LeMons in the Wild

While on my way to the Liquor store I glanced quite the looker sitting in the corner of the Jewel Parking lot.  It inspired me to do a rather poor imitation of the Murilee Martin Down on the Street photoshoot.

Well the car was in a parking lot and not on the street but it is a fine example of the Malaise era, the revival of a classic name, built by the most American of all car Companies, with an incredible factory paint job.

Behold the 1978 AMC Concord AMX

Clearly this is far from the Alameda as can be seen by the white stuff covering the ground and AMX, but it does say something about this car that even after 35 years in the land of rust handle the snow.

While this car came with the special AMX Black with gold striping option they didn't get the AMC Exclusive Levis interior, but the Tan interior still looks pretty nice and goes well with the striping.

 

The hood bulge was standard for the AMX model but since it has a manual transmision it means that this car has the I6.

Also standard with the AMX Model is the Wheel Flares

  

The front has single round headlights, flat black grill, large round parking lights, and front air dam

The Back of the car got a rear plate depression and rear window louvers

 

Because what says sports car more than louvers

And most important was that they removed the concord padges and instead just put AMX infront of the rear wheels

Sadly only one side seems to have kept the decal.  Now the striping goes is suppose to go up the b pillar and over the roof, which we will just have to assume happens.  The red pinstriping I'm not sure if they were from the factory but if they weren't they should have been.

 It also has some pretty nice wheels, with approriate raised white letter tires

Atleast one of them was the even more appropriate BF Goodridge T/A Radial

 

I'm not sure if it unfortunately or fortunately the car wasn't for sale but when I went back past the parking lot it was gone so I'll be sure to keep my eye out for it in the area. 

It seems Spambots really like Opels

More specifically it seems Spambots really like 1960 Opel Reckords.

Although no one has posted anything new here recently due to it being the off season I still occasionally check in here and look at the stats.

Now the post that has always had the most views has always been the post on the leaf blower forced induction, because obviously that is a great idea.  The one that typically has been the second most viewed was the Pick n Pull  picture pages edition  partially because everyone loves Junk yard pictures but I think mainly because of this picture. 

I think alot of people assume this is one might be one from an actual Junk Yard site not just some idiot who took to put on a blog about a Cutlass Ciera race car.

However that has now gone down to third being replaced by a post about an Opel Reckord found on eBay back before we bought the Olds.  The auction has long been erased off ebay but that does seem to deter the spam bots which have viewed the page 100s of times since then and even left over a dozen comments.

Now its understandable cause a 60 Reckord is quite a looker

Sadly the auction when I stopped watching it was over $4000 and hadn't hit the reserve yet meaning it wasn't going to sell for Lemons money

So it sounds like if anyone can ever find one to run they will get lots of fans, sure they will be annoying programs that just leave annoying messages trying to send you to sites that will steal your identy, but fans are fans right?

Post 2012 Chubba Cheddar Enduro residual

With the preliminary new schedule being posted I figured it was time to ask for a residual.  Normally I am quicker to ask for one but being that none of us have looked at the car since the race I kept putting it off.  With winter coming fast I knew it was best to get it done now so we can plan for next year.

Here is what I wrote:

Ok, honestly none of have even looked at the car since the race.  It finished the race, it somehow was able to be slightly faster than a 60’s MG B on a high horsepower track, and not break down as much as everyone else in our class.  I stuck the key in the car and it started up and made the usual mixture of good sounds and bad sounds.

So the schedule came out today and while I’m sure we aren’t actually going to look at the car anytime soon I’m guessing the rest of the team will start wanting to plan for next year so I guess we should know how much money we can spend and make grand plans that we will procrastinate on and not bother doing anyway.

 

And this is what I got in reply

I think your car is a little too good for Class C now, so that means I'm giving you a residual that will let you upgrade its performance to compete in B class. We'll say $1 residual, so you can get some good suspension stuff. Or, if you're crazy, you could get a more powerful engine. 

 I guess our little Cutlass Ciera has graduated out of C, which I guess we should be proud of our little guy, but it's not really what we were looking for since I'm not sure we the drivers\crew are ready to move up, even if the Olds is.  I just hope if we are in B that we are still eligible for the let the Simca pass you for bacon program.

Look who is Hella Sweet

Being that it seems like I'm one of the few people who actually watch all these, I was rather surprised to see me getting the Hella Sweet arrow.

Yeah thats me in the back with the Cap on and clearly I'm Hella Sweet.

Of course this may be out of context and maybe its not me that is Hella Sweet, maybe the Hella Sweet was for Jay's driving prowess, or maybe it is for Judge Eric's first day, or maybe for Kim, cause she just is Hella Sweet.  Maybe it could even possibly be for a certain fine red Italian vehicle.

Its a shame that you can't just watch the video on some kind of internet video site, or can you...

You will also learn what Lemons HQ thinks about puppies and what Jay's stomach feels like after eating a yard of beef and a summer sausage football.  Do they think it is Hella Sweet or Butt Turrible.  The answers may surprise you, although probably not.

After you watch that one watch the rest so they keep making them and giving me something else to do instead of working while at work

The secrets to our success

We have run 3 races and have won 2 trophies and an honorable mention in a car so hopelessly awful no one else runs.  I figure this will be the best race per award ratio we ever will have so this is a good time to share the secrets to our success.
 
Like most teams we came into this completely clueless.  We were so clueless we actually thought that running a 1989 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera was a good idea.  So we go to our first race with random things fixed while other things not touched or looked at and off we ran.  And it ran until it started to act up randomly and around 14 hours into the 15 hour race it stopped running.  So up it gets pushed on the trailer

 

Even without finishing the race we ended up mid pack and was given an honorable mention nod for IOE.   So we reflected on what we had to do so we could finish the next race, besides fix the car.  Clearly we needed help from a higher power.  God really doesn't have time to answer all the prayers from LeMons Teams.  Luckily being Catholic I know about the Saints. A group of people that God delegates to help out in specific situations.  There isn't a Patron Saint of car racing, at least not yet, so I figured for Lemons the most appropriate Saint for LeMons would be Saint Jude, the Saint for Hopeless Causes.

 

So next race with a little divine help from the key chain the car runs flawlessly all weekend.  Now with the car running fine we had a new problem, Black Flags.  A pass under yellow, a spin and a bit off the track, a couple cases of mistaken identity.  All these things add up to wasted time hanging out in the penalty box.  This ended up having us mid pack again but we actually walked away with the IOE.

As everyone knows its never the drivers fault for black flags. So the problem must be the car.  The Olds wasn't built to be on a track so it never was taught what it was suppose to do.  But where could it learn what to do or not do.  Easy enough let it learn where the rest of us do.  Bring it to the drivers meeting.

 

After that meeting the car no longer passed cars when it wasn't suppose to, nor did it spin out, nor did it go off track and play in the grass.  Not only that but it seemed our car must have told the other cars cause very few of them decided to do that either,  so few that Jay told us we didn't need a drivers meeting the next day.  At the end of the second day we found ourselves in the top 20 (19th) and we somehow won class C.

So now you know to be successful you need divine intervention and an educated car.

New Merchandise

Since we changed our theme it meant we made all kinds of new merchandise that no one else will buy.  Even so I thought I should at least try to sell them just cause.

In case you miss the link on the right, you can buy all our stuff old and new here http://racing4nickels.spreadshirt.com/

So now that you know where to buy these fine and stylish items, its time to show what's new.

First is the Official Godzilla Defense Force Team shirt.

These are the shirts that were given to all the drivers.  So you show up at a race with this people will just assume your driving on our team.  While wandering around the paddock looking like a driver lets you get all kinds of interesting offers like bacon for letting another team pass you.

OK so maybe you aren't ready to look like a driver but still want to show support.  We have another shirt for that too.

Besides not looking like us, this one is made of a bit heavier material to better protect you from things like the cold, and giant monsters, and getting hit by cars. (We make no guarantee that this shirt can protect you from cars, monsters or even the cold) You also can choose your own color, cause we really don't have any idea what colors really go with each other so maybe you can have better luck in it then us.

So what if you wish to purchase a shirt for a tiny person.

We now have shirts for toddlers.  You can choose colors with this shirt too so you can also make it more girly

What if you are concerned about safety, or just really enjoy being bright and noticed

We also have the high visibility safety vest.  As a bonus most places people assume you belong where ever you are if you are wearing a brightly colored vest.

Maybe you don't want clothes, maybe you are a nudest but still would like to show your support.

But not only does this cup have the Godzilla Defense Force Logo but also our old logo.

 Well those are the new addition to the shop that no one ever buys anything from.