Frank- I'm in too.
I also was told that Lemons was moving to Gingerman next year, but didn't know that Nelson's was doing their own.
Whatever - let's do it.

 

We ran at BW and at Thunderhill this year. It is a great fun race. We finished 19th overall and 4th in class in BOTH races.... How is that for consistency? You do not need a fast car, you just need a reliable car with good drivers. I can't believe this 1990 Mazda 323 1.6L, 82HP monster is still running after two full Lemons races. It may not look pretty or be fast, but it gets the job done.

 

They joke about Honda engine failures, but I do not recall the typical engine failure.

We just got an email with the season series constructor champion. It was BMW this year taking over from Mazda.

Miatas get judged harshly because noone really believes you can get one for $500 and they are fast. A fast car is nice to make passing easier, but the keys to the race are reliability and avoiding penalities. You can do really well if you master those even without a fast car. We run a Saab 9000. Certainly not the best, but we could do well with it if . . . .

Look at http://www.24hoursoflemons.com/results/ and go back and look at what cars win. It will give you ideas. Even better, go to Jalopnik and search for 24 Hours of LeMons. You can find pages like this: http://jalopnik.com/5412318/the-top-...-2009/gallery/
where you can see cars in finishing order with lap times.

Well worth doing. Great fun.

 

Honda=Blown head gaskets

 

I am told that they know that it would take the punishment and the sponsors will pick on you to level the playing field.

This is just way to much fun to let pass by. I went into the Honda Dealer last week to buy my wife the Mini van she wanted we traded in our 10 year old van. the guy who does the trade in pricing I got to know. I gave him my card and said to call me on every car he offers 500 on the trade in and he said he would let me have them. SO Idea to the group if your looking for a 500 beauty go make friends with a dealership they come across them from time to time. I will post again when I fine by BATTLESTARE.

 

the bmw straight 6's are the winners. won here

 

Frank- I've got an idea for a theme....

Might work.

 

We ran the 928 in the t-hill lemons race and it did pretty well. the penalties for passing under yellow and contact , injured us, and then the spun #2-6 bearing killed us. .
that was one of the most fun drives Ive had. If you have a chance to do this race, do it, its well worth it. I was laughing the moment I entered the main gates and didnt stop smiling until a week later.
mk

 

Didn't realize you had a #2 bearing failure as well !

 

FAWK! You guys are freakin me out. What is the fix for this typical breakdown? Dry sump only?

 

We ran an Audi 100 and a 944. It was a lot of fun. Neither finished.

This year we will bring BMW 325's. More chance to finish and more fun we think. We will get penalty laps, but hopefully it will be crappy enough to avaoid the People's Curse.

Yup, anything remotely performance based, Porsche BMW, Mustang etc will get penalty laps, or worse.

So if you want to have a chance at winning is needs to be a dependable car that if different.
Another team is building an 80's camaro with a Ford driveline etc.

If you bring anything Italian you will not get penalty laps, we were told etc. etc.

 

Rod Bearing service, Baffle the oil pan. Religiously maintain oil level (dont over fill). cross drill #2 and #3. Pray/Sacrifice blood to the Porsche God/Other assorted rituals.

No one hase come up with a definitave solution but the above are the most common recommendations. However little of the above work will fit into the $500 budget of a LeMons car.

 

I did it last year with Leh Keen @ CMP. Waaaay too much fun. We had v8 mustang and were fast, Leh put down the only sub 1 min lap of the weekend. I was a couple seconds off his pace. We installed a police siren which was hillarious for all of us
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnFiMaY2Dj8

but the effect on other drivers was not so favorable, so this is what happened to our car...
http://www.youtube.com/v/tFN1mHV1tDg&hl=en_US&fs

 

Frank,

My next door neighbor owns two car dealerships, GM & Chrysler.

Let me know what you are looking for.

Ken

 

Drove a 1988 Honda Wagovan at the LeMons race in Houston last October. Simply can't remember laughing so much in a race car ever. Just got back from Reno where I picked up a LeMons car (1985 Toyota Celica GT) & look forward to running it in 2010. They are booked at Eagles Canyon in June,I know we'll be running that race amongst others. In October we were 146 cars on the track & it was a busy blast!!