My boss has ok'd a marketing venture to sponsor a 24hr of LeMons car for a few of us here. I am now looking for a car. So far we are thinking about a civic or something that has a 4cyl engine and we can get parts relatively cheap.

Please throw out some ideas:
criteria-4cyl-straight 6, sporty, readily available parts

 

24 hrs of lemon cars? I dunno if they'd last the first 5.

 

i know some people that are doing it. They will be running a 325i. This race is not won on the speed of your car, but how much abuse it can take without breaking down. I've raced for Spoon Sports in the 25hr thunderhill, as well as professional open wheel racing if i can be of any help to you. Let me know or shoot me a pm!

 

I lol'd. I was gonna post pretty much the same thing.

 

24 hrs of LeMans?

 

No lemons. You get a 500 dollar budget.

 

OMFG... The 24 Hours of LeMons

Now THAT **** is hilarious.

 

Having done a good deal of the fabrication work on the winning car for the first running of the 24 Hours of LeMons, here are some tips:

1. Cheap - $250 is probably the max purchase price for the car.
2. Safe - Look for something with the fuel tank in front of the rear axle and door bars. A four door with a stout B-pillar is a good idea.
3. Reliable - Think Toyota, Nissan, Mazda, Honda.
4. Sturdy - You are going to be in at least 2 wrecks. A live rear axle, manual transmission, a trunk, and lots of room between the front bumper and the radiator.
5. Repairable - Your car will break down at least twice. Spare parts should be cheap and easily found. Build up a spare suspension for each corner of the car (strut, springs, shock, control arms - all assembled ready to install).

Spend money on a roll cage, window net, race seats, and good tires (these items are excluded from the $500 budget limit). Again, you will be in at least two wrecks and be prepared for fire.

 

I built a car for this last year, but couldn't get the time off to make it work.

I bought a 91 CRX SI that was 4 tone (still a killer deal) for $300 and gutted it, stripped it, removed the glass, etc.... brakes and other safety parts dont go into the budget so by all means scrounge parts off of other donor cars that are upgrades but not noticable to the naked eye.

Also get good tires, and build a brace around the radiator. One push into the rear of a car and it could spell doom.

 

I think we may have settled on a Volvo 740 Wagon in manual. There is plenty of room to move the radiator back in the engine compartment, its a manual wagon, and its rear wheel drive. We are still shopping but this baby seems to be what we are leaning towards. Its a builder from Pick and Pull. We found 2.5 other 740s on the yard to scavenge parts off of as well.

 

A Volvo anything is a great choice. Built like tanks and its hard to kill it.

 

Old sentra se-r, early 90's model. Hard to kill. Old crown vic cop cars are another choice. Remember it's an enduro so driving flat out is not going to win the race.
Also buy cheap/used helmets and gear. As you may find yourself tar and feathered.....

Good luck!

mpowers
no way would I do the event

 

Its being paid for by the company so we figured why the hell not. The only thing that is going to be hard is getting this car ready and the GRM $2008 car ready. The GRM car has top priority currently. With both events targeted for the month of October we may farm out work on the Lemon car to someone else.

I was going to chronicle our work on the GRM car but we have embarked on a top secret mission to make the Proctor & Gamble guys blush. Plus currently the only wor we have done consists of sanding and pressure cleaning. LOTS of sanding and pressure cleaning.

 

Sorry Dman I should clarify on why I would not do it, it's the lack of so many people not owning/having/qualified for a real racing license. It's just a matter of time before someone gets hurt from some idiot.

Otherwise I think it's a great idea and look forward to the report! I take it you will be doing the one at cmp?

Since you tipped your hat, what is main choice for this years $2008 challenge?

mpowers

 

We are doing the Lemon at MSR in Houston the end of October.

We are currently building a twin turbo V8 Fiero. A friend of mine thought that it was the back to the future car. <--Hint. We also are making a silly contraption out of a 2.5 nitro R/C motor and a computer fan assembly. We call shenanigans!!

 

Very unique! Don't know how in earth you could pull it off for $2008 bucks, but looking foward to reading about! Are you going with a porsche transaxle?

 

We actually got an LT1 from a Caprice at Pick and pull on half off day. So the engine costs us a little less than $100. The LT1 actually fits in the fiero very easily. We have to fab some engine mounts and it uses the factory trans mount. We have to get an adapter for the bellhousing that relocates the starter. The turbos were found via eBay super elite search. They are Taiwanese specials but they are both new. When you get down to it you just have bargain HARD on every purchase. I can't think of anything we have purchased so far that I haven't haggled a price out of. We got the fiero for $100.


The main problem we are going to have is engine management. We are thinking about a megasquirt but then we'll have to pick up an EDIS8 ignition to control timing. The next problem is the IAC. We will probably have 500-800 tied up in the computer to control everything.

 

A few of us here are putting together a 325. We will see how it goes.

 

My buddies put together the 325 that finished 11th last year. They got the car for a steal and had to do relatively little to it. We really are aiming at the Cheaparral guys. We have a few tricks up our sleeve.