Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Upside Down Race Car flips spectators lids at Lemons endurance race

You don't go to a 24 Hours of LeMons race for the speed. Because for race cars that cost no more than $500, speed isn't a thing. You go to a LeMons race to witness the barking mad,
clapped-out vehicles perilously navigate turns at 6 mph. You go to watch the officiators utilize the "Wheel of Misfortune" to decide a punishment for lousy driving, such as the "Mime Your Crime" penalty, where the driver must paint their face in white and mime their infraction before being allowed back on course.
And if you went to last weekend's LeMons race at New Jersey Motorsports Park, you could tell your friends you saw the premier of the Upside Down Race Car, a Speedycop production created by the wackiest of LeMonsters, Jeff Bloch.Under his Speedycop banner, Bloch and his cronies have been famed for their Franken-wheel creations, leading up to the debut of the Spirit of LeMons--a 1956 Cessna 310 and a minivan engine blended to create a road-racing airplane. All in, Speedycop has built 14 lemons over the years.
The Upside Down Race Car, despite looking like the results of a rough street race, is a 1999 Chevy Camaro flipped on its lid and fitted with a beat-up, 190,000 mile 1.3 liter Ford Festiva engine and subframe. Given the sheer weight of the machine and the tiny engine, the power appears on par with a AMF Roadmaster moped. Or perhaps even slower. Speedycop confirms: "Putting this thing on a race course with real race cars would be tantamount to suicide, were it not for the stringent safety rules. Now, it's merely extremely hazardous, and highly ill-advised.For Speedycop, this is simply the next vehicle in a long list of potential upcoming nutty concepts: "I'm an 8 year-old kid trapped in a 40 year-old body," he says, "with just enough talent to pull off my wacky ideas." We can't wait to see what he pulls off next.

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