Gorgeous, huh? She appeared in the night like a white-robed dream, resplendent in her restrained livery and requiring just four or five hours of work to be ready to race.
Problem was, the race had already started.
In the upcoming week, you’ll get to hear from each one of the participants in our ill-fated LeMons race, but here are the salient points: The SLC wasn’t ready to race, so we borrowed another Mercedes-Benz that was also not ready to race and a Jetta that probably should not have been racing. We got the Benz ready and it ran for 1.5 laps before it died. Then we got it ready again and it rained.
How many laps did we complete? Not very many. How did we finish? Not well at all. But our rookies have been appropriately blooded, so to speak, and there was more than the usual hilarity and stupidity involved. Watch this space.
Another thing that didn’t happen: our TTAC shirts didn’t arrive. When they do arrive, we will be awarding a total of ten shirts to randomly selected commenters in the original TTAC racing post.
The car may not have arrived in time and the t-shirts may not have arrived in time, but I hear that you did have some stylish headwear.
I know you like to poke fun at the “homemade cornbread” writing in Grassroots Motorsports magazine, but they can at least go racing and come home with a story worth writing!
I’m a big GRM fan and I talk to JG a fair amount.
I’ve already won LeMons *and* Chump, you know :)
When did you win IOE?
Other than that how was the play Mrs. Lincoln?
you owe me a new keyboard
wow. looks like a fun time (hint of sarcasm).
It was interesting enough, to say the least. I do feel a bit bad for all the fine people who spent so much time and money coming down to race, only to watch other people race, get stressed/annoyed at junky cars, and get eaten by the local bugs. I wish there had been more for me to do, but that’s crapcan racing for ya.
Congrats on the stellar racecraft.
Actually, you probably got about the median number of laps for a rookie LeMons team so don’t feel too bad.
We are still going to tease the hell out of all of you.
I issue a challenge to the TTAC Lemons Racing program: locate and drive an MY84 Corvette with the original cross fire FI and preferably the oddball 4+3 transmission mentioned in the latest Junkyard Find.
Considering that fine-shape classic Rolls Royces have made it into LeMons, an 80’s Corvette wouldn’t be too out of the question.
That could be an awesome Murilee Martin convergence racing class for Lemons, no BS penalty laps if you roll up with a model featured in a recent Junkyard Find.
Not the exact car, that would be too exciting.
In 1977 my brother in law let me drive his 450 SLC. My father’s car at the time was a 75 LeSabre. To say that the Mercedes was a revelation is an understatement. The steering effort felt so heavy but it was like my hands were guiding each wheel directly. Cornering on rails is such a cliche but that is exactly how it felt. Donna Summer’s I Feel Love was cranked up on the cassette player and I was in love with that car. I vowed one day I would own one. Many years later I did get a Mercedes E 500, a car that objectively is better in every way than the 450 SLC but the same magic was never there.
The first high is always the best high, according to the junkies.
I have a 79 SLC and I like it better than my 2010 BMW 135i and BTW it would run that track 2 100mph for days only to stop for gas!
If nothing else, the new logo’s great. Get that on the home page, stat!
You can’t win if you are not at the table, so I have heard.
Well Jack, if nothing else you know your racing. I’m sure I’m not the only one who didn’t pick up that when you posted “I HOPE U GUISE WRECK IN TURN UNO” in the first story you were actually predicting the results and not preemptively out-sarcasm-ing trolls! Great work all around…oh yeah, bummer about the car though.
Hey, at least you got to drive something. ;o) Eh, for a little while, at least.
I think we both got too screwed for the “I Got Screwed” award, so there’s that.
The best part of my weekend was that Ms. Murilee brought the right press car!
Shame about the rain. With windows, that 201 would have probably been a great car out there.
See….107
Classy
It came.
Eventually.
It saw.
The track. Briefly.
It conquered.
That piece of grass in the back paddock next to Spec Racer Sports where it spent most of the event.
At least there’s a picture of Jack pretending to be sorting something underhood on the Rattan Jetta in Murilee’s C/D writeup. :)
It was great meeting everyone I hadn’t met previously, and I’m really glad you didn’t wreck my supervisor-for-the-weekend’s Ruckus, DK. ;)