And The Real Winner Is…

by Murilee Martin

Published: April 18th, 2011

You get the Index of Effluency, 24 Hours of LeMons’ top prize, by accomplishing the most with the worst car. You can win it by getting a horrifyingly terrible car just into the top half of the standings, or you can get it by getting your very terrible truck a hair from the top ten. The Pickup Trash S10 team opted for the latter route, clawing their way to 12th place under un-pickup-friendly weather conditions against an extremely tough field.

Team Pickup Trash would have made the top ten, but their final driver thought he could milk a few bonus laps out of an empty fuel tank and had to be towed off the track. We’ve been watching this team for a few races now, and they’ve improved from hapless black-flag magnets to serious contenders as they’ve upgraded both their brakes and their driving skills over time. They’ve built an impressive-looking body kit out of street-sign aluminum, upgraded their suspension with cheap junkyard stuff, and left their stock V6 alone. A very easy IOE decision this time. Congratulations, Team Pickup Trash!

#1980s #1986 #1986ChevroletS10 #24HoursOfLeMons #24HoursOfLeMonsDetroit #CampaignToPreventGingervitis #Chevrolet #ChevroletS10 #Detroit #IndexOfEffluency #Racing #PickupTruck #S10

Murilee Martin

Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.

More by Murilee Martin

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7 comments

Athos Nobile on Apr 18, 2011

What happened with the Geo Metro?

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- N545ca on Apr 18, 2011
  
  We finished up 22nd overall and took 2nd in the group C division, ten laps out. Lost alternator belt and snapped a bolt on the mounting bracket (day 1). This caused us to drop the lead. Hat's off to team Le Shadow for running a great race and winning the division.
  
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Crabspirits on Apr 18, 2011

I was sure the diesel Chevette was a lock, until the guys packed it up early.

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- Neil on Apr 18, 2011
  
  As one on the diesel Chevette team, let me guarantee to you that the guys did every stupid thing possible to get back out there, but it was the Chevette that packed up early. After the Chevette made the decision, we were encouraged to leave by the fact that our camper was too damaged by the 50-mph sleety winds to sleep in in that night. Good golly, that was awful weather--we were prepared, but that was ridiculous. That head gasket was deader than dead. Normally, that is no biggie, but can you believe that diesel Chevette head gaskets aren't normally in-stock at Autozone (or anyone in the entire mid-west....yes, we called them all). To add insult to injury, the GM factory folks consider the diesel Chevette 1.8 to be "obsolete" and said that they won't EVER be in stock!! Well, no accounting for taste... "Wal, a wiser fella than m'self once said, sometimes you eat the bar and sometimes the bar, wal, he eats you."
  
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- LeadHead on Apr 18, 2011
  
  @Neil Time to call up Cometic and have some custom multi-layer steel gaskets made
  
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- P161911 on Apr 18, 2011
  
  @Neil Seems that was an Isuzu diesel. Maybe there is some cross over between a Chevy LUV, or maybe some sort of forklift or something else that got that same engine. How about a 1.8L I-Mark diesel head gasket: http://www.rockauto.com/catalog/x,carcode,1175879,parttype,5412,a,www.google.com%2BSearch%2Bfor%2B1982%2BISUZU%2BI-MARK%2B1.8L%2B1817cc%2BL4%2BDIESEL%2BMFI%2B%2528P%2529%2BSOHC
  
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- Athos Nobile on Apr 18, 2011
  
  @Neil X2 on what p161911 said. That engine must be Isuzu. Just for the heck of it, shot a pic and put a photobucket link to see.
  
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