24 hours of lemons
 

i bought a $500 1985 mazda rx7 gsl to race in an endurance race called the 24 hours of lemons. the basic premise of the race is to take a car no more than $500 and race it for all its worth (not factoring costs of the cage, brakes and tires). let me just say it was sooooo much fun. the track is about 1 mile we started out with about 96 cars on track, needless to say it was very hectic. our car did well, it was a little underpowered but it out handled and outbroke almost every other car out there. i was able to pass many cars in braking zones. at first i was a little aggressive and dove to the inside of people. they couldnt see me in time and turned in to me a couple times. after about 2 bumps i drove less aggressively and just waited to the next turn to pass them. we had a bit of bad luck though. we had 4 right rear tire punctures, the fuel pump lost power, and the alternator died. we ended up hot wiring the fuel pump, buying 3 new batteries to last the race, and using all season tires in the rear because we ran out of falken azenis rt-615's. i acutally liked driving with the all seasons in the rear, the car slid a lot. it was a bit slower but i was still able to pass many people. toward the end of our 2nd day however one of our novice drives put the car into the wall pretty fast totaling the car, he was ok though. all in all i think we did really well for our first time out and we know what we need to bring and what to do at the track to be better prepared. plus i set the fastest lap time for our team :D

here is what we started out with:

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y20...ns/SPA0310.jpg

which then turned to this:

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y20...s/IMG_9862.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y20...s/IMG_9825.jpg
home sweet home
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y20...s/IMG_9897.jpg

the team minus one driver (he was out on track)
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y20...s/IMG_0067.jpg

me getting ready
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y20...s/IMG_0017.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y20...s/IMG_0042.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y20...s/IMG_0084.jpg

on track
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y20...s/IMG_0024.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y20...c4fd45c3fa.jpg

my boss getting ready to drive
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y20...s/IMG_0103.jpg

cutting away a damaged fender
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y20...s/IMG_0064.jpg

our ace driver david shao
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y20...s/IMG_0093.jpg

after the crash (the safety crew did that to the hood, not the crash)
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y20...s/IMG_0107.jpg

finally a vid of one of my laps (sorry for the poor quality). you can see at the end of the lap a big blue car spins and enters back on track perpendicular to traffic and almost t-bones me. i had to swerve pretty fast to avoid it.

http://s5.photobucket.com/albums/y200/sbfd...nt=MVI_0087.flv

god i think you guys need a bigger track...too many damn cars...

Thats cool, i think i am going to this next year.

So how many cars finished, and how long did y'all make it before retiring? Have you junked the car already, or are you parting it out?

yeah but thats also part of the fun. the next event is at thunderhill though

im not sure since we didnt stay until the end. they took the driver that crashed to the ER to do a check up on him because he said his ribs hurt. so we were there waiting for him to get out.

there was only about 2 or 2.5 hours left in the race

i gave to it to a guy at the track who wanted it for a parts car

That looks like fun. Cheap way to race. :) That is a ton of cars on the track at one time though. Good thing it is all cheap cars.

I was trying to get some people together to build a car for that a while ago. Looks like it would be a blast.

I love how creative people get with the look of their cars

I'd love to do that. I saw the feature in GRM. It's almost like a destruction derby on a road course. I heard some of the ridiculous penalties you could get there, too. Sounds like a great "for shits and giggles" event.

Some friends and I will be doing this next year... also in a FB. It ooks like aawsome way to waste $500!

Any tips for first timers?!

WTF is that thing behind David Shao?

bring lots of extra mounted tires, we had 4 tire punctures. bring a generator, welder, sawzall, cut the fenders so if you get hit they wont rub against the tires

What kind of mods did you have on the car? Are they really strict on that?

Wow, looks like a ton of fun. How do you like altamont as a venue? They put on an autocross not too long ago, but I didn't attend because I was dubious about the track.

Hey, I was there saturaday night and you guys looked pretty good. My buddy was in the 96 bmw and lost 1st place in like the last two laps by 7 seconds (remember that's over 700 miles). As to the comment that it was too many cars on track, I think that's half the fun...

Loving the Renoun paint scheme.

That is way too much fun. I gotta try it sometime. y'all looked like you completely enjoyed yourselves.

um... maybe, the $ adds up pretty quick, it's a $500 car, but you need tires, safety equipment, $500 / driver entry, full racing suit, gloves, helmet, so I'm not sure...

I've been thinking about doing this for a while now. It looks like a blast!

Wondeful. If I ever get back to SB (we have home there), we'll have to hook-up.

Hopefully, I'll bring my red FD as well.

:-) neil

If anyone in the DC area wants to put together a team for next year, myself and my roommate may be interested. This would be our first such event so we're novices but we have about 7 years each of competitive driving and a few years of open track (but not wheel to wheel racing). We can both wrench, drive and provide financial backing. Ideal teammates would be focused not so much on going out and destroying the car muscling for rank but keeping the car running throughout the entire event (that is to say, hotheads and leadfoots need not apply). Also a tow vehicle and/or prior experience would be a plus.

Wow, DC. Are you planning on doing the Michigan race? Or planning on coming out to CA to race?

I just picked up a car to race in Lemons, but I could not find a rotary. That is okay, it is a car that might not live many more years, might as well save the rotaries :)

Jay

Yea, the MI venue is only an 8 hour drive so it's actually pretty reasonable.

The next one is at Thurderhill... a great 3+ mile road racing tracking that hosts real 24+ hour races. I'm already going... although I have to admit it's not in an RX-7

Should be fun and less of a demolition derby than Altamont - the previous venue.