So for those of you that know what the 24 Hours of LeMons is, I thought you'd find this interesting. For those that don't,
go read this. I'm not askin'.
A year ago, a good friend of mine got the chance to compete in the 24HLM race in Angleton (just South of Houston). I've always wanted to compete and have followed the series for a while. This year I am captaining my own team, and have invited my LeMons veteran friend to join. We promptly located a car that we thought would suit our needs and purchased it for just over $500 bucks. There goes the budget. Luckily we were able to sell off the entire interior, airbags, stereo and glass to a probe enthusiast (they do exist) in order to regain all the overage and enough for a few vital bits. Still, we have almost no money to spend on upgrading the car.
The car? Well, it's a 1996 Ford Probe GT. That's right, I said Probe GT! Don't hate, you know you're jealous of the sweet ride. The interior had a few cigarette burns and smelled of smoke, the paint was faded, the CEL was lit, the A/C doesn't work, the windshield was cracked, the fender on the passenger side won't let you open the door easily, etc. But the most important thing, the previous owner had just spent a lot of money trying to get rid of the CEL and just wanted to recoup some of the cost of the slew of new parts thrown at the car. Jackpot.
The car runs really well and actually pulls with the all the fury that Ford bestowed upon it from the factory. She's an eyesore for sure, but promises to be solid, which is the most important thing in the 24HLM.
Four of the drivers got together this weekend to strip out the interior. We basically started pulling bits off until we got to the point where there was nothing more we could (or felt like we wanted to) remove. You can see the results below. The real hassle came from the kid that drove it for a while having put a “big” stereo in the car and covering the entire inside of the doors with sound deadening material. That stuff is goopy and the foil is razor sharp.
So the next step is to replace the front brakes and install the roll cage. We will be holding off until the middle of next month for that because the list of those accepted to the race comes out then and I don’t want to front the cash if we aren’t going to be able to get into a race before February, which is the next one.
Those familiar with the series may be wondering if we have a team theme. Well, we are going to be racing for the Houston Humane Society. They are a great organization and we are hoping for a chance to get out there to raise awareness (and potentially money) for them. We are working on a rattle-can livery for the car to go with our theme. The team is called Dogged Racing. Get it? Well, that’s enough about the project for now. Here are a few pics.