rednek-aggie10 Posted March 6, 2009 Share Posted March 6, 2009 I thought I would share my story with ya'll A group of friends and myself decided to partake the 24 Hours of LeMons race this past weekend at MSR Houston. The event it interesting to say the least, yet it was the most fun I have had in a long time. Prelude: The race is for cars worth $500 or less (more can be found at the 24 hours of lemons website). I should also mention at this time that our team consisted of four college students, three of which (myself included) are engineering majors. Before we began our search for a car, everyone agreed we would NOT buy a Z car. Although a Z would be perfect for this race, it just seemed morally inapt considering the nature of this race, which in all actuality was a 24 hour destruction derby endurance race. We eventually found a car suitable for our needs, a 1984 Toyota Supra. Now the fun part began. The car didnt run to great when we got it, but after an hour or so doing diagnostics with an ohlm meeter, we found out our fuel pump was not doing its job. After the pump was replaced the car ran perfect. Any time not spent studying, doing homework, or going to class was devoted to getting the car "race ready" (I also should say I have a VERY understanding girlfriend that didnt complain about the lack of attention too much). During the preparation of this car, we found ourselves using what we have been learning about in all of our engineering classes for the past 3 years. Imagine that, a practical application of our knowledge that can somewhat justify spending $6,000 a semester on tuition! Now thats some real life experience you don't get from sitting in a classroom. The Race: The car passed tech without any difficulty. Now we had to pass the B.S. tech inspection which is unique to the 24 hours of lemons. Three judges (and they were actually dressed like judges) looked the car over and we had to prove to them we did buy it for $500. Luckily we had documented everything we did to the car, so providing the proof was not an issue. Although we did receive a 2 lap penalty for being "Too Young". At the start of the race 96 cars were lined up single file around a 1.3 mile track. The race was started under a yellow flag and three laps later the green came out. All I can say is WOW! This was the craziest race I have ever participated in. Wheels and spindles would just snap off of cars and fly across the track, a clear track would suddenly disappear into a thick cloud of smoke from engines expiring, drivers would dive into a turn 4 wide when there was only room for MABYE 2 cars, but it was the most fun I have ever had. We were wrecked 45 minuets into the race and spent 2 hours fixing the damage. By the time we got back out on the track we were 87th. Everyone had great sessions in the car and we managed to work our way up to 48th by the end of the race. If you ever have the opportunity to participate in one of these races, I strongly recommend doing so. There is so much to these races and I have not even touched on a fraction of what all went on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iBang Posted March 6, 2009 Share Posted March 6, 2009 Very cool! I'm working on a 240sx for the MSR event later this season. Should be a lot of fun! Any suggestions having done it as to what to concentrate on? Should we put most of our spare money into cooling? suspension? engine? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jc052685 Posted March 7, 2009 Share Posted March 7, 2009 We were out there in the two red miatas. Good times. I will see about posting some vids. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Forrest Posted March 7, 2009 Share Posted March 7, 2009 Awesome. Did anyone's car get voted for crushing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jc052685 Posted March 7, 2009 Share Posted March 7, 2009 yes, our miata again. second time in a row. Have some race footage here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Forrest Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 What the hell...I can understand that brand new BMW getting crushed, but why your miata? Were you winning or something? They just take out whoever's in front? We were going to get a 260z (not worth saving) running and take it out there, but if you are just punished for doing well even when you are obviously within the rules, forget it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
auxilary Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 no. half way through the race (2 days), all teams vote on "People's Curse", basically a car that either pisses off the most people, or has obviously cheated/lied on their cost/build, or caused crashes/wrecks. All teams vote on it, and the one with most votes gets punished. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Forrest Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 Right...I've read the rules aux, but it doesn't tell me what really happens. Does someone's car get crushed every race, or does there have to be an overwhelming majority in the votes? Do you get your entry fees back? Seems like they should give you 500$ for the car, too, if they feel like it's worth so much more. We've scrapped 5 z's or so in the last year, all of which were free (no titles), not worth saving, and seemed to me like they would be good for this kind of thing...I don't think we would need even close to 500$ to get them ready to race, once you subtract out tires, brakes, a cage & harness. But there's no way I'm going to spend tons of time getting a car ready if people are just going to be "no fair, a z (or miata) does too well on the track, crush it." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnc Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 Does someone's car get crushed every race Yes. This rule is real. 1.6: Your Car May Be Destroyed at Any Time: In addition to accidents and other unfortunate boo-boos, one car may be selected by blind ballot of all teams for immediate removal and total destruction. It could be your car. It probably WILL BE your car. You'll have 30 minutes to yank out any safety items you want to rescue, and then it's toast. Them's the breaks. Don't bring it if you ain't OK with losing it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Forrest Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 John, I know the rule is real and I've seen video of several cars getting crushed. My question is, is the car crushing mandatory every race? What if there isn't anyone who is "cheating" or anyone who gets a majority of the votes? I thought I understood why it was a necessary thing to keep people from bringing, say, 2000$ cars to a 500$ car race...but if people are just taking out whoever is in front, that's garbage. I don't want to spend a ton of time, my spare parts, my entry fees, and the $$ for good tires and cage, just to have some people say I did "too good a job" fixing up the car and trash it. What were you guys (with the miatas) doing in order to get singled out? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capt_furious Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 We skipped People's Curse last year at Altamont after Court Summerfield was killed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony D Posted March 10, 2009 Share Posted March 10, 2009 There is ALWAYS and a$$hole driving out there that distinguishes himself, TRUST ME! If you aren't an idiot driving, and follow the spirit of the rules, you won't need to fear the 'People's Curse'. If you think these cars only cost $500, I've got a bridge in Ney York for sale as well.... At Thunderhill you are going well over 100 mph (at least we were!) into Turn 1. If you think I'm getting into a car with a substandard roll cage, or without GOOD BRAKES AND TIRES you're NUTS! Those items, as well as many others are considered 'safety items' and are not costed under the $500 cap. When we took our "Brown Turd" in for Judging, they had NO PROBLEM believing it was under the $500 cap. Then again, I bought 6 Z Cars for $500, so even if I valued it at the Full $83.33 it was technically worth, and simply transferred good parts off the other cars for a 'fractional value' we would STILL be under $500. If we documented the SALE of parts off the other cars for the stuff we didn't use, and that people paid us for...there is NO WAY they would believe us! Matter of fact, I'm selling a dash and a filler neck off one we cut up already...for a whopping $50! My son laughed when I told him how much someone was paying for them. "Get it out of the yard!" was more my line of thinking.... Yeah, for what we sold fenders and crap for, we would be UP a terrible amount. And I still have TWO chassis left after trashing the first car the first year, and prepping #2, and cutting up the 'partial car' for parts sales and donor pieces. hell, we still got the fenders from "Turd One" on the current car (as well as the doors!). The legend lives on. How's that for interchangable parts??? When you run the race in a manner that says "WE got a real race car here" and also "we like to make contact and bump other people regularly" that usually gets you the curse. If you are fast, and safe...people may hate you, but likely they won't be vindictive. Then again...you never know! That's the WHOLE point! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckolander Posted March 10, 2009 Share Posted March 10, 2009 Now that sounds like my kind of race. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnc Posted March 10, 2009 Share Posted March 10, 2009 There is ALWAYS and a$$hole driving out there that distinguishes himself, TRUST ME! Its like the old joke about a group of guys being chased by the bear. You don't have to outrun the bear, you just have to outrun at least one other guy. Unfortunately, in this case, you can't actually see who is closest to the bear. What's worse is when the ******* is one of the driver's on your team and he won't listen. Almost got sucked into a LeMons team that had one big roaring ******* on it (the money man). Did a test at Streets and quickly learned that this team wasn't going to complete the race with the money man in the driver's seat. I withdrew from the team (for that reason and because I was the only one that knew how to turn a wrench) and they didn't last past the money man's first stint behind the wheel. My first clue should have been when the money man said, "We're doing this for my wife's charity (CHOC) and we're hoping you could donate a full roll cage, all the maintenance and work on the car, and tow it to the track for us." My reply ("No!") seemed to really piss him off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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