Edsel: The Official Pace Car of 2011 Gator-O-Rama 24 Hours of LeMons

Sajeev Mehta
by Sajeev Mehta
edsel the official pace car of 2011 gator o rama 24 hours of lemons

This faithful TTAC writer enjoys his break from reality to be a judge at the 24 Hours of LeMons. That said, a perk to having the great Murilee Martin on board is that my LeMons coverage now embellishes his: take a look at the ’58 Edsel Ranger pace car we “procured” from a race team.

One thing about the “rat rod” school of design is how great it makes an otherwise junky heap look in the hearts and minds of most bystanders. An ugly flat black paint job on one of the ugliest cars known to man is a Reeses peanut butter cup of automotive design! That said, the 1970s forged (yes really) Lincoln mag wheels and 390 V8 from a ’67 Ford Galaxie make the theme cooler than cool. And the white shag carpet seemingly taken from Dirk Digler’s rumpus room? Why not, it’s Rat Rod!

Also note the wicked body roll in turn one here at MSR Houston. And yes, that’s during pace car laps! Which begs the question, maybe we need more Rat Rod themed rides in Lemons?




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  • Sajeev Mehta Sajeev Mehta on Feb 27, 2011

    Its a Ranger, and yes, I asked the owner if it was a Pacer almost immediately after we got it for our Pace Car.

    • Frankdtank00 Frankdtank00 on Feb 28, 2011

      The front clip came off of a Pacer 4 door if that makes you feel better...

  • William Penney William Penney on Feb 28, 2011

    I never got how these were ugly, if anything they look better then the new Fiesta, easily better then anything out of Mazda in the last year. The wheels are nice but the flat black looks as bland as ever, though with a few touches you could make this a nice Edsel cop car.

    • Frankdtank00 Frankdtank00 on Mar 01, 2011

      2door cop car?...ill keep my bland old primer till i get a lil more body work done then im going to finish with a satin black body, white top and on the inlay that wraps around the back, Heavy flack white with a pearl coat tinted with a lil blue/green to tie it into the interior colors. slap all the chrome back on and shave the white walls.

  • MRF 95 T-Bird Back when the Corolla consisted of a wide range of body styles. This wagon, both four door and two door sedans, a shooting brake like three door hatch as well as a sports coupe hatchback. All of which were on the popular cars on the road where I resided.
  • Wjtinfwb Jeez... I've got 3 Ford's and have been a defender due to my overall good experiences but this is getting hard to defend. Thinking the product durability testing that used to take months to rack up 100k miles or more is being replaced with computer simulations that just aren't causing these real-world issues to pop up. More time at the proving ground please...
  • Wjtinfwb Looks like Mazda put more effort into sprucing up a moribund product than Chevy did with the soon to be euthanized '24 Camaro.
  • Wjtinfwb I've seen worse on the highways around Atlanta, usually with a refrigerator or washer wedged into the trunk and secured with recycled twine...
  • Wjtinfwb Surprising EB Flex hasn't weighed in yet on it being the subject of a recall...
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