Attention Lemons/ChumpCar/ALMS Teams: FREE RACE CAR!

Jack Baruth
by Jack Baruth

Divorce really sucks. Not my divorce, mind you, but the divorce of the fellow who has been letting me store extra cars in one of his barns since 2004 or thereabouts. I’ve got a few things out there which will now require homes. Some of them — like my loved, yet despised, ’84 944 — will find the proverbial “place to stay at” elsewhere. And some will end up in a junkyard, unless you, the cheap-car racer, intervene.

What you see above is a genuine 1994-build Neon ACR. It was sold for racing use and had just 12,500 miles on it when it was put into storage. The cage was installed in 2008; it meets NASA, SCCA, and Grand-Am specifications. This car has won dozens of races and is a former SCCA Regional Champion. And it’s yours, free of charge… sort of.


In 2008, I was “PITted” into the wall at Mid-Ohio. We stripped our Neon down to the shell and rebuilt around a Mexican no-rust Plymouth because it was the fastest and easiest thing to do.

You’ll receive the shell pictured above, along with a rear suspension and a set of wheels so it can be towed somewhere. To make an ass-kicking LeMons contender or ice racer out of it, you will need a donor Neon from a junkyard. Do the following:

  • Take engine, transmission, most electronics out of donor;
  • Cut off the driver’s side frame horn from both cars and swap the donor one in.
  • Align it, or don’t, depending on whether you expect to see 100+mph in your series.
  • Put the rest of the stuff onto our car.

Presto. Instant fully-legal racer with a full, welded-in cage that would cost you $2000 to duplicate. There are some other neat aspects about this car which we will only disclose to the buyer.

This is what you need to do:

  • Contact me through this website or on Twitter/Facebook (@JackBaruth)
  • Show up with $250. That buys you the cage. The car is free.
  • Tow it home. Sometime soon. Like, before April 1, if you can manage it.

While it is the official policy of the LeMons judges to discourage former race cars, I think in this case I can work to ensure that your team is not unfairly penalized by Judges Jonny et al.

Oh. One more thing. If you win LeMons on laps in this car within a year after taking delivery, I’ll pay your team a $500 contingency. How’s that for an offer?

This little Mopar deserves a few more trips to victory lane. Help it get there, won’t you?

Jack Baruth
Jack Baruth

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  • Foolish Foolish on Mar 17, 2011

    Hey Jack, WHERE IS the car? Thanks!

  • Ritchie Odell Blackburn Ritchie Odell Blackburn on Mar 17, 2011

    Jack, you should post this on neons.org if you haven't already. It'd probably easier to find someone who'd use this, if they already had a donor (or 12, like some of those guys!) I've got a donor car here for it as well, but I'm all the way over here, in Niedermeyer territory. Would love to put together a team for the Lemons event in Portland.

  • Jpolicke In a communist dictatorship, there isn't much export activity that the government isn't aware of. That being the case, if the PRC wanted to, they could cut the flow of fentanyl down to a trickle. Since that isn't happening, I therefore assume Xi Jinping doesn't want it cut. China needs to feel the consequences for knowingly poisoning other countries' citizens.
  • El scotto Oh, ye nattering nabobs of negativism! Think of countries like restaurants. Our neighbors to the north and south are almost as good and the service is fantastic. They're awfully close to being as good as the US. Oh the Europeans are interesting and quaint but you really only go there a few times a year. Gents, the US is simply the hottest restaurant in town. Have to stand in line to get in? Of course. Can you hand out bribes to get in quicker? Of course. Suppliers and employees? Only the best on a constant basis.Did I mention there is a dress code? We strictly enforce it. Don't like it? Suck it.
  • 1995 SC At least you can still get one. There isn't much for Ford folks to be happy about nowadays, but the existence of the Mustang and the fact that the lessons from back in the 90s when Ford tried to kill it and replace it with the then flavor of the day seem to have been learned (the only lessons they seem to remember) are a win not only for Ford folks but for car people in general. One day my Super Coupe will pop its headgaskets (I know it will...I read it on the Internet). I hope I will still be physically up to dropping the supercharged Terminator Cobra motor into it. in all seriousness, The Mustang is a.win for car guys.
  • Lorenzo Heh. The major powers, military or economic, set up these regulators for the smaller countries - the big guys do what they want, and always have. Are the Chinese that unaware?
  • Lorenzo The original 4-Runner, by its very name, promised something different in the future. What happened?
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