The 24 Hours of Lemons Forums → Our Crappy Race → Lamest Day Guess The Effluency Laps contest: Lada versus '61 Cadillac!
Yes, I'm forcing the readers of Jalopnik to read something about Lemons just about every weekend! Guess how many laps the Lada and Caddy will make and win official Lemons gear!
631 laps.
631 laps.
Combined?
1301 laps. I think the caddy is going to go far.
Thanks Rob. We'll do our best,
I know you guys and I know that you aren't going to bring some POS POS to the race. A Lada? A Lada was made by people pretending to work while thier employers pretended to pay them. It's going to be fun watching that car pretend to go around the track.
I dunno. They've had a lot of prep time, and it looks like they made good use of it. We've had a week and a half, and we, um, haven't. Still, we're pulling out all the stops in the next three days. I even ordered a 32 gallon fuel cell this morning!
1301? Remember that the top ten finishers of the 0.75 mi. Toledo 24 hr. race did 1800+. The winning Pratt & Miller Supra did 2100 on a track less than 1/2 the size of Nelson. Point being is I don't think even the winner of the Nelson race will exceed 1300 laps!!! 
Some math:
Figure an average 1:30 lap time for the faster cars (a BMW 325 track record is 1:14.xx) and that's still probably much too fast an estimate. That equates to 960 laps not counting pit stops and other delays (24 hrs. x 60 min. = 1440 min divided by 1:30 (1.5 min) equals 960 laps)
That caddy is gonna be a bit sloooower, so figure way less than 960? That lada may struggle a bit with endurance, so figure even less?
I'll guess 450 for the caddy and 100 for the lada
Going purely on prep time, I doubt the Caddy will do more than 100 laps and the Lada, while a POS, has had a decent amount of prep, so I'll go with 125 laps. Repairing the Lada when it breaks could be a bit tough. The Caddy should be basic enough that they can likely keep fixing it as stuff craps out. I see brake troubles for the Caddy and electrical troubles for the Lada.
My drivers are under strict instructions to drive conservatively. I know it will disappoint most spectators that we are not gonna be sliding sideways around the turns, but our goal is to raise money, and to FINISH. The only way we see that happening in this old boat is to not overdrive it. IF we somehow get to the end, we'll go balls-out the last few laps, so have your video cameras ready. 
1301? Remember that the top ten finishers of the 0.75 mi. Toledo 24 hr. race did 1800+. The winning Pratt & Miller Supra did 2100 on a track less than 1/2 the size of Nelson. Point being is I don't think even the winner of the Nelson race will exceed 1300 laps!!!
Some math:
Figure an average 1:30 lap time for the faster cars (a BMW 325 track record is 1:14.xx) and that's still probably much too fast an estimate. That equates to 960 laps not counting pit stops and other delays (24 hrs. x 60 min. = 1440 min divided by 1:30 (1.5 min) equals 960 laps)
That caddy is gonna be a bit sloooower, so figure way less than 960? That lada may struggle a bit with endurance, so figure even less?
I'll guess 450 for the caddy and 100 for the lada
I figured on about 800 caddy and 500 lada and figured that the fastest cars are going to be in the 1000+ lap range. Staying on track is more important than lap times and Speedycop and team know what they are doing.
KTL, $5 over/under bet on 600 laps for the Caddy? and another $5 over under 300 for the Lada?
I have a strange feeling that other then brakes that the caddy will be ok.
Here's a clue - a Lemons lap of Nelson's will be in the 1:50 to 2:00 minutes / lap range. Fast cars will be in the 1:40's.
Actual times will be depend on traffic and we are going to have PLENTY of traffic, At least at the start.
Don't forget to account for PLENTY of laps under yellow.
Now guess away.
I know it's terribly wrong to hope for this in a race, but for us, the more caution laps, the better. If we are not burning fuel at the rate of a gallon every 2-3 laps, and not overheating the 390 c.i. engine and trans going W.O.T., we stand a better chance. Even without wipers, I think rain could only help us as well. Lower speeds, more cautions, and better cooling FTW.
I'm going to agree w/ Rob, that Caddy goin' the distance, plus I think that speedycop knows his way through a Lemons challange. I say 750 for the caddy, and maybe 80 for the Lada. --- I have prior Lada experience, while in Jamacia, it took us all Day to go about 50 miles, luckily for us there are Red Sripe beer stands every few miles. After two flat tires, and constant overheating, we eventually had to tear some useless wiring out of the trunk, and hot wire the coil just to get back, backfiring all the way. Can't wait to see someone try to race one of those. (no offense)
I can just see it now. The Lada and Caddy racing each other to the finish line, with the Caddy passing the Lada on the last lap, as the loudspeakers blare out a copy of Al Michaels going "Do you believe in Miracles....YEEESSSSSS!"
Monday's Pravda headline:
"Heroic Lada Finishes 2nd In IoE Race; Clumsy American Behemoth Finishes Next To Last."
I'll take that next to last, and the grand that comes with it! It might help offset the eleventy billion I've spent already on this beast. Why did I pick teammates with NO MONEY and very little free time?
"You guys wanna run a '61 Caddy, and go all-out for IOE?"
"Sure! Do you mind paying for it all by yourself?"
"Can't you help out a little?"
"No."
"Can you at least help build it?"
"I'm too busy."
Yeah, i'd have some major concerns about brake fade in the Cad... hope you can scrounge a couple extra sets of front drums somewhere.
IF the cooling system isn't loaded with crud (maybe i should go back and make that IF bigger) i would expect the engine to do well. Not so sure about the tranny, as our '62 is killing its third.
I'm guessing 300 laps on the Lada, 150 on the Cad. No offense to Speedycop, looks like a hell of a cool project, but every time i walked thru the pits at CMP i saw the Linc there, and 2 weeks is damn little time to get an oddball car prepped to race. Meanwhile, that Lada looks better than either of the cars i've been working on for years. What engine have they got in it?
i think the caddy will make it all the way to the end with about 340-360 laps under it's belt. the lada's lack of weight is offset by the complete lack of power. Long prep time doesn't mean more reliability. the upshot to communist cars is that a really REALLY big hammer will fix 80% of the engine problems. the rest is electrical. my guess is 500 for the lada.
good luck, masochists.
No offense to Speedycop, looks like a hell of a cool project, but every time i walked thru the pits at CMP i saw the Linc there, and 2 weeks is damn little time to get an oddball car prepped to race.
True, but that same Lincoln finished CMP in April and Stafford in July without missing a beat. We were due some woes...
i think the caddy will make it all the way to the end with about 340-360 laps under it's belt.
Putting in 2:00 laps (really slow), that's still only 10 hours of on track time. If you think it will make it to the end, that's 600-700 laps.
Has anyone ever taken a likely IoE contender and just driven it so slowly and conservatively that it held up for the whole race? I can imagine that even with the Cadillac, if you just drove it 35-40mph the whole time, it would hold up and you might even be able to do the whole race on a single set of tires and brake pads.
Of course, it wouldn't be as enjoyable to take the track at a snail's pace, but for a totally unlikely car, it might be worth it, if you didn't get black flagged for going too slowly.
Has anyone ever taken a likely IoE contender and just driven it so slowly and conservatively that it held up for the whole race? I can imagine that even with the Cadillac, if you just drove it 35-40mph the whole time, it would hold up and you might even be able to do the whole race on a single set of tires and brake pads.
Of course, it wouldn't be as enjoyable to take the track at a snail's pace, but for a totally unlikely car, it might be worth it, if you didn't get black flagged for going too slowly.
Night and rain would make that harder on the car and other drivers. The car needs to have a working wiper system and working headlights. It would be very easy for an old, crappy alternator to puke and die. Also, the other cars would have a hard time trying to avoid a 4700 car going at a snails pace. It would give new meaning to rolling chicane. NL is narrow to start with.
Also, would anyone jump in that '61 Caddy or the Lada and drive it straight through from Miami Florida to Nelson Ledges expecting to make it without a breakdown? That's about the same distance as what Rob just calculated.
Heck, I am worried that our Z car will make it and we've checked over every component. Poor Speedycop has only had the Caddy for a few weeks.
I really hope both cars turn a lot of laps, but the odds are stacked against them.
We prefer to be the underdog.
The 24 Hours of Lemons Forums → Our Crappy Race → Lamest Day Guess The Effluency Laps contest: Lada versus '61 Cadillac!