The Index of Effluency goes to the LeMons team that accomplishes a feat far beyond their vehicle’s purported abilities, and the chances for an IOE go way, way up when you race a General Motors product. The IOE chase in the Loudon Annoying 24 Hours of LeMons devolved into a Chevette-versus-Storm battle early on and stayed that way all weekend.
By Sunday afternoon, LeMons HQ had more or less decided that whichever of the two had the most laps at the end was going to take home the Index of Effluency and the $1,501 in prize money that accompanies it. The ’93 Geo Storm of the Brooklyn Bomb Squad, with its automatic transmission and gas-sipping lo-po engine, struggled with the ’85 Chevrolet Chevette of Team Chev-itte Where The Sun Don’t Shine (yes, they were still making Chevettes in 1985; in fact, The General made them through the 1987 model year) tooth and nail from start to finish. At one point, one of the Geo drivers was heard enthusing over his “epic duel with the Chevette,” a phrase we’re pretty sure had never been uttered before. In the end, the Chevy beat the Geo by a mere 5 laps, 349 to 344.
The Chevette stayed out of the way of the quicker cars (i.e., just about everything that didn’t have a Geo nameplate) and avoided the Penalty Box, and in the end it stood in 26th place out of 54 entries. Congratulations, Chev-itte Where The Sun Don’t Shine!
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Is this the first sandbox affixed to a car in LeMons?
GM products always get a bad rap, but I’m not surprised either of these cars finished with as many laps as they did. While the bodies, interiors, etc on these cars are garbage, the drivetrains will run and run and run. So, pretty much, they are IDEAL LeMons cars.
Yeah with a few major exceptions (and I call them major cause they seem to be the thing that everyone harps on) GM Powertrain tends to produce engines that have the durability of anvils. When my 1982 Celebrity crapped out 20 years after leaving the assembly line the crude Iron Duke was the last thing still functioning on it.
Cue person dissing a Caddy 8-6-4, Olds Diesel, Chevrolet 3.1/3.4 head gasket, Vega engine, or Caddy 4100.
Response: SBC, Iron Duke, Big Block Caddy, 3300/3800 V6s.
Lesson: GM can take an engine design and perfect it to within 99/100ths. Just watch out for the “new” technology.
How many miles did it have?
In LeMons, GM cars have proven to be fairly unreliable. Not as bad as Mitsubishis, but definitely sub-par. The first Chevette we saw (at Gingerman) did 5 laps before puking the engine.
I recently heard someone declare “GM cars will run badly longer than most cars will run.”
Oooooooollllllllddddddddd saying.
Proof that the little guy can win!
The pizza delivery cars where I worked my senior year of high school were all 1987 Chevettes with automatic transmissions. Car #1 was gutless, but had good breaks. Car #2 was rarely functional. Car #3 lost half it’s rear axle one day (fell off while going around a corner). Car #4 had “power” but rather poor brakes. The loaner Ford Escorts from the cross town store were a decadent luxury by comparison.