polishing a pigs ear?

We spent a lot of time and very little money making our car clean and pretty, partly because it started out such a filthy stinking mess, and partly because that just the way I am.  We got more than a bit of criticism because it made the car look $$$$, until you got close enough to see the many small dents and the cheap paint roller fuzz embedded in the lemon-peel yellow paint.

Some people may want to be the first to hit your car, but we also heard from a team that was afraid to pass us because the car was so pretty. (I hope it can stay that way for a while, partly because the car is becoming rare and I'd hate to see it destroyed.)

But I would clean the cockpit out as much as you can.  Make it clean, pretty, and remove anything that would restrict you getting out of the car in a hurry.  Zip tie wires outof the way, fill any holes in the body, etc.  and you should be good.

Vacuum EVERY nook and cranny inside the car, have a team member do the same, then do not trust him and do it again.  At race speed all sorts of stuff begins blowing around and aims directly for the cracked shield of your helmet, where the eyeball magnets immediately absorb it.....  Also defog the inside of your windshield with whatever you can get your hands on.  During the last frogdrowner at CMP visibility was zero in many cars.  As far as the outside, if it is part of the theme, go for it!  Otherwise, go with what you feel like.

I don't trust a vacum to do it's thing.. even a 13 amp shop vac..
  However 125PSI air hose carefully aimed at each seam and in every corner etc..  will easily dislodge anything loose..
As for windshield?   they weigh too much!  Plus then you have to have wipers and probably even a demisting system..
  Remove the windshield, cut off the top, Stretch a tarp over the interior and you've lost weight, reduced drag and elimiinated something that will fail (remember wipers are made by Lucus Prince of darkness)
The roll cage will add back any stiffness lost by the roof and for large stout gentlemen such as myself make entering and exiting the car a whole lot eaiser. 
To be really cool I might leave a vestage windscreen in place just high enough to cover the mirror and direct the air up and over my helmet..

I was driving in the Spring CMP downpour and couldn't see a damn thing. The in-car shows a grayish white with two black stripes going back and forth. Modifications are underway to add a defogger for next year, 'just in case'. But I couldn't imagine being in that HEAVY rain with no roof or windshield.

In our firebird, we cleaned the interior (the sheetmetal thats left) really well and then painted the entire interior. It made the cockpit a much nicer place to be. We left the exterior dented, 5 colors of red, and flaking clear coat. Too much to the outside definately improves the overall look and therefore perception of value.

How many Lemons cars are capable of 150 mph speeds anyway? 
My "D" Jag has a windshield designed to deflect the air over my helmet.  (I followed Malcom Sayers pattern height)
  the buffiting comes from the lifting effect of air over the helmet.. IF you look most formula/Indy car helmets have a spoiler on them to counteract the effect of lift..

i saw them used at a local short track. be damned if they're getting up over 100mph, even with the relentless gobs of horsepower they produce. it's still a way to deflect air coming at you.

as for round tube vs roof, you can always teardrop the round tube with some thin sheet metal and duct tape (like us vee guys do with our torsion-bar front beams)

that's fast.. I suspect that the word stocker wasn't taken litterly.

Let's not get carried away here.

I'm not sure what autobahn you are racing your Lemons on, but our last event had an average lap speed of 56mph. The roof is some weight, some visibility, some rain inconvenince, and driver preference. If aero is a big concern, then i expect your cars to have every bug worked out such that the car is a dream machine on track and you are looking to trim those last few tenths. If thats the case, the car isn't a lemon and shouldn't be out there anyway.

I suspect driver preferance has more to do with resistance than anything.. If that's the case, then please don't remove your roof..
  56 MPH does not mean that you're only going 56 miles per hour all race.
  It means that your top speed is  lets just use say 120 MPH ?..
  Your slowest speed may be 30MPH?  If you spend 1/2 of your time above the  56 MPH figure  then anything that happens at speeds above that should have a big impact..
   The calculations I did was a little less than a 3 sq foot of frontal area would be removed in my car.. 
   Now stick your hand out your window at say 60 MPH.. that's about a 1/3 of a square foot if you expose it to your elbow..  feel that?? that's real solid, stuff,  AIR!  It's solid enough to lift multi ton airplanes high into the sky!
  Now try it with the 3 squre feet I calculated.. Opps you can't sorry about that.. can you imagine what drag it would cause at say 120MPH?
   
   OK You don't see the connection yet.. fair enough.
  If I run in water up to slightly over my waist. It's about 3 sq. ft. of drag..  I can't run very fast if I'm that deep.. I don't think you can either..
   However I'm pretty fast if I ran right at the waters edge..
I'd be even faster if I could figure out a way to run in a vacum..
Drag is drag.. the less you have the better..
  Weight is weight, the less you have the better..
We aren't talking about spending any money.  (unless you consider a sawzall blade as money).
   The tarp?  Well drive by almost any construction site and they throw tarps that wrap the wood that's delivered away. Pull one out of the dumpster  (ask first) and pop rivet it in place and go try it..
  You can always weld the top back on! 
Besides free engineering like that  probably makes the committe guys smile..

What you call OCD I call fun.  But in our case it really does matter a bit more: