24 Hours of LeMons

dspgti · Post by **dspgti** » Sun Apr 17, 2011 11:30 pm

Did you ever want to run in a 24 Hours of Lemons??

I was skepticle at first but got talked into doing one last weekend at NJMP. What a blast. No previous competition license necessary. Just pay the money and run. If you have never heard of this, it's build a race car for $500 or less (not including safety gear, roll cage, brakes and tires) pick a dumb theme and show up and act like an idiot.

Most events are not really 24 hours long although there is one or two that go the distance. The NJMP event was 15 hours, 8 on Saturday and 7 on Sunday. If you are not liked or your competitors, or they think you are cheating, everyone gets to vote for one team to have their car destroyed on Sunday, 4 hours before the end of the race (boy would I like to do this at a hillclimb!....or maybe not...I don't have many friends left). The car that was destroyed turned out to be a Bradley GT which is a fiberglas kit car on an old VW Beetle floor pan and drive line.

Our team of 6 drivers had 2 former hillclimbers (Brandon Lewis and Mike Ferret), 2 current hillclimbers (Carl Hindman and myself) and 2 NJ region club racers ( Dave Teal, Ed Weery). We finished in 20th place after recovering from having to drop out 1-1/2 hours before the end of Saturday night in 34th place out of 68. The clutch started slipping half way through Saturady and finally gave it all up before the end of the day. We got a new one in overnight and raced pretty much flawlessly (except for my two black flags for agreesive driving) on Sunday.

Great fun, what a blast! Like I said, if you get a chance...DO IT.

They are talking about maybe 2 or 3 next year at NJMP.

Dave Y

dspgti · Post by **dspgti** » Sun Apr 17, 2011 11:41 pm

Oh, by the way. That $500 figure... forget about it. The real cost was $6,000 or better.

camaroz1985 · Post by **camaroz1985** » Mon Apr 18, 2011 10:28 am

I did the one at Summit Point last year in a Neon. Car only managed 40 something laps between brake problems, wiring that was rubbed through, and finally a head gasket failure.

Doing it again this year. Same place, different car (BMW E30 with Ford 5.0 from an 87 Mustang).

dspgti · Post by **dspgti** » Mon Apr 18, 2011 11:17 am

Good luck Ryan. My car is for rent if anyone is interested although I think the dealine is past.

Dave Y.

sdwarf36 · Post by **sdwarf36** » Mon Apr 18, 2011 12:08 pm

If all the pieces come together, I'll be one of the drivers on a car at NHIS in 2 weeks. A Rabbit. Diesel.

dspgti · Post by **dspgti** » Mon Apr 18, 2011 12:14 pm

sdwarf36 wrote:If all the pieces come together, I'll be one of the drivers on a car at NHIS in 2 weeks. A Rabbit. Diesel.

I hope it's turbo charged

You better go for fewer fuel stops. That's like 4 hours per stint on a full tank.

Dave Y

proctorsilex · Post by **proctorsilex** » Mon May 23, 2011 11:54 pm

I was in four LeMons races in 2009. I have been wanting to get back in. I just bought a pile of Beetle parts to be my LeMons contender. I need to find some Beetle people who know about engine assembly or have parts that I can scrounge. Is there anybody in the hill climb community who fits the bill?
I am looking to form a team, so contact me if you are interested in helping get this thing together and being on crew or driving.

I also plan on entering Chump Car (similar to LeMons) and do at least one hill climb in the car.

BarbaraT · Post by **BarbaraT** » Wed Sep 07, 2011 12:15 pm

I've always wanted to do one of these races. It sounds like fun but not cheap. Even with the $500 limit, I guess it costs a lot more for the cage, wheels and probably brakes. What else ended up costing you $6000?

proctorsilex · Post by **proctorsilex** » Wed Sep 07, 2011 12:47 pm

BarbaraT wrote:I've always wanted to do one of these races. It sounds like fun but not cheap. Even with the $500 limit, I guess it costs a lot more for the cage, wheels and probably brakes. What else ended up costing you $6000?

Anything that is not in the budget that you need or care about. For example, either ChumpCar or LeMons allows wheel bearings to be replaced for free. Then there are the things that you don't tell anybody about like bushings and new metal. Lights if you are running 24 hours.
Add on a race seat, harness, fire extinguisher, roll bar padding, kill switch, seat brace, and seat slider. Then there is personal safety equipment.
The roll cage is cheaper if you weld it yourself.

If you want to include the cost of racing itself, there's roughly 100 gallons of fuel, fuel for transportation, tires (only good for one race), brake pads, brake fluid, engine oil, trailering, tolls, entrance fees, hotel (if not camping), and food.
Don't forget any tools that you don't already have but need to work on the car, especially at the track.

I think that my car itself is more like $2-3k. It would definitely go up significantly if including the consumables and per race expenses.

It ends up being "cheap" racing because the competitive parts of the car are limited to $500, which means a $2-6k car versus a $10-30k+ car.

PA Hillclimb

24 Hours of LeMons

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