AutoPuzzles 24 hours of LeMons challenge!

[Stephen M]

No, it's not a typo, it's the 24 hours of lemons:

http://www.24hoursoflemons.com/index.html

Purchase and outfit a car for endurance racing for less than $500. Fixed roof, street legal as-built cars only. Luckily for your next of kin, brakes, tires, wheels, safety seat, and roll cage are off-budget. So let's see what you've got.

Here's the autopuzzles challenge:

Give us a link to the car you would buy for this debacle. Craigslist, local papers, or Ebay completed auctions/"buy it now" pricing. Include any planned mods and price of same. Detail your race strategy if you're really ambitious. Winner receives the standard Corvair throttle return spring.

Detailed rules:

http://www.24hoursoflemons.com/id2.html


My entry, complete with 6 cylinders, AWD, and classic late 80's wedge styling:

http://baltimore.craigslist.org/car/182899752.html

My mods: ($100 to spend)
5 point harness, racing seat, Victoracer 710s and spare rims, roll cage - off budget
Heavy interior gutting - free
Gutted primary catalytic converter, exhaust cut off shortly after mid-point - free
Cut springs for lower ride height and treacherous handling - free
Driveway alignment for max camber - free
New plugs and oil change - $30
Dryer vent hastily routed for front brake cooling - $10
Dryer vent hastily routed for CAI - $10
Racing tape on all panel seams for reduced drag - $5
Aluminum sheet pop riveted for side skirts, air dam, and ricer wing - $40
Krylon special racing stripes - $5

My race strategy:
Pray for rain

[Otto Puzzell]

Are you really participating? This sounds like a blast. 

[Stephen M]

Are you really participating? This sounds like a blast. 

err...sadly, no. I'm merely brainstorming. If they had a similar thing on the east coast I'd be game, but I fear transport and vacation time needed to make a race in California would cost 2-3 times the car budget

[lynxd67]

I think this is trying to copy the race that started a few years back in Europe. The Paris Dakar is well known so in a pub in Plymouth Devon one very hazy evening the Plymouth Dakar challenge was launched. The rules are simple - the car must not cost more than £100 ($175) and to make it street legal the maximum expenditure allowed is $25. It is over subscribed each year of course.

Now I could go on and talk about the 24 hours of lawn mowers (and no I am not joking either) which is a highly competetive event and in which Stirling Moss has participated. Another wonderful british event thought up in a bar of course

[Ultra]

Bump

[Stephen M]

Pics and stories from the innaugaral running. Get your '07 plans in place now!





http://www.24hoursoflemons.com/id7.html
http://www.urbanracer.com/articles/anmviewer.asp?a=2226&z=3

[Ultra]

I think AutoPuzzles.com should try to field a team in next years challenge.

I would not even think to do this alone.  I would want and need others to be a part of this effort.

You guys wanna give it a try?

[Otto Puzzell]

Can I drive?

[Ultra]

Can I drive?

It's 24 hours long.

Anyone willing to go to California for this can drive, as far as I am concerned.

[Stephen M]

By rule, you MUST have at least 4 drivers. Maximum of 6. So KU can drive. I'm willing to drive as well. Got a helmet and fireproof jammies and everything. 

I think the problem with an Autopuzzles entry would be our geographic distribution. The race itself is in California, so there's also the issue of getting the car there from whomever's garage the unholy beast is spawned in.

Still, I'd say it's worth a bit more brain-storming.

[Ultra]

By rule, you MUST have at least 4 drivers. Maximum of 6. So KU can drive. I'm willing to drive as well. Got a helmet and fireproof jammies and everything. 

I think the problem with an Autopuzzles entry would be our geographic distribution. The race itself is in California, so there's also the issue of getting the car there from whomever's garage the unholy beast is spawned in.

Still, I'd say it's worth a bit more brain-storming.

We have a little time yet.

I saw a Neon in the race photos.  Having owned one, I can say I think it would be a good candidate vehicle.