As team "manager" at this event I think I speak for myself, the other members of my team and the President of Paraguay when I say this has been the best Lemons yet and probably the most fun we've had at a race track in general.

First, I'd like to thank the Judges, Jay and all the other event staff for understanding the irony of running a fully equipped S600 at Lemons. We got a lot of support and smiles which made all the work worthwhile.

Speaking of work, I can't thank our driver/crew chief/car builder "The Great Pendejo"  enough for getting the car running and through safety tech in time for the race. I don't think anyone has ANY idea what a TOTAL basket case this car was in almost all aspects when it was purchased - it really was $1,000 for a host of reasons and one of those was a nightmare electrical system - this car TRULY has one of the most complex electrical systems EVER and it was FULL of rotten wires and busted vaccum lines. The paper trail on this car shows that at one point even the dealer threw in the towel on this car and declared it unfixable. Somehow, with NO Mercedes scan tool, 50 feet of yellow wire, soldering gun, vacuum line and electrical tape Pendejo managed to get the car running on all twelves cylinders, out of limp mode, stability systems bypassed, electronic throttle bodies functioning correctly, chassis electrical and security system working and transmission shifting again. It only took about oh... 40 hours. Then he had to design and install the cage. For an experienced builder like Pendejo this is normally no problem. However, unlike most cars, when you pull up the carpet on an S600 you do not see metal - you see tons of wires, pumps, vacuum lines, plastic ducts and uneven metal bits. This combined with the decision to put the FULL interior back in place after the cage install (after all, why strip down a car already so hopelessly overweight?) made building the cage a very challenging process. I have a feeling this might have been the only caged S class mercedes EVER. And all of this was done the week before the race.

Finally, I was really impressed with the other racers at this event. Almost all of them seemed to understand the joke behind bringing an S600 to Lemons and we got a lot of friendly encouragement. I came to this race knowing that we had a high probability of the car being crushed - while we were prepared to accept that fate I was pleased that such a beautiful car was not torn to bits. Thanks for not cursing us.

On a side note, I've seen some comments from a few folks thinking that Jay was being a jerk, or being greedy when he claimed the car. This was not the case at all - we made it clear to him early on that we were fine with a claim. For various reason it was already a forgone conclusion that this would be the ONLY race for this car and we did not want to tow the 5200lb beast back to San Diego. I was more than happy to receive $500 for the car and leave it at the track. We prefer to run our usual V12 Jaguar at Lemons anyway - compared to the S600 it is fast, nimble, light and reliable.

The President of Paraguay informs me that he'll redistribute 10% of the claim money to his people and blow the rest in Vegas before he returns to his home country.

See you all again at the track soon I hope!

Last edited by magnusracing (2009-11-24 01:56 AM)