The 24 Hours of Lemons Thunderhill 2012 featured cars that Hoons the world over will appreciate.  Here are some automotive highlights from the race, along with a few comments. 

The Starion/Conquest pictured above  won the Judges’ Choice award pretty much for finishing while being a Mitsubishi product.  It was fast too.

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As an xB fan, I loved the #13 car.  I would also love to find a running xB for $500.  Not sure if this thing got penalty laps, but it deserved them.  The toast was a great touch.

The #80 Fairmont Futura had a team name that was far too long and complicated.  It had something to do with Billy Carter and re-election and rednecks.  The car itself was a solid contender for class C, but it lost laps on Sunday with mechanical issues. 

Mini Moke. Enough said. 

This Beetle has two driver’s seats. In fact, it has two sets of controls. The team has one driver that is considerably shorter than the rest, so instead of making the seat adjustable, they just added another, along with another steering column, another set of pedals, etc… Genius.

Mario Cart.

Because Vega Racecar.

The #5 Cerveza Racing BMW was the overall winner, and the most interesting car in the world. Apparently, it once lapped an opponent…in a drag race.

An otherwise unremarkable Corvette becomes remarkable when it has a diesel engine swap and runs on vegatable oil all weekend.

The #9, “when pigs fly” car, was my choice for cutesy-est theme. 

 There just aren’t enough racecars with a volcano on the roof.

The Noah’s Ark MR2 was a big hit, but broke before the 40 days and 40 nights of racing came to an end.

The #45 mail Jeep won the Index of Effluency award.  It was very fast and very nice looking. Unfortunately, it was plagued by cooling issues and spent a lot of time in the pits. With its extended nose, it reminded me of Quagmire from Family Guy.

The ZomBee coming out of turn 5. Someone who saw this photo said, “It looks like they are coming to beat you up.” It certainly did feel that way at times.

The #25 MRRolla is a combination of an MR2 and a Corolla. The MR2 mid-engine and the Corolla front engine are both present and each drive an axle. One is an automatic, the other is a stick. Put one in drive and shift the other. When it runs, it runs fast. If one engine dies, they just keep racing on with the other.

The “None Shall Pass” VW Jetta. Probably not the first time someone thought of a Monty Python theme, but it was well-executed. The Trojan bunny is a container for a spare engine – a good idea if you are racing a VW.

My personal favorite car of the weekend was this Plymouth Scamp. To me, it embodies what a Lemons car should be. The Scamp/Rampage was a variant of the Horizon “L” platform. In other words, it was a crap can. Now, it’s a perfect fit at Lemons. (It was pretty damn fast too, but got its nose ripped off in an early wreck.)

Last but not least, the Ranchero above was actually a BMW with Ford body panels grafted on to make it look like a Ranchero. It was very well executed. The #0 car is a Lloyd Alexander and was about as cool as anything at the track. 

 

Scott Ith is an Associate Editor with Hooniverse.com, but he also contributes to his own site NeedThatCar.com.  Head over there for more hooniganism.