The RACE!

Well, alittle late, but here goes. Great weekend. The judges loved to hate our costumes and we were donned as the "worst Top Gear Ever!" http://jalopnik.com/5465802/four-hours-in-ford-probe-leads

We actually had the lead late in the first day, but the clutch went out rendering all but 3rd gear functional and then the brakes went out. We only had a spare set of stock type pads left. Those failed in about 2 hours. Then it was off to the parts store for cheapo replacements. ABout every hour we were replacing pads on day 2, but still ended up in 15th place out of over 80 crap piles. Our best performance to date.



We're back in the garage now preparing for the Chump Car series in Nashville. Should be a blast!

BS Inspection

I spent a couple hours tonight getting a portfolio together to substantiate the cost of the car. Lemons has a $500 limit minus items you can sell and minus safety items such as cage, seat, brakes and tires. Looks like I'm over $2500 in this car so far. Add in the trailer I bought for $4K, couple hondo in gas to Cookeville to work on it and another couple hondo in beer, we're lookin' at about 7 grand on a 500 dollar car. They say this is the cheapest way to race wheel to wheel. Damn, I need some sponsors.

Well it's been awhile because we have been working our asses off. This car was supposed to be easy and cheap. Turns out nothing is easy and cheap in Lemons. Let me try to recap the fun:

first we get the car to James. The same James that does LS1 swaps for breakfast. Well it turns out James only has 11mm and 13mm sockets available and they are made by Husky. We broke a header stud off in the head installing Jersey Joe's rusty header that I traded for a stereo. Then we jacked off the rear brake caliper trying to fix the e-brake. Then james cut our springs on the car because he "does it all the time". Turns out that blow torches and rubber brake lines don't mix.



header shield face palm




Some good things happened along the way. Eric installed the $20 intake cam from a 91 sentra with no issues. Brandon extracted the header stud AND the drill bit we broke off in the stud.

Then James has an awesome exhaust shop hookup: $200 later and we have a crappy 2" crush bent exhaust. Sweet. After the cam and exhaust install the car still felt slow. After reading for hours on sr20forums we found out that the bad knock sensor wiring was causing the timing to be retarded 7 degrees. Not good. Lemon Disney fixed that up no prob and I set out on my first kill. Lemon Lane and I line it up against his brother's race Saturn in front of my house. Sweet victory. I sawed him off worse that James saws off brake lines.

We also have a new team member. Kevin joined the team after James quit. Kevin has been kicking ass in auto-x and is a cool, easy going dude, so I was very happy to have him.

The car is now just waiting for parts that I purchased. Autopower cage, seat, harness, fire extinguisher, spare parts, etc, etc, $, $, $. While Lemon Diz is waiting for the parts, he is doing small things like this neato tow hook. I love it! His engineering professors must be proud.

Got the header today from Jersey Joe on sr20forums. Traded for the stereo tht came with car. I feel guilty because I think I really got over on him after seeing the condition of the header. He was even so kind to pack it with a picture of Brittany in a bikini. Brittany is 20 and is attending college in Miami/ In between classes she likes to go to the beach to tan and study. Keep up the good work Brittany!

The theme........

So every idea has been used, but no Top Gear Lemons theme? Well we searched and I can't find that anyone has done it. Sweet. I will the the black Stig because I already have the suit and helmet, Lane will be James May, because he eats 3 cheeseburgers at a time, Disney will be Jeremy Clarkson, because he's kinda fat, James will be Hammond because he looks gay.

The best splitter in the world

At pull-a-part, I stumbled upon a 1980 z28 trunk wing and had an epiphany that it would be the best splitter in the world. You be the judge

The team

I forgot to mention the team. We are 3/4 of the svx lemons crew (Subabros) and one Lemons virgin.

Bob-E: the boss
I'm the only member with a job. I've done 3 Lemons races, some auto-x and a bunch of track day stuff in my Subaru WRX wagon. I like cold beer and hot track skanks.

Lane "I got at least 3 burgers in me" Adams
Professional college student. He likes his burgers in bulk. A 4 time Lemons loser, he can't get enough.

Bryan "Disney Lincoln" Lewis
After bursting his cars can do more than a 1/4 mile at a time bubble during the last race, he can't get enough now. If SCCA had a Spec Lincoln class, he would dominate. Disney is a 1-time lemons veteran.

James "don't know his lat name" LSX:
James is our McGuyver in the hole. As a young lad, he has already swapped LSXs into anything from go-karts to mail trucks. Another drag racer, James has for some time dreamed of driving in a Lemons race. If he wrecks the car, he's walking home.

selling stuff

I want to sell some stuff, so I can budget in some springs or ebay coilovers. I also want this magic 1991 sr20 intake cam that costs 20 bucks and adds 10hp. To sr20forums I go. Oh my god! No, I do not want to trade my sunroof for a ipod with a broken screen! I have some nibbles, but the buyers have to wait until they get paid, so they can paypal me 35 bucks. I went today to see how much it would cost to ship the dash to California. $350! No one with a Sentra has that kind of scratch. I changed the ad to pick-up only and it will probably end up in a land fill soon. I did manage to trade the stereo for a Stillen header and downpipe that needs welding. The header should be here tomorrow. I have a pile of shit in my basement that I'm pretty sure my cat is pissing on. This stuff needs to go quick!

auto-x test

Last auto-x of the year and I have a completely gutted sentra. Hell yes I'm going!

The car did remarkably well considering I am not the best auto-xer and it had more roll than the Titanic. I ended up placing first in EP (only entry) and won a coozy. I finished higher than 2 Elises, an S2000 and many others! The people in the timing booth were really concerned that I might actually put it on its roof. It didn't feel that bad in car. The biggest problem I was having was forward grip. Spin, spin, spin. It supposedly has a LSD and it can't make more than 120 crank hp, so I dunno what to do about that. curse of fwd I guess. We're gonna need to do something to the springs. Maybe cut them or get $50 ebay coilover sleeves. I'm more worried about tire wear than lap times. My team mates and have a mental block on the "save the car" strategy.

The gut

This is the best part of car prep. Rip crap out that you will never have to reinstall. Sawzalls, prybars, air chisels, oh my. Blood, sweat and beer was flying. We got $3.76 in change and no one got lockjaw. Success! We celebrated with a bonfire and more beer. Good times!

The Sentra Phase One: test drive

Well, I get her home and check it out. It appears to need a clutch cable, 4 tires that aren't different sizes, and the OBDII reader says it may need a knock sensor or maybe the timing is too high. That's it!!! I hate to chop this car up. It probably gets 30+ mpg and will probably run forever. I get the Sentra gurus over and they are excited. The clutch cable just needed an adjustment and I ordered 4 Falken Azenis. Done, right? Wrong. Sentra guys aren't having it and the SVX Lemons team wants H6 power. After hearing about beam bending, headers, intake cams off 91 models tht you can get at Pull-A Part for $20, I started to visulaize the "we should have brought a car with a carburator award" that the SVX won in New Orelans. ..."but you can sell all this stuff and make like 8000 dollars!" We'll see...

Team Titlemax prepares for 2010 24 hours of Lemons season

Quest for a Lemon

After doing 3 24 Hours of Lemons races in 2009 in a SVX with a modified 3rd gen Camaro cage, I decided I would find a car to campaign that has a cage that won't kill me. The SVX was very fast by lemons standards, so I had big shoes to fill. I have a couple buddies that are Sentra-savants and they convinced me that if I bought a Sentra SE-R, that it would be the fastest thing ever. After searching and test driving death traps all over middle Tennessee, one of our prospective drivers had an idea to put a WTB ad on Craigslist. We called him an idiot. There will be way too many serial killers replying. Well the one and only response came from a lady with a 95 Sentra SER and she was 5 miles from my house! I went by and after her blind dog bit me in the hand, I asked how much? She said, well I was trying to get $700, but...... The ad explained about the $500 limit and i reiterated, stating that $500 was all I could do. She said she could do that because she had a titlemax loan that was coming due the next day. I felt guilty immediately, but then she acted excited about what I was going to do with the car and I think she may have wanted some Bob-action. She said if you can bring me cash we can go to titlemax right now. Done deal! Sweet!