Our brother team in Indianapolis, the Topless Asset Racing Program, has just made their new t-shirts available for purchase. These are their official shirts for their Lamest Day race to be held at Nelson Ledges racecourse in Ohio the first weekend of October. You can buy the shirts at our TARP Racing Gear store; here’s what they look like.
Front (this is the hood logo for the topless MR2):
Rear:
…I humbly suggest this one. Might blow our budget, but this 1986 Ford from England, which was really just a converted Escort, would be totally worth it. 0-60 in 2.1 sec. And if you look at the photos just right, you can almost see some MR2 flavor in this car too:
Brand new condition car which was purchased directly from Ford in Europe by the current owner. Ford RS 200 Evolution. #084 car. 2.1 liter Cosworth single turbo. 600+ hp. one of 24 ever made. This car is factory original and has been driven very little since new. The RS 200 was banned from rally competition in Europe in the late eighties because they were too fast and consequently believed to be too dangerous. Recently the FIA has lifted the ban on these cars to compete in the “Vintage” rallies before all of the events on this season’s european rally schedule because of their popularity throughout the world. Europeans are franticly trying to find these cars and this is an unmolested example of the real thing. Two point one seconds, that’s 2.1 seconds, a little over two seconds. less than three seconds. In the time it’s taken you to read this, a Ford Rs 200 Evo can reach 60mph! Four wheel drive and 650bhp from a mere 2.1 litre engine made ford’s rally car an instant legend which few cars have come close to catching.
More photos after the jump:
You know it’s just 8 short months away, so I started cruising craigslist for the next TARP Special.
http://indianapolis.craigslist.org/cto/1025005937.html
http://indianapolis.craigslist.org/cto/1019026427.html
http://indianapolis.craigslist.org/cto/1013033647.html
The last one is the best. The description had me in tears. Its FULLY LOADED! Oh, it does need a new battery…
(wait for it)
and a transmission.
But hey, whats that white thing hiding behind it? Mazda?
ed: fixed link
From looking at the coverage of past LeMons races, it’s clear that this event is half auto race, half costume contest. The teams that have well-exeuted themes (like TARP, or so we hope) seem to have more fun and evidently get better treatment from the BS judges. Which, of course, means fewer penalty laps or (sometimes) bonus laps added to the ticket.
Along those lines, I have been picking up bits of costume for our drivers and crew to wear during the BS judging portion of the event. Most of them I’ll save for the day so that you can enjoy the surprise, but I had to share this find. Punchline after the jump:
You may or may not have noticed that the TarpBlog was unavailable for about 12 hours last night and this morning. I was trying to “update” the WordPress installation. To put it kindly, the “update” didn’t work and took out the entire blog. I tried to repair it and was met with no success.
Stevo, however, worked his magic and made everything re-appear. He’s kind of like GOB Bluth in that way, only successful. And Stevo doesn’t have a Segway, although I’m sure he pines for one.
Anyway, a big big thanks to Stevo for saving my bacon. And the blog.
Turns out that Matt and I have only one degree of separation (aside, of course, from Pat).
Spirit’s ad sales account manager for the Southeast, Erin Kavanagh, is Matt’s neighbor in Greensboro. Their kids swim together at the local pool.
Wild stuff.
Team Formula BMW ran an e30 at Thunderhill last December. One of their team members, Rahul Nair, created an entertaining and instructive mini-documentary that’s well worth watching. It’s 25 minutes long, so wait until you have some time to take it all in (I watched it during lunch). It goes all the way from car prep (wouldn’t it be nice to have a full-service Lotus shop prepping our crapcan?) to transport, tech and judging, and then some of the race itself. I found the judging part to be most instructive, but you may have other favorite parts.
Here’s the link to his blog, which also has the video, but I’ll embed the video below for your convenience. Enjoy:
The Lemons Experience - Thunderhill 2008 from rnair on Vimeo
Knowing Is Half of the Battle!, Team Strategy, Tomfoolery, Videos
Here’s some interesting video from Arse-Freeze-A-Palooza, the LeMons race that ran the weekend after Christmas. Let’s just say “hilarity ensues.” Enjoy:
Arse Freeze Apalooza Jackass Highlight Reel from Adam Lazur on Vimeo.
By the way, I ordered our race seat and harness today, as we’ll need those to get the roll cage in correctly. Pretty soon here we’ll have ourselves a race car…
Gentlemen, you may have seen a certain “stevo” posting a comment here or there. I think it’s time for a proper introduction before things get much further along.
Mark “Stevo” Stevenson is one of my best friends from my college days. He’s a tooth doctor in Indianapolis. When he heard about my TARP plans, he went ballistic. I suspect that his wife is very, very, very happy that I live a thousand miles away, preventing him from too much active engagement in this project. As I told Stevo years ago, if I lived in Indy now, we would probably both be broke and single, but covered in grease with workshops full of destroyed battlebots and wrecked cars.
That said, Stevo is all on board for TARP, albeit as a non-driving member. It would be a one-man clown car if he tried to fit his 6′9″ frame into an MR2. That said, he’s planning to come down for the race and help serve as pit crew/onlooker/spotter/groupie (although not a groupie in that kind of way, if you know what I mean).
So, without further ado, I give you Stevo. Mark, take a bow.
Ok, so the video in the first post, maybe it’s not perfectly illustrative of the racing in LeMons anymore. They are now black-flagging folks who make contact with other folks, at least if they see it. All TARP drivers (a/k/a the true “toxic assets” of our race team) should watch this video; it’s the driver’s meeting from the Houston LeMons race in October 2008. Good stuff here, especially the part about not fighting over positions in an endurance race (9 minutes, 59 sec):
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