Re: Kershaw People's Curse
My Take:
Look, If the car was an obvious Cheat, the judges would have caught it and assigned laps. They didn't. I checked the car out. Other than internal engine mods, the car wasn't a cheat. It really did have stock suspension under it unlike the Cheater Cops who had $1000+ worth of suspension mods in the car. The Probe? Obvious Cheats. Lightning McQueen? RCR sponsored, Lingenfetler built engine still couldn't overcome race strategy.
Dude, did you ever look under our car? Anyone is welcome to, anytime. The judges did. Our Lincoln has ALL STOCK CONTROL ARMS, STOCK SWAY BARS, CHEAPO ($25 each) MONROE FRONT SHOCKS, AND STOCK BUSHINGS. We even have all stock brakes. Our mods? Drilled a hole outside the stock camber adjustment to get more negative camber (free), used '03 Cobra takeoff rear shocks with like 35k ($100 shipped for the pair, thanks Ricardo!), $15 Autozone/Energy Suspension universal rear sway bar endlinks, and Vogtland 1.6" drop springs ($205 shipped for the set). I made the perches myself, with scrap metal.
$50+$100+$15+$205=$370
$370 is not over $1000.
Counting the stock, NON-POLYURETHANE bushings we replaced in the front end (fronts are $18 from RockAuto), since Stafford, we were WAAAAAAAAY under budget this last race. Yeah, we finished 10th overall in Stafford. Did you notice we were ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY LAPS DOWN on the leader? I don't even know where we finished at CMP last weekend, but we did less than 200 laps, due to blowing the head gaskets and cooking the motor. We had to push it on the trailer.
We had a $200 residual after a poor performance at our first race, and an even lower one after our second. When Nick Pon found out I had bought an MR2 for just under $500 to replace the Lincoln, he seemed really disappointed. Anybody can go fast in a sports car. We decided to stick with our unique, underdog approach, and keep the only Lincoln Mark VIII ever to run Lemons going. The Schumaker Taxi guys were more than willing to pick up the MR2 from us as a parts car. Jay knew we needed to improve on this:
So, we turned it into this:
At Stafford, he saw the 1-2" of fore-and-aft movement in each of our front wheels, due to the missing bushings. He was gracious enough to give us a low residual, to help us bring the car back. We were able to do that well under budget. We had bought a 5 speed for $150 to put in, but even with a $30 used GT clutch, and LOW prices on everything to put it in ($50 pedals, etc.), we would have been over the $500 limit. Instead, we opted to keep the slower automatic, and wait to install the 5 speed until we could do it under budget. We made the car faster by gutting nearly 400 pounds out of it after Stafford. WE REFUSE TO CHEAT. I don't care what you believe, that's a fact.
How about getting the facts straight before making up random valuations of suspension mods and accusing others of cheating? I looked at the Probe and talked to the guys. I don't think they cheated at all, but they should have told the judges what they did to the car, and shouldn't have thrown dirt on suspension parts. They learned the hard way. You guys need to strip that SVX down any way you can if you want it to go faster.
Why did you say we cheated in this thread, and say this in another:
Ronman,
Excellent work on those shots!!! You are to Photography what your car is to LeMon's, totally awesome on the cheap! hahaha
Nice work, and great shots!
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Future Fleet: 1957 Ford Prefect 1942 Buick 1959 Bugeye Project GLCOAT