And the Winner Is…

Murilee Martin
by Murilee Martin

After Clueless Racing won the American Irony race, they spent 18 months in the wilderness, leading in race after race… and then their engine would blow another head gasket or throw another rod. They did everything right, but fell afoul of LeMons Rule Hondas Blow Up. Today, however, the Clueless Racing CRX grabbed the lead early on Saturday and never relinquished it.

Other cars closed the gap a bit (the CRX ended up winning by a solid five laps), but the CRX’s fuel economy and clean driving kept fuel and black-flag stops to a minimum. When the checkered flag waved, the crowd enjoyed the spectacle of a less fortunate CRX tossing a rod as it crossed the finish line. Congratulations, Clueless Racing!


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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  • PrincipalDan PrincipalDan on Oct 09, 2011

    Congrats guys. Has to be un-nerving to have engines constantly blowing and even have a compeditor in a similar vehicle blow their engine after you.

  • Thrashy Thrashy on Oct 10, 2011

    The old organic head gaskets they used on the D-series motors through '91 are barely adequate for spirited daily driving at this point; it's no wonder that they explode on a regular basis when flogged hard on a track after 20+ years of year and tear! The smart money for a LeMons Civic would be a 92+ model, what with the MLS head gasket and less grenade-y transmission bits. Not to mention that Civics and CRXes of this vintage have a reputation in road-racing circles for shearing wheel hubs.

  • 1995 SC I will say that year 29 has been a little spendy on my car (Motor Mounts, Injectors and a Supercharger Service since it had to come off for the injectors, ABS Pump and the tool to cycle the valves to bleed the system, Front Calipers, rear pinion seal, transmission service with a new pan that has a drain, a gaggle of capacitors to fix the ride control module and a replacement amplifier for the stereo. Still needs an exhaust manifold gasket. The front end got serviced in year 28. On the plus side blank cassettes are increasingly easy to find so I have a solid collection of 90 minute playlists.
  • MaintenanceCosts My own experiences with, well, maintenance costs:Chevy Bolt, ownership from new to 4.5 years, ~$400*Toyota Highlander Hybrid, ownership from 3.5 to 8 years, ~$2400BMW 335i Convertible, ownership from 11.5 to 13 years, ~$1200Acura Legend, ownership from 20 to 29 years, ~$11,500***Includes a new 12V battery and a set of wiper blades. In fairness, bigger bills for coolant and tire replacement are coming in year 5.**Includes replacement of all rubber parts, rebuild of entire suspension and steering system, and conversion of car to OEM 16" wheel set, among other things
  • Jeff Tesla should not be allowed to call its system Full Self-Driving. Very dangerous and misleading.
  • Slavuta America, the evil totalitarian police state
  • Steve Biro I have news for everybody: I don't blame any of you for worrying about the "gummint" monitoring you... but you should be far more concerned about private industry doing the same thing.
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