24 Hours of LeMons....
Has become the only non-professional race series that interest me on any level.
Involvement began about 2008 about a year or two after LeMons racing began. When the LeMons folks discovered an x1/9 was going to be in their race. The reputation of Fix It Again Tony was expected.. only to to have them proven so very wrong. The block drain worked loose dumping most all of the coolant, cooking the engine causing a Blow-Pro (Fel-Pro) head gasket failure. A stock Fiat head gasket was installed (that is Diane and me wrenching in 30 ish degree cold), finished the race.
260 laps with Thumder Hill lap times similar to stock BMW E30, the LeMons folks were absolutely impressed.
http://jalopnik.com/5121314/italian...le-at-lemons-other-than-the-blown-head-gasket
Evolution of this version of the LeMons exxe included four motorcycle carbs and other go faster goodies.... good enough to remain ahead of a race prepped Porsche 928. Another example of what is possible with a mostly stock drive train and suspension-chassis.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fY3GrqRey-k
Eventually the Lampredi SOHC engine and Fiat transaxle was replaced with a Mazda 12A PP rotary and Porsche 901 transaxle (problem child). This was significant development process resulting in one of the fastest cars in LeMons.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWuNb14H-Uk&index=11&list=PLQaPbIJsxFacJ01rF83iFy1iApYebBDAW
Current performance level of the Rotary powered exxe is about equal to the well known Eye Sore Racing Turbo Miata. Both have about 200 Whp, the exxe is lower weight, more agile, both have similar grip limits. This turbo Miata engine was created by two engineers who's day job is at Garrett Air Research (not a weekend wrencher hack job, these folks know precisely what they are doing), the turbo folks and chassis by Dave Coleman Mazda US's chassis engineer. Dave and me often spend a lot of time yaking about suspension design set ups and more during LeMons races. There is commiseration of solving race car problems with the Eye Sore Racing folks.
There is a LOT more than just increasing power to achieve this level of road course performance. Track speeds and lap times for LeMons cars are limit by tires which must be DOT 180 or more. Durability and reliability is a must as these cars are run hour after hour after hour under race conditions. Very different requirements than club race events, time trials or solo events.
What makes LeMons racing so very appealing to me, it is much about having a FUN time a racing, much less about winning. There is great freedom for technical innovation and tinkering. This just does not happen in SCCA or similar race sanctioned events.
For those curious, many of the LeMons race adventures are archived on Xweb.
Oh, All those years, I have NEVER driven the LeMons racer, just designed, built, set-up and tweaked the car.
Bernice