<VV> Corvair at 24 Hours of LeMons New England

Tue Jul 14 07:35:43 EDT 2009

Congrats to all!
Great fun and a tough little car!

Rick Norris
#36 Sunoco Corvair
www.corvairalley.com

> Hi all, I had the fortunate opportunity to be one of the 7 drivers of the
> New England 24 Hours of LeMons. For those of you that don't know, the 
> LeMons
> series is a group of endurance races held around the country for cars that
> cost no more than $500.00 plus the cost of safety equipment and tires. You
> know that all racers cheat and when caught you know you must pay off the
> judges or the penalties - you decide; read about that on the 24 Hours of
> Lemons website.
>
> We drove a 63 EM that was rescued from a Vermont field after a 16 year
> hiatus. Purchased for $400.00 it didn't run but was trailered out of the
> state to Connecticut last November. New fuel pump, fuel lines, carbs
> rebuilt, points/condenser,belt, fuel cell and rebuilt brake pieces.  Car
> started almost immediately.
>
> Saturday morning; 70 entries, 55 starting. We clear tech and by the sad
> looks of the car we instantly clear the BS committee that confirms that 
> our
> car could not cost more than $500.00.  Cars are classified by their
> probable performance factors ie. 3 and 5 series BMW's, Miata's, Alfa 
> Romeos,
> Vtec cars are called the Good; Volvos, other Mazda's,  and other Japanese
> cars and some domestics are called the Bad and the remaining are called 
> the
> Ugly. The ugly included the Peugeot 505 and 604, the Chevy Citation, 
> Impalas
> and Taurus's, Saab'sand cars so hogged out that you pay the junkyard to
> accept it. Our 63 Corvair was included with the Ugly.
>
> 2 pace laps and the race was on, so to speak.  55 cars starting on a half
> mile track with an infield transition means that the first ten cars were
> around the track before the next 40 cars moved. Eventually things got 
> moving
> and we were in it, except that the nimble Miata's, Vtec's, Civic's and
> Alfa's(3 of them) were orbiting around the track like we were a joke. The
> car was typical EM; quirky handling, not enough power being belted out 
> from
> the 80ish hp engine and the awful brakes even though we used fresh 
> metallic
> shoes but we were in it and we were excited. Our car looked cosmetically
> horrible by any definition buts its skin was really solid with NO rust
> through. As the cars flew past us I saw that our size and stoutness was
> recognized by most and they actually seemed to stay away from us in the
> turns (who knows where we were heading?)
>
> It was truly hard work to drive the car and more fun than should be 
> allowed.
> It is unlike any other motorsports that I have been in; much bigger field,
> much more primitive entry than most competitors and much , much longer
> running time. Continuous concentration on the car and environment for 
> longer
> periods but intense excitement at the same time.
>
> Teams came prepared to replace engines, transmissions, rear ends, ecu's 
> etc.
> It was amazing  - people blowing up engines and then driving back to their
> garages or out to Maine (from Connecticut, 300 miles round trip) to 
> replace
> major hardware. At the 5 lap point a Saturn was out with a blown bottom 
> end
> and without the ability to repair it, team members went from Stafford
> Springs Ct. to Poughkeepsie NY and replaced the engine from another donor.
> Our Corvair just hummed at idle and hummed a little louder all day long. 
> We
> had a small failure, a right side front wheel locked up and after
> disassembly in the pits it was discovered that the brake shoe friction
> material had separated from the shoe and needed to be replaced. 20 minutes
> later and we were back on the track. 16 hours of spirited driving consumed
> the belt but that was no big deal either. Replaced and we were back in
> action.
> This car was a testament to the awesome reliability of an ordinary car. 
> The
> preparation was perfect with no special hi performance parts but oil.
>
> So how did we do? We won our class "The Ugly" by 117 laps over the 2nd 
> place
> car in our group. We came in 22nd overall about 300+/-  laps down from 
> "the
> Good" a Civic that consistently went 8-10 seconds per lap faster than us.
> They had no mechanical problems. They had no penalties (We had nearly 2
> hours of driving infractions for spinning the car or driving off road). 
> The
> Index of Effluency (IOE) award is considered the Grand prize of the 24 
> Hours
> of Lemons. It is based on the fact that you run a car that by most
> definitions does not belong there, it is outclassed and out powered and is
> the presumed underdog. We took the Index of Effluency award with a 
> $1000.00
> cash payout. The 63 Corvair was the oldest car Ever to run in any of the 
> 24
> Hours of Lemons. Our team was the only team ever to win its class and the
> IOE at the same event.
>
> If a 24 Hours of Lemons is within your geographical reach, do what you can
> to build or join a team, especially with a Corvair. I know that I will do 
> it
> again and if I don't I will remember as a lifetime experience. The amazing
> thing to me was that we accomplished something big ( Winning an endurance
> race) with something so austere - a throwaway junkyard bound 46 year old
> basic engine faded brake POS sedan against serious budget teams). Most of 
> us
> had not even met each other or seen this car in person before last
> Wednesday.
>
> If you would like to read more, do a search within Jalopnik at the top of
> the page,
> www.Jalopnik.com <http://www.jalopnik.com/> and at www.cardomain.com.
> Pictures cheerfully sent.
>
> Andy   '
> 65 Identical Cousins
> P.S.  The pace car on the second day was my 65 455 motivated Coupe driven 
> by
> my first born!
>
> _http://jalopnik.com/5313022/and-the-real-lemons-winner-is-udmans-team-trail
> ing-throttle-oversteer-corvair_
> (
> http://jalopnik.com/5313022/and-the-real-lemons-winner-is-udmans-team-trailing-throttle-oversteer-corvair
> )
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