Jalopnik
Looking at the top teams of the 24 Hours of LeMons race last weekend, we thought it was great that a Detroit car finished in second place. Of course, Neons make great race cars, so no huge surprise there... but what about an '85 Chevrolet Cavalier wagon finishing in the Top Ten? That's not a typo- a Cavalier finished ninth! Better still, one of the team members is our own commenter Xargs, who was justifiably disappointed that I didn't get any shots of his car at the Altamont LeMons event a few months back.
Xargs sent in some "before" photos of the car- does that look like a dominating race car?
It turns out that a torquey V6 and front-wheel drive do pretty well at the racetrack; this car was contending at Altamont, too, but a tractor tire-versus-oil pan conflict knocked it out of the running at that race. Team Two Wheels Too Many relocated the radiator to the rear of the car, but otherwise it's pretty close to stock.
Comments
Is this car manual or auto trans?
I'm really surprised it survived. We had a '91... Yeah good luck getting any distance out of it in the heat.
If the cold rain had continued, the front drive torque machines would have shown even better. In the LeMons, driving skill and reliability look to me to be the most important things.
@TexanIdiot25: Speaking from experience, perhaps?...
My best friend used to own a 1989 Z24. He blew a couple of head gaskets and finally cracked the head. I assisted him in the engine rebuild. We solved the problem by installing a dashboard switch so he could manually turn the cooling fan on.
Auto. We had to rebuild it after the Detroit race, or in our case, find another Fiero trans and swap the intermediate chain. Right now it's geared for 108ish flat out, which really helps on these slow tracks.
We've got it set up to lock up over 15mph so the poor thing doesn't fry itself from shift/converter heat. It's an '87, and we've got another $350 '87 wagon for May, when we'll be (probably) running TWO v6 Cav wagons at Altamont. We're probably going to keep the second car in Michigan for the East Coast races, rather than the stupidly expensive car shipping, or the soul-sucking cross country towing. We might experiment with a 6-speed, since there are G6 trans available for $150 and they bolt up to any 60* V6 pretty much, but do you really want to think that hard on the racetrack? Some of our team members were having a hard enough time learning the car without having to think about shifting.
I was bonking into the OE 97 mph speed limiter at the end of the front straight at Thunderhill, never thought that would come into play doing LeMons.
Big fun, good handling. Pity about the front tires at T-hill, but that's the price you pay for 65/35 weight distribution.
Xargs is Large
And in charge
In his Cav-luxo-barge.
I forget the rest...
Good for you, brother!
We're going to need a bigger radiator for Vegas, but it's in the works. Pick your Part here we come!
Automatic Cavalier wagons of this gen are well known as awesome race cars. They dominated SCCA in the late 80's and early 90's. And I'm pretty sure they went 1-2-3-4 at Lemans and Sebring in '89. And one the F1 constructors Championship in '87.
@polar: There at T-hill, were you? Yeah, my aggro driving style and extra 75 lb on the next smaller team member made for some arcs 'n sparks off the hill at night as I bottomed the skid plate mounting bolts. It was pretty cool. I'll be smaller for May. Doctors orders.
Speaking of Luxo-barge, it does still have a radio/CD player, with only one remaining working speaker. It was nice to have something to listen to while stranded in Turn 2 during the B210 flip red flag. Maybe I'll hook up another speaker for Altamont, it was great to be able to listen to the radio during the July yellow flag fest.
I'm still looking for a Cimarron front clip for one of the wagons, I just never seem to find one when I'm frantically doing last minute prep. This spring for sure.
@Xargs: A racer with hi-fi?
Racing these days is getting too luxurious.
QOTD: Is opera a sport?
@Xargs: You got up to 97mph? Good grief. I never got our Saab past 3rd gear at Altamont. Looks like I missed an awesome time.
@teargas: The Vauxhall Cavalier actually won the BTCC in 1995, but by then it was an Opel.
People did race the 1981-'88 Cavaliers in England, they were actually J-cars during that period.
@Ltdscott: As teh 2nd chicane got widened by bumping, eventually you could do just about the whole front straight after the first chicane flat out (at least in the Cav) and put the moves on people in Turn 1 if you had the line and the grip. I'd back off in traffic going into the 2nd chicane and then slingshot by going into 1. It was pretty cool.
@Rust-MyEnemy: Only if you wear a raincoat and throw rotten vegetables. Penalties assessed for anything landing in the orchestra pit.
@Xargs: God, I hope to be like you come this Sept. in Michigan....This is sooo Sweet!
Would the rules allow for the swap of the 4.9L V8 into the Cavalier body? Someone did it in a Citation X11 a few years ago... Info here: [thebaron.110mb.com]
@FLB: We just kept two gallon jugs of water, just in case. The rest was praying.
@Xargs: Yeah, with about 20 laps to go there was no lifting whatsoever coming down the main straight -- from any team.
Especially exciting was the SE-R as the driver was ordered to just started caning the damn thing to get from 6th to 5th.
Very, very thrilling.
My fastest lap of the weekend was 8 laps from the end.
@twx: Don't give us any more ideas.
My first car was an 86 Cavalier with a 4 banger and slushbox. These pics of your hoonage kinda make me want another. Maybe I'll get the motivation (and time) to do something for LeMons one of these years (be it J-body related or not).
Wagons rule!
I really dig the speed holes in the hood.
Zey make ze cah go fastah.
Way to represent! See, American cars can be good racecars...
And the Cavalier comes in the....niiiigggghhhhhtttt!!!
Start a discussion:
Login with your username and password below. Or comment on this post via email.
Forgot your username or password? New User?