Not to steal Sajeev's thunder, but there's already a TTAC team member competing in The 24 Hours of LeMons. Me! Come May in Altamont, California (pleased to meet you…) myself, Jalopniker Murilee Martin, Dubspeed Driven's Jack Baruth and a bunch of hot rod builders will be trying to go the distance in a V8olvo. That's a Volvo DL with a Ford 302 HO shoved into it. Murilee and I spend countless hours (and I'm not kidding — countless) arguing over which car to get. He was gung-ho over Datsun Zs while I wanted the torquey V8 goodness from a first generation Q45. Then a $100 Volvo materialized and the rest will one day be history. Assuming I can find a pair of fire retardant underwear. One last thing, our car will be rattle-canned black and feature the ability to blast death metal down the main straight. Sponsorship opportunities abound…
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Go Lieberman, Martin, Baruth and the rest of the Cali team! Who-hoo!
And in the interest of smack talk: its too bad my agile Fox Lincoln will run circles around your brickhouse Volvo. Really, it’s a shame.
I thought the conversion kit to drop in the 5.0L Ford V8 into a DL was more than $500 by itself. Did it come with that motor and kit installed by some stroke of luck?
If so – what a bargain!
As is often the way with these things, it’s that you can’t get too far ahead in your cheating, but you can’t get too far behind either… <--Pops Yoshimura , around 1980, talking about AMA Superbike racing.
ONSET will see your DL, and raise you our 1 season old all 4 rounds last year very very crumpled 1987 Cavalier wagon. At some point this season, we'll have TWO 1987 Cav wagons in one of these races.
What price stupidity? Oh, about $3800 per, plus hundreds of man-hours at Pick Your Part scrounging.
LeMons is about the cheapest (un)real racing out there, and it's a cubic assload of fun.
Jay (Lamm) is really hitting his Bill France stride about now, we'll see how the season goes!
Engine fell off a truck.
And… we’d crush your luxo-barge, Mehta.
If you can catch it, JL. Next blog post will explain further.
dayum, too bad JL and SM won’t be mixing it up on the same track….that would’ve been worth watching.
Sajeev, don’t flatter yourself. Your frilly Lincoln with its rich, Corinthian leather(I know, Chrysler) is no match for a Sweed Steed.
Jonny, what year is your DL? Kind of looks like a ’85-, so be sure the wiring doesn’t turn into dust when you touch it.
Also, I hope you freaking win.
Sajeev,
You best be prepared…. to meet the Audi 4000 Quattr-o-death!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/2160838058/
My lockable differentials and four wheel drive make your RWD Lincoln cower on its deflated tires
My overhead cam 5-cylinder fuel-injected motor laughs at your pushroded and emission be-smogged V8
My scary German electronics fizzle at your laughable build quality.
May the best car (not barge!) win!
P.S. The Air Force already gave me my fire-retardant underwear…..
I invite you all to wait patiently for the next update… Ahem.
Good luck! You may need it. What tranny? And not using the stock Volvo diff, I hope. The torque! The torque!
Ummm… Sajeev? You know that I love the Fox platform and the 302 as much as anybody. But Lieberman’s really stripped that 240 pig to it’s basic elements and that Brick can hold an awful lot more than you may imagine. If memory serves me correct the 240 is actually a 200 to 300 pounds lighter than the Mark VII.
I’m just waiting for someone to come out of the proverbial woodshed with an old Jaguar XJS that has a 302 conversion as well. Throw in a Celica Supra with a GM engine into the mix and you would more or less have mutt city incarnate.
As far as other unique machinery…. I actually have a 1977 Mercedes 350SE sitting on my driveway right now that I bought for only $250. It runs and shifts fine, and a 1st gen Q45 engine and tranny would fit quite well in it.
Hmmmm…. it’s a thought. However the car looks too good to screw up and given that it’s a grey market car, I’ve already had enough headaches. My pick for this competition would be to rebuild a Mercedes 500E or an E34 M5 that’s possibly holding up space at a friend’s junkyard. I know I can get my hands on the first, but the second would be near impossible.
Good luck guys.
We fear not your Lincolns, nor your Cavaliers, nor your Audis, for we shall have every wing, scoop, and spoiler the junkyard provideth for us. You see, each wing gives you 50 horsepower, and scoops add another 30 apiece.
Steven, 240’s weigh around the 1.5 ton mark, the earlier ones are lighter.
Damn Murilee… just checked out your chapter 4 exerpt, and may I just say, damn. You just made a 25 year old feel like he’s wasted his life. I hope you’re proud.
Steven Lang: but you’re forgetting that trash talking is fun. But since you mentioned it, I wonder how much lighter a DL is over a Mark VII when fully stripped. There isn’t much to a Fox once you de-Lincoln it. The Volvo is still a four door with a seriously heavy (safe) body.
Jordan Tenenbaum: faux Continental kits and America’s first car (foreign or otherwise) with ABS and flush headlamps trumps all. With 11″ discs all around and ABS, I’ll be late braking harder than most everyone else. :)
Mike Solowiow: I LOVE those 4000s!!! Too bad it will meet its maker when the Hot Rod Lincoln devours it on one of MSR’s long straights.
Ok, I’ll shut up now until my next blog. Looking forward to more updates from JL and crew too.
Yep, I’m all for the trash talking. In fact, I was thinking today that I would probably take a 1994 Roadmaster with the LT1, strip the sucker, weld a tennis ball machine into the back of it so that I could randomly hit cars trying to pass me, and put on a side decal that says ‘Grandpa’s Pissed!’
I know of a Roadie that I could have picked up from a salvage sale for cheap. In fact, I knew the fellow who owned the car. 70+ year old man, heavy cigar smoker and easy driver, car had 230k on it. I would’ve had him do a few trash talking promos with his cane, whaping various pieces of European and Japanese vehicles at a nearby junkyard. The vignette would obviously be called ‘Grandpa’s pissed!’
The more I think about it… maybe I can find another one.
That’s the spirit!
Sajeev, Volvo 240 brakes are on par with older 911’s, so I don’t know…
I seriously cannot wait to see how this turns out.
Seriously, there’s a reason Quattro was banned from
-World Rallying Championship
-Trans-Am
-IMSA GTO
-BTCC
-DTM
Need I go on? When the track gets slick, and the V8olvo can’t out its power down, and the Lincox’s mass pushes its continental spare tire kit sideways into the wall, my Quattro will triumph once again.
And if you vote to have my Audi crushed, I will drop a precision guided munition on your car. I have the power to do it!
Ha! quattro is spelled with a lowercase q! You therefore lose.
Touche! And as a former Quattro, and current quattro owner, I should know that!
Mike Solowiow: Are you kidding? We also have a 1984 Quattro 4000s.
Meet team Quattro Libre
http://quattrolibre.blogspot.com/
PS – Can you spare a power brake booster?
PPS – The Quattros should do really well (if it snows).