Real Hoopties of New Jersey LeMons Day One Over, Alfa Romeo Milano Leads
The weather went from rainy to nice, and the high speeds seen at New Jersey Motorsports Park took their toll on the field-O-hoopties today. The engine carnage was overwhelming (more on that later), but some cars kept all their connecting rods where they belonged; at the end of the day, the Team Pro-Crass-Duh-Nation Alfa Romeo Milano held the lead. A pair of BMW E30s lurks close behind the Alfa, so there ought to be plenty of excitement when the green flag waves on Sunday morning.
The battle for the Index of Effluency, the trophy that goes to the team that does the best with the most improbable car (and the true top prize of the 24 Hours of LeMons), remains very much up in the air. Perhaps this Fiat 131, which has cracked the top 30, has the edge at the moment.
The Speedycop Ford Galaxie remains in the IOE conversation, with a (mostly) trouble-free day of racing. A Fiat really starts out with the high ground when it comes to this battle, but don’t rule out the big Ford!
This MGB-GT would have to pick up quite a few laps on the Fiat in order to muscle its way into IOE contention, but a lot can happen in a long day of racing.
The Farfrumwinnin VW Fox, which has made it into the top 20, could tear the IOE trophy from the grasping hands of those other claimants, but the team would need to make a dramatic upward move in the standings tomorrow; the Fox is a terrible car, but not in the same league as the other IOE contenders.
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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