I’m getting the crankshaft back from the machine shop today where they were polishing out the journals and am going to start re-assembly of the engine today. Keep your fingers crossed for me 
In a brief what-else-is-happening update, last night I welded in some new attachment points for the passenger side door. The door is now held shut by two dzus quarter-turn fasteners, the kinds that are captive and sprung. Should be better than the spin-knob on bolt method we were using before.
Race Prep
Author: Pat
According to the ever-present countdown clock, we have 68 race preparation days until the North Dallas Hooptie kicks off. I checked out online race application earlier this afternoon and saw that we could select our car number (I took 20 because that’s what we used last time so I won’t have to re-paint that part of the car), which was a tip-off that we had been selected for the race. I got an email a few minutes later from Head LeMon Jay Lamm informing me that we are officially in for the race.
In car prep news, things are coming along. I’ve got the new front radiator mounts in (using some surplus fence posts and scrap steel) and am working on the new lower air dam and splitter that I’m going to make from Coroplast that was donated by candidates who lost in their primary elections this year I took a break from working on that part and went around to the back of the car this afternoon to repair the front motor mount. As you may recall, dear reader who has not missed a moment of TARP car history, Grayson had to weld in the front motor mount for the February ‘09 race in Houston because we were seeing a lot of metal fatigue in that area. Unfortunately, having that mount fixed to the car makes it really difficult on the engine swap process. So I cut out the welds, re-welded the supporting material, and drilled in a hole so that we can now use two bolts to hold the mount. Thus, it’s removable again, which will make our lives easier when putting the engine back in the car.
The engine is almost ready for re-assembly, just need to get the rings on the pistons (new rings, old pistons) and then I can start putting it all back together. I anticipate starting that sometime later this week. In the meantime, start thinking about costumes and other clown-related things we can do for the race.
Race Prep
Author: Pat
Strangely, amazingly, this is a theme that has never yet been done in LeMons. At least not as far as BS Judge Murilee Martin remembers, and he’s covered 23 of the 26 races. In other words, if it has been done, it was done so poorly as to not be memorable. That won’t be a problem for us.
It’s a natural theme, since we have 2 drivers who are 6′4″ or taller; we’ve already been accused of running a “clown car,” so we’re going to go with that theme. I’m thinking we will do the car in a bright base yellow color with blue, red, and white polka dots. Maybe paint a big Sad Clown on the hood? I’d love to find a big red Bozo wig for the roof. Maybe put a red bouncy ball on the front as the nose. The costumes will be easy and the judges and assembled crowd will eat it up. We’re clowns anyway, we might as well dress the part. You have ideas? Post ‘em up in the comment area!
Race Prep, Team Strategy
Author: Pat
There are not too many good shots of me in the car at Infineon, but here’s one. This is the DeathMobile going through Turn 2 on Saturday, March 6. Just before our precious victory in the Traditionally Powered Division of the Pinewood Deby
Misty Watercolored Memories of the Way We Were
Author: Pat
Have you ever been sitting there thinking to yourself, “self, I wonder how many days are left until our next LeMons race?”
Well wonder no more! We now have a nifty countdown timer in the upper-right corner of the website that will do all the work for you. Yes, teh internets are an amazing place. Pretty soon our robot overlords will feed us and wipe our bums for us too.
But until then, we at least have a countdown timer. So get off your butt and get working on the car!
Knowing Is Half of the Battle!
Author: Pat
Got back yesterday from the Sears Pointless trip at Infineon. In a word, it was awesome. I don’t have videos or photos of the car in action (yet), but should have some soon. There are lots of stories to tell but I’m still too worn out to document them. Here’s a picture of the team as we went through tech in our Animal House costumes. The judges loved our theme and said that although several other teams had done it before, nobody had done it as well as we did and nobody had ever dressed in costume for it before, either.
(L-to-R) Judy as Mrs. Dean (Marion) Wormer; Paul as D-Day; yours truly as Bluto (popping out of the turret with sword in hand); Bill as (?), and Stevo as Stork. Stevo’s drum major baton is topped with the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch; the theme for this car at its last race was a Holy Grail theme, so this was keeping some continuity.
We ran all day on Saturday and almost all day on Sunday. By the end of the day on Sunday, we’d picked up 7 black flags, all but two for non-contact driver errors. Stevo got one for contact when he was gently punted from behind (!) early on Sunday, and then our last black flag of the weekend was for minor contact, although the driver claimed to not have made any and we couldn’t find any new paint scratches. I got a solid body check to the entire driver’s side from the Krider Racing team late on Sunday but didn’t get flagged for it; I’m waiting to see video before I proudly claim it was all their fault.
Although we had a couple of very minor mechanical issues during the weekend (right rear brake was sticking necessitating a caliper and pad change, small coolant issues, etc.), nothing major crept up and we spent most of the time out on the track. Other than the 1-hour penalty when Stevo and Paul combined for 3 black flags in 15 minutes mid-day on Sunday. Paul and Bill and their crew in Salt Lake City did a great job getting the car ready to race this weekend and they should be (and are hereby) soundly commended for their car prep. It was great to go a whole race without major failure. This is what we need to replicate!
The track was awesome and the racing was a lot of fun but extremely crazy toward the end of the day on Sunday. Way too many cars making way too many bad choices. Except for us. When it was all said and done, we ended up in 89th place.
Misty Watercolored Memories of the Way We Were
Author: Pat
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