24 hours of LeMons (long, with pics, 56k die)
 

This is the novel version of my 24hrs of leMons experience. The "bottom -line" version (if you dont feel lik readin all of this) can be found at the bottom. K thx bye.

The whole thing started out in the preferred fashion, thursday night, we were up until 5am trying to find a short that would blow the fuse for the main relay. turned out one of the O2 sensors was shorting on itself, problem solved. After getting some sleep, we head to Columbia, SC, where a guy on my team lives (we were staying with him).

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We get to Columbia at 1:30 am, and decide to go to a large parking lot to test the car. I am literally backing the car off of the trailer, when a security guard shows up. I immediately turn to them and say "we're f'ed". The guard drives up and reads the side of the car that says "24 hours of Lemons bound". He then says, "Oh you guys are in that Lemons race? I heard about that on the radio, Good Luck!" and he drives off. We are able to shake down the car, and then head off to get some sleep.
We arrive at the racetrack at 930am and have to pass tech by 1030am. We are literally installing the harness in the tech line, then they rfuse us because the helmet I brought (a Snell M95) is "M" rated and not "SN". I have to run over to a vendor, get screwed to the tune of $300, and run back, jump in the car and pass tech just in time for the driver's meeting.
After the driver's meeting, I run the car through the BS-panel. They assign laps based on how much they think you spent over $500. For instance, a certain spec miata tried to join the party and got doc'd 200 laps. The first thing he says to me is "Hey man, what the hell, you can't bring that car here!" I told him what I paid, and produced the clist screen capture. He looked over it and said "Yeah I have photoshop, too" I laughed and he said, "Well, I dont really give a ****, so you pass". I thank him, and head back to the pit to suit up for the race.
It should be said that we were easily the poorest people at the track. Our pit space was in between a team with two cars (sponsored by toyota, no less), and some S-class motorhomes with enclosed trailers. This was what my pit typically looked like:

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imo, the way a lemons pit should look.

I am out on the grid for the parade laps, and am noticing the steering is rather liquid... and the straight-ahead position for the wheel keeps changing, hmmmm. I take the green flag, and make one lap when a clunking sound starts coming from the front as I steer. Since it is early in the race, I decide to pit, and will make up for lost laps later.
In the pit, I see that the part of the subframe that holds the steering rack on has broken loose, and the driver's side of the rack is being held on by a trin strand of metal. Switching into hero-fix mode, I jack up the car and start rmoving the rack. Until this point, I was under the impression that the custom exhaust I had made would unbolt from the car. Not so. This is what the rest of saturday looked like:

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Re: 24 hours of LeMons (long, with pics, 56k die)
 

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Tired and hungry, we leave at the end of the saturday session, some half-assed welds holding the frame together and the rack sitting in its proper place unbolted because of the damage. We get to the track on sunday morning and I have bought the best item to tie a steering rack to a frame.... hose clamps. I put the hose clamps in, and one of the other guys takes the car for a test drive. "Straight keeps changing" he reports back, also "No way in hell Im driving this car out there". I say, "F-it, somebody suit up and get us some more laps until it breaks" One of the guys suits up and takes the car out for 5 laps. Here are some action shots:

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He brings it back in and says that it is death-defying, and also a hell of a lot of fun. He and the other guys want me to suit up and take it back out, so I do. I am wheeling my heart out, and take the back straight full-throttle, this puts me into the 90 degree at the end at around 70-75. I brake and turn... POP! no steering, I hit the grass, lock up the brakes and spin into the sand. Luckily, I stop without hitting the wall. Here are some shots of me playing in the sand box:

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The tow-truck brings me in, and I get out of the car, knowing we are out of the race after 6 laps completed. Just then, a guy and his woman entourage show up. They are from one of the competing teams and came over to say how disappointed they were that we went out like that, after working so hard on saturday. They offer beer and cleavage, so we didnt say no.

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A little while later, the event organizer, Jay Lamm shows up. He asks why that car hasnt been out on the track mor than six laps, and says he had been hearing our situation from others and wanted to get it himself. We tell him the whole story and he says that we amazingly still seem to be in good spirits. I told him we were, and thanked him for putting the race together. He leaves to go do "important" things, and we start packing up.
The race ends with a 1st gen RX7 taking the checker, how awesome. We went to the award ceremony to see who won the various awards:

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After presenting the "heroic fix award" to a team that had to leave early (their story was similar to ours, but they finished the race, and posted the second-fastest lap), he says, "Some of you may have seen a black SVX around, it did one lap yesterday and about five today...." he tells our story and presents us with the "I got screwed" trophy:

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Feeling vindicated, we head back to TN. I know that I will be competing in next year's race and I think the rest of my team will as well.


THE BOTTOM LINE:

The race was amazing, even with all the problems the subie had, I had a blast. From the competition, to the hilarious pentalties, to the people's curse, it was great. I am doing it again next year, and plan on bringing my game (which I apparently left at thome this time).

Re: 24 hours of LeMons (long, with pics, 56k die)
 

That's awesome... Good job getting screwed! :lol:

Re: 24 hours of LeMons (long, with pics, 56k die)
 

I hate that you had so much trouble out of your steering....:mad:
I'd have liked to see how it did if everything held together.....:)

Re: 24 hours of LeMons (long, with pics, 56k die)
 

http://jalopnik.com/399755/the-24-ho...8-uber-gallery

Some more pics here.

Re: 24 hours of LeMons (long, with pics, 56k die)
 

Man, that's just awesome! It sucks that the car was such a pain but its great you guys left still in good moods and you even got a trophy out of it. lol Goodtimes.

Re: 24 hours of LeMons (long, with pics, 56k die)
 

looks like an load of fun. what went wrong with the steering?

Re: 24 hours of LeMons (long, with pics, 56k die)
 

i just want to know who the girl was that was next to the guy in the blue shirt,
:lol: