-Looza '07 , and LeMons SF '07 . If you're on one of these teams and would like to see your photos and/or account included in our upcoming LeMons Toledo Über Gallery , send them to me ASAP! #1: Sofa King, Toyota Supra #2: Junk Player Special, VW Jetta #3: Caintmakit Racing, Acura Integra #4: The Latch-Key Kids, Dodge Neon #5: Size Matters Chrysler, Plymouth Fury #6: SharT Attack, BMW E30 #7: Team Non Sequitur, Acura Integra #8: Pleasant Valley Racers/Team...
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The People's Curse is a hallowed 24 Hours of LeMons tradition, in which the teams vote to destroy the car they hate the most. Sometimes the Curse goes to a car suspected of blowing past the $500 spending limit (e.g., this BMW 740 ), sometimes it goes to a car driven too aggressively (e.g., this BMW E30 ), and sometimes it goes to a car for perceived cheating and aggro driving (e.g., this Mazda 626 ). We've even seen a car get the Curse for being too slow! But we've never, ever seen a car that gets hit with The People's Curse and wins the People's Choice trophy. That's just what happened with the Team First Blood GMC Sonoma in Toledo yesterday... galleryPost('LT08Curse', 3, 'First Blood Sonoma Most Loved And Most Hated Entry At Toledo'); I asked LeMons official and Ecurie Ecrappe member TheEastBayKid to explain why First Blood got the Curse, and he couldn't say. Was it the no-doubt-terrible handling and extra wheels flying through competitors'...
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After leading for much of the race, the #2 Sofa King Supra just grabbed the win in Toledo. They overcame a 5-lap BS Inspection penalty… which isn't surprising, given that this team is made up of guys who work at Pratt & Miller . We'll have the People's Curse- and more- for you when the photos arrive; for now, make the jump to see the rest of the Toledo Top Five. 2nd Place: #5, Junk Player Special Volkswagen Jetta 3rd Place: #01, Caintmakit Racing Acura Integra 4th Place: #17, The Latch-Key Kids Chrysler Neon 5th Place: #67, Size Matters Chrysler Plymouth Fury Yes, the Latch-Key Kids and Size Matters Chrysler teams are veterans of many LeMons races, with plenty of top-contender finishes between them. They'll be the ones to beat at Houston and/or Thunderhill this year!
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Even with numerous machines getting knocked out of the Toledo Death March, the survivors continue to roar around the track in the quest for the Flag That Is Checkered. I've just received word on the People's Curse, photos of which will be posted as soon as someone at the track can get connected to some internet tubes; for now, here are some more shots of the action on the track and pits. galleryPost('TL08SundaySunday', 3, 'The Race Goes On In Toledo');
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The tale of the Pontiac Fiero entered by the Car & Driver guys at the 24 Hours of LeMons SF in May was indeed heartbreaking: after Mike Austin's sister Erica spent three days towing the car all the way out from Michigan, the plastic Pontiac managed seven laps before clutch and transmission woes made it a permanent fixture in the pits. My team was pitted nearby, and we were impressed by the C&D team's good humor in the face of their nightmare. For the Toledo race, they came roaring back with a new name (Seven Lap Fiero), and things were going great for a while… By all accounts, the Fiero was quite fast (vindicating the legions of Fiero zealots who fill their forums with lists of reasons for the Fiero being the ultimate 24 Hours of LeMons car), but then disaster struck. They got rear-ended in most crushing fashion by a team that will remain nameless (because I couldn't get that info) and the brake lines took some sort of impossible-to-repair-quickly damage. Let's hope...
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The tale of the Pontiac Fiero entered by some Car & Driver guys (not, as I may have implied earlier, actually sponsored by C&D ) at the 24 Hours of LeMons SF in May was indeed heartbreaking: after Mike Austin 's sister Erica spent three days towing the car all the way out from Michigan, the plastic Pontiac managed seven laps before clutch and transmission woes made it a permanent fixture in the pits. My team was pitted nearby, and we were impressed by the team's good humor in the face of their nightmare. For the Toledo race, they came roaring back with a new name (Seven Lap Fiero), and things were going great for a while… By all accounts, the Fiero was quite fast (vindicating the legions of Fiero zealots who fill their forums with lists of reasons for the Fiero being the ultimate 24 Hours of LeMons car), but then disaster struck. They got rear-ended in most crushing fashion by a team that will remain nameless (because I couldn't get that info) and the brake lines took...
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According to TheEastBayKid , 16 out of 54 cars have been knocked out of the race by ain't-coming-back-nohow mechanical problems ranging from thrown rods to garbooned suspensions to fires… oh, wait, another message just came in: two more dead cars just dragged off the track. Perhaps the lemonicide results from the lack of the all-night wrenchathon the crews at other LeMons races get (what, you think anyone sleeps between racing sessions?), but we'll have to speculate on that some other time. That's because we've got the new Top Three list for you; the current leader is the #2 Sofa King Supra with its weight-saving custom roof. Right behind the Supra is the #95 SharT Attack Racing BMW. In third place, we have the #5 Junk Player Special VW.
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Some heroic late-night wrenching — and a quick trip an hour north to Detroit — after yesterday's disastrous loss of a front wheel — has helped the #99 Celica get back on the track here at the Toledo-Detroit LeMons race. Jalopnik intern Andy Didorosi was at the helm when the Celica (and its Swedish roof) hit the track again around 6:30 AM. We're sure we'll have more details later this morning, as this Jalop was only able to make it down to the race for a quick one-hour check-in.
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The difference between the 24 Hours of LeMons Detroit-ish and the other LeMons races is that there are no busybodies brandishing noise ordinances and forcing the fun to stop at 9:00 PM in Toledo. These beater-bashing lunatics are going to race for a full, nonstop 24 hours! galleryPost('LT08NightRace1', 3, 'Night Racing At 24 Hours Of LeMons Toledo');
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You think Sarah Palin might have imagined, back in her Mustang Grande days , that one day there would be a racing penalty named after her? Strange the way one's life can take such twists and turns, eh? So, the way the Sarah Palin punishment works: First, the miscreant must don a camouflage mask, put on lipstick, and pick up a toy rifle. Next, raccoon urine is sprayed all over him or her (yes, really!). While carrying a baby doll, the miscreant must then find a stuffed bear hidden somewhere in the pits; upon hunting down- and presumably blowing the head clean off- the bear, the baby's diaper must be changed. We like it! The hapless racer who got hit with the Sarah Palin Penalty ended up searching and searching for the stuffed bear, finally returning after quite a while… with a different stuffed bear! The LeMons Supreme Court took mercy on him and accepted the incorrect bear, however, and his team is back in the race now.
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The '88 Celica GT-S , manned by Jalopnoids Andy Didorosi and Ben Wojdyla, showed up for tech inspection three hours and 22 minutes after the race began, then proceeded to rack up three black flags for what TheEastBayKid calls "hitting stuff." He also says they're "pretty quick when they're out there." And… oh, no! Late-breaking news from the track says the Celica "blew a hub and launched the wheel," and had to be dragged off the track. Damn!
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There have already been some casualties, including the current contender for the We Got Screwed award: the Hot Rod Lincoln, which threw a rod driving off the trailer . The Rubber Biscuit Racing Caprice , which was seriously fast at LeMons South , was the early leader, but then it… threw a rod. Lots of connecting rods flying around Toledo tonight! Now we've got the Shar T Attack Racing BMW in the lead; make the jump to see the rest of the Top Five! galleryPost('LT08Hour5', 5, 'Hour 5 Leaders At LeMons Toledo'); 2nd place: #5, Junk Player Special 3rd place: #08, Squeeze My Lemon Part Deux 4th place: #67, Size Matters Chrysler 5th place: #22, Everybody Poops
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