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Team Police Brutality is going to race in New England next weekend! The 24 Hours of LeMons staff has graciously accepted us at the last second, despite a long waiting list of teams still trying to get in to the overbooked, sold-out race. They expressed great appreciation for our recent efforts, and helped us out tremendously in return! Now, I've gotta decide between competing for the overall win with the Lincoln, running the Tbird with a different motor, or running the mystery car, one that Jay Lamm called "one of the worst cars ever built!"

Jeff (a.k.a. Speedycop) did a nice little write up of the racing events at Summit Point for the 24 Hours of Lemons Capitol Offense 2010. It was originally posted at the 24 Hours of Lemons forums (http://forums.24hoursoflemons.com/viewtopic.php?pid=51068#p51068) but it was such a nice summary, it should be here as well.

This is the post...

[Regarding the Thunderbird] Technically, the carb adapter was bolted to the lid of the ammo can with a proper gasket. As the lid wasn't rigid enough, it flexed and blew out the gasket. Because I had welded the lid onto the cut-down ammo can bottom, I couldn't replace the gasket, hence all the JB weld. Hey, it worked!

For day 2, we got the Lincoln out on the track for a few more laps.  With all eight cylinders, we beat the Day 1 best lap time with 1:55.113.  Two whole seconds faster than Day 1.  However, the clutch cable started to go on the Lincoln.  Rather than risk damage to a real contender, we played it safe and brought it in to the paddock.  Then we focused ALL our efforts on the Rocketbird.

Here at the Summit Point track on the 24 Hours of Lemons circuit, Jeff Bloch took the fastest lap time of the day in the Lincoln Mark VIII on only seven of eight cylinders.  On Day 2, after replacing a messed up coil, we have all eight cylinders firing right, so we should be able to retain the fastest lap time.

Hit up the read more to get a follow up on the 63 Thunderbird with the BMW V12 engine, and a video!

So, if you're not following on twitter, there a lot miss.  During the many days without sleep, we've been updating the twitter feed with pics and status updates. 

Second, after a 33 hour straight build, the cars headed to the track.  The Lincoln headed out with Bobby and Ron early in the morning, and Dave, Damion, and Jeff (a.k.a. Speedycop) stayed with the 63 Thunderbird to get the BMW V-12 working well, as well as fixing some smaller items such as seat belts, cable dressing, and the exhaust. 

The Rocketbird was trailered and we headed out to Summit point.  Upon arival, the crew immediately started unpacking and setting up the work area, with only one fire to put out (literally).

Now, working late into the night (again, with no sleep yet), and with the help of a few other teams here at the 24 Hours of Lemons Paddocks, we got the V-12 sounding fantastic for about 30 seconds.  Then the water pump blew.  Even now, more teams are working to help us resolve the water pump issue, and we thank thank them.

THANK YOU to the other teams that are helping out!

Team Police Brutality--Beating up on breast cancer is again raising money for this excellent cause! Our team has suffered through severe battles with breast cancer, and lost mothers, sisters, grandmothers, even a grandfather because that cancer wasn't cured. Why on earth would we use a rusty 47 year-old luxury car with a blown engine and transmission for an endurance road race? We needed a car that will draw everyone's attention in order to raise enough support for our cause. What other car on the track could draw as much attention as a cherry red 1963 Ford Thunderbird convertible? And what better way to make it stand out than with a BMW V12 drivetrain?

The build of the Thunderbird (a.k.a. Rocketbird) is still ongoing.

We're running both cars next weekend (we hope). I spent many weeks already on this BMW V12 Rocketbird project. It took me a full 3 days to build a custom carbureted intake manifold. Yes, that's a cut-down ammo can! I welded 12 pipes to it, cut out two flanges with the plasma cutter and two custom gaskets with a razor blade, and welded 12 more short pipes onto the flanges. Don't worry, all that's left to do is make a custom driveshaft with a slip yoke, make a custom exhaust in an area without enough room to do so, make a trans mount, add a radiator, cut down two new ebay HEI distributors and figure out how to mount them on a BMW motor, cut the plug wires to fit, set the timing, figure out a throttle assembly, repaint the whitewalls and remount the wheels, swap the seat and harness, and a myriad of other stuff. Oh, and the Mark VIII isn't ready either. It's not like we procrastinated, we started right after the last race, and have hundreds of hours in this already. Next time I offer to put a BMW V12 in anything, save me a lot of headaches and just shoot me in the face with a 12 guage. Seriously. It's the only humane thing to do. ;)  -Jeff