Twin-Engined MR2olla Makes Debut, White Trash Barbie Goes CHP: BS Inspections of the Goin' For Broken 24 Hours of LeMons

Murilee Martin
by Murilee Martin

Many of you said a twin-engined Toyota race car would never work, but the Doublesuck MR2/Corolla combo (automatic transmission in the back, manual in the front) went out onto the Reno-Fernley Raceway track for some practice laps today and did just fine!

West Coast teams tend to come up with the best (or, in this case, most disturbing) themes for their race cars.

Since this is Nevada, many of the teams decided they’d pack heat to the race. Sorry, guys, no shooting each other in the paddock!

White Trash Barbie And Ken brought their matching pink P71 Crown Vics, which picked up some BS laps due to their 3:90 gears and 5-speed transmissions. They’d have done worse, had their CHP costumes not been so great.

Matt Farah was there with Adam Carolla and an unnamed NBA player, shooting some sort of TV thing for Speed. Yes, a 7-foot-tall guy can fit in a caged 300ZX. More info on the show when I learn more.

The Dust-n-Debris Dodge Shadow got destroyed when it bashed the wall at Infineon a couple months back, so the team swapped the running gear over to a 90s Plymouth Duster. This will be a true 24-hour race: green flag at 10:30 AM Saturday, checkered flag at 10:30 AM Sunday. How many of the 80 entrants will be running by Sunday morning? Who can say?


To get an idea of what find racin’ machines passed through the hands of the LeMons Supreme Court today, here’s a video showing seven hours of inspections in a couple of minutes.


Music: Bennie Krueger, “Don’t Bring Lulu”, 1925






















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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  • Pk386 Pk386 on May 14, 2011

    I want to see more of the MR2olla!

  • GiddyHitch GiddyHitch on May 15, 2011

    Adam Carolla's show on Speed is called the Car Show and it will be great to see him back on TV after NBC botched American Top Gear. Get it on, got to get it on, ain't got no choice but to get it on!

  • Statikboy I see only old Preludes in red. And a concept in white.Pretty sure this is going to end up being simply a Civic coupe. Maybe a slightly shorter wheelbase or wider track than the sedan, but mechanically identical to the Civic in Touring and/or Si trims.
  • SCE to AUX With these items under the pros:[list][*]It's quick, though it seems to take the powertrain a second to get sorted when you go from cruising to tromping on it.[/*][*]The powertrain transitions are mostly smooth, though occasionally harsh.[/*][/list]I'd much rather go electric or pure ICE I hate herky-jerky hybrid drivetrains.The list of cons is pretty damning for a new vehicle. Who is buying these things?
  • Jrhurren Nissan is in a sad state of affairs. Even the Z mentioned, nice though it is, will get passed over 3 times by better vehicles in the category. And that’s pretty much the story of Nissan right now. Zero of their vehicles are competitive in the segment. The only people I know who drive them are company cars that were “take it or leave it”.
  • Jrhurren I rented a RAV for a 12 day vacation with lots of driving. I walked away from the experience pretty unimpressed. Count me in with Team Honda. Never had a bad one yet
  • ToolGuy I don't deserve a vehicle like this.
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