$500 dollars cars and honesty (Page 1 of 2)

Cheating for a 'win' seems like a complete and total waste of time.
I see no satisfaction in that.

Why do people do that?
Trick everyone and pretend you're happy?!?

I personally enjoy getting more done with less.
Anyone that knows me can attest to that.

KT

But it's not fun, clever, fulfilling or satisfying to SUCK.

Cheating to a win is still a loss... ( Is that a known quote? )

KT

Its hard to draw that line in the sand, thats why.  A few years ago I got a Buick Regal from my Grandma she REFUSED to accept any money for it.  Plenty of folks out there would have called that car a $0 car....and then put $500 worth of stuff into it.  How nice was it?   I drove the car for 5 years and then sold it for $3000.  It depends on how you personally read the rules.  We have had teams show up at Lemons with various cars that are way beyond the $500 limit.

Beyond that I'll go with the "people suck" theroy.  I have been racing all sorts of cars in all sorts of racing my whole life.  A lot of other racers think that cheating is just part of the game, your SUPPOSED to cheat and if you get caught cheating thats some sort of failure on your teams part.  Look at the professional series, Roush racing, Richard Petty, Toyota team europe, have all been caught openly and blatently cheating in the past. 

Me personally I take no pride in cheating, play the damn game the way is supposed to be played.  I'm also a firm believer that if the cheaters spent all the time they use cheating to...I dunno working on making the car faster, they might be about the same place.

This is why the tire rule is pure genius....to quote Junior Johnson, "motors don't mean sh!t"...and neither do alloy control arms, heim joints, etc. if you can't transfer power or cornering forces to the ground...I'd go to a UTQG of 220 or 230...if you spend on engine internals to maximize reliability, who's to know and if there's no advantage, who cares?....the Z-car guys have shown that good prep doesn't guarantee a good finish anyway...

I concur. Ball joints and wheel bearings, same thing. If your car is so shaky-handling at highway speeds that you're scared to go faster, it's more a safety issue than a go-fast issue.

Ball Joints SHOULD be safety.

Technically they are not safety in Lemons but could be argued.  Realistically, I don't think anyone will burn you.

i hadn't replaced them because the car drove fine at high speed on the road, it felt great, but there were no more boots covering the joints.

it was out first time at a race track and none of us had realized just how harsh race conditions could be.

The good news is, they did not loosen up during the race, but i won't push my luck twice.

we're in it for the fun, not the trophy. it is hard to have fun if you're in the hospital.

I was going to point out the 2005 Mini...but that was a bad example.  The guys seem to be cool and they openly admit that it wasnt a very Lemony car!

The ball joints on our Camaro were WASTED,  the whole tire would move about half an inch when the car was jacked up so we replaced them. As others have said...no one is going to fault you too much for ball joints, its not like a set of ball joints is going to make the car that much faster on the track.

That stung...

KT

I know what ya mean about $500 cars and cheaters.  I found a 1997 Maxima that had a smashed front end.  the seller was going to fix it (air bag didn't deploy) and bought a radiator but never installed it.  He advertised it ob Craigslist (had Tein springs, adjustable shocks, cold air induction, nice exhaust, etc.)  He wanted $700. I told him what we were doing and that $500 was the max and he said OK.  I advertised I was partially parting it out and sold the cat, some interior lights, one seat, the spare tire etc. and got about $140 for the stuff. 

Now WE (the team) really want to follow the spirit of the race - GO CHEAP.  I only bought really good front brake pads, the rears just new street perf ones.  Tires?  well we sprung for ONE new right front (cuzz its a FWD car and Thunderhill has 3 lefts for every right corner),  the other tires?  well I bought some used ones for $30- $50.  We will have a couple of spares.

We are going absolutely as cheap as possible.  We will tune up the car and make it as reliable as possible but still we bought a Home Depot extinguisher and "brake ducts".  Weare going cheap, Cheap CHEAP.

The spirit of the race isn't about being cheap across the board; we'd prefer that you sprang for good tires and brakes all the way around. Old and/or hard tires tend to fail, and Thunderhill is a track that's pretty unforgiving to cars that leave the track and dig into the mud.

As for your car, you should be in good shape for the BS inspection with a Maxima; we've been wanting to see more big Japanese cars and we'll be happy to have our first Lemons Maxima.