Lemons team co-owner no more.....

"RacinBob" (racinbob)
02/25/2020 at 00:23 • Filed to: None

buh bye Breadvan ....... Twas a good run, two wins and a lot of fun. The amazing thing is after 7 years of Lemons racing with us, we never had a significant metal to metal incident. Not bad for participating in a racing series th at doesn’t license its drivers. On to the next challenge......

DISCUSSION (19)

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > RacinBob
02/25/2020 at 06:58

And you did it all for $500, right?

shop-teacher > RacinBob
02/25/2020 at 07:15

That was a cool little race car.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > RacinBob
02/25/2020 at 08:05

Lemons is on my bucket list...

RacinBob > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
02/25/2020 at 08:06

Heck we made $300....... ( That’s in racing math while forgetting 7 years of racing expenses.......)

Actually it was a true $500 car that was bought out of a back yard in Illinois. That and about $5000 in sweat equity by the prior owner built it. That 1970's german steel was amazing, there was no rust in that car.

I will say this was the least expensive endurance car ever for me. Other than cracking a head, a clutch disk and a self inflicted air cleaner washer that went through the engine, we had no significant failures over 7 years. My Type R required a transmission rebuild after every race. The BV required a oil change and change the brake pads every three races !

It is amazing how there is so little carnage in Lemons compared to any other series I have run. In general I figured that a SCCA or IMSA enduro would have one in 6 cars with serious damage. Lemons hardly ever.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > RacinBob
02/25/2020 at 08:13

Does racing math use irrational and or imaginary numbers?

Don’t you expend $500 just in gasoline and motor oil over the 24 hours?

feather-throttle-not-hair > RacinBob
02/25/2020 at 12:22

Sad, but I have been considering doing the same. My main partner in the ordeal just had his first kid and he already was too much of a slacker for my tastes last year. Our most competent mechanic also went and bought his own lemons car which he can race in class A.

Lemons racing is soooo fun, but it requires serious commitment like any racing...

RacinBob > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
02/25/2020 at 15:07

Oh, the $500 part is in theory you are supposed to be building from junk and sweat. That is mostly imaginary accept for the guys who’s idea of fun is swapping engines all weekend.

What they are trying to avoid is a development war, and I think they do a pretty good job. I did a Champ Car race, they really spend there. My buddy runs a team and they have a $30k car. No Thanks.

RacinBob > shop-teacher
02/25/2020 at 18:41

Too bad, it was just down the road in Racine for the last 7 years. Never had the chance to coordinate a visit on a work day......

RacinBob > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
02/25/2020 at 18:42

Find a reliable experienced team in class B or C. Its lots of fun.

RacinBob > feather-throttle-not-hair
02/25/2020 at 18:43

Post a picture of your car, where are you located?

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > RacinBob
02/25/2020 at 19:21

On those teams, is it generally the case that everyone gets a turn at the wheel?

RacinBob > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
02/25/2020 at 20:25

A race is something like a $2000 event for the team owners , not including travel to the track (usually 400 miles for me) and hotel rooms for us and certain crew.

I suppose you can budget 2 to 4 tires a race for maybe $ 600 . Most people also go through a set of front pads. $250. We would burn about fuel at $15 an hour so for a 18 hour weekend, it was about $270 for fuel.

The drivers entry is about $225. And I would think as an arrive and drive you are shelling out $500 or so. Add in another $1000 for drivers suit, helmet, hans, and cool shirt. I think you can rent a gear package for $400 a weekend.

Our proposition was for about $800 entry, we would provide two 1.5 hour stints + the test day. We were a bit pricy from what I observed but we spent a lot on delivering a quality and mostly reliable car. We pretty much held the rule that only experienced drivers ran with us. If we ad problems the paying drivers got in before the owners to get their 2 rides. If we broke S aturday we went home S unday such as when we cracked the head. No refunds. Our understanding with drivers was that if you bent it, you bought it. Fortunately we never had to try to enforce that deal.

The one challenge is figuring out a car that is reliable and not prone to stranding you. The Breadvan was pretty good on that though because we won class B twice, and once finished third overall we were stuck in A for the long run.

feather-throttle-not-hair > RacinBob
02/26/2020 at 02:20

Up in Seattle. I should go visit the car this weekend, that might get me excited enough to dump a bunch more time/energy into it.

Kinja'd!!!

RacinBob > feather-throttle-not-hair
02/26/2020 at 07:56

Little to far to drive from wisconsin..... Is that a J car? What engine is it?

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > RacinBob
02/26/2020 at 08:27

Lots of Dynamics there. I think you just talked me out of that notion.

feather-throttle-not-hair > RacinBob
02/26/2020 at 13:48

H-Body. It’s a Pontiac Sunbird with the oddfire 3.8L V6 that makes no power and redlines at 4K RPM. Somehow that’s the car’s best attribute as it has yet to explode or do anything too weird (other than leak and/or burn SOOOO much oil) and gets great mileage.

We managed to win C class last summer and have taken an IOE once down in California . Aaaannnd yeah. T yping that out makes me think I should just quit complaining and get to work on it.

RacinBob > feather-throttle-not-hair
02/26/2020 at 18:58

Not recommended by 3 out of 4 AMC excutives; “ The uneven firing pattern was often perceived as roughness, leading a former American Motors executive to describe it as “Rougher than a cob.””

RacinBob > feather-throttle-not-hair
02/26/2020 at 19:02

Lemons are kind of odd in that classification is on the Judges whim. I almost feel that if you don’t care about winning, they put you in a class you might win. But if you do care about winning, you are probably stuck in A regardless of your laptimes.

feather-throttle-not-hair > RacinBob
02/26/2020 at 20:15

Hahah yeah the judges can be kinda prickly, but they’ve never even considered putting my car anywhere but C (so far.) They’re charmed by my engine being “ rougher than a cob.” Which, btw is an accurate description. Plus we run a similarly slow v6 mustang II which would never be confused for anything other than a class C car, so I think that helps.