Pacific Northworst LeMons Day One Over: 5 Series Leads, Cherokee In 4th

Murilee Martin
by Murilee Martin

The reports from Oregon LeMons HQ are in, and we’ve got some very interesting results for you. Sure, a BMW E28 in the lead is on the cool side, but a Jeep not far behind? Not only that, a British Leyland product is in the top ten, a feat long considered possible by, well, everyone.

An E28 has taken the win on laps in a LeMons race before, but that was 2007.

How is it possible for a big, boxy, AMC-six-powered truck to have ended the first session in fourth place? The Petty Cash Racing Cherokee has done very well in the past, taking the Goin’ For Broken Index of Effluency trophy with a 14th-overall finish last month, but to get in the top five is a whole new level of madness.

Meanwhile, the veteran Killer Bees MGB sits in eighth place. This car still has SU carbs, lever shocks, and every bit of its original Lucas electrical system. The world has turned topsy-turvy, I tell you what!

I’ll be at Pike’s Peak and disconnected from the internet until late tomorrow, but will do my best to get a Pacific Northworst final-results post when I get home.















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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  • Bryce Bryce on Jun 26, 2011

    The MGB has proper race heritage unlike the rest of the field

  • Grzydj Grzydj on Jun 26, 2011

    I love the widebody kit on the Cherokee. I don't think that sentence has ever been written in the English language before.

  • Lorenzo They won't be sold just in Beverly Hills - there's a Nieman-Marcus in nearly every big city. When they're finally junked, the transfer case will be first to be salvaged, since it'll be unused.
  • Ltcmgm78 Just what we need to do: add more EVs that require a charging station! We own a Volt. We charge at home. We bought the Volt off-lease. We're retired and can do all our daily errands without burning any gasoline. For us this works, but we no longer have a work commute.
  • Michael S6 Given the choice between the Hornet R/T and the Alfa, I'd pick an Uber.
  • Michael S6 Nissan seems to be doing well at the low end of the market with their small cars and cuv. Competitiveness evaporates as you move up to larger size cars and suvs.
  • Cprescott As long as they infest their products with CVT's, there is no reason to buy their products. Nissan's execution of CVT's is lackluster on a good day - not dependable and bad in experience of use. The brand has become like Mitsubishi - will sell to anyone with a pulse to get financed.
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