And the Winner Is…

by Murilee Martin

February 27th, 2011 7:01 PM

The third annual Gator-O-Rama 24 Hours of LeMons endurance race is in the books, and a 29-year-old Datsun just beat out 80 or so competitors— most of them less than half the Datsun’s age— to bring home the Win On Laps trophy for Team Z-Wrecks.

The GT$500 Celica (itself nearly as old as the Z-Wrecks car) had a commanding lead late in the race, but its 22R engine threw a rod for the second race in a row and the situation devolved into a nail-biting three-way battle between the Swine Flew Raycing Infiniti J30, the Z-Wrecks 280ZX, and the SHOTime Taurus SHO. The ZX opened up a not-so-comfortable lead with several minutes before the end… but then it began losing power due to lack of fuel. Pit stop! The J30 closed to within a half-lap as the Z-Wrecks crew dumped a splash of gas into their car’s tank, but the Infiniti couldn’t quite catch its fellow Nissan and the checkered flag waved for the ancient 280ZX. Congratulations, Z-Wrecks!

Photo by Nick Pon

#1980s #1982 #1982Datsun280ZX #24HoursOfLeMons #24HoursOfLeMonsTexas #280ZX #Datsun280ZX #Gator-O-Rama #Gator-O-Rama24HoursOfLeMons #NissanZCar #Racing

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3 comments

CJinSD on Feb 27, 2011

I think this car should have won the IOE as well. 280ZXs were pretty terrible cars even measured against their 1981 competition. Tercels are overdogs by comparison.

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Mechimike on Feb 28, 2011

Wow, this has to be the first Z car to ever take the overall win at LeMons. Agreed with CJinSD, it definitely coulda been an IoE contender as well.

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- Sajeev Mehta on Feb 28, 2011
  
  No, it hasn't...and shockingly, it was a 300ZX (Z31) that has that title.
  
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