LEMONS FORUMS
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As we look to build our first car -- the amount of investment in the project is huge.
And I'm not talking dollars here -- I'm talking labor. And maybe even more honey do points.
We're maybe 1/3 of the way done. I'm sure we'll have 100 man hours in this car
by the time we are done if not more.
I'm hopeful we get to amortize this over several races. Some LeMons others ChumpCars.
Yes I'm enjoying the build, but its because I am building a dream -- I've always
wanted to race.
The thought of getting claimed or crushed has me on the verge of walking away.
Can I afford to race, money wise sure, but labor wise -- not if I have to do this all again.
Sure something legitimate might happen to the car -- I can live with that.
But something arbitrary -- that I have a hard time dealing with.
We race, we have fun, & we get to do it again, I'll be coming back to every race we can make.
Maybe even making a second car and coercing others to join us.
you claim or crush us -- :-( ............
Mike
Last edited by lonestarrpm (2010-07-31 05:34 PM)
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As others have said, don't build a cheaty car and you will be safe. Drive like a sane person, respect the other car's space. Especially in your first race. For the first race you will need to learn how to watch the flag stations and learn the actual race track layout. Watching your mirrors for faster cars. Pitstops are increidibly hard to do quickly the first couple races. You can practice them, but under real race conditions is a bit harder. Little small things make for big problems. Take notes of what works and what doesn't. Watch the top running teams.
Building the car is part of the fun. Go to the race with a have fun attitude. We thought we could place in the top 10 our first time. Ha! We didn't know shit! After a couple of races you get most of the bugs worked out mechanically with the car, with the drivers and race strategies. By then the bug will have bitten pretty good and you can't wait til the next race. Trust me. We haven't taken a vacation in 2 years cause of this LeMons racing stuff........
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lonestarrpm wrote:
.......
The thought of getting claimed or crushed has me on the verge of walking away.
Can I afford to race, money wise sure, but labor wise -- not if I have to do this all again.
Sure something legitimate might happen to the car -- I can live with that.
But something arbitrary -- that I have a hard time dealing with.
...........
I cut some of your post out and this is really in reply to the "arbitrary" thought and sentiment expressed in earlier posts.
Its NOT arbitrary. If you're gonna get cursed, chances are you KNOW you're gonna get cursed. First off with this new rule where more than 50% of the vote has to come in, you and your team has to seriously make an effort in overly aggressive driving and seriously being an asshat to get the curse. You have to manage to piss off MORE THAN 50% of the field. For example at Stafford you would need to PISS OFF over 40 teams!
That takes some serious effort. So think about that for a second or a while... Think about how you drive, and your team, etc. If you do, and you're still seriously scared your car will get crushed, do us and yourself a favor and don't come, because we probably don't want you on the track then.
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lonestarrpm wrote:
As we look to build our first car -- the amount of investment in the project is huge.
And I'm not talking dollars here -- I'm talking labor. And maybe even more honey do points.
We're maybe 1/3 of the way done. I'm sure we'll have 100 man hours in this car
by the time we are done if not more.
I'm hopeful we get to amortize this over several races. Some LeMons others ChumpCars.
Yes I'm enjoying the build, but its because I am building a dream -- I've always
wanted to race.
The thought of getting claimed or crushed has me on the verge of walking away.
Can I afford to race, money wise sure, but labor wise -- not if I have to do this all again.
Sure something legitimate might happen to the car -- I can live with that.
But something arbitrary -- that I have a hard time dealing with.
We race, we have fun, & we get to do it again, I'll be coming back to every race we can make.
Maybe even making a second car and coercing others to join us.
you claim or crush us -- :-( ............
Mike
Only 100 Man hours? simple build!
There have been about 40 races, and only one car has been claimed, because the team begged to have it claimed, begged! Jay, et.al were reluctant to claim it because they had to find a way to haul it home. In the last 15ish races there hasn't been a car crushed because there hasn't been a consensus on who to crush. And the last two cars I saw get 'crushed', the fast Crown Vic at TH and the Badass BlackIron BMW at Buttonwillow are still racing, the teams have learned their lessons and are better at the LeMons game.
Thousands of cars have raced in all those races... You are looking at chance of around 1 in 3000 of this happening to you...If you ask for it to happen. Again- why even worry about it, build your car and come race, we'll have a good time....
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Its NOT arbitrary. If you're gonna get cursed, chances are you KNOW you're gonna get cursed. First off with this new rule where more than 50% of the vote has to come in, you and your team has to seriously make an effort in overly aggressive driving and seriously being an asshat to get the curse. You have to manage to piss off MORE THAN 50% of the field. For example at Stafford you would need to PISS OFF over 40 teams!
We'll just have to stock a good size cooler and buy off enough votes to feel safe :-)
Maybe Friday night we'll take orders -- he he he......
We'll hit up our best driver with double shot of valium and us rooks will be required
to raid the marina around here and "borrow" all the mooring bumpers and line the car :-)
Mike
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lonestarrpm wrote:
Its NOT arbitrary. If you're gonna get cursed, chances are you KNOW you're gonna get cursed. First off with this new rule where more than 50% of the vote has to come in, you and your team has to seriously make an effort in overly aggressive driving and seriously being an asshat to get the curse. You have to manage to piss off MORE THAN 50% of the field. For example at Stafford you would need to PISS OFF over 40 teams!
We'll just have to stock a good size cooler and buy off enough votes to feel safe :-)
Maybe Friday night we'll take orders -- he he he......
We'll hit up our best driver with double shot of valium and us rooks will be required
to raid the marina around here and "borrow" all the mooring bumpers and line the car :-)
Mike
I can guarantee if you put up a sign that says free beer (and actually have free beer) no harm will come to your ride all weekend. Heck you could probably leave your wallet on the hood!
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Also lending tools is a great way to generate goodwill, also free food works well, just not as good as free alcohol.
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Evil Genius wrote:
You will only be crushed/claimed if you're cheating or driving like an asshat. period. It will never be 'undeserved' never. Jay has seen to that.
The teams I know that do well, don't even think about the curse or claiming.. Why should they? They play within the spirit of the rules and take their lumps when they make mistakes or overspend on their cars.
Bravo.
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Would you vote to curse someone who didn't really deserve it?
Neither would 90% (or more) of the other people there.
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I will say that needing 50% of the possible votes has set my team at ease. It does seem if you get over half of the other teams to want your car destroyed that you have really done some things wrong. I'm guessing its rare to get half of the votes even turned.
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One thing that I think is getting conflated here is that People's Curse = Crushed. That's not necessarily the case. Jay has a lot of discretion on this one; I can remember seeing several curses that involved an angry mob wielding hammers and dikes rather than an angry front end loader. The simple fact of taking a cheaty car off the track for an hour and letting the mob go to town on the car with hammers on the car for 15 or 20 minutes will remove the car from being a competitor and, done correctly, will keep them wrenching on the car for the next couple hours while not totally obliterating the car.
Put another way, mob justice need not result in the death penalty, but can merely result in being tarred and feathered.
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chaase wrote:
The lack of destruction is disturbing. I think the problem is that half of the time people forget about the curse during the day. I wonder if Jay and the boys reminded people more during the day if it would help.
If it helps, at the next event you attend everyone could vote to crush your car wether you deserve it or not
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Mulry wrote:
One thing that I think is getting conflated here is that People's Curse = Crushed. That's not necessarily the case. Jay has a lot of discretion on this one; I can remember seeing several curses that involved an angry mob wielding hammers and dikes rather than an angry front end loader. The simple fact of taking a cheaty car off the track for an hour and letting the mob go to town on the car with hammers on the car for 15 or 20 minutes will remove the car from being a competitor and, done correctly, will keep them wrenching on the car for the next couple hours while not totally obliterating the car.
Put another way, mob justice need not result in the death penalty, but can merely result in being tarred and feathered.
Yeah except the angry mob almost ended in death last year at Stafford lol And definitely beyond destroyed it.
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Well if I heard correctly from the back of the crowd at todays awards ceremony, the curse is kaput.
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RogueLeader wrote:
Yeah except the angry mob almost ended in death last year at Stafford lol And definitely beyond destroyed it.
Actually, they almost got that car back on track - they only needed one more piece, an airflow meter. They had one but it was in use on thier sister car and they were trying to call them in before the race ended.
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RobL wrote:
RogueLeader wrote:
Yeah except the angry mob almost ended in death last year at Stafford lol And definitely beyond destroyed it.
Actually, they almost got that car back on track - they only needed one more piece, an airflow meter. They had one but it was in use on thier sister car and they were trying to call them in before the race ended.
Ohh I know... By death I meant the spectators, I saw a few people get nailed with flying car parts and I took a hunk of bumper to the chest!
That ending was funny, they kept black flagging their other car and he wouldn't come in lol!
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Alfaholic wrote:
BTW, I heard at Stafford that one of the civics got 500 laps, anyone know if there's an entertaining story behind that?
There is, and its a good lesson on getting through BS without documentation...
I heard the story second hand from one of the team members, so light on the details. They seemed like first timers for sure and they brought a bone stock early 90s civic. Decent car, but its perfectly reasonable to find a $500 civic if the miles are high enough.
However, everyone knows about Honda resale value, so if you're claiming a post-80's honda was $500 or less, you better be ready to back it up. If you don't have docs, you better have a good story.
Their story: it was a used up SCCA showroom stock car that one of the kid's father/uncle/3rd cousin twice removed (i forget) raced back in the 90s.
Seriously guys? Sometimes its better to lie. Telling the judges that you have an ex racecar is begging for laps, no matter how few modifications the original series allows.
Lesson learned. If you don't have documentation, a well executed lie may be better than the truth.
PS: their theme was crap. A good theme goes a long way. The judges view competitors mostly as sources of entertainment (as they should). If the hopelessness of your car isn't entertaining enough, make up for it with a good theme.
Last edited by fizzer (2010-08-10 03:04 PM)
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What is the record for penalty laps, anyway? Someone at the BFE GP got 1000 laps...
Sorry for contributing to the threadjack.
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Cadillac Bob wrote:
What is the record for penalty laps, anyway? Someone at the BFE GP got 1000 laps...
Sorry for contributing to the threadjack.
1066 for the 2005 Mini is the largest I've seen posted here.
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Scud.Ig wrote:
Cadillac Bob wrote:
What is the record for penalty laps, anyway? Someone at the BFE GP got 1000 laps...
Sorry for contributing to the threadjack.1066 for the 2005 Mini is the largest I've seen posted here.
Didn't some Nissan get like 6900 laps or something a couple months ago?
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The latest penalty lap record is for the Make:Way Escort, which got 15,100 after producing a Photoshopped eBay auction screenshot "proving" that the car had been bid up to $151,000 due to its OK Go video fame. I totally fell for it, Jay didn't; no matter, they wanted the record for most penalty laps and they got it.
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PunisherBass wrote:
Didn't some Nissan get like 6900 laps or something a couple months ago?
6500 - 6900
It was an SER (we know how much Phil loves to give them laps)
They couldn't get their LeMon together for the febuary Houston race, so they brought a full race Sentra expecting it to be ok.
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