24 hours of Lemons

sleeper

Former LOD President
Ran it again this year. Drove this time. Our team put in two cars, the RealJunk Acura Integra and the Crown Royal Victoria. I drove the Crown Vic. Completely stock '99 ex-cop car. We kicked ass. I was passing BMW's, Hondas, VW's, etc. on the track in a frickin' Crown Vic. The Integra came in 3rd, the Vic came in 10th. We were trading 2nd and 3rd for a while, but rear brake pads, contact with the wall, frequent refueling, driver fatigue, and a 30 minute penalty dropped the Vic to 10th. The wall thing bent up the sheet metal and cost us some tire wear due to shaving tread on the RF, which cost us a lot of time. A little better preparation and a little better physical fitness and we'd have been in the top 5 for sure. But it was an accomplishment just to finish.

http://jalopnik.com/5049544/innovat...emons-judicial-system-the-sarah-palin-penalty - one of our team members (he was driving the Integra)

http://jalopnik.com/photogallery/LT08Hour5/1003591993 our Vic at hour 5

the cars after the carnage:

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Our team will also likely be featured in an upcoming ESPN magazine. It is unlikely that they will refer to us as "Crown Royal Victoria", though, due to copyright issues, but they did interview us during the race and take our picture with the car after the race.
 
Oh yeah... This was an absolute blast. Nobody out there had us by any significant margin on performance, except for the winner which was a Toyota Supra built by fabricators from Pratt and Miller (factory corvette race team guys). They were most likely way over budget, and they got a 50 lap penalty for spending too much, but still outclassed the field to the tune of 150 laps. Everyone else, we could beat on track. But we just lost too much time off track. Gutting and caging a cop car apparently drastically increases the performance, if done right (ie: cage to the frame and not to the body... we even walked away from the other two crown vics).

Crown Vic was so predictable in the dry, I was sliding it into the chicane off the banking at 65 mph. Just awesome handling, and plenty of power all around the track. We ran the whole race in 2nd gear to minimize trans issues, and it was the perfect powerband for everything except coming out of the chicane into the pit lane section.

The Detroit(ish) race was run at Toledo Speedway. The track involved one side of the banked oval, coming down into a chicane in the infield section (left / right) followed by another left into what would be the pit lane during a normal race (a wide two lanes with walls on both sides, off camber) with another chicane (taken straight without traffic, but a very narrow two lanes with traffic) back out onto the banking again. Actual pits were in what would normally be the paddock area.

We were running 65ish coming out of the pit lane area onto the straight, still running at about 65ish on the straight, with understeer on the throttle, oversteer on the brakes, just perfectly controllable balance. The rest of the track was too technical to waste time looking at the speedo, at least for me. Wheel to wheel, cars on both sides, sliding sideways at 65 mph into a tight left / right / left complex and trying to pass, just frickin' awesome.

Also completely exhausting. After an hour, hour and a half stint, you get out of the car absolutely soaked in sweat, with a headache from the dehydration, and an adrenaline high that just can't be described. Just so much fun. The sweat part was kinda gross because we're poor enough to have to share helmets and race suits, but you have to do what you have to do.

We'll be back next year. Same two cars, but with some repairs and some better preparation, and hopefully the same luck. Just finishing this race is an accomplishment, let alone getting both cars to the finish in 3rd and 10th out of 52 starters.
 
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Awesome Dave! That sounds like a total blast! So tell me, what was the 30 min. penalty for?

Next year let us know when it is, I think it's something I'd love to go watch (well, I'd probably love to race it too hee hee).
 
Penalties were generally for hitting cones or barrels. Officially, hitting anything, including other cars, was a penalty, but I only saw it applied for hitting barrels, and penalties were handed out inconsistently. I hit a cone twice, second time I sent it flying, and didn't get nabbed. Our other driver just brushed one, didn't even knock it over, and got nailed. The Integra collected 4 penalties, 2 of which involved getting hit into cones, and a warning for "driving over your head" (to a particularly good driver who just slid it around too much). The organizers seemed to have it out for the Integra and they seemed to be swinging from the Supras nuts (the ultimate winners).

Some racers drove real clean, some tried to block, including trying to close the door when the animals were already gone. That's what bit the Integra, the Integra was making a clean pass and the other car just moved over, caught them out a few times. They tried that on me a couple of times in the Crown Vic and lost. Mass can be your friend some times. I was passing one guy on the pit section, I was way faster than him, and he tried to move over on me when my bumper was at his drivers door. I didn't feel it, he spun into another car and knocked that car into the wall (but both kept going) and I gained at least 2 positions on track. Even the fury tried to knock me into a barrel, and didn't move me.

We all did our best to keep it clean, giving faster drivers room to pass and slower drivers room to stay on track when we were passing. Other drivers were a lot more aggressive and a lot ended up out of the race for it. We were complimented on our racing style and our speed by a few of our competitors. It's great fun to mix it up on the track with other drivers, then get a compliment from the other drivers on running a clean race after your stint.
 
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I love Crown Vics :) that looks like a blast... may be a bit too longish though.

Wouldn't make much sense to cage a crown vic body... since this is a Body on frame car vs unibody ;)
 
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This looks like a blast. Is the race truly 24 hrs? How many drivers can you have per car? When is the race next year?
 
ME and a couple friends were thinking of doing the one over here in CT. I think the next one is two years away. Looks like a BLAST!!
 
Congats! Sounds like a heck of a lot of fun, but it has to be exhausting for sure. :)
 
Not sure when the next one for us is, sometime next summer / fall. Probably september again.

There were 3 crown vics and a caprice / impala in the race. We were the only one to tie the cage right into the frame, the rest went to the body. That's fine for safety (they did use plates) but it didn't help their handling. The Crown Vic handled amazingly, everyone was surprised at how quickly we got it around the track. And we were running used tires too, most teams spent money for good tires for the race.

The race is very long. Very fatiguing Yes, it is 24 hours straight. Cars started lapping about 3 on Saturday, green flag flew at 3:25ish, and the checkered flag flew at about 2:58 on Sunday. So just a touch under 24 hours, but I think that's because they only pay for the ambulance for 24 hours.

We bought the cage as a sort of pseudo-kit. I found a place in (i think) WV that had the measurements from having built cages for crown vics for other types of races, and they had a lemons cage package. Came pre-bent and notched where it could, but we had to trim it, fish mouth some parts, and weld it. To tie it to the frame, I had to design and build shelves to mount it on, and we had to cut through the body, weld the shelves in place on the frame after moving brake lines and fuel lines out of the way, then weld the cage to the shelves, gusset as appropriate, then cut sheet metal and rivet it in place to cover the gaping holes we cut in the floor of the car. It was significantly more work than just welding plates to the body, but it was the only way to do it right and it paid off big time in handling. None of us had ever built a cage before, so it was all new to us... but ours looked better than a lot of others that I checked out. Of course, some teams (like the Pratt and Miller guys) knew exactly what they were doing and had some beautiful fabrication, but that was the exception rather than the rule.
 
I think the Crown Vic and Caprice/Impalas would be perfect for such an event.

I take it this is a team sport, so how many team members did you have and how much did each contribute? Just curious.
 
Dude, that looks like tons of fun! Do you have headlights or is the track all lit up?
 
All glass must be removed and all exterior plastic must be removed or taped over. We just pulled it all off. The track was lit up just fine, but I kept reaching for the headlight switch in the pits. It wasn't there though, we sawzalled the dash in that area to get the a-pillar bar in.

The picture above is on a slight right hand part going into the fast chicane. It does have a touch of toe out, but not a noticeable amount. Apparently a touch of toe out really helps turn in.

Our team(s) had 2 cars, 8 drivers, and 2 pit crew members. Including fuel, transportation, everything, we were in a bit over $1050 a person. Only the drivers paid. Next year will be cheaper since we already have the safety equipment. Add about $450 to my total for my race suit, shoes, gloves, helmet, and neck brace. Next year we should be able to do it for $600 or so a person.
 
Well, we did it again this year. Came in 26th out of 121 cars entered at Nelson Ledges. Nelson Ledges is a fast track - we were running close to 100 mph on the back straight and coming through the kink at 80+. What a thrill!

The Crown Vic stayed with the "Crown Royal Victoria" theme. The Integra switched over to a theme that will be left to the imagination, let's just say the car was painted like a football and had an inflatable monkey crotch down, face forward, on the roof. The Integra came in 34th I think, they had a few problems.

To those of you with SCT chips - Do not pour beer on your dash. Near the end we got in trouble for a minor fueling violation and the penalty was 2 24 oz beers poured on our dashboard. Ended up frying the chip, but we pulled it and went right back out for the end of the race. We had the chip set up to keep us in 2nd and 3rd to minimize shifting on track and prolong tranny life.

So far the car has seen 80k miles police duty, 50k miles of less-than-friendly use by a friend of mine, and about 1800 miles (48 hours) of relentless abuse on track. I think we'll bring a spare trans next race, but if the compression and oil analysis check out, the motor will probably just get new spark plugs and more abuse.

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The last picture shows the grass the car ate when an Omni went off in front of me. I was way faster than the Omni (GLH even), even through the turns. In one of the slow corners I was at the limit passing him on the inside when he tried to block and hit me, causing me to spin (or at least fishtail and stall). About 3-4 cars passed me while I was getting started, and it took me half a lap to catch him back up again (see, told you I was faster). I was on the inside again, this time on a much faster corner being a lot more careful passing him. I made sure I was on the inside again and no where near the limit, and sure enough, he tried to close the door again. Off he went. If he'd just let me by we'd have both been better off.

Another scary moment was when I was coming through the kink on the back straight 2-wide at about 80 mph. I was going a little less than flat out because we were 2 wide and I was trying to make a clean pass, but I was still at about the limit of what the car could do as far as turning and braking at that speed, when the other guy came over on me. When he tapped my front end, around I went. Spinning at 70+ is pretty scary, but it somehow stayed on track, rubber side down, and I kept going.

Other than that it was a clean race. I always try to avoid contact with other cars, but every now and then the other guy just hits you (see above) or doesn't see you and moves over into you. Given how close and how fast we were racing, I was pretty impressed with most of the drivers out there racing clean, but a few were a bit dirty. All in all it was a great time. Hopefully we can do it again next year!

I didn't see any Mark VIII's running, but there was one Mark VII. He was slow and spent a lot of time fixing stuff.
 
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