The 24 Hours of LeMons Traveling Circus has been coming to MSR Houston since way back in 2008, when the 10th-ever LeMons race took place here. The LeMons Supreme Court inspected about 80 vehicles today, which meant— because this is Texas— something like a dozen apiece Fox Fords and Nissan Z Cars in addition to the usual assortment of weird machinery. Let’s see what we’ve got fixin’ to race on Saturday!
In honor of a beloved local creature, here’s the LeMons Supreme Court’s traditional BRIBED stencil for this race.
Speaking of generous bribes for the LeMons Supreme Court, what’s going on here?
As is always the case when we come to Texas, we have tremendous quantities of Mustangs and Nissan Zs. We’ve got early Foxes, late Foxes, a Mustang II, 240s, 280s, 300s, the works.
This bunch of Ford Focus fanatics could have convinced us that they sold enough parts off their insurance-totaled SVT to make it a legitimate $ 500 car, but they neglected to bring any sort of paperwork documenting the cost of stuff bought and sold. Uh-oh!
Also not convincing the LeMons Supreme Court of his team’s budgetary bona fides was automotive writer (and member of the winning team at the third-ever LeMons race) Jack Baruth and his team’s very clean Porsche 944 Turbo.
Speaking of car journalists with Porsche 944s, Stef Schrader is back with her Porsche 944.
The electric-powered Datsun Fairlady of Hoonatic Racing made its LeMons debut two years ago, and it appears that a battery upgrade may push the one and only LeMons EV up to a never-before-achieved top speed of 60 mph.
Another car that made its LeMons debut in 2012 was the Ratsun Racing Datsun 210ZX. Three races later, this car has a KA24 engine swap, but has a total of 13 laps finished in its LeMons racing career. Class C, again!
Inspired by the famous Jihadist Cookie Monster Toyota painting, TARP Racing created the Cookie Monster Warlord BMW E36.
What makes a Porsche 914 slightly less reliable?
A Subaru 2.5 engine swap, of course! With automatic transmission, the LeMons Supreme Court felt compelled to put this car in Class C.
All the way from Vermont, the Bert One Racing Volvo 262C Bertone has come to Texas to pursue the elusive goal of an overall LeMons win.
This chop-top Volkswagen Transporter had some innovative features, but wasn’t quite ready to pass the tech inspection on its first try.
Once a few safety upgrades are completed, the center-drive VW Bus should hit the track on Saturday.
While all that was going on, the guys from Street Outlaws showed up with their “Pee On Neon” race car, complete with roof-mounted urinating mannequin. Will they do better in LeMons than Freiberger and Finnegan did with their ’73 Plymouth Fury? We’ll find out tomorrow!