OT - Are Alfa's better?

[cheseroo]

Note the little black item on the upper right of the picture -it's a con rod headed back to Italy.

 

[sd80mac7204]

Not to change the subject, is that car in the background a Buick? Is somebody actually racing a Buick?

 

[cheseroo]

I think it's a Crown Vic. This was the 24 Hours of Lemons race at Sears Point 3/24-25. There was a team with a 78 Olds that was seriously fast.

FWIW, I was driving this -

And this -

And lastly of interest to people on this forum, this -

This Spit beat both MGBs so I was happy with that.

If you want to see video from the Spitfire, here ya go.

 

[sd80mac7204]

 

[HerronScott]

Ouch! It looked like a Crown Vic in the background to me as well since I instinctively slow down when I see that shape in my rear view mirror (must have been what the Alfa was thinking as well but I think there are easier ways of slowing down than leaving a connecting rod on the track...).

Scott

 

[luke44]

....FWIW, I was driving this -
If you want to see video from the Spitfire, here ya go.

Whoa!! That looks like an absolute hoot! Did I read somewhere the price limit on a Lemons car is $500?

 

[cheseroo]

....FWIW, I was driving this -
If you want to see video from the Spitfire, here ya go.

Whoa!! That looks like an absolute hoot! Did I read somewhere the price limit on a Lemons car is $500?

It is indeed a hoot. These are supposed to be $500 cars excluding safety items which have no limit. There are two groups and they each calculate $500 differently. In Lemons, you can buy a car for $1500, sell (legitimately) $1000 in parts to end up with a $500 car. In Chumpcar, they don't care what you paid as long as you can produce 10 ads for the same model running/driving car that average $500.

In Lemons, the $500 is subjective and themes on the cars are encouraged. For instance, a Rolls is clearly not a $500 car. However, a Rolls is such an absurd race car they would be very happy to see one show up. A Rolls with a Chrysler slant 6 in it will likely win you an award. Show up with an E30 BMW with a weak theme and expect to be penalized laps. At Sears Pointless, someone showed up with a late model GTO and they were penalized a record 2 billion laps. A very clapped out RX8 only got 500,000 laps. The racing is real and several high profile ALMS and Nascar drivers have competed (Tony Stewart has a couple Lemons cars) The highest award you can win in Lemons is the Index of Effluency and it is highly sought after and pays more than the overall race winner. BTW, the winnings are paid in nickels or sometimes in trash bags full of rubles.

 

[tdskip]

So it did rain after all Rich.

Is the lemon shape so you'd fit in it? Ha. which drove better?

BTW - you've got it all wrong on that Alfa. It is spinning its tires in that picture, and with much much power who needs all four cylinders? Or an oil tight block. Or oil for that matter...

 

[cheseroo]

The America was an absolute blast in the rain. The floppy hydrolastic suspension worked great in the wet. I was able to hurl it into corners and outbrake a lot of other cars. The last hour on Saturday, Spank was in the mini and I was in the America. We had a ding dong battle in the rain passing and repassing the whole time. I think that was the most fun he's had in Lemons. The America wasn't as fun in the dry on Sunday. Every righthander it spun the right front. The Spitfire was not that fun in the rain. No wipers with a Lexan windshield that fogged inside and out. Water condensed on the mirrors. Turn 7 required a leap of faith every time you drove it in there because you couldn't see much of anything. It was a much better car in the dry. The mini had a locking diff that made it hard to drive in the rain but came alive in the dry.

Rock Auto had Jag Brembo front rotors on closeout for 13 bucks apiece. I got 4.

 

[M_Pied_Lourd]

Rich, that does look like alot of fun. What is the yellow blinking light on the dash of the Spit?

Cheers,
Tush

 

[DNK]

Ditto, thanks for asking Dave

 

[cheseroo]

It's a light to indicate the alternator is charging. It's supposed to be lit all the time. On Saturday a loose wire was actually making it flash. The rest of the time it's flashing due to the video framing (they say). In my case, if you drew a line from my eyes to the light the steering wheel rim is in the way so I never really saw the light unless I made an effort to look for it.

 

[tdskip]

Good going on the brakes Rich - thanks. Will swing by this weekend.

So Spank actually got to have fun, how great is that.

 

[mrv8q]

Hey, why did I think there was gonna be a Jag at LeMons, Tom?
Or was it there?

 

[tdskip]

Ah yes, the most obvious of race car choices, a 4 door mid-90's Jag v12.

We ran that at Laguna Seca with Chump car.

Good car, but had some fuel pump issues which I am assured our ace wrench (aka Rich) has sorted out. My contribution to that repair effort was my leaving on a business trip for 4 weeks.

Maybe Rich can post some pictures of the corkscrew?

 

[cheseroo]

The deadline for Lemons race entries is 2 1/2 months before the event. I think we hadn't taken delivery of the Jag in time for Sears Point and I wasn't eager to enter a car I hadn't seen yet. Plus I had no teammates that wanted to do Sears Point so I jumped ship and drove these other fine specimens of British engineering. Chumpcar has a much shorter lead time (and had spots free up at the last minute) so we were able to get it entered at Laguna Seca. Here it is going through the corkscrew.

No, that isn't someone sitting in the rear window, that's the corner worker.

Here it is at Thunderhill? last year (with the plywood and paper mache` rear wing that Tom refuses to let me re-install) If you look very closely, you will see that the sticker on the front air dam indicates that it's made by that famous racing parts supplier - Vigoro

It's next scheduled event is the 24 Hours of Buttonwillow (ArseSweataPooloza) 6/31-7/1 That is assuming that Tom fills out and sends back in his invitation form before the deadline because if the event is filling up Lemons automatically rejects any entry that does not have a full roster of drivers.

 

[M_Pied_Lourd]

I'm with you Rich, I like the wing

Cheers,
Tush

 

[tdskip]

Done Rich. In my defense I was stuck at the airport caught up in the general strike when it was sent. I was a tad distracted at the time.

 

[cheseroo]

Jus bustin yer nuts a little....

 

[tdskip]

Get in line...