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June 13, 2010 9:56 p.m. JThw8 SuperDork

First off thank you everyone for the kind words and encouragement. Im home now safe and sound from an utterly epic journey! Car was tremendous wanted to run harder and faster than I had the nerve to give it on the street.

And as much as I hate to toot our own horn the first time I let others drive and I rode in our support car and actually got to see her rolling out on the highway I gotta admit, it was pretty hot!

I gotta dance with the one who brung me on this. The Lemons guys gave me this car to do something with and Im doing it. I have faith that the Lemons vets will help keep a cushion around the car.

However Rob I have to take issue with the rolling chicane comment, this thing is fast and capable as hell :) But we aren't trying to race, all my drivers know have fun but stay out of the dogfights, there's no point in position fighting in an endurance race. We'll take a wide line and let folks through, but we'll also occasionally blow their doors off so they dont forget that we are allowing them to pass because we love the car ;)
June 13, 2010 10:16 p.m. JeepinMatt HalfDork

I love it. The wheels, the roughness, the rust, the unpainted metal, the wackiness of the whole thing. Don't change a thing. Any plan on what's going to happen to it in the future?
June 13, 2010 10:34 p.m. John Brown SuperDork

That ain't unpainted metal. It's fiberglass ;)
June 13, 2010 10:56 p.m. pres589 Reader

Very nice stance to the thing.
June 14, 2010 7:32 a.m. JThw8 SuperDork

JeepinMatt wrote:

I love it. The wheels, the roughness, the rust, the unpainted metal, the wackiness of the whole thing. Don't change a thing. Any plan on what's going to happen to it in the future?

Next up is Lemons, then GRM. While I do kinda like the "rat" look it has now I hope to have it painted before GRM.

After that I'm taking some time off and enjoing it as is but when I finally have energy again its coming apart and being redone without the budget restrictions so I'll upgrade some things, possibly a 5 speed swap, axle upgrade and a turbo subaru motor. Alot of refinements to make it slightly less of a race car and more of a cruiser so I can enjoy it on the street.

This one will probably be a long term car for me (which as most know is exceedingly rare) because I really like the fact that its unusual and I can honestly say that I've build almost everything on it myself (or with the help of friends) and because I dont think I could come close to recouping the investment of time and money in it :)
June 14, 2010 10:37 a.m. DeadSkunk Reader

FWIW, if this were mine, it wouldn't be any where near a LeMons race, except in the spectator parking lot. It's way too cool and had a lot of effort put into it. This would be a keeper that I continually improved.
June 14, 2010 10:47 a.m. MrJoshua SuperDork

Does Lemons have rules against an external cage?
June 14, 2010 11:30 a.m. unevolved Reader

I'm going to have to side with the "You're CRAZY for LeMons'ing that."

Exhibit A: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UIJwOx2JDw Exhibit B: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkVJ1EiXlfs Exhibit C: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApaSPCJFPk4

At least at the Challenge there's no chance of car-on-car lovin'.
June 14, 2010 12:21 p.m. JThw8 SuperDork

It will be at Lemons and GRM. I have faith in my drivers to keep out of the pack and just run calm clean lines.

I specifically havent done any finish bodywork to it yet just to ensure I didnt waste any effort.

This is however a one time only thing, its not a permanent Lemons car, after this one Im making it a keeper with alot of improvements over the current state.

Everything so far with this car has been a risk so why mess with the formula.
June 14, 2010 2:21 p.m. Mental SuperDork

I think you should totally Lemons it, but I am baised.

Seriously, holy effing crap that thing looks flat out amazing. I just turned to show everyone in my office the awesomeness that i get to participate in this weekend. Its making me all giggly
June 14, 2010 2:46 p.m. JThw8 SuperDork

Mental wrote:

I think you should totally Lemons it, but I am baised.

Seriously, holy effing crap that thing looks flat out amazing. I just turned to show everyone in my office the awesomeness that i get to participate in this weekend. Its making me all giggly

Jeff W compared driving it to the automotive equvalent of being waterboarded. You know it wont kill you, but sometimes you wish it would.

Its a full assault on the senses, loud and hot. Just what you'd expect on the track but I think Jeff's comment came after 300 miles on the highway in the Lousiana heat.
June 14, 2010 10:55 p.m. AngryCorvair SuperDork

MrJoshua wrote:

Does Lemons have rules against an external cage?

exactly what i was thinking. like how we keep karts from touching wheels, only around the entire car.
June 14, 2010 11:10 p.m. littleturquoiseb HalfDork

JThw8 wrote: Jeff W compared driving it to the automotive equvalent of being waterboarded. You know it wont kill you, but sometimes you wish it would.

Its a full assault on the senses, loud and hot. Just what you'd expect on the track but I think Jeff's comment came after 300 miles on the highway in the Lousiana heat.

I think what I said is "Driving the Wartburg is like being waterborded, you know it won't kill you but you still want it to end as fast as possible".

This was after a short drive in the heat, honestly after the long runs I was feeling better about the whole thing. Wearing the back brace helped too!
June 15, 2010 11:19 a.m. sanyarcosean Reader

Looks Amazing!!! Cant wait to see it this weeknd!! Aaron, Ryan and I will be there to Cheer you on!
June 15, 2010 11:32 a.m. JThw8 SuperDork

sanyarcosean wrote:

Looks Amazing!!! Cant wait to see it this weeknd!! Aaron, Ryan and I will be there to Cheer you on!

Sweet, we'll keep an eye out for you. I can imagine you can ask just about anyone where we are pitted and they will know.
June 16, 2010 8:51 a.m. camaroz1985 New Reader

I'll be there to compete against you
June 16, 2010 9:00 a.m. JThw8 SuperDork

camaroz1985 wrote:

I'll be there to compete against you

Compete is such a strong word, lets just say we'll be making circles in the same general location. The only competition we intend to engage in is competitve beer drinking in the evenings.
June 16, 2010 2:38 p.m. itsarebuild Reader

this has got to be the coolest build i have ever seen. i cant wait to see it in gainesville!
June 17, 2010 10:07 a.m. camaroz1985 New Reader

JThw8 wrote:

Compete is such a strong word, lets just say we'll be making circles in the same general location. The only competition we intend to engage in is competitve beer drinking in the evenings.

We will be attempting to make circles, but as we know these things don't always work out. Good luck, and see you down there. (I'll also be at the challenge, but in a different car.)
June 20, 2010 8:22 a.m. carzan Reader

Quick update from LeMons:

For those concerned that the Wartburg might end up as a crumpled mess, I'm happy to report that so far, (almost) everyone has behaved and there has been very little bumper-car style shenanigans.

Early Saturday, the car was handling poorly, so the front springs were changed. We also decided to change the rear shocks

The new shocks lowered the ride height which led to some unexpected problems. In addition to having to hack some more of the wheel wells out to keep from shredding tires, after a couple of laps, a coolant line wore through from contacting the tires.

The line was replaced and the good news is that the cars handling, while described as "unique", is predictable and the car is reasonably competitive. The bad new is that coolant line worked loose from the fitting and dumped the majority of the water out quickly overheating the engine pretty badly. We buttoned it up again and it ran well, but kept having temp spikes on acceleration. A decision was made to change the headgaskets and that work is continuing this morning.
June 20, 2010 4:31 p.m. JThw8 SuperDork

IOE :)
June 20, 2010 8:54 p.m. JoeyM HalfDork

JThw8 wrote:

IOE :)

Nice that you got an award, but the car seems too nice to be "doing the most with the least." It's certainly much nicer than most of the cars there.
June 20, 2010 9:01 p.m. Josh Dork

JoeyM wrote:

JThw8 wrote:

IOE :)

Nice that you got an award, but the car seems too nice to be "doing the most with the least." It's certainly much nicer than most of the cars there.

But if that criteria applies to the build, how can you argue?
June 20, 2010 11:08 p.m. JThw8 SuperDork

JoeyM wrote:

JThw8 wrote:

IOE :)

Nice that you got an award, but the car seems too nice to be "doing the most with the least." It's certainly much nicer than most of the cars there.

How does starting with a car that sat in a field for 20 years not count as least? How does building it in a home garage with basic tools not count as least? How does using mostly parts cast off from other peoples projects not count as least?

This is not some high dollar build, its a low buck, low tech car that just happened to have come out right.

I can and will accept criticism of the award from anyone who was out there with us, has seen the car and knows what we did. But I won't get that, everyone staff and competitors alike was in support of our getting the award. We are very honored to receive it as well as we set out to ensure we did something very special with the gift they bestowed upon us and the resounding response was that we did them proud. But internet armchair quarterbacks can keep their comments to themselves. She photographs well but she's still a heap and we love her.
June 20, 2010 11:21 p.m. 96DXCivic Dork

Starting with a Wartburg, how could you not end with the "doing the most with the least" award? Seriously a very cool build. Hopefully my Midgets turn out this well.

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