The 24 Hours of Lemons Forums → Lemons Newcomers → Starting a team, how do we get accepted?
My friends and I are dying to get into this race. I live in Houston and I see where the Yee Haw, It's Lemons Texas, race is happening 11-12 Sept. What I want to know is how hard is it to be accepted as a team and race. I would really appreciate some input from you guys in helping us live our dream as a lemon racer.
I have tons of questions to ask but I want to keep it simple being my first post. Thanks.
Bring a shitty car and a creative theme and you're IN! Try to steer away from Miatas and E30s. If your car is interesting, it will help you get accepted.
Be dependable, be original, look like you want to have fun.
There are plenty of topics on this subject. Saying that you are 4 guys who have a civic and always wanted to race, get's you nowhere - you just described everyone. Saying that you have an old peugeot (and actually have one) and that one of your teammates is auctioning off his virginity to help pay for the race - is a little more original. Doing a good application video that features references to midget porn and upskirting your oldest and ugliest mechanic could put you on the short list.
^exactly right.
Look through the posts on Jalopnik that Murilee does with the full photo array from each of the Houston races, then go and find a car that hasn't raced there before. Then come up with a good theme, but if you have a really unique crapheap, the theme is less important.
The downside of this is that if your team isn't already very mechanically inclined, it might make it tougher to run the race. But a short list of vehicles to consider would be: anything pre-1960; especially obscure vehicles like European-only stuff that has been abandoned on our shores; Communist bloc cars; Triumph Spitfire (seriously); a Datsun 1600 roadster would probably be welcomed with open arms.
Use crazedlist.org to search multiple craigslist cities and limit your search to cars between $2 and $1000, then find some obscure crapheaps. Keep an eye open on this forum in the Cars for Sale section, there are plenty of folks here who get bored at work and cruise craigslist looking for interesting Lemons cars and then they post those up here.
Whatever you do, don't announce that you have some crazy car and are starting your build and then don't make the race. That's lame. Better to come in stealthy and amaze everyone at the track than talk big and not show up. Talk is cheap.
Bring your questions on as you have them, this forum is (mostly) very helpful and especially flame free in the Newb forum. But do yourself a favor and use the "search" function first, stuff like what tires to use and how to wire a kill switch have been well covered already and you'll save yourself some hassle by looking them up first. Good luck!
We were thinking of a possibly a Fiero or any old rear wheel drive light car. Should we even attept at performance or would you suggest good tires/brakes and just try and keep it running?
I'm going to go to the North Dallas Hooptie in June just to see it live and talk to some of the teams. I think I have a unique idea to make it stand out, but it's a secret :-)
Peugoet, Renault, Fiat, Saab, Daewoo, Triumph, those kinds of cars are sure get you accepted.
Just try to get it reliable and safe. If it's a pedestrian car (Civic, corolla, 626, etc) come up with a great theme. Don't worry about going fast in your first race, and try to get everyone seat time so they will want to come back. Short stint at the start to accomplish this.
We were thinking of a possibly a Fiero or any old rear wheel drive light car. Should we even attept at performance or would you suggest good tires/brakes and just try and keep it running?
If you're considering a Fiero, you get neither of these choices.
Just try to keep the thing running. It's harder than you think. Performance is nice, but it doesen't mean anything if the car is on jack stands in your pit while other, slower cars are turning laps.
Welcome aboard and good luck!
Half of us have broken enough bolts to consider ourselves as mechanically inclined, the other half will be around for entertainment. I have been searching through the forum for a couple days on a lot of the basics and I've read through the rules a few times.
Would you suggest that we begin now to find a car? I'm pretty fluent with craigslist having bought and sold car parts and such. I don't think that I have a jewish bloodline but I'm good at faking it when it comes to negotiating prices. I think something like this would be a good find.
http://houston.craigslist.org/cto/1646637427.html
But we've sort of agreed that the first race we just keep it simple and focus on getting accepted rather than buy a car that needs a lot of work and try and plead our case on how we bought and sold parts to keep our budget. But at the same time my competitive side would be really frustrated to be flown by on every straight.
Get a car now. Unless you're a total masochist, you should make steady progress starting as soon as possible. Waiting until the last minute and wrenching furiously right up until green flag time sux. We did this once last year and it took a lot of fun out of the event for me, plus we weren't able to test the car. Settle on a car quickly, and make sure you get a car that already runs well. The right car is one that won't pass emissions, has a check engine light on, has body damage and/or a shitty interior. We don't care about any of that stuff, but it drives the value of the car down to Lemons affordability. Good luck!
BTW-that's an interesting car, just make sure it runs now. I'm not sure I would make that my first car, frankly. That looks like a great 2nd car.
I'll throw this out there - racing $500 cars is interesting. Dropping close to $3000 into a first time build is not. Throwing safety equipment, cage, tires, and brakes at a car is not going to get you very far in the race. There are cubic man hours to make the car reliable that need to be spent.
FYI - we are prepping a car now for a race in October.
Good idea to go to Dallas to watch the race.
Good idea to go to Dallas to watch the race.
VERY good idea.
We had many ideas about how the race would turn out before racing in Houston last October. Our real experience wasn't too far off but I focussed on many of the wrong things on our car and missed some big ones.
MAKE IT RELIABLE if at all possible, overheating will kill your car.
A Fiero has a pretty good chance of getting accepted, but Fieros have proven to be among the least reliable Lemons cars (see the Lemons Torture Test for stats).
In Texas, we have a glut of Mustangs, RX-7s, E30s, Nissan Zs, Supras, and Miatas, so your chances of getting in aren't as good with one of those types (unless your theme totally knocks Jay and/or Nick on their asses... which isn't easy).
Also, using lines such as "I don't think that I have a jewish bloodline but I'm good at faking it when it comes to negotiating prices" is likely to get your team the No Fat Shiksas treatment, or worse, at the race.
John has a great post here somewhere on what to do to prep a car. It basically boils down to
1. Make it reliable
2. Good brakes, not good in as they seem to be fine, but good for racing
3. Good tires, see comments on brakes.
sergio wrote:Good idea to go to Dallas to watch the race.
.
MAKE IT RELIABLE if at all possible, overheating will kill your car.
Yes it will. Our car started overheating at hour 5, and continued throughout th Lamest Day. Bring spares, as many as you can carry. We ddn't touch anything we brought, but the spare coil I decided not to bring(had it in my hand when packing, forgot it) was what stopped us at 7:00 am on sunday. So, bring all the spares you can carry.
sergio wrote:Good idea to go to Dallas to watch the race.
VERY good idea.
We had many ideas about how the race would turn out before racing in Houston last October. Our real experience wasn't too far off but I focussed on many of the wrong things on our car and missed some big ones.
MAKE IT RELIABLE if at all possible, overheating will kill your car.
+1 on the make reliable.
Our first race was a joke. We had McShit used tires. 2 of one brand 2 of another and 2 more Monkeyass brand rim protectors. Handling was "interesting."
We got the car running a week before the race, to find out the engine ran a bit warm. We said it will be alright, just don't run it too hard !!!??? Yeah right. It's a race isn't it? 30 minutes into the race, water starts blowing up on the windshield. The temp gauge is pegged. At 5 o'clock the engine siezed. We were a million laps down because we had to come in and add water every so often. We said we aren't quitters, go get another motor and put it in. At 3 am the replacement engine fired up.
That's the kind of shit you don't want to be doing. You need to test the car, but the problem is how do you test at WOT for 3 hours continously? You can't. So go over everything, any suspicious parts change them with new or known good used ones.
Also, using lines such as "I don't think that I have a jewish bloodline but I'm good at faking it when it comes to negotiating prices" is likely to get your team the No Fat Shiksas treatment, or worse, at the race.
Ya, there is a decent sized Jewish community running the circus.
That 280ZX is interesting and in my neighborhood. I considered checking it out and possibly buying it. However, I already have a field full of 280ZXs, some early Zs and a patch of various V8s.
The price is right and it has potential.
Houston is a popular event with one of the largest fields. I do not know how over subscribed it is but that will make it harder to get accepted.
If Houston in September doesn't work out, you would have a good shot to race in Louisiana at No Problem in November.
I think everyone's got ya covered so to sum it up
Go unusual on the car, but not too unusual for your first shot, unless you are a skilled Lada mechanic, then go for it.
Forget fast, make it reliable.
Plan a budget, then double it, cheap racing aint cheap.
Plan a timeline, then double it, it always takes longer.
Im in month 6 of our build (granted its a bit more over the top than most) and Im not sure I'll be done by June.
Im in month 6 of our build (granted its a bit more over the top than most)
A bit?
If a team has previously been accepted the year before would they have an obvious advantage on getting accepted this year?
Also thanks to everyone who has commented, I'm impressed with the number and quality of responses already!
A good way to get "in" and get a better understanding of Lemons is to buy onto an existing team. There's always somebody looking for a driver. Pick a race, be ready to blow $700-1000 for the weekend, and find someone willing to take your money.
This gets you a front-row seat to all things Lemons for a relatively low sum.
Having just finished our first race I can tell you a couple of things to keep in mind
1. Odd car + great theme + great essay = race acceptance. We were the first ever Lemons LeCar and i think one of the only (if not the only) fur covered cars ever as well.
2. Its going to cost a lot more than you think to put your car together. Yeah, that safety gear costs a lot more than $500
3. Its going to take a lot more time than you think to get your car reliable. We didn't have ours running until the morning before the race. BTW I concur on making it reliable. We focused on that it worked good for us. That is until we flipped it.
4. Get there early on Friday. We had time for 2 practice laps on Friday due to showing up at about 2:00. This left us no time after getting through inspection to get used to driving the car. You are going to want to take a few laps around prior to being out there with 128 other cars. Think, Houston traffic while everyone is pushing their cars to the mechanical limit. It can be nerve racking if you have no racing experience. We had a driver quit after 3 laps because he couldn't take it.
5. Spend a few dollars and get proper gas cans. Filling with a funnel and cheapo gas cans sucks.
6. Even if you make steady progress, you are still going to be scrambling to get it done at the last minute.
7. Lastly, Show up to have fun, don't get an attitude or piss off the judges or anybody else for that matter. You will find that a lot of people will be willing to help you out if you act considerate. We had a paddock neighbor give us a bottle of brake fluid when we ran out.
Hope to see you in Dallas.
JThw8 wrote:Im in month 6 of our build (granted its a bit more over the top than most)
A bit?
Yeah, sorry, I've gone off script but that car just deserves something insane and I wanted to make the judges and organizers proud of their decision to curse me with it.
Whatever you do, don't announce that you have some crazy car and are starting your build and then don't make the race. That's lame.
Stop giving away my secret plan!!! Um, I mean, yes, that would be lame.
The 24 Hours of Lemons Forums → Lemons Newcomers → Starting a team, how do we get accepted?