IOE contender? Want to help?

Don't believe anyone who says they will help.

They may want to.

And they mean well.

But few, if any, can actually step up.

I wish I lived closer to help you on the ChryCo LH you've picked out (correct me if I'm wrong).  I've long admired those cars and think they'd be a fantastic lemons car, especially with a Supafly theme.  I'd do it in a heartbeat, except for the 1000 mile drive.

-Matt

Nope. Not an LH car. I would enjoy that as well. But, nope, what I have is older. And much worse. And I actually own it now, as of the 4th of July. I'm on the fence between, "oh, I have made a terrible mistake" and "this would be so awesome to make work." Because it shouldn't work. For a lot of reasons. Miles of vacuum hoses. American luxury/malaise at it's finest. A car that looks to have had some hard miles put on it. One of my teammates think it should be converted to diesel. It does run. I drove it home. Fur covered steering wheel and all. Dice on the mirror. And a  car freshener tree (Find one in every car. You'll see.)
BUT, it is a car the judges (or at least one judge) wanted to see. Even DIRECTLY telling me I should find one instead of my safe little CRX (which blew a head gasket at Buttonwillow after four races, by the way.) This new car has an easy theme, as well.
I'm a big fan of the I.O.E. and C Class part of Lemons and want to be part of it. We have been stuck in the lower reaches of B with our stock, slowish CRX and while I've been enjoying the heck out of it, I'm called by the glorious trumpets of I.O.E. and C-class. I think those are trumpets....
So, I got this car.
I'm not mechanically geared at all. I wish I was. My mom has rebuilt the engine in our old Mustang. My sister rebuilt the front end. Sadly, it all skipped me. BUT, I work hard and take directions well. I'm not looking for help as much as I'm looking for people that like the whole pursuit of I.O.E., want another challenge, want to run a car that hasn't run a Lemons race yet (I think) to form a second team, side project, conglomerate of idiocy. I would be willing to give this car to someone else, as long as I could be on the team. I'm in for dollar investment. I'm in for working hard to get this car ready to finish a race. I'm sure it would have an extremely good shot at an I.O.E. if it can finish. As I mentioned in my earlier email, you don't have to be in my location (SLO) to do this. I wouldn't mind if this car ended up in Northern or Southern Cal. You could COUNT on me to come help get this car ready. What I lack in knowledge, I make up for in enthusiasm.
I know I can't get my current team interested in this. My main team has our eyes on a horrible/awesome British project as well as getting the Repo Man CRX back on the road. But getting this car out there is something I'd like to be a part of.
I'd love to work with some of you that have been doing this for a while. I'd love to see this car making laps. I've got the car. It runs. It was cheap. I feel it has potential to be something cool.
Think about it. I promise to feed it and clean up after it every night.
Thanks for reading all this.

Caddy Cim-moron?

Pics or ban

Lincoln Mark V

Psychosteer! Whoever pyschosteered the Maxima into the infield near the pits at B-willow last weekend, thanks for the laugh. Saw it coming out of the bend with the (powerful FWD) front wheels in exactly that position. Disappeared into a giant cloud of dust...

We have a winner!
1984 Biarritz. HT4100. Runs. Owned by a nearly blind person that used the front of the car to feel his way around. A surprising number of the superfluous gadgets work. It is beat up. Here is the proud vehicle;

http://smu.gs/On6Y9w

I've been driving it back and forth to work for the last week. Drives like an 84 Cadillac. Strange how I feel pretty badass driving a horrible Cadillac. Must be my Bakersfield roots showing through.
Got it for $300. If you look up old threads on the Biarritz, you will see it is a car that the powers that be have wanted to see for a long time. You will also notice that Phil has said there is very little that could ever be done to one of these to take it out of a solid C-Class car. That sounds like a challenge! I've got the car. I've got the desire. I will make the time and find some cash. I just need a team that would want to try to make this happen. Car can relocate anywhere. I'd be willing to give it to someone else if I could just be part of it. I'd love to work with people that get the "making a horrible car last, pursuit of I.O.E." part of Lemons. You guys inspire me.

I look at it like this, we just need to get it solid enough to make a round trip drive to Vegas. 7 hours there on Saturday, 7 hours back on Sunday. Possible I.O.E. glory. Seems totally easy, right?

I think it can handle a little of this;
http://www.tubechop.com/watch/434649

We just need to keep it from doing this;
http://www.tubechop.com/watch/434651

And, if you act now, just think of the suits you could wear during B.S. inspections...

I know there has to be a way to make this work. Let's talk.

Neal

For some reason my neighborhood in Van Nuys is lousy with these things. I know of 2 nice ones, and 1 low mileage non-running one within walking distance.

the HT4100? Best I can say about that is at least you got the car with the best weight distribution. Next to the Oldsmobile Diesel it's got to be the second worst choice for lemons racing. Cast iron heads with an aluminum block? That worked so well on the Vega I can see why it would be used for the top of their line cars. At least its got proper sleeves in the bores. Bring a back up motor. I think the 4.5 and later 4.9 motors swap right in.  Also a 3.8 Buick ought to bolt up too.

I really look forward to seeing this thing run and once my car is running again, maybe I'll make the drive up to your neighborhood and lend a hand.

Thx bshorey