The 24 Hours of Lemons Forums → Our Crappy Race → THE PEOPLE'S CURSE RAN!!!!!
harrisracing wrote:Perhaps we will theme it up next time and get some costumes. Patrick
WHAT??? No theme? Then it wasn't really a Lemons car.
^5
I remembered them being fast but not jerks on the track.
True, and ideally the People's Curse should be awarded to the jerkiest drivers... but sometimes the bloodlust of the mob is what rules in a democracy (there's now a "nobody" choice on the Curse ballot, which was added after we saw all the write-in votes for Jay's Bus at Reno-Fernley). The Black Widow guys failed a basic intelligence test here, regardless of perceived fairness or lack thereof: they used the exact same formula that got them crushed on two previous occasions, with more or less the exact same group of racers. It's like falling for the "wanna see a match burn twice?" joke twice and then going for it a third time.
Keep in mind that the People's Curse is a big part of what makes Lemons so entertaining for the spectators, and it's a great mechanism for deterring behavior that pisses off a large percentage of the participants. It's not going away. Ideally, the Curse winners will have a sense of humor about it (which is usually the case), since it's sort of an honor.
Is there any way they can dress up as Pu$$ies I think I,ve seen those costumes I'm Sure FreeRangeMatt will find one and post that up
Hmmm... perhaps we should require every Miata team to bring a LeMons-qualified Triumph Spitfire and alternate stints between the two cars on a 1:1 lap basis.
How about mounting some 50 gallon garbage cans mounted open side forward!I'll make the rig to mount on the car
make them cut springs on left front and right rear corners ONLY
Chain em' to a cadillac front bumper...that'll slow em' down
Miata teams should take some tips from Eyesore Racing. They ran a turbocharged Miata and got zero penalty laps, in addition to being regarded as heroes by most of the competition. The only team in Lemons history to have won both Organizer's Choice and Overall Winner trophies.
The King is NOT dead
I'll say it agian. Our theme's aren't the best out there (tyhis time it was the WTF BBQ BMW in honor of the BMW that burned at the previous race) but we doi have one. The only thing I think that is as bad as having a lame half-ass'd theme, is running the same one over and over again. I spotted a few cars that i have seen at both races I ran in, and on countless video's online. It isn't that hard, and it sure is fun to change it up some.
Heck even the crapsman truck could atleast repaint each race to a different truck.
Sorry, just my .02
Eyesore got waved thru penalty box like 5 times during last race .
They are nice guys and gals they deserve all the kudos for there efforts they come back with great themes .But I will say mine for T hill will take them down !!lol I think peoples themes should be changed every race I've tried my best with caltrans,Granch stole Lemons and Froggers revenge.but Certain cars are just the car is the theme
Corvair ,2002 with algae on it ,Faster farms ,the Zebra car and the hearst,John' sprint car Miata . Like the Lemon Demolition car driven by Ryan he is the excavator operator . My car all smashed should be a theme for a survivor 6 races now.
Eyesore got waved thru penalty box like 5 times during last race .
Not true.
Eyesore got waved thru penalty box like 5 times during last race .
Actually only 3 times. First was because they had a "get out of jail free card" for showing the car at the circle track. Second was for someone slamming them off the track, and the third was near the end of the race... not sure what it was for.
The drove a VERY clean race
fabtoys wrote:Eyesore got waved thru penalty box like 5 times during last race .
Actually only 3 times. First was because they had a "get out of jail free card" for showing the car at the circle track. Second was for someone slamming them off the track, and the third was near the end of the race... not sure what it was for.
If I recall correctly, #2 was the freebie we usually give teams for their first offense after many hours of squeaky-clean driving. #3 was the result of track radios failing and preventing us from getting details of the offense (still no idea what it wa), which happened many times, with many teams, at Goin' For Broken.
FreeRange wrote:fabtoys wrote:Eyesore got waved thru penalty box like 5 times during last race .
Actually only 3 times. First was because they had a "get out of jail free card" for showing the car at the circle track. Second was for someone slamming them off the track, and the third was near the end of the race... not sure what it was for.
If I recall correctly, #2 was the freebie we usually give teams for their first offense after many hours of squeaky-clean driving. #3 was the result of track radios failing and preventing us from getting details of the offense (still no idea what it wa), which happened many times, with many teams, at Goin' For Broken.
Yeah we got a black after a meatball that was dismissed because we had no idea what it was for.
Glad they finally chalked up a win
Question: If you get the curse, do you still have to take it home? 
My only issue here is that I don't think a mazda miata is a lemon. It's THE MOST RACED CAR IN MOTORSPORT HISTORY.
Patrick, Patrick, Patrick --- Now you're showing how new to all this you really are. Stop while you're ahead (or, at least, stop before you get lapped again). Most raced in history? Dumb statement. Really dumb. How much "history" in racing do you have? Ever hear Camaro, Renault, Mustang, Monte Carlo, Taurus, Porsche, Cortina, MG, Mini Cooper, Elva, Alfa Romeo, Morris, Saab, Triumph, Anglia... geez, the list could on and on. Miata is merely a minuscule blip on the radar screen of racing when you look at popular cars of various eras. In the 1970's alone, there were more Porsche 914s in E-Production than anything else! However, no one was crying from the sidelines to ban Porsche from racing. In the 1980s, the Renualt Cup would field races with 50 cars... and nobody was bitching about Renault, either. Want to discuss the RX-7? How about the Aussie V8 Super Car Series? The Suzuki Series in Japan?
Dude... get a grip. Read all the posts (above) from the guys who know their sh*t and who know that Miatas aren't any different from anything else out there. They also know that you can find them for $500 any day of the week. If they were so special, they'd win every Lemons race. But they're not. What's winning, you ask? It's not a "what." It's a "who." The who... these are the teams that build their cars right, prep them right and drive them right... with a winning strategy and a whole lot of luck.
John
FreeRange wrote:fabtoys wrote:Eyesore got waved thru penalty box like 5 times during last race .
Actually only 3 times. First was because they had a "get out of jail free card" for showing the car at the circle track. Second was for someone slamming them off the track, and the third was near the end of the race... not sure what it was for.
If I recall correctly, #2 was the freebie we usually give teams for their first offense after many hours of squeaky-clean driving. #3 was the result of track radios failing and preventing us from getting details of the offense (still no idea what it wa), which happened many times, with many teams, at Goin' For Broken.
#3 was me being so damn conservative toward the end of the race (in the lead and nearly out of gas) that I waited until passing something like 4 flagless stations before I was confident the yellow flag was over. By that time, the guy in the big orange truck, who had been frantically pointing me by for the last 4 or 5 turns, finally stopped paying attention to me just as I finally went for the pass.
I guess you can't see a Miata on the right side of a monster truck (no surprise there), so we both went for the same apex and I got pushed into an apex cone. That counts as 2-wheels off.
We had a short discussion in the pits about the merits of hitting cones vs. hitting trucks and I was mercifully sent back out. Yes, things clearly could have gone worse for us in the penalty box.
-Dave
Alright guys, this is how a Lemons team should operate, and the Miata team at the core of this argument is doing it all wrong.
The New England race is, what, 5 weeks away. I gathered a team together that consists of 2 NASA instructors, one SCCA competitor (who raced Ferrari's), and two amateur rally enthusiasts, and then there's me, who has next to no track time, as the team captain. We all decided that the easy thing was to find one of the following cars to race: A Miata, A Supra, or an E30. However, we all decided that doing so was much too easy, and against everything that Lemons stood for.
By now, you already know what we are racing, and if you don't, you haven't been paying attention. Well, alright, I'll tell you. It's not only the oldest car ever to race in this series (well, next to Nick Pon's Alfa, what ever year that thing is), but it also has probably the least horsepower of any competitor, ever! It's a 1963 Corvair 700 4 Door, with a Powerglide!
It's running, it's almost ready, and we are well prepared. We even installed a passenger seat for other activities other than Lemons. I bought it for $400, sold off $1,100 worth of parts, and stayed within budget. I got a sponsor to buy the Rollbar, a sponsor to pay for the tires, a sponsor to buy my racing suit, and a sponsor to pay for the transportation. We will have a couple of surprises at the track, and we will be mingling with everyone at the track.
We will not be rolling up in a $50,000 fully equipped trailer with a $50,000 truck towing it. I will be showing up in a $5,000, 20 year old motorhome, with a rented trailer. Wo won;t be painted black, with no theme. Instead, I will have a Ralph Nader Mask in a Gray suit, and the car will be in it's natural state of rust. (Hell with a 63 Corvair, the car is the theme!) So say Hello to Team Trailing Throttle OverSteer, and greet us by name: Jim, Mike, Carmine, Kathy, Mary, Suzanne, Johnny, Andy, and Todd. We may have a few more, but you won't be able to miss us.
I got a sponsor to buy the Rollbar, a sponsor to pay for the tires, a sponsor to buy my racing suit, and a sponsor to pay for the transportation.
Sponsors?
You wanna be our team captain?
-Dave
We had a short no-look hand job in the pits about me being Judge Lavrinc's boyhood writin' hero and I was mercifully sent back out. Yes, things clearly could have gone worse for us in the penalty box.
-Dave
Fixed.
And for the record, I came running -- RUNNING -- over to bust the FrankenMiata (I relish any chance to totally screw up a race) and Lavrinc had already let 'em go.
That said, we let dozens of teams go during the last two hours of the race. We've been doing this for the last seven races.
While cruel and arbitrary, we're softies at heart.
UDMan wrote:I got a sponsor to buy the Rollbar, a sponsor to pay for the tires, a sponsor to buy my racing suit, and a sponsor to pay for the transportation.
Sponsors?
You wanna be our team captain?
-Dave
+1
If we had a sponsor, maybe buying an unreliable car would be more appealing. For now, I'll stick with an MR2 that we have to change the oil in every other race.
Alright guys, this is how a Lemons team should operate, and the Miata team at the core of this argument is doing it all wrong.
The New England race is, what, 5 weeks away. I gathered a team together that consists of 2 NASA instructors, one SCCA competitor (who raced Ferrari's), and two amateur rally enthusiasts, and then there's me, who has next to no track time, as the team captain. We all decided that the easy thing was to find one of the following cars to race: A Miata, A Supra, or an E30. However, we all decided that doing so was much too easy, and against everything that Lemons stood for.
By now, you already know what we are racing, and if you don't, you haven't been paying attention. Well, alright, I'll tell you. It's not only the oldest car ever to race in this series (well, next to Nick Pon's Alfa, what ever year that thing is), but it also has probably the least horsepower of any competitor, ever! It's a 1963 Corvair 700 4 Door, with a Powerglide!
It's running, it's almost ready, and we are well prepared. We even installed a passenger seat for other activities other than Lemons. I bought it for $400, sold off $1,100 worth of parts, and stayed within budget. I got a sponsor to buy the Rollbar, a sponsor to pay for the tires, a sponsor to buy my racing suit, and a sponsor to pay for the transportation. We will have a couple of surprises at the track, and we will be mingling with everyone at the track.
We will not be rolling up in a $50,000 fully equipped trailer with a $50,000 truck towing it. I will be showing up in a $5,000, 20 year old motorhome, with a rented trailer. Wo won;t be painted black, with no theme. Instead, I will have a Ralph Nader Mask in a Gray suit, and the car will be in it's natural state of rust. (Hell with a 63 Corvair, the car is the theme!) So say Hello to Team Trailing Throttle OverSteer, and greet us by name: Jim, Mike, Carmine, Kathy, Mary, Suzanne, Johnny, Andy, and Todd. We may have a few more, but you won't be able to miss us.
exactamondo!
I have a 1972 ford LTD that would be perfect for number 2 to be force to run if they had the testicular fortitude to show ther face.
It's not only the oldest car ever to race in this series (well, next to Nick Pon's Alfa, what ever year that thing is), but it also has probably the least horsepower of any competitor, ever! It's a 1963 Corvair 700 4 Door, with a Powerglide!
Our beloved '88 Colt hit the track at CMP with an underwhelming 68HP. We think that she can make about 72.6HP if we switch to moonshine instead of gasoline.
We will not be rolling up in a $50,000 fully equipped trailer with a $50,000 truck towing it. I will be showing up in a $5,000, 20 year old motorhome, with a rented trailer. Wo won;t be painted black, with no theme. Instead, I will have a Ralph Nader Mask in a Gray suit, and the car will be in it's natural state of rust.
Double amen
Our truck was $4k (triple salvage title), the camper was free (as in PLEASE take this off my property so I don't get a divorce), the trailer was $600 (sort of has brakes... sort of has a deck), parts car was $200 and our Lemons car was $400 (before selling about $350 in parts).
I marvel at the million dollar motor homes and trailers at Lemons. John, you should join our team and we can mooch off your setup
The 24 Hours of Lemons Forums → Our Crappy Race → THE PEOPLE'S CURSE RAN!!!!!