Topic: Story of your car??

I figure that there are some good war stories out there, starting with swindling someone out of their POS to running at the race...

Post them up!

Team Lost in the Dark
Winner " I got screwed" and "Jay's dream car"
2012 Gulf region champs

Re: Story of your car??

Alright, I'll bite.

Right after the Altamont '08 race, I got together a group of friends to get a team going.
We find an '85 Mustang GT (right before they went to EFI) that had been sitting in a field outside of Chico, CA for about 7 years.
The owner never registered it, never put a non-op status on it, so it had incurred a King's Ransom worth of DMV back fees.
It also failed its smog test before he parked it.
Finally, there were 'lectric problems that kept popping up, and the car would die after some amount of time (anywhere between 5 seconds to 10 minutes)

Add all this together and you get a Fox in decent shape for 300 bucks!

After cutting out most of the wiring harness and running fresh wire, and throwing a new starter solenoid in there, the car fired right up.

I'm convinced I could run a business where you buy perfectly good cars off suckers on craigslist that need less than 20 dollars in parts, and flip 'em.

Huey Newis and the Lose
Don't Start Believin'

Re: Story of your car??

Bought off Craigslist by Alfa Parts Exchange and rejected. As a parts car. http://www.jagpromotions.com/bill/autoscene/events/lemons24/deux/ongrnd1.jpg

Re: Story of your car??

Two crystal meth addicts in Long Beach with a stolen computer needing cash to score their next fix. I think that about says it all.

http://www.ianwood.com/images/db/medium/team-vip-012.jpg

The Sharks
Home of the E28 Turbo Tuner Fish and the Hammered Head 944 Turbo

5 (edited by RobL 2009-05-07 09:22 PM)

Re: Story of your car??

Finally a place that I can tell the story... 

Our team was running a Corolla and I'm always on the lookout for fast parts for cheap.  After our first race, we were valued at ~$350 so we had a little room to play with.  I happen on a 4AGZE engine listed for $500 on an MR2 forum.  Talk the kid down to $350-$400, bribe the judges and I might only have to take 10-20 penalty laps.  I make the call and arrange to meet on Sunday morning at 8:00. 

So I get there a little early, and I see an MR2 in the driveway and some other sedan. I knew I was dealing with a kid anyway, so I figured the MR2 was his. I go up and knock on the door. A woman answered in a bathrobe. I ask if Nate was there and she said no, he's over [xxx] house. I mention that I was supposed to meet him and pick up and engine. All the while, she was occasionally looking back over her shoulder. I was about to say that I was going to call him when he drives up and she promptly closes the door. We meet, and I say that I met his mom. He looks in the driveway and he mentions that his dad should be home too but isn't.  He goes into the house for what seems like an eternity and comes out distraut.  We go over and look at the engine.  It doesn't turn when you turn the crank bolt (later I realized that the flywheel was digging into the pallet he had the engine on).  I start getting background on the engine - it's been in his garage 3 years, he never turned the engine over by hand, he never sprayed oil into the spark plug holes, it's a JDM engine that needs 105 octane gas, it has no egr systen, etc.  You know, all the stuff I need to put on my "street" car.  By now, the kid looks like his puppy died.  We settle on $200 for the engine w/ecu and he confides in me that he just walked in on his mom and "someone" who wasn't his dad.  As we are loading the engine up, another woman comes out of the house wearing a party dress, something small, skimpy, and braless, and starts smoking. It's like 9:00am and it's far too early for that dress. We are in the middle of lifting the engine into the truck and she's encouraging us.  It took me a minute, but after realizing what's going on, it's everything that I can do not to bust out laughing in the poor kids face.  His mom comes out and gets in the car (I'm blocking her in) with the other woman and they take off across the front lawn to get out of there.

The kid asks me if I want the transmission that goes with the engine.  I said how much and free was the reply.  I'm never one to turn down free parts.  As we turn the corner, I saw what was to be our next Lemons car parked under a tree.  The kid was selling an MKI MR2 too - it had an engine with rod knock and the 4AGZE was going to be the replacement engine but he didn't have the time, energy, or know how to get it done.  I picked the car up for $300, just enough so that we didn't have any penalty laps.  And with it came: spare tranny, spare hood, suspension, clean interior, and other things that we either used or sold.  Our car, as it sat on grid in CMP was $280. 

http://schumachertaxiservice.com/mr2webpics/index.htm

At CMP, the first time through BS, the judges looked at the car, at the suspension (which we never touched except to cut the springs), laughed a bit and sent us on our way with no laps.  Later that night, they stopped over and asked us if we really snuck a 4AGZE engine by them.  I lifted the engine cover and showed them.  Early Saturday morning, the judges stopped by again and told us to see the man...  We see the man and I started telling the story - "In a nutshell, I was picking up the car and engine from a kid who found out his mom was a lesbian that morning..." Jay stopped me there, told me that he is running a family friendly event, and to get the hell out of there.  So I never actually got to tell the story to much of anyone except our team.

--Rob Leone Schumacher Taxi Service
We won the IOE at Southern Discomfort.
We got screwed at The Real Hoopties of New Jersey  and we took cars down with us.
We got the curse at Capitol Offense but they wouldn't let us destroy the car.

Re: Story of your car??

RobL wrote:

At CMP, the first time through BS, the judges looked at the car, at the suspension (which we never touched except to cut the springs), laughed a bit and sent us on our way with no laps.  Later that night, they stopped over and asked us if we really snuck a 4AGZE engine by them.

The fact that the engine cover was completely obscured by bundles of nasty-looking, flying-cockroach-packed bamboo, and guarded by crypto-samurai clearly under orders to get in the way of any inquisitive judges... well, we just said "the hell with it, this car looks like a heap" and sent them on their way. Of course, they were ratted out by (teams that shall remain nameless), which prompted our late-night visit. 

http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/jalopnik/2009/05/4AGZE-MR2-600px.jpg

Re: Story of your car??

MurileeMartin wrote:
RobL wrote:

At CMP, the first time through BS, the judges looked at the car, at the suspension (which we never touched except to cut the springs), laughed a bit and sent us on our way with no laps.  Later that night, they stopped over and asked us if we really snuck a 4AGZE engine by them.

The fact that the engine cover was completely obscured by bundles of nasty-looking, flying-cockroach-packed bamboo, and guarded by crypto-samurai clearly under orders to get in the way of any inquisitive judges... well, we just said "the hell with it, this car looks like a heap" and sent them on their way. Of course, they were ratted out by (teams that shall remain nameless), which prompted our late-night visit. 

http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/j … -600px.jpg

Funny story, and even after all that, it wasn't too fast and didn't deserve any penalties anyway... Besides, it gave me great fun to race against in our battered Celica.

"Don't mess with Lexas!" LS400. We survived another one! See website link for build details.
Maker of the "unofficial Lemons fish!" - If you ask nice, I'll likely give you one at the track.

8 (edited by kalpol 2009-05-08 06:34 AM)

Re: Story of your car??

Not much of a story, but for about 12 hours after Gator-o-ama (where I was hooked on this whole nasty business), I was planning to run one of the myriad Fiat Spiders people keep trying to sell for next to nothing.  Problem is, the floors are usually rotted out.  The Monday after the race, I came to work and there was an email waiting for me from a friend of mine in PA who always has a weather eye out for interesting cars - he'd been poking around Austin Craiglist and found a car he thought I would be interested in.  It was one of the very few existing FI, five-speed Fiat Brava coupes that was also by a miracle too trashed to restore yet not rusted to bits and complete enough to consider running again at some point.  I went out to Oak Hill to look at it - it was sitting in some guy's back field next to half a Ford pickup and a Pacer missing its innards.  The driver's window was held up by a stick jammed into the frame, which had failed to do its job for quite a while - fortunately we're in drought conditions.  It also has zero brake function.  But it looked complete, and the Fiat twin-cam is a pretty tough engine, so I took a chance on the rest of the drivetrain and bargained the guy down even further from his $300 starting price, and hauled it home.

Josh Poage
Poage Ma Thoin Racing - 1981 Fiat Brava #09 - 2009 Yee-haw It's Texas
Prison Break Racing - 1986 325e #27 - 2010 Gator-o-Rama
Poage Ma Thoin Racing - 1981 Fiat Brava #09 - 2011 Heaps in the Heart of Texas

9 (edited by theallpowerfulme 2009-05-08 09:22 AM)

Re: Story of your car??

While searching craigslist for a potential lemons-mobile, I find the heading SUBARU SVX- $500. The ad isn't very descriptive, except that it says it needs the part of the subframe that holds the steering rack welded back on. I call the guy and he says the car is "at his car lot in Maynardville, TN". I grab the truck and trailer and head up Maynardville Hwy. from Knoxville (aka  Thunder Road).
   I get to the lot and there is a chain across the entrance, a desolate RV from the seventies and not one car on the lot that isn't wrecked or not running. The svx is sitting near the entrance with two flat tires. I call the guy, who isn't there, and he says he will come meet me. While waiting I discover the car is unlocked. I look inside to find the ignition key cylinder is busted-out. The guy arrives and says the car can be started, he jams a screwdriver into what is left of the ignition and is able to get it to the "on" position, then we have to jump the terminals on the starter. The car finally started after many variations of this process.
    Upon starting, we notice that the exhaust is unbearably loud. I look under the car to find that someone has stolen the catalytic converters, so we are hearing straight manifolds. It is about this time that I discover the windshield is nothing but a big piece of plexiglass. With a few other things going on here than just "fixing the steering", I try to haggle with him on the price. We reluctantly agreed on $450 and he goes into the RV to get the title and keys. He returns ten minutes later with only the title, no keys. He claimed he couldn't find them, and I said it wasn't a huge deal since the cylinder was completely destroyed.
    Now came the process of putting an AWD car with mostly FWD power bias onto a trailer when the wheels can steer independently of each other and the direction the steering wheel is pointed. It went something like this:

take pipes and wedge them into the spokes of the wheels, steering them straight

now accelerate and the car moves six inches forward

now take the pipes and make the wheels straight again

repeat step number two

This took what seemed like a lifetime, but was probably 1.5 hrs. We then returned to the garage with out prize, and started the transformation.

a pic from the gas station on the way home that evening:

http://i39.tinypic.com/2a8qq20.jpg

Re: Story of your car??

Guess I will post a couple of mine...

Once we decided to form a team and run in houston, we started searching for a ride. We looked at mustangs, civics, etc. I found an add that said only "89 MX6 for parts call Xxx" etc. I called and the seller was an older guy who had bought the car new, and let his kids drive it through college  and it was his daily driver for the last 10 years. I drove the hour across town to his ranch-thing and looked at the car. He told me it wasnt pretty, and that it had nearly 300k miles on it.
Apparently, the heater core had started leaking, and he started to change it out. it is located up under the dash, in front of where the radio goes. He made it about half way to it, and decided to buy a new car instead.

If you have ever met an older texas "rancher" you can picture this guy in your head, they are all about the same... salt of the earth kinda guy, more concerned with his word than making a dollar gent. We stuffed the steering column back in and  connected the ignition wires and it fired right up. Kinda...

It sounded like maybe a rod bearing was missing completely. We pop the hod to find that the car has a 2.2 turbo eng. While impressed with that, this guy is falling all over himself apologizing for it knocking, assuring me that when he parked it a few weeks before, it was running smooth and didnt make any noise. I looked at him and said "It is fine man, we are looking for a lemon, and I think we found it!"
He called his local boneyard to ask what they would give for it in the condition it was in, knocking and with the interior trashed. They offered $175, and we matched that price.

After we stripped the interior and emptied the HAY out of the trunk, we cleaned up the engine bay, changed the oil, and fired it up to see if we can figure out what was knocking, but after about 2 mins of run time, the knock went away. Lifter may be stuck? who knows. Either way, the almost 300k motor spit a rod out on the 3rd practice lap at houston on friday. We put a junkyard engine in overnight, and started the race Saturday morning. About two hours in, we blew the turbo. Then the fuel pump died and shorted the ECM. We called it quits and went home.

Team Lost in the Dark
Winner " I got screwed" and "Jay's dream car"
2012 Gulf region champs

11 (edited by mjfassio 2009-05-08 11:54 PM)

Re: Story of your car??

Well if our arch nemeses Huey Newis and the Lose (not to be confused with this blog, which is hilariously written in Español) are going to post their story then we might as well share our tale of how the glorious IROC was found.

We first heard about the 24 Hours of Lemons race from coincidentally my friendemy, one Harvey Weston Malott (the team captain of Huey Newis and the Lose). You may have met/recognize him as the drunk Don Johnson at the Thunderhill Arse-Freeza-Palooza 2008. Hilarious guy and usually full of good ideas... this however wasn't one of his best at first glance. I mean c'mon, volunteering to zip tie your keister in a less than mechanically sound vehicle isn't exactly the kind of racing that you find on ESPN - it's what you do to commute to work everyday.

Anyway, after The Lose was accepted and raced at Thunderhill and we all saw how awesome real racing is, a couple of our friends got together and came to the conclusion that if the powers that be could let our idiot friends race their pink and blue-grey sissy mobile while promoting all that was wrong with 80's music and culture then we might as well give it a go.

So with the decision made it was time to find a vehicle. Now you always hear the saying, "you don't find a great car, it finds you," which to be quite honest I thought was a load of crap up until I got an email from my friend and team member Eric Mattson saying that he had found our car. Eric had been browsing what has become the poor man's eBay (craigslist) and had found us a black 1989 Chevrolet Camaro IROC-Z for sale for the bargain basement price of $500. Wait, what? $500 for a piece of sweet American Iron whose name shared an association with the International Race of Champions, an awesome race that ran from the 80's into the mid 90's?! There has to be a catch and in fact there were several.

First, the car had been gutted by the owner. Seats, dash, gauges, seat belts, interior, you name it and it doesn't have it. Second, no matter how much the previous owner tried to convince us otherwise, something horrible happened to the undercarriage of the vehicle on the passenger side. Third, it has a 305 motor - I don't think I need to expand on this one. And finally the guy selling it, while he did have the valid pink slip, had never transferred ownership of the vehicle from the previous owner. I'm pretty sure that the DMV has a bounty out for this one - dead or alive.

Thirty minutes of inspection and haggling and Eric calls to inform me that it doesn't start. This does not help the seller out, not one bit. With questions brought up now about the condition of the motor Eric is able to talk this guy down a hundred bucks. $400? Sold!

Stuntman Mike
I Wanna Roc

Re: Story of your car??

Wait, what? $500 for a piece of sweet American Iron whose name shared an association with the International Race of Champion

you got hosed smile

Re: Story of your car??

troubleonwheels wrote:

Wait, what? $500 for a piece of sweet American Iron whose name shared an association with the International Race of Champion

you got hosed smile

This is becoming readily apparent to me as the days pass...

Stuntman Mike
I Wanna Roc

Re: Story of your car??

Why not???  Seems the crack head theme is everywhere...My brother has a ranch of derby caddys(I believe this is why he was approached) has a crack head stop by with our 91 catarac...he just hit a second gaurd rail and destroyed the front grill, fender, hood and head lights, and decided he better sell the car so he'll quit driving while intoxicated on a suspended license...needless to say $100 just about covered his next fix, and we scored our ride

15 (edited by Jer 2009-05-18 01:02 PM)

Re: Story of your car??

mjfassio wrote:
troubleonwheels wrote:

Wait, what? $500 for a piece of sweet American Iron whose name shared an association with the International Race of Champion

you got hosed smile

This is becoming readily apparent to me as the days pass...

hahahaha if it looks to good to be true, it probably is.

I bought a Citation (Craptation) that sat in a neighbor's yard for a few weeks with a "$500 OBO, runs" sign on it.  Offered $300 and it was accepted immediately.  Damn, I overpaid. 

Surprisingly, other than it being the ugliest car I've ever seen, and with rusted out shocks I replaced, the car is as advertised.  Runs (kinda) and seems fairly solid structurally.  We've turned it into a rolling latrine (no, not figeratively).  smile  It will be at Stafford and then maybe for sale if it survives.

Jer / Schumacher Taxi Service
2010 Spring CMP I.O.E. winner
2010 Sebring overall winner
1996 Miata, 1991 BMW E30, 1987 coROLLa (retired), 1984 Citation (retired), 1993 Miata (retired)

Re: Story of your car??

mjfassio wrote:

Thirty minutes of inspection and haggling and Eric calls to inform me that it doesn't start. This does not help the seller out, not one bit.

So the car was listed for $500 in running condition.. and you only talked him down $100 bucks when it wouldn't start?

I would have offered $200 cash and walked away.  His wife would have MADE him sell it smile

Great story, can't wait to see it go!

Re: Story of your car??

No major stories about the purchase of our car, but after purchase, we first lost the only key down the defroster vent of the car (which inspired us to rip part of the dash out even faster), and then we had to drive it 450 miles from San Jose back to San Diego with no insurance. In radar detector we trust. Had to add another 50 miles onto the trip since the Grapevine was closed due to snow and we had to drive east out to Victorville. At least I got to pee my name in the snow for the first time ever in Tehachapi.

http://www.ltdlx.org/albums/pickup/DSCN6660_Medium.jpg

The Homer: Powerful like a gorilla, yet soft and yielding like a Nerf ball.

Re: Story of your car??

On the Size Matters Fury we had a guy bring the car into our shop and ask us to fix the AC system.  It turned out the heater core was bad and you have to pull the entire dash out to fix a heater box on an AC C-Body.  After we told him what it would cost to fix it he gave us the car.

Team Oly Express
Current car - 1964.5 Plymouth Barracuda, Former car - Size Does Matter 1967 Plymouth Fury
07 IOE Winner Thunderhill, 12 IOE Winner Sears Pointless
https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Team- … 4609354407

Re: Story of your car??

A couple of months after purchasing our car, we discovered that the safety orange vests in the frunk had something printed on the back.  To wit: "Prisoner, San Mateo County Jail".  We didn't think they let you keep those...

That said, we have since used our meager post-race valuation to invest in some new synchros, the transmission went back in this weekend, and a brief drive around the parking garage showed that we can now actually select a gear instead of taking what the car gods offer us.  This is useful, as the car gods apparently hold a serious grudge against third.

Re: Story of your car??

FreeRange wrote:

So the car was listed for $500 in running condition.. and you only talked him down $100 bucks when it wouldn't start?

I would have offered $200 cash and walked away.  His wife would have MADE him sell it smile

Great story, can't wait to see it go!

Like I said I wasn't there so what parts of the story I have retold may be glossing over some things. I'm sure if Eric ever finds out about this forum he can fill in the details. If you really want the full story come around during tech/bs inspection.

Stuntman Mike
I Wanna Roc

Re: Story of your car??

I'm new around here but we are entered in the event at No Problem Raceway in South Louisiana and figured I tell how we got our car:

I own a very small mechanic shop in Little Rock, AR.  We also buy wrecked civics and part them on ebay.  So another mechanic shop owner called me one day to say that a customer had left him a car with title to cover the cost of a diagnostic.  If I would pay the bill I could come get the car and title.  He told me it was an old honda.  I roll over there as soon as possible with some tools, a jumpbox, and a buddy.  We find out it is a 1988 Honda civic automatic sedan with a quarter million miles and the bill is only $50.  I thought this was too good to be true except the transmission is shot and it leaks oil and coolant about half a gallon a minute, brakes aren't working, tires are corded, and the interior smells like someone left a can of sardines in it while out in the sun.  We pay the fifty bucks and somehow drive that sucker home.  This is Arkansas where we can get away with stupid and or dangerous exercises. I figure we will part it out and make a thousand or so bucks and be on with our business.  That is when we realize there is very little to part out.  Nearly nothing works or is too scratched, damaged to sell.  I hear about Lemons race and this sounds like a plan.  I come across a manual transmission that the owner replaced cause he couldn't get the axle out of and he gives it to me for an 18 pack of miller lite. Tear the case apart and unstick the axle, gut the smelliest interior in the world, make a half dozen trips to the pick-n-pull for parts to convert it to a manual and to turn it from DPFI to MPFI.  Able to accomplish all that for 280 bucks.  Sell off 114 bucks out of it. (Converter, DPFI manifold, headlights, few interior parts)  I even sold the 41 tapes out of it at a garage sell for 4 dollars.  We found $8.19 worth of change under the rear seat and in the tape player (seriously, shake an old tape player at the junkyard sometime, (kids insert them). We even had enough in the budget to put a set of bearings in the bottoms end quick and ghetto style (110 with gaskets) to eliminate the 1/4" of rod play and the loud rod knock. I think the car should be fun and while it isn't the prettiest and definitely won't be the fastest, hopefully it will last long enough for every driver to get a taste of the Lemons event.  Otherwise we'll be the wierdos from Arkansas drinking the most Pabst Blue Ribbon.

Daniel
Team White Lightening #18

Re: Story of your car??

I really shouldn't post anything about our car yet, so I'll just say this. Look for a post on the Trailing Throttle Corvair in CarDomain.com after Monday. See the progress so far on the rustiest Corvair Sedan ever, yet runs like a car with only 40,000 miles on it.

Re: Story of your car??

We originally picked up two mid 80's 300Zs for $400 from some good old boys in north Georgia and were going to build one up as the race car.  After fully stripping the car we found that they were utter crap.  Everything leaked, there was way more rust than metal and the steering linkage, which is pretty tough to swap out, was damn near severed in a few locations. 

We got back on Craig's list and found a guy who was moving the next week and had a 1991 Escort LX for sale for $500.  We went over and told him we were looking for a collage car for my niece.  We drove the car and found the brakes were shot and it was leaking coolant and power steering fluid.  We talked him down to $300 and drove off with the car.  We drove it back back home on the interstate with no insurance.  The fact that the car ran and drove well was a big plus.

Insert A-Team music here and in about a month's worth of weekends we had our Lemons racer.  It has served us well in two races and we are planning on either doing Lamest Day or Lemons South II this fall.  The Escort is not the most glamorous car and we get nothing but disinterested glances from the judges, but it is a good little car.

Pics:

http://sites.google.com/site/turkey-fry … -2008/Home

Re: Story of your car??

Nick_LeMonsHQ wrote:

Bought off Craigslist by Alfa Parts Exchange and rejected. As a parts car.

Rejected ... as a parts car.  Then raced.  If that isn't insane, I don't know what is.

My entry for the upcoming lamest day race started out as a project that someone gave up on.  It then began its racing life as an entry in the GRM Challenge.  After two times through on that and blowing a head gasket, it was sold to me for cheap and is awaiting the head gasket and reliability improvements.  It's got some neat history and hopefully I can document it more later.

Quad4 CRX - Wartburg 311 - Civic Wagovan - Parnelli Jones Galaxie - LS400 - Lancia MR2 - Boat - Sentra - 56 Ford Victoria
Known Associate of 3pedal Mafia, Speedycop, and the Russians.  Maybe even NSF.

Re: Story of your car??

We were looking for a car before the July '07 Altamont race when my friend's little brother got taken out by a truck on the way to work in his 944. It had enough cosmetic damage (hood, fenders, bumper, etc.) that the insurance co. wrote it off and offered him the salvage title for $500. He had another, much nicer 944, so we paid him for the salvage title and had our race car. It lasted four races, before some accident damage set off a chain reaction over the course of a couple laps that led to a blown motor. But she will live to race again, we've got plans for a resurrection that will become a legend in Lemons lore....



http://lh6.ggpht.com/_3A6cg1T_pQw/SjgUU-cSFOI/AAAAAAAABCo/itNFLVPS8zA/Race%20car%20evolution.jpg

Driving While Awesome #44
Porsche 944
BMW 325e