Lemons Groupies

We, the Z Club of Houston, just hosted the 2nd Annual Texas Z Party at MSR Houston.

Just to get this part out of the way, the article "When Life Gives You Lemons..." from Motive is about like a check list for us.  We broke most of those quidlines before either cheater's guide was even published. 

That being said, I have my own personal standards about the line on cheating and the $500 rule.  I would not just put stuff on the car because it was laying around because I did not feel like that was fair or "in the Spirit of Lemons."  The parts we used like that were my friend's used front sway bar and some made in China coil over parts for a Saturn to use with the springs we got for $20.  Three races later and I am still hearing about our suspension stuff. 

Now that I have likely just lit a fire under my own ass, let me get to the groupie thing.

I met a very cool 240Z owner, Fred this weekend from Louisiana who was at No Problem Raceway.  This is a very cool car guy, avid Jalopnik reader and Lemons fan.  He said he was so excited to see the early Z cars at Lemons and took tons of pictures.  So we get to talking and this stuff comes up and he finds out we were the guys running te early Z's.  I tell him both the 240Z's from New Orleans will be at MSR on Saturday.  So he is now pretty excited and glad he made the drive to Houston or our event.  He should have come up and talked to us a No Problem.

At MSR on Saturday our best driver, Gregg, takes him for a very fast ride in the Lemons car.  We had thrown on a set of second hand Hoosier slicks which damn near glued the car to the track.  Fred got the ride of his life, blowing the doors off many cars on the track in a $500 Lemons crapcan.  Apparently, he talked about this the rest of the day and called all his buddies and pretty much decided they needed to build a LeMon.  His friend also got to ride with Gregg in his SPEC Miata.  Ya, they were happy campers.

Not to give the wrong impression here, Gregg is a great driver and memebr at MSR who has ben practicing and racing a lot lately.  I think he could haul ass around MSR in a mis-firing Geo Metro.

So we are at dinner after the track day and the graphetti, rubber pizzas and writing on the hood come up.  FYI Jonny, the pizza slice on the roof flaps around at moderate speeds and sounds like something is wrong with the car.  Needless to say, "The Troy," comes up.  Fred looks at me and says your "that" Troy.  Um yeah.

I think Fred will be evolving from a Lemons groupie to a competitor.  Another junky is born.