The 24 Hours of Lemons Forums → Lemons Newcomers → New Norcal team
Wow, guys. Seriously, that car actually looks pretty nice. =P Ever stop to think "Maybe I should just make a daily driver out of it"?
Loving the updates. Paint looks nice.
On a side note, found a '49 Chevy pickup for $350 I might jump on for LeMonizing depending on how it looks in person and how good this payday is.
In good light you can see all the dents and insults, but yea, it does look pretty nice. Hopefully not too nice for the judges. I figure the car will be in the class with the Gulf themed Miata and Volvo, maybe even the Chevolvo, in terms of not looking crappy, but actually being kinda crappy.
Davis teams: Tiny Vette
Fraidy Cats
My Idiot Son Hit a Tree
Project FateCommunists R us are out of West Sac (my shop)
Any more?
The Enterprise is running a story on the tiny vette team on Thursday.
Fraidy Cat Racing is based out of Sac. Not because most of its members are in Sac (we have one in Sac, one in Davis, one in Oakland and one coming in from Oregon) but because that is where the car is kept. Not that it really matters.
Early on we tried to steal some people away from Tiny Vette by showing up at a Davis Motorsports meeting, but they were already too dedicated to their Opel. Now with it painted I see why. We'll try not to rub any of that shiny yellow off on our oxidized black, but the Jag does like to run wide in the corners.
When are all the Davis/Sac teams heading up to Thunderhill? Maybe we can get a caravan going, haha.
I'm trying to imagine people's faces if they saw all of our cars in the same place at the same time. Call it "Lemons in Davis - Where P.C. Meets Parody, and Vapor Locks" Davis is special that way.
We're leaving here sometime between noon and 3pm Thursday.
I just talked to Colleen at T'hill and no Lemons vehicles will be allowed in before Friday morning. She was very firm on that. Some of us have rooms in town for Thursday. Some of us don't.
With our excellent tire-to-weight ratio, which is near inverse of our power-to-weight ratio, we should be able to hold the inside line, so just just don't apex on us and we'll stay yellow and you'll stay rusty and crusty. Not point in ruining your fine patina with swatches of new paint. 
Well I was planning to leave at around 6am Friday maybe. We'll see what happens, come find us on Friday when you have the time. A purple and yellow striped 300zx shouldn't be hard to find.
We are rolling at 6am Friday from my house in Davis...
I'm trying to imagine people's faces if they saw all of our cars in the same place at the same time. Call it "Lemons in Davis - Where P.C. Meets Parody, and Vapor Locks" Davis is special that way.
It would be fun to get our cars together and do a slow parade lap of downtown Davis on a Sunday morning or some other time when Davis is at its yuppie peak.
Hell just parking our cars together with their size disparities would probably be enough.
We are rolling at 6am Friday from my house in Davis...
By any chance is your house in the South Davis area?
Yep, just on the other side of the bicycle underpass, on Hamel Ln
One day, on my way to campus, I saw this black race car that was damaged being towed down research park drive, headed towards Hamel Ln. That would have happened to have been yours, would it?
I live right off of Lillard Dr. sort of near the Safeway. Maybe we'll see each other getting on I-80, haha.
Another good point of the Opel is its STREET LEGAL!!!! 1969 so there is no smog either.....
I'm looking forward to racing it this weekend!
Busted racecaron a trailer in Davis = something to do with me.
We're leaving late. Until last night we used to wonder why people were still working on their cars int eh Paddock on Friday. No longer. I worked until 6:30 in the morning, got a couple hours sleep, then undid all my 4AM-6AM mistakes, and finally we got the car on a trailer and it is off. First shower in four days and them I'm off to T'hill.
The car is looking a bit too pretty to race. Alan has given me permission to withdraw it from the race, not that I am inclined to, but he's fallen in love with it. He'll probably be getting a restored Opel GT soon after this race.
The local paper published the article on us today. I haven't had time to read it, but I'll snag a copy to bring along.
The decals never came, but the Corvette plate and frame did.
A few last minute pics:
nice !!!!!
I tend to agree - to nice to Lemons .....
Best of luck for the weekend !!!
The car looked fantastic out there. Looked like it had gotten a bit warm when you screamed by and the hood was off.
You car looks fantastic.
My team is currently preparing an Opel GT for Yee-Haw it's Lemons in Houston this September. It is our first race. What size tires did you guys run?
Well, we made it to the race with the car finished except for applying numbers and decals. We got through tech OK and BS with no laps for being a bit over budget with the aid of a surprise pop-up headlight presentation of "gifts" for the judges.
We took the green flag and Alan and I had to pause to let that moment sink in. Then Brian was back in in 45 minutes with the tranny stuck in 3rd gear. Geoff and Zep swapped in the tranny from the parts car in about 1.5 hours, with the aid of two Opel guys who had come to watch us run and had wandered by our paddock at about the right time.
Later in the day Zep had an off avoiding a failing dive bomber in T12, then a second off as soon as they let him back on track, so with three penalties against us by then we pitted the car for the day with 4 hours left to go.
On Sunday the car held together, though by the end of the day one rotors was showing signs of warping, the tranny was crunchy getting into and out of third gear, and in high-G turns power was cutting out. (We later found the plug wire on #2 was loose.) But, we finished mid pack, thanks in large part to cars that blew up before completing a day worth of laps. But, we finished the race, everyone drove, we never got towed, and never caught fire, our four main goals for the day. Oh, and we avoided contact, so our finely rolled Rustoleum paint still looks pretty OK.
Back at home the car checked out well enough to drive to and from the Concours d'Lemons where we also attended the Historics and a 30th anniversary Opel gathering.
Tomorrow we take the car to a "classics" show here in Davis. Are there any other Davis-area teams planning to come? Later this winter we'll try to get it into an Opel Club show at the Sacramento Auto Museum. We're obviously still having fun with the car.
Could someone confirm the rumor that this was the first Opel to actually finish a Lemons race? I've heard of three others that have run races but all dropped out due to cooling issues.
^^ Tires are Falken Azenis AT 615K, 205-50-15
Good luck and let us know how it goes. I have a thread on the OpelGT.com forum, in the racing section, that describes our adventure. You might find other useful info there, too.
The team built a solid car & I am impressed at how reliable the little motor is!!! We weren't exactly kind to it...running far too hot for way too long with low oil pressure...but it took it all in stride and still runs great!!!!
I'm looking forward to the next race!!!!!
Thanks a lot for the tire size reply. I will definately find your thread on OpelGT.com. I have already spent a lot of time there looking for tech info.
The 24 Hours of Lemons Forums → Lemons Newcomers → New Norcal team