24 hours of lemons recap....

[Ian Stewart]

Hey all,

We didn't specifically make it into the clip, but this is the coverage of the event we were in....

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Weekend/story ... 114&page=1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This is the coverage we did get...

http://jalopnik.com/5267556/hanky-too-l ... od-bearing" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

we did get an award… the “MOST HEROIC FIX” award for swapping an engine at the track and finishing the race…

The winners were the Elvis Team in there Miata made to look like a 59 Caddy

http://jalopnik.com/5268435/eyesore-rac ... no+fernley" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It was a crazy fun event for sure...

some of these people definately have WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY too much time on their hands....

For those like us that were there more for the track time,

The track was AWSOME, more like a roller coaster than anything else and REALLY LONG!! 3+ miles, HUGE elevation change and 20+ turns...

The only bummer is, I was too wiped out to make it lone pine like I had planned...

Now it's full speed ahead for the No Bucks event and the Formula Competition

Cheers,

Ian

[Jamie Lessie]

So you just had a spare engine that you just happen to being with you to LeMons? Porps for the last minute swap! Looks like you and your team had a great time Ian. One of these days I will get to LeMons!

[Ian Stewart]

Hey Jamie,

Nope, no spare motor…

We certainly did not plan on doing such major surgery as part of the weekend "fun."

The engine was the least of our worries being bone stock and usually bullet proof… but the rubber in the crank pulley (i.e. harmonic balancer) disintegrated about 4 hours into the race resulting in a non driven fan belt, and thus a non pumping water pump, cooked oil, and loss of a rod bearing… Bangity, Bangity, Bangity… didn’t want to drive it to destruction and oil the track down so… we were about to pack it in, but 2 of our drivers hadn’t even gotten in the car yet…. This just won’t do!!

We started calling junk yards and combing the pits…

Another team was driving a 280zx turbo and had brought an entire parts car for spares. Only thing is, the parts car wasn’t a turbo and the engines are not a direct swap, so it was useless to them… Long story short, they told me that the doner car had at least 300K miles on it and hadn't run in ??? if we were crazy enough to believe that the motor would still run and do an engine swap at the track, in the dark, we could it… So in the true spirit of the “spectacle” that is Lemons, we were part of the Saturday night entertainment.

The weird thing was, the engine was the easy part…

Out of 100 plus teams driving junker cars, NOT ONE CHERRY PICKER IN THE WHOLE PLACE!!!

We actually talked the Fire and Safety crew into using their tow truck to yank the motors out of the cars, paid some local guy a bottle of Tequila and followed him home to go get his engine hoist to put the “good” motor back in, add beer and busted knuckles and VROOM. Well more like spuder, spuder, with 20 minutes to spare before race start Sunday morning…

After loosing 4 hours, we knew we were way out of the chase and were just trying to get everybody some seat time, but amazingly, the car lasted to the checker…

Actually, you would have loved being there as we lost count of the number of HUGE spiders (mostly the hour glass variety) on the donor car, we took pics of several of them they were so big… Your avatar will forever make me cringe now…

[Jeff Shyu]

haha.. that's a great story. definitely worthy of the "Most Heroic Fix" title.

[Craig Naylor]

AWSOME! car for the next race

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sgv/ct ... 12305.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Bob Beamesderfer]

You are kidding, right Craig? It's worth more than 10 times the asking price restored. Also note it's RHD.

[KJ Christopher]

You are kidding, right Craig? It's worth more than 10 times the asking price restored. Also note it's RHD.

i'm guessing it is "stock footage" the pick didn't come up at the CL link.

[Bob Beamesderfer]

It is stock footage. Guess if it's ratty enough, why not run it in the LeMons? Those things were built like tanks.

[Kurt Rahn]

You are kidding, right Craig? It's worth more than 10 times the asking price restored. Also note it's RHD.

i'm guessing it is "stock footage" the pick didn't come up at the CL link.

It'd have to be...noplace in 29 palms is that green

[Ian Stewart]

Actually,

when we did the first Thunder Hill Lemons, this was one of the entries

http://jalopnik.com/340985/peoples-choi ... s+benz-190" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It was HILARIOUS to watch that thing wallow around the track...

[Craig Naylor]

I found the link to the Craigslist add on the forum linked at the top of the post, just scroll down. The picture was part of that posting, it was implied that the post was by the seller, though not specifically stated.

I tried to link to the post, but it wouldn't work, so I cut & pasted.

$500., the picture of the car.... I assumed the picture was not the actual car, my apologies for offending anyone who could not make this assumption on their own, and needed a disclaimer, rather than the included tongue in cheek comment.

[Bob Beamesderfer]

I found the link to the Craigslist add on the forum linked at the top of the post, just scroll down. The picture was part of that posting, it was implied that the post was by the seller, though not specifically stated.

I tried to link to the post, but it wouldn't work, so I cut & pasted.

$500., the picture of the car.... I assumed the picture was not the actual car, my apologies for offending anyone who could not make this assumption on their own, and needed a disclaimer, rather than the included tongue in cheek comment.

Hey, I figured you were joking! They're nice cars, but parts are $$$$.

[Craig Naylor]

Hey, I figured you were joking! They're nice cars, but parts are $$$$.

As someone above stated they are tanks, no one's else is going to take the car out... that's entirely up to the driver.

[Christos Adam]

WOW That's insane Ian!!!
I'm glad you had fun and I'm sorry you didn't win (even though you were kicking butt before the failure)... endurance races are like that... don't matter if it's Le Mon or Le Mans...