LeMons Northern California Inspections: Plentiful British Automobiles, Harold & Maude&rsquos E-Kind Hearse

The 24 Hours of LeMons organization has descended upon the after-upscale Race Sonoma aka Sears Point in California’s Wine Country, for the eighth annual Arse Freeze-a-Palooza race. We’ve got the usual hordes of Mazda Miatas, Honda Civics, and BMW 3-series vehicles amongst the 180+ entrants (verify out Judge Eric’s preview for a far more detailed crapcan inventory), but we’ve also got more British vehicles than we’ve ever observed at a single LeMons race. We often have some Union-Jack-flying machinery at California races, but never ever the broad assortment of marques that we’ve got in shop for this weekend. Along with that, there’s also a not-quite-fully-British-but-nevertheless-remarkable replica of the Jaguar E-Sort hearse from the film Harold and Maude.

This “E-Type” began out as the In-a-Gadda-Da-Speeda Datsun 280ZX, then received some thrashed-but-genuine Jaguar body components and some creative sheet-metal perform to grow to be Harold’s hearse. The group even place collectively some exceptional costumes for the occasion.

As for the fully British cars, we’ve got at least one particular instance apiece from Austin, Rover, Jensen-Healey, Humber, MG, Jaguar, Sunbeam, and Lotus in the house (strangely, we do not have a single Triumph). Here’s the Pit Crew Revenge “RoLex” Rover SD1, which characteristics a Lexus 1UZ-FE V8 swap.

Would you think 2 Jensen-Healeys? Not only that, both have correct Lotus 907 engines!

Here’s a Lotus that does not have a Lotus 907: the “Chotus” features Chevrolet 350-cubic-inch V8 energy. The B-Team’s Chotus has turned in previous LeMons performances that run the gamut from execrable to disappointing, but the team has swapped in a Jaguar XJ-S rear suspension and worked Ford Sierra front hubs into a homemade front suspension that might let the B-Team to get a full weekend of racing out of their automobile.

Bonus points for this so-geeky-we-nearly-can’t-stand-it Chotus badge.

Of course, you cannot have British vehicles with out at least one particular French vehicle, and here’s the Peugeot Daddy 404 to remind us that they make automobiles on the other side of the Channel.

Also from the Continent, 2 Teutono-GM Opel GTs.

Classic Detroit machinery was also nicely-represented. Verify out this battered-but-proud Chevy El Camino, comprehensive with genuine Chevrolet rally wheels. With its squishy suspension and tired 350 engine, this vehicle will compete against the Jensen-Healeys, Peugeot 404, and Humber Super Snipe in Class C.

Ford Pinto Cruising Wagon? Yeah, we’ve got one!

This Ford Crown Victoria team showed up with a classed-up “ASSCAR” theme, full with umbrella girls.

Hella Shitty Racing, which operates on the premise that guys should be objectified as humiliatingly as girls in racing, contributed some of the team’s own eye candy to the ASSCAR presentation. Only in LeMons!

The final time LeMons came to this track, the LeMons Supreme Court’s BRIBED stencil featured a stencil primarily based on the Grateful Dead’s “Steal Your Face” logo. This time, we decided to remain psychedelic with a diagram of the LSD molecule.

One particular team brought a game of Brain Surgery Operation for the LeMons Supreme Court to use as a penalty for miscreant drivers. Here’s Judge Mary (who performs as an emergency-room doctor for her day job) trying her hand at Brain Surgery Operation.

Teams continue to do Breaking Bad themes, and they maintain getting greater.

This group picked up an Audi wagon that had produced the news for a dramatic police chase prior to receiving LeMon-ized. Such provenance!

Yet another team brought this boombox constructed into a trash bin. We admire this sort of ingenuity.

The Killer Rabbit Racing Team, which finished in 228th spot in the world’s biggest road race earlier this year, is back. We really feel particular that they will not be DFL this time.

Following the inspections, the teams got busy with the cookin’ and wrenchin’ in the cold, rainy evening hours. Check in Saturday night to see what occurs in the course of the initial day’s race session!

LeMons Northern California Inspections: Plentiful British Automobiles, Harold & Maude&rsquos E-Kind Hearse

British motors – as unreliable as the British weather?

If there’s 1 issue you can rely on in Britain, it’s the unreliable climate.

Prepare for rain and the sun will be cracking the flags. Leave the home without a brolly and the downpours will be Biblical.

And if the findings of the newest Warranty Direct Reliability Index are something to go by, British motors are just as temperamental.

Information breakdown

The Index looks at information from more than 50,000 live Warranty Direct policies and prices them across 4 categories:

• Frequency of failure


• Expense of repair


• Duration of repairs


• Average age and mileage

The typical score is 100 – and UK tends to make of car notched-up a effectively-above-typical of 209. Which is bad news, truly, since the more dependable the motor, the reduced its score. So the UK’s high score puts it clear bottom of the 8-nation table of most reliable manufacturers.

At the other end of the scale, Japanese brands proved to be the most dependable – they were the only tends to make to obtain a below-typical score.

Here’s how these benefits break down (you see what I did there?):

Axle to grind

The findings show that axle/suspension difficulty is the most common fault for UK brands, accounting for more than a quarter (26%) of all recorded malfunctions. Axle and suspension troubles also featured most frequently across Japanese (25%), American (23%) and Italian (29%) brands.

Electrical faults were also a big dilemma, accounting for about a quarter of faults in French (29%) and Swedish (26%), German (24%) and South Korean (22%) brands.

Extended warranty

The figures are based upon Warranty Direct’s own warranty claim charges for vehicles that are no longer covered by manufacturer warranties. This implies the information can be slightly skewed since some firms offer you warranties that run longer than the common 3 years.

This indicates information from South Korean brands like Hyundai and Kia, as well as Toyota of Japan and the USA’s Chevrolet, will not function till they are 5 or even 6 years old, which means there’s a higher likelihood of standard put on and tear.

Brands on the run

On the face of it, these benefits suggest the UK automobile business is in a bit of a state – not only is the UK score more than twice the supposed RI average, but the reason it’s so higher is down to underperformance from 2 of its most prestigious brands, Jaguar and Land Rover.

However, due to the fact these brands are deemed among the top marques in motoring they’ll always be highly sought right after, regardless of whether the suspension is likely to go after a handful of years.

And this does not just apply to certain brands as the very same notions are often applied to nations –Germany is a watchword for engineering excellence, but it came sixth in the table.

State of the nation

David Gerrans, Warranty Direct managing director, stated: “Though the automotive sector has many blurred lines now in terms of countries of origin, the average consumer maintains particular preconceptions about automobile brands and the nations that generate them. ‘German reliability’ is an oft-utilized phrase, but as demonstrated here, the country’s output as a entire doesn’t  match up to its close neighbours, the French, whose vehicles as a complete are a lot more dependable.”

It should be remembered that car makers throw their nets far and wide, which means that Japanese car you’re knocking about in is more likely to have been manufactured in the north east than the Far East.

And so the higher-scores accomplished by Japan’s Nissan and Honda bode effectively for the Sunderland-made Qashqai and the Swindon-created Civic – and the UK motor manufacturing market as a whole.

British motors – as unreliable as the British weather?