justjim

I just joined a team for the 24hrs of Lemons. No, not the one in France, that's Leman's. This is for cars of dubious mechanical integrity and drivers of dubious moral integrity. The 4-man team are putting together a car for a 12 hour endurance race. Hopefully if all comes together I'll get about 4 hours of wheel to wheel racing (such as it is) which I expect to be more fun than the average track day. Anyone know where I can get a good deal on a racing suit?

ULLLOSE

iTrader: (1)

http://www.racequip.com/suits/sfi5multilayersuits.html

I got the Safe-Quip 120. For an inexpensive suit it breaths very well.

ndhoffma

NASA forums often have that type of stuff for sale used... might be a good source for parts & equipment

Good luck with Lemons, it looks like a blast; Id like to try it as well one year. What kind of car are you building?

justjim

Well since we haven't gotten the car into the race yet I probably shouldn't say. If I tell you more I'll have to kill you. You probably know too much already, you better not go home .

elysium19

iTrader: (1)

nice, which date/event/city are you doing? I know they hold multiple events per year...

GULAMAN

I'm a LeMons alumnus and I can tell you that you will have a blast! the organizers do well to maintain a not-so-serious atmosphere (but not w/ respect to safety & 'most' rules) so one takes the inevitable problems in stride.
Just remember to prep your car like a tank; throw your Colin Chapman bible out the window! consider welding some sturdy 'grills' to protect the radiator. this was the downfall of many a competitor at our event (yes contact is inevitable). bring spares if your plan includes finishing the race at all costs (busted halfshaft was our coup de grace; missed last 2 hours of the race).

justjim

Good info, I'll pass it on to the team. My inexperienced thoughts were to put reliability above all else, such as it is with a $500 car.

kersh4w

iTrader: (3)

oh man, im so jealous. i've been wanting to do this for so long.

GULAMAN

Something like this, while ghastly-looking, would've saved us another hour in the in the pits fixing a crushed radiator!

justjim

I think the rules prohibit nerf bars which are kinda like what you have pictured. I think you would have to have something more subtle than what you pictured. They are trying to discourage bumper car racing.

GULAMAN

yeah I wouldn't be surprised if they ammended the rules after the first couple of events. Now you gotta be even more creative! keep in mind one of the "Wheel of Misfortune" punishments at LeMons (i forget what they named it) is a board w/ several metal rebars sticking out of it. ifyou draw this punishment during the race, they affix the board (rebars facing in) to the front of your car, right in front of your radiator. So even a minor bump @ the front will have disastrous effects!

justjim

Yay, our team got accepted into the Fall South 24hrs of Lemons at Kershaw South Carolina on Sept 12-13. We've got our 4th and final team member. Now we can focus on getting our 91 Mitsubishi 3000 GT transformed from the current POS into a race ready blistering track demon. I can only hope we can get it in good working order as it initially had some ISSUES. At the very least it should have good brakes. I pulled the dust shields off it front and rear and put some Carbotech XP10/XP8 pads on with some ATE fluid. The brakes seemed to be in good shape, even has ventilated rear discs. I may fabricate some brake ducts, but I'm told this race is not brake intensive. Lots of traffic and no high speed to hairpin turns.

Though I've never driven one, and this car isn't drivable yet, I suspect this car to be an understeering motherf**r. It has a huge front sway bar and a rear sway bar about the diameter of a Bic ballpoint pen. I see an out of spec alignment in this car's future. On the plus side it has electronically adjustable dampeners if we can make them work. Gotta get the roll cage, seat brackets, and fuel cell completed. Geez I found out my helmet and driving shoes won't fly because they aren't fireproof. Gotta get a whole suit, glove, shoes, and helmet ensemble. ****, even racing on the cheap is expensive.

dmitrik4

iTrader: (5)

i've done 2 lemons (including CMP this spring; and hopefully we'll be doing Nelson Ledges in Oct.). you can get a good deal on Pyrotect gear through Lemons.

CMP is a nice track and puts on a great event. did you reserve a garage?

we (Schumacher Taxi Service) will be at CMP in the fall as well...we'll be driving the FX16 that a guy on the team rolled there in the spring.

Lemons is a great, great time.

justjim

I'll keep an eye out for you, what is an FX16?

Well we now have a driveable car and a facebook page
http://www.facebook.com/pages/24-Hou...0/109724431683
After some minor teething issues I was favorably impressed. The car is similar to my previous RSX. The handling is not as bad as I feared, which is fortunate because we are limited on modifications. We only had a few brief runs around the rural neighborhood but we hope to take the car over to a 1 mile test track in Orlando this weekend for a better shakedown. We've had some drama this week because our roll cage fabricator went belly up the day before we were to bring the car in. So we are going to another fabricator but time is getting short. The car is looking pretty rough but we will eventually paint it to match the Gulf GT40. Our seat should come in next week and then the roll cage. Loren needs to clean up the wiring harnesses that are strewn all over the place like an untidy spider web.

swoope

iTrader: (5)

fx16 very obscure toyota hatchback. good car. kinda like the 323 but without the 4wd.. and it is durable!!!!!

as to 1 mile test track in orlando this weekend? do tell, or at least pm..

beers

dmitrik4

iTrader: (5)

yep. FX16: '87-'88 corolla hatch w/ a 4AGE engine, which is an excellent endurance racing engine. that particular one has turned out to be a jalopnik favorite; those guys love 4AGs. CMP fall will be the car's 5th lemons race. it was my DD in law school, and i miss it terribly.

we got accepted to Nelson Ledges as well, but I'll be in our supercharged MR2 for that one.

www.schumachertaxiservice.com <--our team site

justjim

The rest of the team took it over to Orlando yesterday (Sunday), I wasn't able to make it to due to other engagements. The car ran OK, we desperately need an alignment, and we need to fix the plumbing on the fuel cell/pump for both performance and safety All in all is good. Waiting to have cage and seat installed, bit o paint, then we be racin. My guess is we will eat alot of people for lunch in the first hour, then all bets are off for reliability and crash damage. I am well aware that to finish first, you must first finish.

justjim

The Lemons car is ready. I'm off to South Carolina on Thurday. I'm 3rd driver in the rotatation, I just hope its still in one piece when its my turn. The Mitsubishi 3000 performed better than I expected during testing, we'll see how it and we perform on the track. http://www.facebook.com/pages/24-Hou...0/109724431683
.

kersh4w

iTrader: (3)

good luck!

ndhoffma

Looks cool, I like the paint job.

Good luck!

Bigbacon

iTrader: (4)

the car almost looks quite good... I could see that thing rollin with a coffee can exhaust.

dmitrik4

iTrader: (5)

i'm flying down to Charlotte on Friday...need to stick around Philly on Fri morning...d'oh. means i'll probably miss BS.

stop by to say hi; we'll be in one of the garage stalls. look for the two yellow taxis. bring bug spray.

can't wait!

mike

swoope

iTrader: (5)

jim,

have big fun.. and dont forget to burp the gas tank!!! ask your teammates!

beers

alnielsen

iTrader: (4)

White Lightning Mazda RX-7 wins.
http://jalopnik.com/5358417/and-the-...979-dodge-omni
It was close to being crushed and not finishing.
http://jalopnik.com/5358314/peoples-...dthirsty-crowd

justjim

Here’s a link to an in car video that show part of one of my early runs, the car wasn’t working right and was cutting out, turns out there was a bag in the gas tank. When you see the Mazda RX7 flip I’m the car that was next to him and was run off into the grass which necessitated a change in underwear, but the car was OK. I had seen the Mazda wheel start to wobble and I thought “no good can come of this” when I looked over and saw the top of his car coming my way. We later fixed the bag in tank problem and the car ran well until Philippe blew it up about 11 hours into a 14 hour race. We were 12th out of 114 starters and moving for the top 10 when the connecting rod bearing went. We ended up 51st at the end of the race. We had a blast. http://jalopnik.com/5358041/torquele...hiny-side-down .