Lemons/ChumpCar choices

MikeWhitney · **Joined:** Wed Aug 20, 2003 9:15 pm **Posts:** 4724

Did you guys buy that 90 with the bad trans? Feel free to hit us up for advice/parts ... unfortunately we don't have the right trans for that car though (92-93 are different).

For anyone else with Integra fever ... they are out there, you just have to be patient. Just this week we picked up an unmolested 93 with ABS for $750 with a newish timing belt and clutch. Seller thought that the clutch was bad, but the cable just needed to be adjusted, which took 10 seconds to fix. Needs suspension refreshening and the AC is out, that's all I have found wrong. We're going to fix this up for a spare track toy (not a race car) and emergency at-track parts donor:

jeremy gast · **Posted:** Thu Jun 16, 2011 1:33 pm

I think as of right now we are gonna try and get the 944 running and see what condition everything is in and go from there.

TomFreeman · **Posted:** Thu Jun 16, 2011 1:57 pm

MikeWhitney wrote:

Did you guys buy that 90 with the bad trans? Feel free to hit us up for advice/parts ... unfortunately we don't have the right trans for that car though (92-93 are different).

For anyone else with Integra fever ... they are out there, you just have to be patient. Just this week we picked up an unmolested 93 with ABS for $750 with a newish timing belt and clutch. Seller thought that the clutch was bad, but the cable just needed to be adjusted, which took 10 seconds to fix. Needs suspension refreshening and the AC is out, that's all I have found wrong. We're going to fix this up for a spare track toy (not a race car) and emergency at-track parts donor:

Dude...how many of those do you have right now? Nice find!

MikeWhitney · **Joined:** Wed Aug 20, 2003 9:15 pm **Posts:** 4724

TomFreeman wrote:

MikeWhitney wrote:

Did you guys buy that 90 with the bad trans? Feel free to hit us up for advice/parts ... unfortunately we don't have the right trans for that car though (92-93 are different).

For anyone else with Integra fever ... they are out there, you just have to be patient. Just this week we picked up an unmolested 93 with ABS for $750 with a newish timing belt and clutch. Seller thought that the clutch was bad, but the cable just needed to be adjusted, which took 10 seconds to fix. Needs suspension refreshening and the AC is out, that's all I have found wrong. We're going to fix this up for a spare track toy (not a race car) and emergency at-track parts donor:

Dude...how many of those do you have right now? Nice find!

92 chump car
92 grey 4-door parts car
93 red track car
89 gold 4-door rally-x car
88 red shell

I guess that's 5

Except for the 88 red shell which needs to be scrapped, they all run and move under their own power!

JohnByers · **Posted:** Thu Jun 16, 2011 4:46 pm

That's impressive Mike! Yeah, I looked over the 924 today, since w have an ace in the hole (mi padre) we are going to take a stab at it. Strip every electrical off we don't need, wire up all systems (make new circuits) utilize some extra cooling ideas and go ahead and throw a new head gasket on it while we can. I counted three spare motors, three transmissions, three rear ends and four front suspensions we have right now. Along with two more shells it seems the logical choice :shock:

Ask me in a year :stick:

TomFreeman · **Posted:** Thu Jun 16, 2011 5:04 pm

JohnByers wrote:

That's impressive Mike! Yeah, I looked over the 924 today, since w have an ace in the hole (mi padre) we are going to take a stab at it. Strip every electrical off we don't need, wire up all systems (make new circuits) utilize some extra cooling ideas and go ahead and throw a new head gasket on it while we can. I counted three spare motors, three transmissions, three rear ends and four front suspensions we have right now. Along with two more shells it seems the logical choice :shock:

Ask me in a year :stick:

Good luck John. Make sure you have some way of assigning value to the car that will fly with the LeMons guys. Free cars sitting around are often scrutinized in their own special way. Not that it's a stretch to say that a '77 924 is a legitimate $500 car, but when you show up to an event, you will get badgered if you don't have your paperwork in order and your story prepped and ready to go. When someone stumbles are stammers a bit, the BS judge guys generally attack. The guys who have good docs and good presentation generally walk away a lot happier.

JohnByers · **Posted:** Thu Jun 16, 2011 5:16 pm

Yeah, I got presentations down pat! HS teacher ftw!

AIV, been looking around at that as well.

Don't worry, we will have lots of questions! Be prepared

Bernie Baake · **Posted:** Thu Jun 16, 2011 5:54 pm

TomFreeman wrote:

Good luck John. Make sure you have some way of assigning value to the car that will fly with the LeMons guys. Free cars sitting around are often scrutinized in their own special way. Not that it's a stretch to say that a '77 924 is a legitimate $500 car, but when you show up to an event, you will get badgered if you don't have your paperwork in order and your story prepped and ready to go. When someone stumbles are stammers a bit, the BS judge guys generally attack. The guys who have good docs and good presentation generally walk away a lot happier.

Not so, I was documented up the wassu and still got nailed for fifty laps...They really don't like 4th gen F body GM V8's. You only thought they had it in for BMW's

JamesShort · **Posted:** Thu Jun 16, 2011 6:39 pm

Why do I feel like I need to get into Lemons/Chump?

Are there fist fights at these events on a regular basis?

BretLuter · **Posted:** Thu Jun 16, 2011 7:17 pm

JamesShort wrote:

Why do I feel like I need to get into Lemons/Chump?

Are there fist fights at these events on a regular basis?

Not usually.

But I've seen several fist fights at Wake County Speedway, including several people getting hauled off to the Wake County pokey afterwards......

:shock:

JamesShort · **Posted:** Thu Jun 16, 2011 7:51 pm

Nah, I'm a big pansy. But I just imagine judges doling these absurd penalties can cause some heated debates....and then I imagine Remchak rolling in the dirt with a broken budweiser bottle with some jerk judge

.

TomFreeman · **Posted:** Thu Jun 16, 2011 9:53 pm

JamesShort wrote:

Nah, I'm a big pansy. But I just imagine judges doling these absurd penalties can cause some heated debates....and then I imagine Remchak rolling in the dirt with a broken budweiser bottle with some jerk judge

.

While an absolutely hilarious visual...I think Bernie is way more likely to throw a punch at a judge than Steve. :lol:

Dustin Fredrickson · **Posted:** Thu Jun 16, 2011 11:55 pm

JamesShort wrote:

Why do I feel like I need to get into Lemons/Chump?

You should. After the 200th hour or so working on the car, you start to realize that torque wrenches really aren't needed for most bolts.

Seriously, Mike and I were having this conversation the other night, actually.... after all the crap that the team has gone through keeping "$500" cars together, there's really no automotive project that seems unreasonable anymore. And in some weird way, figuring out how to keep that POS running is a "rewarding" engineering challenge.

YMMV, etc.. etc..

TomFreeman · **Posted:** Fri Jun 17, 2011 7:23 am

Dustin Fredrickson wrote:

JamesShort wrote:

Why do I feel like I need to get into Lemons/Chump?

You should. After the 200th hour or so working on the car, you start to realize that torque wrenches really aren't needed for most bolts.

Seriously, Mike and I were having this conversation the other night, actually.... after all the crap that the team has gone through keeping "$500" cars together, there's really no automotive project that seems unreasonable anymore. And in some weird way, figuring out how to keep that POS running is a "rewarding" engineering challenge.

YMMV, etc.. etc..

Agreed...and you should talk your co-autocross VP into it as well. I've been trying to recruit him for years. It truly is a lot of fun, even when things don't go exactly right. The camaraderie of doing this as a team is most of the reason for doing it. The one thing it really isn't...cheap. $500 car racing is not cheap, measured in both money and time spent. Know that up front and you are golden.

MikeWhitney · **Joined:** Wed Aug 20, 2003 9:15 pm **Posts:** 4724

TomFreeman wrote:

The one thing it really isn't...cheap. $500 car racing is not cheap, measured in both money and time spent. Know that up front and you are golden.

Compared to most forms of roadracing, Lemons/Chump is very cheap, at least on a "per driver" basis. Total equipment investment is probably close to what you could buy a cheap spec Miata for. Split between n people. Consumables are more than going sprint racing simply from the quantity of laps and track time. But again divided by n makes it easy.

I know that even doing a couple races and building a new car in 2011 I'll only be in for $3-4k, and that's even including stuff like buying a tubing bender.

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