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After a long day of 24 Hours Of LeMons BS inspections, we knocked off for the day when it got too dark to see those "junkyard" Bilstein shocks or "Katrina flood cars." Out of the 76 cars that will be racing tomorrow, we probably got through 45; the others weren't... quite... ready... yet (cue sounds of Sawzalls, frantic phone calls to junkyards, welding). At that point, the judge wigs came off and the whole LeMons crew went prowling the pits in search of quality barbecue (embarrassingly enough, we were treated to a fine meal of fajitas served by the guys to whom we handed out the biggest BS penalty all day- glad those guys don't hold a grudge). I'll be too busy with Round Two of inspections tomorrow morning, but I'll do my best to put up some posts once the race itself gets rolling. For now, enjoy the sight of this excellent Field Expedient Hood Scoop, crafted out of the license plates that came with the car: a monkeyshit brown $125 '76 Ford Mustang...
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After a long day of 24 Hours Of LeMons BS inspections, we knocked off for the day when it got too dark to see those "junkyard" Bilstein shocks or "Katrina flood cars." Out of the 76 cars that will be racing tomorrow, we probably got through 45; the others weren't... quite... ready... yet (cue sounds of Sawzalls, frantic phone calls to junkyards, welding). At that point, the judge wigs came off and the whole LeMons crew went prowling the pits in search of quality barbecue (embarrassingly enough, we were treated to a fine meal of fajitas served by the guys to whom we handed out the biggest BS penalty all day- glad those guys don't hold a grudge). I'll be too busy with Round Two of inspections tomorrow morning, but I'll do my best to put up some posts once the race itself gets rolling. For now, enjoy the sight of this excellent Field Expedient Hood Scoop, crafted out of the license plates that came with the car: a monkeyshit brown $125 '76 Ford Mustang...
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After a long day of 24 Hours Of LeMons BS inspections, we knocked off for the day when it got too dark to see those "junkyard" Bilstein shocks or "Katrina flood cars." Out of the 76 cars that will be racing tomorrow, we probably got through 45; the others weren't... quite... ready... yet (cue sounds of Sawzalls, frantic phone calls to junkyards, welding). At that point, the judge wigs came off and the whole LeMons crew went prowling the pits in search of quality barbecue (embarrassingly enough, we were treated to a fine meal of fajitas served by the guys to whom we handed out the biggest BS penalty all day- glad those guys don't hold a grudge). I'll be too busy with Round Two of inspections tomorrow morning, but I'll do my best to put up some posts once the race itself gets rolling. For now, enjoy the sight of this excellent Field Expedient Hood Scoop, crafted out of the license plates that came with the car: a monkeyshit brown $125 '76 Ford Mustang...
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Is it better for a car to go out in a blaze of glory on the racetrack than to die an ignominious death of a thousand minor failures? We can all ponder that question as we study the corpse of the Team Come From Behind Probe, which didn't finish in the top 50 at Altamont but hung in there for most of the race despite some broken parts. Yurikaze found the Probe- roll cage still intact- at the Ecology yard in Long Beach, and was kind enough to share his photos with us. Make the jump to read Yurikaze's description, plus see the entire gallery (and a bonus gallery of the Come From Behind Probe during happier times). Yes, that's the Vanilla Pride Little Tree air freshener I handed out at the race ! galleryPost('DOTJLeMonsProbe', 3, 'Come From Behind Probe Down On The Junkyard'); I was walking through the Long Beach ecology looking for an engine for my AE86, and came across this Ford Probe with a rollcage sitting at the edge of the import section. Noticing the rollcage...
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Even though we vowed to crush Team Make:Way's Escort like a drained beercan beneath our hobnailed racing shoes (as the Lord Humungus would say about their car , what a puny plan!), the little slushbox-equipped Escort managed to evade the wrath of Odin and hang on for a respectable 33rd-place finish at the race. They had a scary moment when a front wheel parted company with the vehicle on the track, but for the most part they kept on knocking out lap after lap. Good work, Make:Way, and next time we hope to see some junkyard turbocharging on that thing! [MakeWayRacing.com] galleryPost('LemonsAlt88', 9, 'Team MakeWay At 24 Hours of Lemons');
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When we started out to build a V8-powered Volvo 244 for the May 10-11 24 Hours of LeMons race, most of the team members assumed we'd be using the good ol' C4 automatic transmission. You know, automatics are way easier to swap, with no troublesome clutch linkage to futz with. But Crew Chief Hellhammer (formerly known as Dave) pointed out that he's built plenty of manual-equipped rods, and then he directed our attention to several Ford V8-compatible T-5 5-speeds (and no C4s) sitting in the weeds behind his shop (he's been working on a '57 Ford project, so his stash-o-parts is heavy on Ford running gear). With our minds filled with images of slushboxes overheating and dying at last year's Altamont race, we decided to go with three pedals instead of two... then held our collective breath when it came time to make it happen for real. As it turned out, this is a ridiculously easy swap (well, by the standards of weird engine swaps, that is). The 5-speed shifter even lined...
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We were trying to take the high road with this racecar thing, not thump our chests too hard about the way our Ford 302-powered Volvo 244 was going to annihilate the competition at Altamont... but then the gentleman in the photo above, Jason Torchinsky of Team Make:Way , decided to throw down the gauntlet with this taunting email: And, yes, we'll be at Altamont— we're looking forward to helping push your car off the track and console your sobbings with the gracious tone of a victor Now, Mr. Torchinsky owns a Reliant Scimitar , so you figure he'd know a thing or two about futility . So let's talk about Make:Way's car. It's a 1993 Ford Escort; they claim that they were reduced to buying one of the weakest, most shoddily-built vehicles ever to creep out of Dearborn under its own so-called power because "nobody sells anything interesting AND running for $500 or less." This speaks volumes about their lack of experience with cheap car shopping. Why, you...
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It seemed like such a great idea a few months ago: Over here , we had a $100 Volvo 244. Over there , a free Ford 302 engine. A little welding, a bit of cutting, some duct tape, and voila ! Easy V8 Volvo for the 24 Hours of LeMons , you betcha! Actually, we all knew we were taking on a ridiculously ambitious somewhat challenging project, especially since sweat and ingenuity would have to substitute for dollars in order to get under the $500 budget, but we've got the junkyard scroungers and fabricatin' maniacs to get the job done. Here's one example of the many critical details that must be dealt with when putting together a Frankensteined beast like ours: the throttle linkage. Our '84 Volvo DL's original Red Block engine had an elegant cam-and-linkage throttle-control setup that involved a 90° shift in rotation axis before getting to the throttle body, as shown in the photo above. However, we're stuffing a V8 with an ancient Holley 600 into the engine compartment...
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Since Team Armageddon's 1965 Ford Mustang caught the interest of so many of our readers, we're going to show you more of it. And not just still photos- thanks to helpful team member Marco Maggiora (check out his race photos here ), we have some action-packed in car video for you, complete with roaring V8 noise. Make the jump to check it out. galleryPost('THLMustangTop', 3, 'The Team Armageddon Mustang Part 1'); newVideoPlayer("Mustang_Thunderhill_2.flv", 475, 376); Here's some race footage with a rear-facing camera. Yes, we know, the '65 Mustang doesn't handle quite as well as the other cars on the track... but just listen to it! newVideoPlayer("Mustang_Thunderhill_1.flv", 475, 376); And now some nighttime action, this time with the camera facing forward. With temperatures in the 30s (and no glass other than the windshield) and no track lighting, this was definitely a challenging night for a driver trying to control a rattly 60s Detroit...
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Even though an 80s Ford Crown Victoria with a 302 under the hood probably doesn't stand much of a chance of beating the nimbler cars, we're still rooting for Team Sin City LeMons. That's because they've got North Las Vegas Barbie riding on the bumper, a fur-covered roll cage, and some other nice features... galleryPost('THLCrownVic', 12, 'Sin City Lemons Crown Victoria'); How about casino carpeting for a vinyl top? These fearless Nevadans drove a woodgrain station wagon in the very first 24 Hours of Lemons race, and they're going to roll the dice again today! Speaking of dice, check out this hood ornament. This car needs to be the Official State Car for the Silver State. Dice, chips, and cards- what more does a man need?
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