Garrapatas Peligrosas! BS Inspections, Texas Style

Murilee Martin
by Murilee Martin

The 24 Hours of LeMons has been racing at MSR Houston since 2008, and so we’re used to Shiner Bock, 100% humidity, and Taurus SHOs.

Dangerous ticks! The racers seem a bit puzzled by the name of the race, but the event patch is sure to become a sought-after collector’s item in the future.

The Cajun Coonasses’ Rolling Stones-themed “Beast of Burden” Saturn SC features an authentic Keith Richards-style cigarette in its grille now.

The Index of Effluency-winning Fairmont wagon of Property Devaluation Racing now has Brown Car Appreciation Society sponsorship. This car generally eats 1.6 Ford 302 engines per race, but we’re hoping it will manage to contend for an overall win this weekend.

The IOE-winning Sensory Assault RX-7 will feature a LeMons first: an engine-coolant-operated moonshine still in the car. The bottle in the foreground contains the fermented mash. Should work great!

We had high hopes for the Moose Knuckles Racing Porsche 924 after their nightmare JB Weld cylinder-head-repair frenzy at the last MSR race; they got exactly zero laps (half-laps behind the tow truck don’t count) at that event.

Sadly, things don’t look promising for the Porsche, what with the massive engine fire it suffered during practice this morning. Ai-ya!

The green flag waves at 10:30 Saturday morning, and I’ll try to do an update or two if I have the time. Failing that, I’ll have the usual end-of-day race update tomorrow night.

















Murilee Martin
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.

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  • NSF Racing NSF Racing on Jun 04, 2011

    Allen Iverson, of the 76'ers, proven right on the "practice" arguement by the unlucky MKR team and their Porsche-b-que.

  • PrincipalDan PrincipalDan on Jun 04, 2011

    Fairmont Wagon. If only a rebuilt 302 and C6 transmission weren't beyond the price range of this class of racing... lol.

  • 28-Cars-Later Actually Honda seems to have a brilliant mid to long term strategy which I can sum up in one word: tariffs.-BEV sales wane in the US, however they will sell in Europe (and sales will probably increase in Canada depending on how their government proceeds). -The EU Politburo and Canada concluded a trade treaty in 2017, and as of 2024 99% of all tariffs have been eliminated.-Trump in 2018 threatened a 25% tariff on European imported cars in the US and such rhetoric would likely come again should there be an actual election. -By building in Canada, product can still be sold in the US tariff free though USMCA/NAFTA II but it should allow Honda tariff free access to European markets.-However if the product were built in Marysville it could end up subject to tit-for-tat tariff depending on which junta is running the US in 2025. -Profitability on BEV has already been a variable to put it mildly, but to take on a 25% tariff to all of your product effectively shuts you out of that market.
  • Lou_BC Actuality a very reasonable question.
  • Lou_BC Peak rocket esthetic in those taillights (last photo)
  • Lou_BC A pickup for most people would be a safe used car bet. Hard use/ abuse is relatively easy to spot and most people do not come close to using their full capabilities.
  • Lorenzo People don't want EVs, they want inexpensive vehicles. EVs are not that. To paraphrase the philosopher Yogi Berra: If people don't wanna buy 'em, how you gonna stop 'em?
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