24 Hours of LeMons Chicago: A lot of Porsches, Several Former Winners, and a BMW-Powered Geo

We’re back in the Midwest when once again, for the fifth go to of the 24 Hours of LeMons to the Autobahn Nation Club and this year’s operating of the Doin’ Time In Joliet race. With a lot more than 100 teams entered, we’ve got a total of 5 former overall LeMons winners on the premises (a Camaro, 2 BMW E30s, a 300ZX, and an MR2) and a lot of much more potential contenders. You can study LeMons Supreme Court Justice Judge Eric’s race preview for a lot more specifics on the probably class contenders right now we’re going to appear at some of the much more exciting vehicles and teams that showed up for the traditional car inspections nowadays.

With a excellent half-dozen or so Porsche 924s and 944s here, we expect to see numerous errant engine parts scattered over the tarmac and many teams staring blankly at 20-hours-to-replace dead transmissions. This race will be run in 1 long session that starts Saturday morning and ends at midnight, so challenging-to-repair cars such as these will be at a disadvantage with out the usual Saturday evening wrench-fest.

Of course, this 944 has General Motors 4.3-liter V6 power… and the Porsche transaxle. This ought to be interesting.

German vehicles with ill-advised Detroit-sourced engine swaps are nothing new in this series. Here’s a Mercedes-Benz C230 that showed up at the wrecking yard owned by 1 of the team’s members. After promoting off every little thing of value from the automobile, they rummaged by way of the yard for a appropriate replacement engine.

Which, naturally, turned out to be a “Pinto 2300″ out of a Ford Ranger.

Japanese automobiles also get strange engine swaps in LeMons racing. Here’s the Pabst Blue Racing Nissan Maxima, which characteristics mid-mounted Cadillac Northstar V8 power.

Pabst Blue Racing has suffered from repeated transmission troubles in past races, largely brought on by nervous breakdowns of the transmission’s electronic control unit. The poor transmission ECU thought it was nevertheless installed in the Cadillac STS drivetrain-donor automobile, and it was not content with the inputs it was receiving from its new home. As a outcome, the group replaced— or perhaps supplemented, we’re not sure— the shifter with this set of switches. With this new rig, the driver merely reaches more than with his gloved hand during the whirling chaos of wheel-to-wheel road racing, fumbles at the switches in the hope of selecting the right gear, and overrides the tranny ECM by actuating internal transmission solenoids through direct electrical stimulation. This need to perform completely.

The Pabst Blue Racing automobile is a gloriously bad idea, but it is positively sane subsequent to what LemonAid Racing has completed with their Geo Metro. This vehicle won Class C and the Index of Effluency with its original 3-cylinder Suzuki engine, but then the group decided that they wanted much more energy. Rather than go the boring route and drop in the “big-block” 4-cylinder Suzuki engine, the members of LemonAid Racing lost their presence of mind and went huge crazy.

Yes, that is a BMW 6-cylinder engine out of a late E30. The Metro also received a narrowed E30 rear suspension the driver had to be moved back a few feet to make area for the cruelly butchered firewall. Somehow, this vehicle ended up weighing a lot more than the team’s E30 race auto, so we’re not expecting it to run away with anything this race.

After finishing in the best 5 in what appears like a dozen Midwest Area LeMons races, the Small Lebowski Urban Achievers and their naturally-aspirated Volvo 245 are back for another shot at that ever-elusive general win.

After installing a Fat Man atomic bomb, a Tiny Boy atomic bomb, and a covered wagon atop their Civic, the Group Formerly Known As Oregon Fail now has a gigantic Led Zeppelin installed.

The BRIBED stencil utilised by the LeMons Supreme Court this race features an homage to the excellent Brougham Edition vehicles that have been when so well-liked in this portion of the nation. BROUGHBED!

Why don’t a lot more teams race V12 Jaguars? You can get a operating XJ-S for significantly less than scrap worth these days, we adore British vehicles, and no LeMons engine sounds as excellent as the massive twelve.

Certain, there might be some drawbacks to this strategy, but what other vehicle with this significantly power gets place into Class C?

The Union of Pentastar Racers have brought their confusingly Soviet-themed Duster, or possibly it’s a Shadow or a Sundance, back for yet another shot at Mitsubishi-powered Chrysler glory.

As Billy Dee Williams would say, the Mitsubishi 6G72 almost works each time.

Wonderful themes abounded. Here’s the “Cougar” (really a Ford Probe) of Burnt Rubber Soul Racing.

We also have a true Cougar, covered in blinding orange reflective tape for added irritation.

Zero Budget Racing redecorated their Class C and Index of Effluency-winning Chevy Chevette Diesel with this patriotic Domino’s Pizza-influenced theme. Why?

It turns out that Domino’s utilized a fleet of specially configured Chevettes as delivery cars in the 1980s.

Domin8′s Pizza: “Sluggish, Surly, ‘Splodey Delivery.”

The RUN-EXP Ford EXP has returned for an additional try at Class C victory. Can it beat the Jaguar?

That and many other pressing issues will be settled Saturday. Check back later for the race outcomes.

24 Hours of LeMons Chicago: A lot of Porsches, Several Former Winners, and a BMW-Powered Geo