An amateur race team from Wyoming finds out what it's like to race the 24 hours of LeMons. They will build and race a busted Toyota mr2 at High Plains Raceway near Denver, CO.
“The turbo, red flag, but you know, after being told it was found in a shed, found in a school bus, had been rusty, had been unrusty, and Bret showed him a receipt” and at the point I was firing of laughter
Great film - captures the LeMons experience really well and is really well put together. Now, to find myself a sub $500 crapcan and 4 pals foolish enough to commit. :)
I like races like these. unlike the expensive highly organized races. In these allot of things just happen. With cars that old and cheap, that knackered and pushed to the brink of their aging engines life... good times. Well they will break on you but isn't that part of the fun?
This is a truely great video. I'd watch a whole season of these lemons builds so long as they had just a few Japanese sports cars. Man I miss my AC and Cat delete 444 ring/pinion swap FB with mechanical secondaries. Every day was a lemons race with that car. I shaved 2 seconds off the factory fresh 0-60.
i had a mr2 , i loved the car ,engine sound and the rust , i can remember changing the fuel tank .... it took me 12 hours , you guys realy have balls of steele the mr2 hase a rad reputation spinning in corners
I usually have things playing in the background just for noise and this started playing. I was playing Ride (motorcycle video game) and I stopped watching to finish this documentary because of how well it was filmed, it was interesting and just overall a great watch. GOOD JOB!
i wish i grew up watching and learning from guys like these... but i have had to learn pretty much everything my self and still learning... loved watching this it was incredible.
Fantastic! You guys are an inspiration! My sons and I are bound for glory (or an ignoble end) this summer. Working on the car at a feverish pace. Vive LeMons!
I loved every minute of this video. Great group of people. Very well made story indeed and i'm so happy that I saw this. Best of luck for the team. In Finland we have almost similar racing series called Jokkis but its rallycross.
7:18 When I first saw the turbo getting put in at the start of this I said, Nooo. You're going to just add one more thing that can break. And guess what....yeah. 31:34
All that effort rebuilding the cage to be an inch taller. The inspector “yeah, i just checked all the boxes. I assume they did it all right, now i am just reading the boxes so if anyone asks a question i dont look like an idiot.” 🤣🤣
my folks had an mr2 for my mom to drive to work (she used to drive a twin turbo dodge stealth, so she would get pissy if her everyday could drag race at will and win) and told me 'youve never experienced responsiveness from anything youve driven like the rack and pinion steering in this car. its like a go kart. it flies! really, you have to try it! take it for a small test drive.' .....halfway through my test drive, i feel so in tune with the car, i find a dirt loop to drift around and decide 'yep.....im rallying this mother.....' so much fun and uh....it was the first time i drifted and it was intuitive. it was never that intuitive like that for me again and i really didnt (and still dont) like the mr2, aesthetically. driving it though....whole different thing. i got home and my folks were like '....so.....we saw some dust coming up around where you were. you ok?' ...i just said 'yeah, some lunatic was acting like that dirt loop was a rally track and flying around it like a jackass.' 'thats what we figured. dont touch your moms car.' busted.
I don't know if it just wasn't shown, but it seemed like the slapped a turbo on there without understanding all the changes they needed to make in order for it to work, it was the saddest thing in the whole film.
I used to run my cars very hard off and on road, here's some tips, for the Radiator, don't use a thermostat, if you do run lowest temperature possible, don't use antifreeze, put a few cups of baking soda in water it keeps it from frothing, which increases cooling ability, use new hoses, and tighten hose clamps! turn timing back a few degrees to stop over heating heads, use diesel rated engine oil, or add STP to multi grade 10-40 or 20-50,----and for the transmission add a can of type 3 brake fluid to auto transmission if leaking or not also add ,1 quart 10-30 synthetic oil or 1 ,quart of 10-40 regular oil to any automatic transmission, this will keep it from burning out, all these things keep my Mopars going for decades.
Hoses are a non-safety part in Lemons, so those would count against the budget. They are also pretty serious about water only in the cooling system, so thats a good start.
Congratulations to you guys for doing it,never giving up,spending time with your friends and most of all, Having Fun ! I wish I had enough motivated friends to do something like this. If I could find some like minded folks I'd probably try something basic, pre computered 2wd mini truck with a Buick 231 V6 , carbureted. Thanks again, enjoyed the excellent video too !!
John N No kidding, my friends wanted to do this or form a rock band, I laughed and said OK but you guys fight over who's riding in the dang front seat! 20 years later they all hate each other! I'm the only one who is still friends with them all !😂😂😇
I am a Ford guy too - 67 Fairlane,65 +70 Mustangs,89 5.0 Fox, but can appreciate a NON Corvette/Chevy GM product, old Buick/Pontiac/Olds are cool. If I had to rely on my knowledge of specific cars/engines to get across the country I'd go Ford all the way. Probly got enough parts kicking around to get a good Emergency kit together and save the rest of the space for Beer...
Great edit. Janky turbo setups always cause grief. I had a bush basher i could only drive for 10mins at a time because i put a mad looking turbo on it. Sold it and bought one with a stock motor and been thrashing it for 4 years no issues
i love racing and have wanted to do this with good friends from gillette wy .i am sending this to them to watch .like all the others that said it is a good video thanks for making it
I loved my '86 MR2 and think they would make a good LeMons car. A small turbo is not such a bad idea for that engine, a DOHC 16 valve inline 4 that had the nickname of "Sweet 16". Very popular and winning road race and autocross car. Shame about the fuel problems, it might have done well otherwise. Good video of a good effort.
So what I learned is that you buy a $10,000 car and then sell the interior for $9500 to a friends ebay account.... Profit The guy doing most of the fab work is a mad genius of shortcuts and improvisation. :)
I feel that the most important thing that you could do to your car before even taking it to the race is to at least test and see if it will run and drive for 24 hours. Before even stripping the interior, run it through it's paces and try to break whatever is going to break BEFORE learning the most crucial details at the track. Those details being, what are the mechanical weak points of the car
+wrestlerkid99 the part at the beggining where he was taped to the top and was appologizing. Thats the same exact clip that is used in the roadkill episode. They mustve raced on the same day
+Julian Raimondo We were at different tracks, different times of the year. I didn't see the same clip in their episode, but that penalty is pretty popular so it's pretty likely it gets served up at least once a race. Thanks for watching!
yes, in their clip the guy was on the roof of an old honda accord.. in your clip hes on the roof of maybe an old camry or stanza? cool vid. that is a great penalty though, gets the point across and still having fun.
What I would built if I was able to compete in this madness: A VW Beetle with an v8 in the front of the car, a Oldsmobile Tornado rwd with the powertrain from an old BMW 7-series and an unmodified Reliant Robin.
I have been wanting to run this since I first watched a video on it many years ago, In all the videos I have seen I have yet to see a car that I would believe cost under 500 bucks.
I think it was a lot easier to do before the climb in used car prices over the last 5 years. Now it takes snatching a family member's 200,000 mile dodge neon with body damage. Or in our case, the car was abandoned at an apartment complex requiring a bonded title AND it didn't run. Here are some tips on how to cheat at BS from Lemons HQ jalopnik.com/400309/what-would-smokey-do-24-hours-of-lemons-cheating-tips-from-judge-murilee
IMO it would be easy...get a cheap Saturn SL2 or an Ion....and strip it...with all that weight taken off of a car that is already lite...would make for a nimble little race car that would be reliable and somewhat quick...Mid 2000 Ions made like 150 hp in around a 2000lbs car...Best performance mod is shaving weight...makes any car brake..accel and handle better...
HINT. to clean fuel tank add 2 handfuls gravel or nuts about half inch in size, add a cup of fuel and shake-lots. when the rinse fuel coming out is clean your tank should be ok.
How are THEY acting LIKE THEY didn't know this was going to happen !?!? All they had to do the night before race was clean that gunk out of the tank !!!!
