24 Hours of LeMons: how hard can it be? Options

[cobas]

It's a "24-hour" endurance race where the cars have to be purchased for less than $500, in other words, piece-of-shit racing. Look it up.

For next year, there's an event less than two hours away from me, so I wonder.... how hard can it be? I can find running cars on Craigslist for $500. Actually you're allowed to subtract the sale price of any parts you sell, so you could go well over $500 and bring it down by selling unnecessary parts (e.g. seats), especially if the car is rare. Brakes, wheels/tires and exhaust are free, so you'd probably get good brake pads at least, and some sticky(?) tires. Also a roll cage is required, which I've found is going to be just under $1,000, and a racing seat, and the entry fees are $500 per team plus $100 per driver, with a minimum of 5 drivers. Between the car, the roll cage, seat, the fees, the tires and brakes... probably $3,000+ but split at least five ways if not six, it's not that bad. Also you're allowed to get sponsorships, just not for excluded parts, so Tire Rack, StopTech brakes, um.... Dunkin Donuts? If we do it, we'll have to do Autocross in the spring for a crash-course in driving, another few hundred bucks in fees, each.

There's several kinds of cars running for $1,000 or under around here. The inevitable early-90s Civics, Accords and Corollas, 80's GM sedans, lots of Neons, Jeep Cherokees (it's been done...) even old 70's cars in mediocre running condition. There's a handful of Porsche 944s in various states of non-running completeness as well. (One needs a wiring harness, ick) We have some tools; hopefully there's at least two or three of us now and 5-6 by the end to split the cost and labor of fixing these cars........ ..............how hard can it be?

Also, I should mention certain cars are getting to be frowned-upon. Like Miatas, and early-90's BMW 3-series that are apparently very very common boring choices. The organizers probably don't want a bunch of Miatas and BMW's at every event, so they pick and choose teams with interesting cars or interesting themes.

[popeye]

I say we do this, and I nominate Bob as head mech!

[sarge]

if you guys do this I'll drive down to watch/hang out

Wouldn't be able to participate though... what with the help and extra courses.

[KaptKrunch]

"How hard can it be??" famous last words.

[bhorste]

Ah, and don't forget certain strange rules like, if the majority of the competitors don't like you/your car, it goes right into the crusher... even if the race isn't over. Other than that, it sounds really cool. Wish I could get in on that... but MD is a bit of a trip (is the event at VIR?) and I'm hoping against hope to maybe get into the guitar workshop at Purdon't, er, Purdue in July for my birthday.

[Vampyrate]

dibs on tire guy!

[Silentwolf]

How about an old tib or perhaps even a turbo scoupe.

[cobas]

I figure it should really be manual, preferably sporty and RWD, in running condition and fairly common so that parts are cheap at a junkyard, or we can buy a second parts car for swaps. Not using Miatas is tough in that sense.
Anything newer than late 90's is going to be too expensive. Anything older than mid-80s is going to be a pile of rust and kind of rare... hmm

[Silentwolf]

84 SVO?
http://www.cars.com/go/search/detail.jsp?t...mp;aff=national

[cobas]

4-cyl turbo Mustang? I didn't even know they existed. 175hp and 201lb-ft of torque... not bad for that year I guess.

Cars I've seen listed so far are
A '94 Taurus SHO, an 86 Fiero, a couple of Ford Escorts (one a GT with a "'99 Miata block and '94 Protege heads" interesting), lots of Jettas, several Crown Vics, lots of Neons and a handful of 1980's BMW 3-series which are appealing even though they're popular choices. There's a Miata with a VC gasket leak, missing A/C parts, missing P/S parts and missing interior bits. Sounds like it was stripped for racing once already.

Head gasket seems to be a popular problem, both in Craigslist listings and as a mode of failure at LeMons. How hard is it to replace? Beyond removing the plugs, the timing belt, unbolting both intake and exhaust manifolds and removing many long bolts.... is is the sort of thing an amateur would have a shot at completing? Would I discover problems I can't fix (warped head)? Because if I can fix that, I could get an otherwise much nicer car. (The Fiero has a HG leak)

[sarge]

as for the Fiero with the HG leak? it takes time to take one of those things apart.... well if it's the v6 model.... been there, done that.
Though it's timing chain and not OHC so you don't need to worry about that at least. You may find some cracked vacuum lines, or break some yourself

That escormiatege sounds interesting

[cobas]

The '86 Fiero with the head gasket leak is the 4-cyinder, and it's a very amusing listing, read on:
http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/doc/cto/1438414159.html

Plus, it's a Fiero: the car that makes anyone into a mechanic. This will probably be a project car, though I've taken a lot of the fun out of it for you by replacing most of the car's parts.

"isn't that the car that sort of, um, catches on fire?" NO, that's the 1984 Fiero! This is an '86! Yeee-hawwww!

no trunk lock... this car includes a Trunk Popper, a.k.a., long screwdriver.
some might say--though I am not among them--that this car could use a paint job
D.C. claims this car has a loose bumper, I claim it has a plastic bumper that flexed when they pressed on it



But I mean, it seems like the guy knew what he was doing and put a lot of work into maintaining/restoring this car, other than the HG leak.