There is nothing in the racing world quite like the 24 Hours of LeMons. Many an otherwise seemingly normal person has donned assless chaps, or a robot costume made of foil-covered boxes, and paraded around a race car with a Harley engine jutting through the hood, or one bearing a sizeable reproduction of the Goodyear blimp. These are the people that make LeMons what it is---the most fun you can have with your clothes on! Over the years, my incredible teammates and I have helped contribute to the spectacle, striving to reach greater heights of absurdity with each new build and theme. From the BMW V12-powered '63 Thunderbird, to the popup camper that drove itself, to the impossible-to-remove face paint accentuating our comic routines as the Blue Man Group, we have done our best to carry on in the tradition and the spirit of the LeMons series. The bar has been raised time and again by many teams, to new and unprecedented heights, with seemingly boundless creativity, and endless ill-advised ingenuity.
It's not the final build video, but we couldn't wait to show you the world's first road racing airplane on the track. If you haven't been following the build, you can catch up and enjoy the fun.
Episode 4 of The Spirit of LeMons is out! In this episode, we continue to gut the Cessna. The front landing gear has to come out as well as all the avionics in the nose. We also build a supporting frame for the plane so we can lift it over the Toyota van chassis.
Post your questions on Facebook or YouTube and we'll try to answer them on the next episode!
How did we win the 2012 National Points Championship in The 24 Hours of LeMons?
The answer is simple: Volume! Each entered team car gets three points. We had 28 separate team entries, consisting of 11 race cars in 11 different races throughout the United States. It was an all-out team effort at a breakneck pace throughout the year---building, theming, rebuilding, retheming ad nauseam. There were some iconic LeMons firsts, like an AMC Pacer, a Suzuki X-90, a racing pop-up camper, a classic Falcon, and a bowling alley on wheels, along with some fun multi-car themes, such as the Titanic and the Iceberg at Summit Point, and the Monitor and the Merrimac at fall CMP. Here's a brief recap of the insanity that was 2012:
Episode 3 of The Spirit of LeMons is out! In this episode, we gut the Cessna and talk about how the van will fit.
Post your questions on Facebook or YouTube and we'll try to answer them on the next episode!
Episode 2 of The Spirit of LeMons is out! In this episode, Dave is a landing gear and Jeff cuts up a wing.
Post your questions on Facebook or YouTube and we'll try to answer them on the next episode!
Tonight we attempted to power up the flight control systems in the Cessna. Using two car batteries and a battery charger, we were able to provide enough voltage to light up the avionics panel, and the navigation beacon. Dave Mills walks us through it.
The first episode for the Spirit of Lemons gives a quick overview and covers the tear down of the Toyota Vanwagon. We even take the Cessna back to the skies... kind of.
