Using up a set of winter tires

Not too nice. You probably won't win outright on points or anything, but plenty of people have run the rallies with "nice" cars. Some examples: a rental Chrysler 300C, a few daily driven Mk. III Volkswagens, a few modern-ish Volvo wagons, a Porsche 944 stage rally car, and probably some more mundane cars that I'm forgetting. There was an E30 last winter, too.

You can bring any car you want, basically. Your difficulty, discomfort, and likelihood of having trouble are directly related to how many points you'll score at the inspection, which is where you'll rack up the most points. You can find the scoring info on the Rally site here:

http://24hoursoflemons.com/rally

In short, this is kind of a long-distance scavenger hunt. When you check in for the rally start, you'll get a rally book with a list of checkpoints and instructions on how to get points for them using Instagram. The checkpoints are optional and some may add considerable time/distance to your route. In theory, that will require on-the-fly route planning, but we know the type of people who do Lemons Rally don't usually think that far ahead. Anyway, the checkpoints usually outline a route or have a couple different optional routes.

Most of the checkpoint are usually bizarre, famous, or generally cool landmarks. Sometimes, they're weird little quests. This year, we have a couple of new things in mind to keep it interesting.

We usually will try to have a meet-up in the middle of the day along the route and another one in the evening at/near the recommended host hotel.

The rally was still fun starting in dead last for points and slowly working our way up. We ran snow tires, but I wish I brought a second set considering it was so warm in Alabama and the whole drive home to Pennsylvania.

There's no such thing as the wrong car for this... I showed up to the first one in a 2016 Chrysler 300 rental car that had 600 miles on it, over the course of the death valley stint, we managed to knock some of the nice off the car, yes, we bought the insurance!

It's all about having a good time as uncomfortably as you can.

Also, "Can the Rally stand 2 people from Florida?" Should be the better question...

CB radios are fun to have. We have yet to actually get two working, to be able to use for car to car communications. But they look bitchin, especially the old vacuum tube models.

The less prep you do, the better. More adventure, that way.

As for the list of cities. vs the actual every night stops...don't put any money on them being accurate or comprehensive. Plan the trip after you register, and get the email that tells where we will actually be staying.

I have a friend who is a middle school teacher.  He can't take a full week off when school is in session.  I am trying to figure out if it is possible for him to fly in on Wednesday and still make 2/3rds of the rally.  There are cheap flights into Virginia Beach and into western North Carolina right now but they will get more expensive soon.

You'll do fine.

My car is arguably too nice, (1990 Subaru wagon) but I'm working on making it worse (sketchy manual transmission out of a disreputable parts car installed in midwinter)