The fine folks over at The Atlantic (yeah, the fancy magazine) have posted a 5-minute short film on the experience that is LeMons. We love it.
(Spot fellow TTAC scribe Murilee Martin in the robe at 1:45.)
For the uninitiated, it’s a expertly captured glimpse at the personalities that make home-grown racing the best kind of racing. For the car nut, the film serves as motivation to get out and work on your race mongrel — now.
I know I’m preaching to the choir in some respects, but the film accurately captures the enthusiasm and personalities that race veterans can take for granted.
The film doesn’t go heavy into the details about how the cars are built or how the pits work all weekend to keep them ready, but perhaps those could be sequels.
But really, if you’re new to the game and want a cheap way to get into motorsports, the film should prime your passion for entry-level racing. There are plenty of series, including LeMons, like Chump Car or the United States Lawnmower Racing Association (“Let’s Mow!”) or SCCA …
That list goes on and on and on.
Feel free to leave a link to your local association in the comments below.
The one on the front page links to a video about a Texas bank robbery by teenagers. Unsure I’d want to show that my SO.
Should be fixed now.
I’ll stick with Chump Car, where people seem to care more about racing and less about being ostentatiously and self-consciously nutty. Being laid back is one thing; randomly grabbing and crushing cars for the yuks is just pointless.
You know they haven’t crushed cars since 2009, right ?
Ostentatiously nutty? I just like a rulebook I can print out on the back of one recycled TPS report cover sheet instead of needing a ream of recycled ECOs.
Still, lots of good avenues for (relatively) affordable road racing nowadays! Lemons, Chump, AER, WRL…it’s a good time to have a crapbox with a cage!
I prefer Lemons for the car variety, my last chumpcar visit featured a bit too many Bimmers for my taste.
There do seem to be a lot of them. One of them even dented our Miata this weekend, or so I hear from the guys. But ChumpCar seems pretty good so far. I don’t really care what marques we beat as long as the competition is good. ;)
I’m jealous of those guys. That looks to be about as fun as it gets. Too bad I don’t have the “know how” to pull it of.
Comments are closed on the Crapwagon Outtake? Really???
The video actually turns me off…its not about the racing really and they’ve just traded time for money in putting the cars together, so it is hardly “cheap” Its like a circus of one-upmanship.
Does anyone just buy a beater and race prep it and run it in this series?
“Does anyone just buy a beater and race prep it and run it in this series?”
Absolutely. We prepped a ’74 Mustang II for our first race last year and put zero into performance updates. Sure, we had big plans for it but the process of race prep to pass tech took way longer than expected. It’s been in 2 races now and aside from adjusting the valve lash, there’s been no tuning. Haven’t even put a timing light on it yet.
That was fun!
That is beautiful and weird thing. I love it. I am glad it exists.