I'll start from the beginning, a few months ago I stumbled on some information on what is called the
24 Hours of Lemons, I began looking further into this "series" of races which are held at various locations across the country and learned that there is a
'Detroitish' event to be held in Toledo Ohio. It did not take long to come up with a short list of people I know that would think this is too cool, and would definitely take part.
O.k. now we have a "
team", so the next step is what kind of car should we get, since the total allowance is $500 bucks, that includes the car purchase and the repairs needed to make it 'competition ready' :)
The search begins, of course the first place to look would be e-bay, auto trader etc. Even better would be if someone we know would be willing to donate an old crapper that is sitting around, preferably something like an old Rx7, miata, something small but sporty so driving this thing could almost seem like actually being in a race car in a real race. After a couple weeks of dead end searches one of our team members suggested an 87' BMW 325i that has been growing weeds for about two years.
PERFECT. It's a four door and in line six which means somewhat reliable and smooth power band, but not too small of a car that we would get pushed around the track by say a huge Lincoln or old Caddy weighing more than a modern day SUV. At first glance the car looks decent for a car with 275k miles or at least that is the last time the Odo was working. Some rust through spots on the roof, drivers lower door is nearly gone and the ground could be seen from various angles inside the car. Which is not a bad thing, less weight right. However the power steering was non existing and leaking from every hose in the system. The cooling system was scary as well, corrosion had overgrown the entire t-stat housing assembly which covered the hoses and hose clamps. The
rules are clear on leaking fluids, NO LEAKING FLUIDS. So we replaced anything that was potentially a source of a leak.
The car began the strip down process right away, two piles were made trash in one and to-be-sold in another. The 500 bucks max budget can be offset by items sold that are taken off of that car. Many interior items IE door panels, HVAC controls, etc. actually sold on e-bay which offset our small leak re-hab repair costs.
Safety items which include roll cage, harness, brakes, wheels and tires are not added to the max budget of $500, for good reason obviously. So work began on the brakes which received new rotors and
Cobalt Friction Technologies pads. Special thanks to Andie at Cobalt for all his help and support. Working with
Cobalt has been a great learning experience,
Truechoice Motorsports and Cobalt have developed some brake pads commonly used for vintage racing applications which came directly from the
Rolex Grand Am DP Series racing program of
Southard Motorsports.
The car was then taken by a team member to fabricate and install the roll cage. Keeping in mind the non-existing spare time a new father has as well as a job which takes him away from home as well he did a great job. With the cage finished work began on the interior items
seat ,
harness ,
fire extinguisher system , car radio for pit communication- this is jumping ahead but I don't want to forget to tell this. This is budget racing at its comical best, if one does not want to spend the money and time on installing a car radio system what are the options, you have a pit board and that is it right-WRONG- I witnessed some interesting methods, when the car passes the grand-stand the driver would signal the crew by beeping his horn which I assume means he is coming in because five or six people stood up and walked down to the paddock area, another was someone in the grandstand had a handheld air horn and would blast the horn when their car passed the grandstand. These are the ones I witnessed so I am sure there were other techniques I just was not aware of happening, but if anyone has information on other methods I would love to hear about it.
O.k. back to the build up of the car, along the way we all pulled together to find any and every way to raise money and source items to reduce our financial load.
The greatest news was from a team member that had secured sponsorship from a biker bar in South Carolina,
Suck Bang Blow. What a great name. We all are very grateful for their generosity and assistance in making this LEMON car a pleasure to be associated with THANK YOU. The seat position was finally settled on and the column lowered about an inch to bring the
steering wheel closer to the drivers.
Harness was installed and adjusted to a length that would accommodate all five drivers. The windows were removed and any unnecessary items like trim pieces etc. All
safety and
hardware items were assisted by
Truechoice Motorsports, special thanks to them. All five drivers would be using the
Hans Device so all
helmets were prepared for that as well as radio harness installed inside of each helmet.
Decals were made and were the last items to go on the car, some creative art work for the headlights and taillights (see photos) and proper graphic placement aided in covering up alot of rust holes.
So we are ready then........................
Off we go on Friday afternoon from Columbus Ohio driving in the rain with a horrible outlook of nonstop rain the whole weekend,,,,,great.....:(
Well at least we don't have to worry about tire wear. We arrived at the famed
Toledo Speedway at about 5pm, I was personally impressed, someone said that's good that you set your expectations low enough for that to be possible. All kidding aside they were friendly, helpful and helped us have a great time, if only they could stop the monsoon. Saturday morning, make our way to the gate roughly the 5th-6th ones there and wait for the gates to open, crew and hospitality in tow, special thanks for the hospitality accommodations. Find our spot under the power lines and unload in full rain gear, set up the ez-up and power the lights yep still raining. First ones to tech and there they are the infamous Judges in full costume, wig and all. This is too cool. Pull the car in and run through the checks, just when we thought we were clear, here comes JAY LAMM 'OK how many BS points are we giving these guys' oh no I thought, 'wait it really isn't that nice' I tried to explain. After showing him all the rust and explaining the mileage and condition it was in before we built it up he agreed with his Judges and no BS points were given. Heuy,,,, We read about some guys getting as much as 1000 laps penalty so they spent half the race getting there lap count up to 0. Alright lets get ready for qualifying, which has been interesting to say the least, at other events they held. The rain stopped any of that because they did not want to get wet to set it all up. Can't blame them there. So they started circulating the cars and dropped the green flag randomly.
too be continued.........
