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Note: Judge Phil aka Murilee Martin is on vacation; Judge Eric, mastermind behind the best Richard Nixon-themed race car in LeMons and creator of the world's foremost crapcan-racing blog, is handling our LeMons coverage this weekend.
The 24 Hours of LeMons has descended upon Autobahn Country Club to scuzzify the high-class playground of Chicago's motorsports-minded elite for Doing Time in Joliet. Case in point: Two grown men dressed as rats making out in front of a hooptie 20-valve Audi. However, contrary to the general public's general opinion, LeMons isn't entirely about that grotesque place where the worlds of racing and furries collide. Let's examine some of the notable entries that came through today's BS Inspections.
As with any LeMons race, we've seen the usual mix of Class A material like the Futility Motorsports BMW E36. This race is rare in that no car in the field has ever won a LeMons race. Doing Time will produce a first-time winner.
White Trash Racing have ditched their Fail Shark theme in favor of a tribute to an obscure French-built Mopar entry that ran in 1970s European Touring Car fields.
F.A.C.E. Racing have knocked their Porsche 924′s dismal reliability down a notch or two by replacing the Porsche four-cylinder with a GM 4.3L V6. Just to keep things complicated, they've retained the layer-cake-of-fail known as the 924′s rear-mounted transmission and clutch assembly. What could possibly go wrong?
Charnal House have returned with their mid-mounted, Ford Taurus SHO-powered Geo Metro. Gone is their clever parody of the Silk Cut Jaguar Le Mans Prototypes from the late 1980s. In its place is an equally clever parody of Nobuhiro "Monster" Tajima's 2011 Pikes Peak Hill Climb GoPro Suzuki.
Charnal House even replicated Tajima's massive splitter, except theirs is made from a folding table, which the team used to wow BS Inspection onlookers by detaching and setting up so their NoPro driver could host an impromptu autograph session.
As if two oddball V6 swaps weren't enough, the Knoxvegas Lowballers trucked their Jurassic Park-themed Geo Metro to Joliet from Tennessee. Like Charnal House, they've thrown a Ford V6 behind the driver. Rather than the high-revving Yamaha V6 from the SHO, the Lowballers have opted for a 3.0L V6 from a Sable mated to a five-speed SVT Contour transmission.
In addition to the fantastic team costumes, they brought along a stunning waterjet-cut Velocirapter skeleton.
With two mid-engined Metros and Mity Metro's three-cylinder Metro convertible in the race, the highest-finishing of the three will take home this trophy.
Party Sheep Racing may have stolen the show with their Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera.
Not only does the Party Sheep Ciera sport sweet hubcaps, a super-soft stock supension and tires with a treadwear rating best expressed in exponential notation, it also makes its double-digit horsepower from GM's garbage venerable Iron Duke four-cylinder powerplant.
The last time we saw an Iron Duke in the Midwest, it resided in Double Jeopardy's Pontiac Fiero. Of course, it also spun three rod bearings in one race. Like a typical LeMons team, Double Jeopardy decided to solve the Fiero's reliability problem the obvious way: By running a team member's formerly daily-driven Jaguar XJS. What's the worst that can happen with a Jaguar V12?
Many teams plied the LeMons Supreme Court with booze. Judge Sam enjoys the homebrew.
And Judge Keith looks perplexed by this obscure Colombian firewater.
Your LeMons correspondent tried his hand at making a Commemorative Bribe Stencil. It was supposed to be a police car, but it turned out more like a Trabant wearing a bowler.
The weather's supposed to be nice enough for LeMons to be almost a family event for half the weekend, so check back Saturday night for a recap from Doing Time in Joliet's first day of racing and wrenching.
from Car and Driver Blog http://blog.caranddriver.com | 
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