Right at this moment, bank failures aside, the Fed is trying to inflate our way out of depression. We've been swimming in cheap money for YEARS, and now there's inflation (energy, the whole Prius thing, groceries etc.) and deflation (your house is worth between 10 and 30 percent less than it was last year) at the SAME TIME!

Good luck with that.

I think in the long term it makes sense for Toyota to build the Prius in the States, just to help damp out some of the currency swings. I've driven the last generation model, and I say 'meh.'

But I'm also building an SV650 powered 1972 Honda Z600 car that ought to get 45 mpg, so don't take anything I say too seriously.

So at least out here in metrosexual northern California there are people buying Toyota trucks who work them hard.

This is my brother's second Toyota pickup and my uncle's 5th. (I'm on my 3rd.) We as a family have owned examples of ALL of the big 3's trucks, and keep going back to the 'no one uses them for serious work' Toyotas.

Obviously the plural of anecdote is not data, but Viergang's diatribe against the Tundra seems not based in reality. This is the second? generation of the Tundra, and all of the manufacturers are moving the game on in various ways. So Toyota has a plant running at half speed. How about the truck plants GM is closing/retooling to build econocars? Everyone guessed wrong about the financial downturn and $4.30/gal gas, so Toyota's in the same basket as everyone else. So what?

How about a SpeedSportLife Towing test of a Tundra? Toyota won't give you one?

As for Clarkson, good on him for giving the V sign to the overwhelmingly observant British nanny state. Yes, he's a bit of a prat, but so be it.

No lasting harm done though, so all in good fun. Definitely a hoonage display that will live on for a long time, to be told to your kids when you are an old guy surrounded by Prii and other neutered cars of the future...

That said, I appreciate your distinction(s) between exposure and risk, which comes back around to my original thesis of 'risk management' which I think encompasses your point.

There are also mitigating issues like organized competition or even a trackday, but that makes your point, so I won't go there, heh. I also fear the absolute ALL CAPS declaration that might indicate that you are more dogmatic about this than you might think, but I'll take that chance.

Every member of our Lemons race team has years of experience riding motorcycles at unreasonable velocities on some of the greater Bay Area backroads, so this whole car racing thing seemed pretty tame.

I was a roadracer for 10 years or so, in the top 10~ish percent of the club racing scene for a brief time, and I have for sure the 'less self preservation instinct than might be appropriate' gene under those circumstances. On the other hand, I don't drink/smoke/etc., and am polite and nice to drive/ride with when hoonage is not the thing to do.

To me, it's about risk management, and I truly feel sad for Tanshanomi's choice of risk and dry statistical distillation of 'an average motorcycle rider' (with extremely skewed statistics to make his point) into someone bound for early death and pain.

I've already been there, some years ago. Six days of coma, six weeks in the hospital, my family's fear that I'd be developmentally six years old for the rest of my life, and the amazing experience of waking up as myself once again one sunny Monday morning. I'm far less likely to put myself in a similar situation as I age, but the chance is still there.

I accept those risks, and respect the risk management tolerance of anyone else. All anyone can do.

ONSET (that 'effin Cavalier wagon...)

You guys were seriously quick in that agglomeration of Swedish and American and god knows what other iron. Bummer that you had some bad luck and a little funky team chemistry. An outstanding first go, and I'm sure you'll be out there again. People have figured this style of racing out somewhat by now, so there's a lot more competition at the sharp end.

I think after 5 races it's time to find another '87 Cavalier wagon, this one's a bit used up.

@ViergangFuchs: Thanks for that, see you in Ohio.

Of course, when I talked to the absent Michigan member of ONSET, he said: "Well, that means there were 8 people in front of you- so what do we have to do to win this thing?..." Yeah, he's a taskmaster.

Happy to have finished as well as we did, it was an adventure.

OUTRUN music [www.pressplayontape.com]

Go to the bottom of the download page for full effect Magical Sound Shower...

Racing Destruction Set for the C64, man was that game cool.

Although I was just GIVEN a 1972 Honda AZ600 and a pile of parts, the temptation is mighty. Smaller than anyone out there, the driver seat would have to be right in the middle for any chance of survival. Not sure how long the fan-cooled 600cc twin would survive either...

Altamont's a bullring, I'll be amazed if they manage to keep people in check, but hopeful all the same. For Altamont you need a car that has good drag raceability and is stable on the brakes while turning, 'cause you'll be doing a never-ending series of short drag races followed by skill/balls contests going into the two corners coming off the banking.

The Cav can do both. Good luck with your clearly inferior (to a late model Japanese or BMW car, certainly not a bloody Cavalier...) cars.

Good game.

No way I'd run one in LeMons though, a guy could get hurt in there!

You bastards! Having witnessed the Fuchs in Detroit, you guys gotta fast guy there. Make sure you save him for a little later, when the carnage is reduced, and the CAR COUNT is reduced, then you can slip your ringer in there and do some damage.

We learned that sometimes a ringer can be a liability if he thinks more'n about 25% of these guys know how to drive and expects professional behavior of any sort.

The Cavalier of doom will be there in May, maybe two of 'em if we can finish the frosty Ann Arbor build

Hopefully being air cooled and all it won't be a huge (relatively) slow bike like the CB1000F 'Big One' of a few years ago...

I will probably be buying one of these, it's the lineal descendant of the '83 CB1100F, which I wanted badly when I was a lad.

People did race the 1981-'88 Cavaliers in England, they were actually J-cars during that period.

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.

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.

There have been something like 30000 DJ5s made from 1969-84, LHD,RHD, all variants. They're still out there, but they have almost no rust resistance, so they haven't survived in the salt.

Use crazedlist to search all local craigslists and you'll find them around.
The 1974-1978 232/258-727 powertrain is the best of the bunch, though they got proper ball joints on the solid front axle in 1979 I think.

My 1973 California post office DJ has a pretty rusty body despite being in dry weather for most of its life.

Of course we are all driving gods, why would you think otherwise?

The Tiki Team were next to us both last Altamont and this weekend. Those guys and their FX16 had hard luck only overshadowed by the other blown up cars, that thing was seriously bent when they went back out Sunday.

[img.photobucket.com]

I'll work on some kind of slideshow to show the poor thing's transformation into a mongrel hot rod.

It was a fun project, maybe I'll be able to convince Jay it was $500... I mean, it was free, but I've done a lot to it.

I had a 1973 DJ5, and went completely nuts. I swapped in an AMC Pacer front subframe, for IFS and disc brakes, and then yanked out the 80hp 232 and threw in a '98 Camaro 3800.

And yes, it has two steering wheels.

Mostly though, it's because my engineer buddy bought one as is first car working for GM, and he knows how to make it work. It's an easy car to drive, and aside from cooking its front tires at Thunderhill (2/3 of its weight on the front wheels), it does whatever you want.

Oversteer, understeer, spinning free...

(ONSET/Two Wheels Too Many) yes, THE CAVALIER!

Most unlikely, I guess because of the fact that we were dumb enough to do ALL the races this year, I/we won the 'Driver of the Year' award, whatever that's worth.

I've had a great crew, from the GM Powertrain team member that got good power from the J-Car dustbin 2.8, to the fabricators and welders and Jay, the maniac organizer of it all.

We are now at a turning point; go serious and practice pit stops and stuff, or keep going quickly but un-seriously?

The judges looked skeptical. If these yahoos don't get at least SOME penalty laps, I'm gonna be pissed. That thing is QUICK.

That said, the Mazda sedan thingy was an actual ex-Touring Car, and it handles great.

See you guys out there!

#84 Two Wheels Too Many (ONSET '87 Cavalier wagon)

I was being defensive because we and our beater Cavalier got F'd up royally at the October race. Rear-enders, big sideswipes, frontal action, it was a complete zoo compared to July. It's great that there are some more aggro rules now, but who knows if they will actually be enforced enough to make a difference.

But it's exactly that kind of behavior that'll get you (righteously I might add) in trouble under the new LeMons rules.

Check out the new subsection 6 in the rules, and see you next weekend! I hope your car is just about ready, we just finished replacing the crash parts from October...

One of my favorite trackdays was at Willow Springs when there were a couple guys- one with an early 320, and one with a late 2002, total beemer knobs. Obsessive placement of the electrical tape on the headlights for the perfect picture, and lots of 'tire warming' swervery on the warmup laps. In 95 degree weather. The 320i driver rolled it in grand style in turn 9 at about 80. Only one roll, lucky him. There wasn't a single straight body panel left on that car... He then plotted ways of getting it towed out to the highway and calling his insurance company. Sheesh. At least his buddy still had a running car to take him home.

We're all above average, right?

That said, it's inevitable that the odd one will get away from you now and again.

I've had one 'charged' at-fault accident in my 20 year driving career, and LOTS of single vehicle hoonable biffs, but none that disabled the car to the point that I couldn't drive it home.

I think years of motorcycle racing and now LeMon racing have both kept me sharp and provided an outlet for the hoonage instinct.

I just got my first traffic ticket in 5 years because I wasn't paying attention. I told the cop: "I totally deserve this one for not paying attention." "Not because I think what I was doing was particularly hairball, but that I wasn't paying enough attention to see you back there."

He wasn't too happy, in his CHP sort of way, but he actually wrote me for far less than I did.

I too was/am a 'smart' guy who barely got out of high school, went off to work on motorcycles for 10 years and finally ended up a Cal grad.

Love COTD, and the Jalop in general.

Still bummed that Murilee didn't make it off the island to check out my buddys 1961 Lancer GT, but we'll have to park it at Lee's Auto sometime and hope...

Looking forward to the last 24Hrs of Lemons, the Cavalier OF DOOM will be there for its 4th race of the year. I think I'm going to buy a truck just to haul it around for ALL 6+ races next year. See you guys out there.

I know several cops here in Oakland, and they have all said that that 'officer' would be cooling his heels under suspension for some time at least, not to mention the (no doubt huge) suit against McTaser chucklehead.

Of course in Oakland, having the time to pull someone over for a plate in the back window would be a luxury...