LeMons Good/Bad Idea of the Week: Randy Pobst Pilots the E36BuickDodgePlymouth

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

LeMons Good/Bad Idea of the Week: Randy Pobst Pilots the E36BuickDodgePlymouth

Once you start following the the Legends of LeMons, one name keeps appearing over and over and over: Speedycop. Speedycop is a Washington, D.C., police officer who, along with his "Gang of Outlaws" henchmen, builds some of the most LeMonic race cars you could ever hallucinate. Last fall, at the Where the Elite Meet To Cheat race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, the Gang of Outlaws brought this E36 BMW 3-series covered with what appears to be the shrapnel from a junkyard explosion that happened in 1952. They then somehow convinced pro racer Randy Pobst to take a few stints behind the wheel.
Formerly Team Police Brutality, the Speedycop and the Gang of Outlaws crew has raced a Lancia Scorpion on an MR2 chassis, a '62 Cadillac Fleetwood, a '67 Ford Galaxie fastback, a more-rust-than-car '65 Impala wagon, a gangsta-style 1980 Pontiac Bonneville donk rollin' on 22s in LeMons events, among others. They're also working on a Pontiac Aztek, a Geo Metro stretch limo, and some super-secret stuff I probably shouldn't talk about. And then there's this car, the E36BuickDodgePlymouth.
The starting point for this project was a 1998 BMW 318i that had been rolled. Speedycop looked at his fleet of potential LeMons cars (his neighbors are apparently very understanding) and decided that his 1942 Buick was just too rusty to be made into a quasi-safe race car. So off went the BMW's fenders and hood, to be replaced by the Buick's body bits. The roof from a hopeless '52 Plymouth Cranbrook replaced the 318′s lid. After that, the '49 Dodge grille seemed about right for the car's nose.
In true Speedycop and the Gang of Outlaws tradition, the car wasn't quite ready when the pre-race inspections kicked off, and a torrential North Carolina rainstorm made the prep work more challenging.
With Randy Pobst in attendance, the LeMons Supreme Court judges put him to work helping sweat potential cheaters while the Speedycop crew wrenched on the E36BuickDodgePlymouth. Here he is cutting an imposing figure on the Schwinn Orange Krate Judgemobile.
After furious prep, the 1942/1949/1952/1998 Gang of Outlaws racer was ready to go when the green flag waved on Saturday morning. While a bit underpowered, it looked great on the track.
The custom bodywork also had a few tire- and ground-clearance issues, so there was a fair amount of scraping and banging as the car flew around the CMS road course.
Even with Pobst and the aptly named Speedycop behind the wheel, the E36BuickDodgePlymouth and the Gang of Outlaws were still about four seconds off the pace set by the quickest cars. If it had a six-cylinder engine under the hood and a less-tired suspension, the frankenbeater could have perhaps been a threat to knock the undefeated-in-2011 Hong Norrth Mazda MX-3 off the podium.
As it was, there was an Organizer's Choice trophy at the end of the rainbow for the Gang of Outlaws. You'll be seeing a lot more of these guys as the '12 season progresses!