Automotive racing is a grueling endeavor, a test of one’s mental and physical prowess to push an engineered masterpiece to its limit. This is all the more true of 24 hour endurance races where teams tag team to get the most laps of a circuit in over a 24 hour period. The format pushes cars and drivers to the very limit. Doing so on a $500 budget as presented by the 24 hours of Lemons makes this all the more impressive!
Of course, racing on a $500 budget is difficult to say the least. All the expected Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) safety requirements are still in place, including roll cage, seats and fire extinguisher. However, brakes, wheels, tires and safety equipment are not factored into the cost of the car, which is good because an FIA racing seat can run well in excess of the budget. Despite the name, most races are twelve to sixteen hours across two days, but 24 hour endurance races are run. The very limiting budget and amateur nature of the event has created a large amount of room for teams to get creative with car restorations and race car builds.
One such team we had the chance of speaking to goes by the name 24 Hours of Le-Mines. Their build is a wonderful mishmash of custom fabrication and affordable parts. It’s built from a restored 1999 NA Miata complete with rusted frame and all! Power is handled by a rebuilt 302 Mustang engine of indeterminate age.
The stock Miata brakes seem rather small for a race car, but are plenty for a car of its weight. Suspension is an Amazon special because it only has to work for 24 hours. The boot lid (or trunk if you prefer) is held down with what look to be over-sized RC car pins. Nestled next to the PVC pipe inlet pipe is a nitrous oxide canister — we don’t know if it’s functional or for show, but we like it nonetheless. The scrappy look is completed with a portion of the road sign fabricated into a shifter cover.
The team is unsure if the car will end up racing, but odds are if you are reading Hackaday, you care more about the race cars then the actual racing. Regardless, we hope to see this Miata in the future!
This is certainly not the first time we have covered 24 hour endurance engineering, like this solar powered endurance plane.
I recently helped with a lemons race team in Georgia, and haven’t had as much hacky fun since my high school robotics days. We chopped up an old F250 that’d been parked for over a decade, shortened it, gave it a plywood and carbon fiber aero package, stuck a fake minigun turret on the back, welded up a drive shaft balanced with angle iron scraps and a dial indicator, and ended up having to drive it to the track the morning of inspections with minutes to spare because it was too low to get on the trailer. The alternator died and it chugged to death just into the parking lot of the race track, so we stole the battery out of another car, jumper cabled it onto the truck’s, jump started the whole thing to limp it to the tech inspection, then spent as much time on the track as we did wrenching in the pits due to never getting a chance for a proper shakedown test. What a hoot!
Looks similar like “zlombol” car race in poland using rather out of order cheap cars
I raced LeMons for ten years and even accumulated a few trophies with our amazing team. Just to clarify, ALL safety equipment is exempt from the $500 budget. LeMons is a terrific organization that takes safety very very seriously. Your roll cage will be inspected by people who know what they are doing and you will be subjected to fire drills and other critical training. Any car contact is an immediate black flag for both cars, no discussion. Hot heads and armchair pros are dealt with quickly and with extremely embarrassing prejudice. People are regularly banned from the event for exceeding the chucklehead quota. If you go in with the right attitude, you will have the time of your life.
There’s simply no easier way to try your hand at real wheel to wheel racing so I strongly recommend it, if you’re interested. You should do some track days first however. Track driving is a skill you need to be exposed to first. As fun and as silly as LeMons is, it is also real racing and you will go three wide into the esses at Willow Springs at very antisocial speeds, with barely enough time to tabulate all the poor life choices that lead you to this moment.
Keep the shiny side up, friends.
Get ready for the greatest spectacle in racing this friday, the Wienermobile 500. The frankfurtermobile name has been rescinded. My choice no ketchup Chicago!
Also see the Plymouth Banjul challenge (Formally the Plymouth Dakar rally): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plymouth-Banjul_Challenge
A similar idea, though a bit longer. 4400 miles in a £100 car.
And the “Shitbox Rally” in Australia