Detroit, 10:56 PM
Mon Nov 23
29 posts in the last 24 hours
Tip your editors:
tips@jalopnik.com
Editor-in-Chief:
Ray Wert | Email | AIM
Road Test Editor:
Wes Siler | Email
Weekend Editor:
Murilee Martin | Email
Associate Editor - Houston:
Matt Hardigree
Associate Editor - Detroit:
Ben Wojdyla
Editor-at-Large:
Mike Spinelli
Contributors:
Mark Arnold
John Krewson | Email
Andy Didorosi
| posts about #24hoursoflemonsdetroitish more → |
So What's The Deal With This People's Curse Business? |
What's It Really Like To Build And Race A 24 Hours Of LeMons Machine? |
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
Jalopnik 
06/14/09
You know, something completely unsafe looking and badass, that looks like someone probably did build it for $500, mostly out of scrap they found lying in some farmer's field somewhere.
06/14/09
06/14/09
These guys may not be loveable, but they worked just as hard on their car as anyone else, putting in (most likely) hundreds of hours to build their car, and while the Curse can and should be liable to fall upon anyone at least once, three times...especially out of 90+ different competitors...makes a good case for "If your car was previously Cursed, it is ineligible for a second such...:ahem:...award."
You may not be able to vote on the Curse, but your failure to protect these guys from persecution places you squarely in the "conspiracy" seat, and deservedly so.
06/14/09
Without the People's Curse, the only safety valve for the racers who get pissed off about some other team that they hate is whining. At us. All weekend long. Without the Curse, hair-splitting paddock lawyers would be creating and/or exploiting endless loopholes and gray areas in the rules (even more than they are now), and the best lawyer's team would run away with the race... which would make the race much less fun for 90% of the racers.
Now that we have a "nobody" option on the Curse, we may well have many races in which no cars get crushed. But when a team wins the Curse vote, we expect to see them accept it with dignity and humor.
06/13/09
When the gvm't pays people to crush old cars, it's evil
When a bunch of drunken hoons wants to do crush one, that's cool.
riiiiight
06/13/09
06/13/09
06/13/09
Force them to wear a t-shirt sayng that.
I think it's kind of an obtuse badge of honor.
But it reminds all of the douche-baggy-ness.
Yep.
06/13/09
06/13/09
06/13/09
06/13/09
There's about a 95% chance we'd be "Mechanically inept dingbats who clog up the track with repeated breakdowns" but at the same time be Amiable Tool lenders, who cook for everyone and are willing to share parts / hand you tools (probably wouldn't want our help wrenching do to the mechanically inept bit).
06/13/09
Car Type: Corvair: -50
Age: 1963: -50
Theme: Rusty Bucket (with tetanus shot theme): -10
Team: We are throwing a BBQ / Clam Bake: -60
Car Performance: Slow and moving out of the way: -100
There you have it. All those teams with Miatas and BMWs can just go suck it!
06/13/09
06/13/09
06/13/09
06/13/09
06/13/09
06/13/09
06/13/09
06/13/09
06/13/09
06/13/09
Oh, clever. But air induction would be tricky.
06/13/09
06/13/09
06/13/09
06/13/09
06/13/09
Murilee's idea.
06/13/09
...and with that I need to head out to the garage to attempt to un-freeze a brake caliper.
06/13/09
06/13/09
As for claim race, sure, if someone claims your car and you're out the labor invested, well you can just take that $500 and go buy someone else's car until the entire field has switched cars... That is logical. But to destroy one every race? Not a fan... It actually makes me not want to follow LeMons.
06/13/09
06/13/09
It's meant to be a deterrent against taking it too seriously and being too competitive.
As I'm building our car right now, I come across a lot of things I could do, but I'm definitely not going to spend that kind of time or money, knowing there are about 50 different ways the car could meet its demise.
06/13/09
And your reasoning is exactly why the Curse exists and why it should remain.
Anyone involved in LeMons who is calculating the value of labor to the point where they'd expect a check/cheque to cover their "investment" has no business competing at this level. That type of mentality belongs where the MazdaSpec guys came from; in a serious, semi-professional racing series where dollars spent and earned matter.
My ongoing concern with LeMons has been that the semi-pro guys or anyone who builds and races cars for a living will ruin this event. They immediately suck the fun out of everything, take things far too seriously, and have zero loyalty to the spirit of the event. Once they've picked all the low hanging fruit and either pissed off or demoralized everyone else, they pull out, leaving yet another ruined racing series.
I'm very happy that LeMons organizers and judges encourage actions like the People's Curse. Too many racing series' in America have been ruined by organizers allowing the big dollar teams to dominate the series, to the detriment of competitors, sponsors, and fans.
/rant
06/13/09
I want to go out and compete with an uncommon car that might be quick that I can prepare on the supercheap.
I want to go out and have fun inexpensively as possible, and LeMons is the closest I'll ever get.
06/13/09
I mean that in the nicest way possible, I really do. If you're the kind of people who can say, "Well, I don't like that, but I love the rest of it, so I can STFU about it," then I welcome you with open arms and wholehearted sincerity. But if you are SERIOUSLY saying that you think that teams should be compensated for the labour that goes into the cars before they are crushed, please, don't ever follow LeMons, because your mentality will destroy it.
The whole concept of a $500 car is to make it affordable and disposable. Yes, everyone knows how much work goes into it, but that is intended to be FUN. The blood, sweat and tears you put into the car is supposed to be a labour of love, a fun project to do with a bunch of buddy's in the knowledge that you are going to be participating in the World's Greatest Racing League in the History of EVAR.
Taking it too seriously, and bitching and whining about how much work went into it and how it's really more than a $500 car is exactly what I, for one, do NOT want to see happen in LeMons; it's absolutely fantastic as it is, and I don't want anyone fucking it up.
Thank the very heavens above for the likes of Loverman and Murilee, assisting Jay Lamm in his LeMons administration, because I know I can trust them to help keep it true.
/rant
06/13/09
06/13/09
The people who ran with their Miata might well have been able to get back on the track. Is it a gamble ? Sure, but so is racing a real $500 race car.
I do think the "none" is an excellent addition. You could also do something along the lines of if no car gets more than say 25% of the vote, then whoever "won" just gets beat up a little rather than complete destruction.
06/14/09
I like that addition, too. If there's no clear majority, maybe the top few dickheads could have their hood and trunk torn off with the backhoe and their cars left otherwise intact. Maybe a penalty-style spray-paint job.
06/13/09
On a tangent, I'm wondering: What was the fastest LeMons car ever? I understand that the different tracks result in different lap times making it a bit difficult to gauge, but I'm still curious. I want to believe it's the Mustang or the Cop Car, but I'm betting it's one of those little Miata racers...
06/13/09
That said, of the west-coast races I've been to, the MetroGnome, FrankenMiata, and the 6-speed Cop car were the fastest I've ever seen.
At Reno 09, the faster cars were coming out of the straight at ~120mph.
06/13/09
06/13/09
06/13/09
06/13/09
06/13/09
06/13/09
06/13/09
06/14/09
Otherwise, it's not exactly the people's curse-- it might be 15%-25% of the people's curse.
06/14/09
06/13/09
06/13/09
06/14/09
06/14/09
06/13/09
06/13/09
It's not a joke, they keep bringing it upon themselves.
You don't blame the electric fence they 3rd time you run into it.