|
Browse by Tags
All Tags » 24 hours of lemons ( RSS)
-
|
Those of you who watch a lot of automotive TV shows are probably familiar with Year One's Keith Maney, who appears on My Classic Car, Dream Car Garage, American Muscle Car, Hot Rod TV, MuscleCar TV, Horsepower TV , etc. What you may not know about is Keith's insidious influence on this site; both yours truly and Andrew Stoy worked for Keith at YO (along with Driveshaft Through The Skull creator Walker Canada and military-vehicle expert commenter Clinto ), and he's a bad, bad influence on anyone who might want to retain some semblance of vehicular sanity. Naturally, I figured he'd be perfect for the 24 Hours Of LeMons , and he agreed that building a car for next year's LeMons South race would be a fine idea. The initial plan was to use "The World's Rustiest '78 Trans Am," conveniently sitting in the woods behind Year One's Georgia HQ, but that's not what happened… galleryPost('KeithDatsunHell', 3, '1969 Datsun Roadster Heading For...
|
-
|
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...
|
-
|
Welcome to Down On The Street , where we admire old vehicles found parked on the streets of the Island That Rust Forgot: Alameda, California. Today we're going to check out a car that proves what a small world this really is; I was over at the parents' place the other day- yeah, I'm still on speaking terms with them in spite of having been given a girl's name, since it's that name that's given me the gravel in my gut and the spit in my eye- and my mom asked, "Have you seen that race car parked down the street?" Race car? Sure enough, parked about five doors down from my childhood home, here's the El Moto Loco VW Golf from the 24 Hours Of LeMons SF race in May. One day you're scraping fenders with a car on the race track, and a few months later it's lowering the property values in your parents' neighborhood! These guys had some great Lucha Libre costumes, and they'd probably have made a run at People's Choice if it hadn't been...
|
-
|
OK, fine, we know the official rules state that "added structural elements which extend past the original bodywork line" aren't allowed in the 24 Hours Of LeMons, but how could anyone be against this kind of safety enhancement? Actually, that display is the result of a game of Volvo 240 Musical Chairs, in which you take one Volvo race car , the free parts car obtained to help build the race car, and another free Volvo… and you mix them all together and end up with two Volvo racers and a well-picked-over (but still useful) parts car to bring to the 24 Hours Of LeMons Arse-Freeze-A-Palooza in December. For the rest of the story, you must jump like a Fiesta bouncing off the Quadra-Bumper! With a mere 13 weeks remaining until the Arse-Freeze-A-Palooza race at Thunderhill, it's time for teams to get serious about car preparation (and those of you who haven't even started, we have one word of advice for you: PANIC!). While the Bent Belvedere was getting its cage installed...
|
-
|
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]
|
-
|
You know what sounds like fun? Heading up to the howling icy winds fresh mountain breezes of the Sierra foothills on the day after Christmas, climbing into a heater- and glass-free "race car" you and your loser friends bashed together with duct tape and JB Weld, and battling your frozen fingers and 80 or so other disintegrating hoopties for $1500 in nickels and major bragging rights! Yes, we're talking about the 24 Hours Of LeMons Thunderhill race, otherwise known as LeMons Arse-Freeze-A-Palooza , and the deadline is looming rapidly: October 18. You'd have to be crazy to want to do this, so of course I'll be there with my Black Metal V8olvo teammates… and it's not too late for you to get in on the fun! Make the jump for the official info. Let's face it: Nobody needs to risk life and limb driving some hooptie-ass car in a circle. Clearly, there's something about hassles and grief racers like. With that in mind, we're working hard to make LeMons'...
|
-
|
Everyone wants to see more French cars at the 24 Hours of LeMons , but where can you find one that's cheap enough and has some chance of making it around the track a few times? Craigslist, of course! I found this listing on my own (yes, I'm always searching for a French Hell Project), and then at least five readers sent it in as a tip. I'm already on a team , so I'm reluctantly letting this deal pass me by, but I know someone out there will want to race this fine automobile in December. Remember, the seller points out that it's the "size of an Acura Legend or an Alfa 164, but about 900lbs lighter than both!" Why, we've even had a DOTS Medallion ! [ Craigslist SF , go here if ad disappears] galleryPost('300BuckMedallion', 3, '300 Buck Renault Could Be Yours');
|
-
|
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...
|
-
|
Not very shockingly, the Mercedes-Benz 450SEL beat up on the Pontiac Bonneville in our 6.9 Liters Of Misery Choose Your Eternity poll on Friday, no doubt because voters were counting camshafts or dollars in the original purchase price or something. Today we're going to have the traditional post-24 Hours Of LeMons PCH, only instead of letting you choose between the cars that finished #1 and #2 (in this case, a Supra and a Jetta) we're going to choose between two cars we really, really want to see someone bring to a LeMons race. They were expensive when new, featured sophisticated DOHC V8s and rear-wheel-drive, and came equipped with dizzyingly complicated electronics and plush luxury gear… yet it's possible to pick either one up for a LeMons-friendly price today! We've seen the Porsche 928 in the Hel l Garage before ; in fact, we've had more 928s here than any other car! Why is that, you ask? They were insanely expensive, insanely hard to fix, and insanely (for their...
|
-
|
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...
|
-
|
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'...
|
-
|
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!
|
-
|
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');
|
-
|
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...
|
-
|
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...
|
More Posts Next page »
|
|
|