These cars are rare even in their native Japan, so it was an exciting moment for loyal Jalopnik reader Nick to spot one in Central America. Hey, check out that Dave Zinn Toyota emblem on the trunk lid; looks like this car made the drive from Florida to about 1,000 miles to the southwest. Here's what Nick has to say about his find.

So I live in Argentina (originally from Vermont) and had the chance to go to Nicaragua with my dad recently. I spent a couple days attending a fair trade conference and then had some time on my own to travel. I was in Granada when I spied this beautiful toyota than I just had to take some photos of. Unfortunately the windows were completely tinted so I had no shot at seeing inside but I tried my best to capture the car.

I am an avid jalopnik reader without actually knowing much about the history and inner-workings of cars and I've always enjoyed the DOTS section. There is something about older cars that excites me. With this car, I especially liked the "liftback" badge which I had never seen. The whole GT thing also helps.

I've got quite a backlog of DOTSBE vehicles built up, so I'll try to do at least a few every weekend from now on. Thanks for sending 'em in, and for your patience if you've been waiting a year... or two.

I'm so completely exhausted after three days of swampy weather, drive-through daiquiris, and the smell of nuked engines that there's no way in hell I can go into any detail about what's happened here. Just: one lap difference, and it all came down to which of the two teams solved a late-in-the-game fuel-system problem the fastest. Check in later in the week for the traditional Top Lemons Of LeMons post!

That's right, it appears that the three SHOs that started the race have become one running SHO and a pair of parts cars, and they've got plenty of wrenchin' company in the pits. Yet some of the cars are holding together, and we saw an ever-shifting cast of top contenders today. When the first session ended at 6:30, the Dirty Some Beaches Honda Civic station wagon was on top. How? Well, any Civic that can keep its head gasket intact will get around the track pretty well, and the Dirty Some Beaches drivers know how to avoid the black flags; we have yet to see them in the Penalty Box. Adding drama to the standings, the #4 car (a Miata run by the same Texans who have been the People's Curse victims in both Houston races so far) started out with a 25-lap penalty and has managed to claw its way out of that hole, now closing to within just two laps of the leader. And what's the deal with that Grand Prix in the top ten? There's no telling how this will all shake out, but it should be 90 degrees and swampy in Belle Rose tomorrow, which means more thrown rods, more fried brakes, and more overall hoonage.

I was pulling a couple of window cranks off this Spitfire, for installation on the 20R Sprite Hell Project), when these guys noticed my 24 Hours Of LeMons baseball cap. "We're thinking about entering the Buttonwillow Histrionics race, but we can't decide on a car," one told me. "Any advice?"

Naturally, my #1 choice for a first-time LeMons team would be a Triumph Stag. You can get this one for $450, and any team showing up with a Stag for their first-ever LeMons race would become instant Legends In Their Own Time. One lap around Buttonwillow in a Stag would be more glorious than 100 laps in a boring old 325i or Camaro, and talk about your Index Of Effluency slam-dunk! However, some teams have different priorities; some want to take the checkered flag, while others just want a car that can maximize seat time by running for a whole weekend.



Yeah, the LeMons newcomers often have this insane idea that it's possible for them to take the overall win (I know, I've been there), and that they'll be taking the big trophy and the 200 pounds of nickels at the awards ceremony. Well, that's just impossible, new guy; even a team stacked with experienced racers will still be looking at a pretty harsh learning curve the first time they get out there on a track full of rickety, parts-shedding junkheaps piloted by totally unpredictable hoons. We've read some great advice from previous winners (not to mention my personal cheating tips), and the Gator-O-Rama LeMons-winning Team Formula M For Mullet guys have shared their secrets as well (check in later for that). So if you're not willing to take on the Stag or, say, a Humber Sceptre, and you recognize that you can't win the thing on your first try, what car will maximize the amount of track time you'll get, while not being so slow as to make all the other racers hate your guts for being a big unflushable turd of a roadblock? First, let's talk about some seemingly good choices that aren't so good in reality:



LeMons Bad Car Choice #1: Any Honda or Acura. Honda makes some incredible 300,000-mile engines, and even a Civic HX will be pretty quick around a racetrack. The 2nd-gen Integra is probably the quickest legitimate $500 road-race car you can buy. However, Honda engines tend to puke at LeMons races; I've seen more blown head gaskets and thrown rods on Honda LeMons cars than on all other makes combined.


LeMons Bad Car Choice #2: Mazda Miata. Yeah, yeah, you and your buddies race Miatas all day long, and you totally know where to get one for, like, a hundred bucks. Thing is, we won't believe you during the BS Inspection, and half the other racers at the track will hate your guts because they know There Are No Cheap Miatas Out There.


LeMons Bad Car Choice #3: BMW E30. The E30 is one fast mo-fo, and that's no lie! You can get a pretty good runner for a few hundred bucks, too… you and half the other racers at any given 24 Hours Of LeMons race, that is. They break down on the track with depressing regularity (generally with fiendishly undiagnosable electrical ailments or fiendishly inaccessible mechanical failures), and there's something about an E30 that turns normally mild-mannered racers into regular Penalty Box visitors. We could go on and on (I might add the Mazda RX-7, Datsun/Nissan Z/ZX, 3rd-gen GM F-body, and a few others to the LeMons Beginners' Looks Good But Isn't Car Choice list) but it's time to get on with the good choices. To make this list, I consulted with the guy who knows more about good and bad LeMons machinery than any man alive: Nick Pon, LeMons Assistant Perpetrator and our own TheEastBayKid:


LeMons Good Car Choice #1: Toyota Corolla FX16. The big danger with a front-driver is that you'll fry the clutch and then get knocked out for five hours while you disassemble the suspension, pull the transmission, etc. However, it's worth taking that chance with an FX16, because it's impressively fast, handles predictably (very important if you don't want to talk to me and Justice Lieberman in the Penalty Box) and has proven to be a reliable LeMons machine. Plus, that engine sounds incredible; check out this video from the Schumacher Taxi Service FX16 at LeMons South '08:





LeMons Good Car Choice #2: BMW E28. We haven't seen huge numbers of E28s at LeMons races, but those that have entered have done quite well. In fact, Black Iron Racing's 535i won the LeMons SF '07 race. Is the E28 tough enough? Well, the Sharkmobile 528e has survived two races having the absolute dogshit beat out of it by its wild-eyed posse of black-flag-magnet drivers, and it's coming back for more!


LeMons Good Car Choice #3: Fox Body Mustang. The junkyards have ridiculous quantities of Fox parts (Fairmonts, Zephyrs, even the Lincoln Mark VII is based on the same chassis), the Fox handles and brakes pretty well, and it's easy to fix when something breaks. And you don't need the V8 to get around the track in a hurry; we've seen the Pinto-powered four-banger Mustangs rack up lap times indistinguishable from their 5.0-packin' brethren at race after race.


LeMons Good Car Choice #4: Mazda Protege. Mazdas tend to be pretty bulletproof at 24 Hours Of LeMons races, and Mazdas have won more LeMons events than any other marque. We don't recommend the RX-7 for LeMons n00bs (very quick, but fragile if you get hit), but how about the winner of the Arse Freeze-A-Palooza '07 race? You can get a Protege for next to nothing, the performance is pretty similar to that of a Civic (but without the tendency to blow head gaskets), and it's small enough to stay out of trouble.

Let the debates begin! If you want to see how this stuff works in reality, come to Kershaw, South Carolina, next weekend for the LeMons South Spring race. See you there!

Sorry for the convoluted report on who's reporting what here, but we're going off a post on 4wheelsnews that claims Automobile Magazine L'Automobile Magazine (sorry, it was the French-fried magazine, not the Freedom-fried version!) is reporting the rear-wheel-drive platform Toyota and Subaru are jointly developing will receive the resurrected Toyota name for Toyota's version of the coupe. This would be another reversal in Celica platform history, a car that started on a rear-wheel-drive platform for the first few generations before getting a front-wheel-drive / four-wheel-drive platform and then a full-on front-wheel-only platform for the last generation. We'll have more as we get it. [L'Automobile Magazine (maybe?) via 4wheelsnews]

Thanks to Myke Toman, Nick Pon, Zerin Dube and Speed:Sport:Life, Anna C of Bikini Racer, the Norwegian Slaabs, Saabs Gone Wild, Prison Break Racing, Team Beermer, LeMons Supreme Court Justice Lieberman, Jackson Williams, and others for their fine photographs.

We saw plenty of the usual LeMons suspects at MSR in Houston last weekend, with 10 Mustangs, 6 RX-7s, 6 E30s, 4 CRXs, 4 Neons, and 4 Miatas showing up, but we also had our first-ever Infiniti Q45, a pair of Toyota pickups, an Opel GT, and an MGB-GT (which managed to get around the track startlingly quickly, in between lengthy jail sentences in the Penalty Box). In addition to Mustangs coming in first and second, we saw some other world-turned-topsy-turvy events. How about a LeMons race in which four Saabs enter… and all four are still running at the end? Sure, all the Saabs earned the new-for-Houston punishment for hitting tire walls and/or cones (old tires bolted to the car's roof), but they didn't throw rods or send major suspension components skittering off into the weeds in the first 30 minutes of the race! A four-banger Mustang finished second, a Saturn came in third, an 80s Dodge Daytona managed to contend, and the majority of BMW E30s raced for two solid days without exhibiting the usual maddeningly undiagnosable electrical woes (blown head gaskets and axle failures, certainly, but we didn't see the all-too-common cruel drama of E30 crew members weeping over multimeters and wiring diagrams).

This time I'm going to include each team's best lap time, so y'all can see for yourselves how "fast" does not equal "win" in the 24 Hours Of LeMons. Those of you contemplating horsepower-enhancing cheats would do well to note that the four-cylinder Mustangs performed just as well as their V8 siblings, and you Miata and E30 guys can go ahead and keep thumping your chests about those absurdly quick lap times… but remember, your favorite cars got stomped by a Saturn! Those of you wanting obsessively complete lap info can go here; keep in mind that a few cars may be showing too-low best lap times due to having taken what the corner workers dubbed the "Neon Bypass" (in honor of the oft-penalized Blueballs Neons) off-road shortcut around the chicanes.

Before you go check out our 95 Texas racin' machines, I've got a video that true 24 Hours Of LeMons fans ought to find quite entertaining. First, we've got one of the hairiest Integra-jumps-BMW-wheel bits ever caught on film, courtesy of the Unintended Acceleration Audi's in-car camera:


Zerin Dube, editor of Speed:Sport:Life volunteered for judging duties at the race, and he also did a good job covering the goings-on at his site. You'll enjoy the Penalty Box Punishments and the rest of the SSL race coverage.

Thanks to Zerin Dube, TheEastBayKid, Myke Toman, and a whole bunch of race team members for many of the photographs below.
When you're done here, be sure to check out the participants of previous LeMons events, including Arse Freeze '08, Texas '08, Toledo '08, New England '08, South '08, San Francisco '08, Arse Freeze '07, and San Francisco '07. I'll put up some more LeMons stuff when I get back to my normal weekend schedule, too. And now, the racers of the 2009 Gator-O-Rama:

With a 1:38.612 best lap and a 19th-place lap ranking, the Pole Position MR2 did quite well. We'd like to see a better-executed theme next time; the blow-up doll on a stick smacks of last-second theme slacking.


Here are some serious LeMons vets, as you can tell by the oft-bashed sheet metal. They were sidelined at Altamont with some ill-fitting main bearings- who knew that 4A engines came with two different types?- but knocked off a great 17th-place finish and best lap of 1:38.178 at Thunderhill.


We were really rooting for these guys, as they were the ones who managed to roll their MR2 on the very last lap of the '07 Arse Freeze (no, this isn't the same car). With a 16th-place finish, they've got much to be proud of.


We're not quite sure what happened to this team, but with just 31 laps finished and a 1:51 best lap, we can assume mechanical woes took their toll.


These guys were pitted near the Black Metal V8olvo, and they showed up with the car totally undecorated. After the whole squad attacked their MR2 with stencils and rattle cans, they had a pretty credible last-second theme done.


Sometimes the simplest thing will really make your car stand out on the race track; in this case, it was the spotted owl on a stick mounted on the Free Range Racing car's roof. The owl's wings flapped most realistically at high speeds… until they finally tore to shreds. 70th place, but a very respectable 1:40.484 best lap.


We were pretty hard on this team during the judging, hitting them with a 20-lap penalty for insufficient documentation, then handing them spray paint and forcing them to de-lame-ify their car's theme. Of course, it turns out they were telling the truth about their car's genuine crappiness, and they managed only 23 adjusted-for-penalties laps. Let's hope they get the car running right for Reno!


Another veteran of multiple California LeMons races, the We Each Hit Racing team scorned 2-way radio communication; instead, they had a crew member hold up the giant inflatable Corona bottle as the "PIT NOW" signal to their drivers.

Most Celica Turbo All-Tracs got hooned to death years ago, and the remaining survivors are mostly pretty beat. Not this one, though; it's got just 31,133 miles on the odometer and it's shockingly original. Recharge the AC and fix the rip in the dash cover and it should be pretty much mint. Oh, sure, those 21st Century wheels will have to go, but 80s factory Toyota wheels in good shape won't set you back much. However, the price tag on this beauty will take a hefty bite out of your bankroll, to the tune of $11,000. Worth it? Not worth it? What do you think?
[Craigslist San Francisco, go here if the ad disappears. Thanks to Matt for the tip]

Most are from North America, but Japan and Australia are represented as well. Naturally, the "Oh What A Feeling" era dominates our list. Enjoy!

1963 Crown	1979 Tercel	1980 Cresta	1981 Tercel
1981 SR5 Pickup	1981 Starlet	1981 All Models	1982 Corona
1982 Celica	1982 Celica	1983 Tercel 4WD	1983 Diesel Pickup
1984 Corolla	1984 All Models	1985 Tercel 4WD	1985 Trucks
1987 Celica	1987 Corolla FX	1987 Supra	1997 All Models

Some heroic late-night wrenching — and a quick trip an hour north to Detroit — after yesterday's disastrous loss of a front wheel — has helped the #99 Celica get back on the track here at the Toledo-Detroit LeMons race. Jalopnik intern Andy Didorosi was at the helm when the Celica (and its Swedish roof) hit the track again around 6:30 AM. We're sure we'll have more details later this morning, as this Jalop was only able to make it down to the race for a quick one-hour check-in.

When mom was told the car wasn't paid for (he seems to have left that part out), this genius sent his girlfriend. She offered them $60 and asked for some sort of payment plan. When that didn't work, he asked for the car to be washed, polished and parked out front. The shop owner assumed this meant the Celica's owner ran out of women to send and was just going to steal it. The shop behind the work is in the process of getting a lien in hopes of making up some of the costs. The original post:

I have been working on Joe Dono's car for approximately 4 1/2 months.

The car was completely redone. Complete repaint including engine bay and pulling all glass and seals, smoothing out the interior panels and two toning them, building a custom sub enclosure and covering it in carbon fiber, custom amp racks and nitrous bottle brackets, carbon overlays on the roof and hatch, turbo install, e-manage install, custom fiberglass center console to mount gauges in, just a lot of work in general.

He showed up to pick his car up yesterday, Saturday August 9th, and was apparently planning on stealing his car without paying for anything.

His mother, who actually is the one financing his car, was under the impression that he had paid for materials and that he had "sponsors" that were paying us to do the labor. She wanted to know why the car was taking so long because Joe had told her it was just getting painted. He barely covered material cost and was promising to bring the very large balance in cash when the car was picked up.

I'm really not sure what was going through his head thinking he was going to get the car completely modified and knowing he has NO money to pay for it.

His girlfriend offered us $60 and wanted to know if we could set-up a payment plan. SERIOUSLY? His bill is close to $16K and he wants a payment plan.

I'm sure plenty of you have either dealt with him or heard about him. He's a detailer by trade but apparently he has no self-worth and has no problem lying and deceiving anyone and everyone.

Please feel free to chime in. His car will be for sale shortly, just need to wait on that mechanic's lien to go through

Since photographing this car downtown, I've found where it parks when off duty. Yes, it's a 33-year-old daily-driven Toyota. Who needs power door locks and cup holders?


According to the original California smog sticker, this Celica has the indestructible 20R engine. Only 90 horses, but they'd keep galloping for hundreds of thousands of miles.


2,270 pounds. That's 23 pounds less than the tiny '09 Yaris... and the Celica has rear wheel drive! Which one would you take? Airbags or character?

Nobody seems to have been hurt here, but there are definitely some bruised egos. It's worth the trip over to the BBC website to check out the video, as it's rife with funny British words and pronunciations like "sa-LEE-ka," talk of bonnets, and amusing Irish accents. We're going to hell, we know. [BBC]

The speculation points to the next generation Celica being produced by Subaru and coming in two versions: Celica GT and GT-4. Both will get the 2.0-liter boxer out of the WRX, with the GT-4 getting the 300 horsepower version of out of the STI and four-wheel drive (with in-wheel electric motors, if you can believe that). If rumor is to be believed, the new Celica will come in coupe and three-door hatchback form. Where it's sold, what it costs and when it debuts is all a matter of intuition and random guessing at this point. [AutoWeek.nl via World Car Fans]
(Photo of the FT-HS Concept)

This is the high-end GT model, with plenty of mid-1980s attitude (and- most likely- 300,000 miles available in its 22R engine).


This car's styling has held up well with the passage of 24 years; even today, it's got the looks to make your robotic alien mailbox say "Nice Car!"


Back in the day, I recall thinking this rear marker-light treatment looked pretty goofy... and I still think so now.


What is the symbol on this ornament supposed to represent? Back when we were looking at a '77 Celica, some commenters felt it was a swan, while others saw a dragon.