Randy Pobst: LeMons MGB-GT "Handles Well, Bad Brakes, Low On Power"

Murilee Martin
by Murilee Martin

Randy Pobst came to the Where The Elite Meet To Cheat 24 Hours of LeMons to drive Speedycop’s MR2-chassis’d Lancia Scorpion, but we couldn’t resist seeing what would happen if we put him behind the wheel of the Goldbrickers MGB-GT. In the rain. The result was startling.

Pobst immediately knocked 13 seconds off the team’s previous best lap, which was set in the dry (this is on a track layout on which most LeMons cars are running laps in the 1:25 region), and started eating up the E30s and RX-7s. What lesson should LeMons teams take away from this? Improving the driver helps a lot more than improving the car. Unfortunately for the MG team, the brake lights crapped out soon after Randy’s stint, and the car spent the next hour with the team battling Joe Lucas, Prince of Darkness.

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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  • Mechimike Mechimike on Sep 26, 2011

    This was our 7th LeMons race- and second race with the 1975 LTD Landau. When we started racing LeMOns back in 2008, we had almost no racing experience- a couple of autocrosses, and some spirited on-road driving. I turned fast lap time in the LTD this race- a car that weighs 4200 lbs, has a miserable, low compression smog 400M, highway gears, and $30 620 treadwear Michelins. I think my best time was about a 1:25.9 lap. The top cars were turning about 1:13 fast laps, so even with all of our experience, you still need a reasonably competitive car to win on laps. There are _other_ prizes, though...

  • Whitney Whitney on Sep 27, 2011

    Not only can the man drive, he can play a bitchin game of Simon Says too: http://youtu.be/1Xmfv5kpGkQ

  • Wjtinfwb Had an E38, loved it dearly. I thought nothing could make me love the subsequent "Bangle" 7 series, but this latest version did. Apparently the psychotic drug epidemic plaguing North America has made its way to Munich and filtered into the design studios. This car is just grotesque.
  • Wjtinfwb Any Focus with a manual is a great car. The automatics... beware. I've had two, both manuals, a Gen 1 SVT and a Gen 2 ST, bulletproof, super low maintenance costs, reasonably entertaining to drive and very comfortable for long drives. Unfortunately, manuals are very scarce, this one, if decently maintained and not thrashed, would be a helluva deal at 4k and under 100k miles.
  • Larry Bring back the Cadillac luxury, the Cadillac "float" ride suspension and beautiful plush interiors that always separated it from the rest, even Lincoln Town Cars did not measure up. I have an xt4. While a beautiful design, there is no LUXURY, the ride is hard with a stiff suspension, there is a no name poor sounding sound system, ugly cheap wheels and more unflattering features. This 2023 doesn't come close to my old 1980 Fleetwood Broughm or even my 1994 Sedan Deville.
  • Arthur Dailey GM could easily have fixed Cadillac while it was still the world's largest automaker. Or when it was a corporation making good profits. Now, not so much. Only large and/or profitable organizations can afford a prestige building, loss leader, 'halo' type of vehicle. With the exception of M-B, Porsche, and now BMW which was not a prestige player until after Cadillac declined, and perhaps Lexus what other prestige marques are profitable? The Escalade is what now defines Cadillac. So it is Escalade vehicles that they should concentrate on. For the market that does not care about MPG, that wants something big, bold, flashy and prefers if their purchases are overpriced because that demonstrates that they have more than enough money.
  • Ajla So I guess this means game over for the journos and YouTubers because they spend so much time in new vehicles.
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