When $500 isn't $500 (Page 2 of 3)

It would also take out the '94 Mustang V8 that was bought for $1500 and sold $3000 in parts.

Thats the thing right there... a running or almost running $500 car will almost ALWAYS be more reliable than a far nicer car that is sold cheap enough that you can recoup your costs in part sales.  Excluding that random rare case, a car thats super cheap because its undesireable but runs will be infinitely better for this race (in my opinion) than a better car that is cheap because its a basket case or a wreck.  And based on past results reliability and consistency is INFINITELY more desireable in this race than fast lap times, because anything that fast for that cheap inevitably blows up.  Its the same as in a pro endurance race, if a multi-million dollar Peugeot doesnt survive 24 hours, your "$500" car after sales  probably wont either.

Plus the BS inspection can weed out those with creative accounting an so forth....

Lemons is not broke, it's just fine.  But one cannot deny history, and history has shown us that man will exploit any and all loopholes in his qwest for victory.  What this is about is forsight. 

Yeah we're fine now because when the one or two "spec cheater" teams show up, they get a ton of BS laps or people's curse.  But what about when half the applicants have figured out how the loophole works?  You then potentially have another racing series where money improves your chance of winning, thus dividing the race into the Pros and the Joes. 

Now one might say why should we care if we're all really just there to have a good time?  Because delusions of Lemons glory are a lot more realistic when your crap car is racing against 94 other crap cars.  The crazy belief that you could actually win "if we just do this, or make sure of that" is part of the fun!

We don't have to change any rules now, but keep an eye out.  Someday $500 might have to mean the max initial purchase price.  That wouldn't bother me a bit.

I bought a $400 civic and sold $300 of it and its finished 6th one race and was in 5th for a while at Reno finished 14th overall. Been to 6 races and she is a little weathered.
So  buy something for a lot of money and worry about the judges

I don't have to worry about the judges but I think they wish my car  would die !

Enter the viable example:

1975 Corvette for parts - $1200 (Hammond)
http://neworleans.craigslist.org/cto/1214454633.html

Flooded, but it doesn't say during which storm (Hammond is on the North Shore, so probably Katrina) No motor, but if you can't score a limping chevy v8 from an old Caprice you aren't really trying. Even if you can't get a "deal" there's probably a good thousand worth of junk you can pry off it & hock on Ebay to "vette" guys and still have enough left over to race.

Would I want to do it? Hells no.

As an audience member watching from the sidelines I can tell you first hand we were all pulling for the underdogs. The Rx7 running on half a rotor. The Mercedes 300D that the guys ran out & bought a water pump for, only to bomb out in a handful of laps.

No offense to the guys racing the Toyota Supra (that car is badass, but it's pretty much *factory* badass), but it's far more fun to watch a WagoVan dressed up with Flamingos run around the track than a racecar.

As a "hopeful future participant" (I'm still short a few guys and a ton of ready cash) my interest lay with finding the most unusual yet driveable car I can lay my hands on rather than something I know will handle like a skateboard and only needs a new clutch. 

Mazda Miata? Yawn. Next time, bring a 323...
Toyota? Where's that bashed up Echo when you want one?

So bring me your Renaults, your Peugeots, your tired old Mercedes. Your Geo Metros & Fiats and clapped out Cavalier wagons. Be they ever so humble, there's nothing like them on the track.

-=Tom

If you get peoples curse three times you are obviously a complete douche, the crushing will keep people honest, that or a push bar on the front of our beloved Infinity Q45 to give the proper love tap to some spec racers.

A few points:

1) There are sub-$15k Ferraris out there, someone had a 365GT4 on Craigslist in Seattle for $14k a while back and it even had a rebuilt engine.

2) Why bring a real Ferrari to Lemons and risk getting it crushed when you can take a CRX, glue styrofoam and silk-screened strakes on it and call it a Ferrari?

3) Strange odd cars are always more fun, why bring a Ferrari or Vette when you can buy a Renault, Peugeot, Lada, Corvair or something even more bizarre like the $400 Skoda I saw recently and not only have more fun but gain the respect of the organizers and the other teams just for daring to show up?

4) Winning isn't the point of Lemons, having fun is!

Our BMW is running in the San Diego Grand Challenge ($1000 version of Grassroots Motorsports $2009 Challenge) and they allow only $500 worth of parts to be sold off the car and deducted off the value of the car.

I don't have any complaints with the current Lemons rules regarding selling parts (we sold $320 worth of parts from our $400 car), but if Jay and Co. really wanted to limit the race to the crappiest of the crap cans, they would have instituted a limit or ban on selling off parts. Apparently they don't, and that's fine with me.

Apparently you partook in some of the contents of their bribe briefcase!

If we're thinking along these lines, clearly Lemons Vice needs to bring the doppelganger of their Reno car: a Testarossa wearing a CRX body...

I can definitely see the argument for imposing a cap on the value of the parts you sell off, but frankly, I don't really think we're in much need of one.  I think for the kind of cars you can sell a large quantity/value of parts off of, they're either going to get tagged as complete cheaters, get the curse, or be so abysmally uncompetitive that they're more of a humor item anyway.

-Fred
Team captain, der Wienerschmoker

Oh, hell yes! Which half is the front? Or do you mean left and right halves?

Talk about a car that will get you greased out on the track.  Ding Ding Ding we have a winner...