Actually, the Arrow did all right for its time, certainly a more interesting car than most of the other vaguely sporty economy machines of the Middle Malaise Era. We wish more Arrows were on the street today, but most were crushed decades ago. Thanks to Joe Hardrock for the tip!

Yes, she is. In addition to the three LeMons races under her belt, she has run a best quarter-mile of 11.01 seconds at 123.36 MPH in her MkIV Supra.

We met Anna for the first time about a year ago, at the BS Inspection of the very first Yeehaw It's Texas 24 Hours Of LeMons.

Her team was running a third-gen Camaro in that race, and they finished a very close second place- by far the best performance for a Camaro in LeMons history. Did the Camaro sneak some super-cheaty suspension mods past the LeMons Supreme Court due to Anna's distracting influence, or was it just a combination of driving skill and luck? Naturally, I'm inclined to the latter opinion but, it is pretty tough to concentrate when she's in Mess With The Judges mode; this is a very smart woman who clearly knows exactly how to get men to do as she says.

Hell, maybe we should make her a judge for the next Texas LeMons race. Let's see those slick Texan cheaters try to lie to the Bikini Racer!
Thanks to Anna for the photos!

[Bikini Racer]

Back in 1970, Ralph Truppi and Tommy Kling built an LS6-equipped Chevelle convertible into a machine that utterly dominated the SS/EA class that season. After that, the car knocked around the country in your typical famous-race-car odyssey, eventually getting restored back to street-legal trim and selling for $1.2 million at Barrett-Jackson in 2006. Last month, the same car fetched... $264,000 at auction. What will it be worth when the Financiopocalypse is over?
[New York Times]

Miller was a racer from the start, joining the ranks of drag racers in the 1950s and racing at various levels for forty years. He took time off to raise a family, and took his boys to the track on almost every weekend there was racing, lending a hand and talking cars with all who would have it. When the nest emptied, he ran an AMC Concord until an aneurysm limited his sight, and even then he kept going to the track, even attending the Labor Day races this year. He was considered a pillar of the racing community at Great Lakes Dragway in Union Grove, Wisconsin. He died last Tuesday, and as a fitting tribute, his family arranged to have the hearse bearing his casket take him on one last run down strip. The time wasn't great, 45 seconds at 27 mph, but a fellow racer, upon discovering what was going on, said "So they took him on his last pass. Cool. That's cool." We agree. (Thanks for the tip mytdawg)

[Kenosha News]

The Super Mustang was actually a collaboration between McEwan and Ford Motor Company and it's nothing if not jaw-droppingly cool. What's funny about the car is it's essentially traditional mechanical construction for dragsters of the era. A monster motor sits ahead of the driver, who sits with his legs over the rear axle. What's unique is the all-fiberglass and plexi streamlined body with a Mustang logo in a plexi-bubble up front to let everyone know it's quite obviously all Ford Mustang underneath, or at least was a great marketing tool. If you want the absolute whole story on the car and have stacks of vintage Car Craft's laying around, check out the April 1967 edition, it's the cover story.

Simple formula here, take a beat up old C10 pickup, drop a snarling 502 cubic inch big block under the hood and feed it a nose full of nitrous, back it with an all-drag-racing driveline, reinforce the chassis, put some huge Hoosier drag slicks on the back, and a truck cap and a Pizza delivery sign on the top and go racing. Oh, we forgot to add, make sure it has a sweet train horn.
This is the creation of Sean, who in turn is the creator of "Pimp Juice," an extremely popular waterbox solution, used to clean and warm up tires ahead of a drag run which also happens to be great at accentuating the formation of vaporized rubber clouds. Such acts of malady towards tires is no problem for this monster, but it's just is so sneaky it's practically cheating. He even went the extra mile with the license plate, how perfect is "ZZZZZZ" for this beast? As an aside, we just have to mention how awesome this guys truck dog is. (Thanks for the tip Terry) [1320 Video via LS1Tech]

Hmmm… 25.766 seconds is a bit slow for an RX-7, we'll admit (the '76 Continental managed to get into the 17s, eventually), but the crowd at the No Problem Raceway dragstrip didn't mind. They were there to watch LeMons cars and BABE Rally cars blow up on the track roar down the quarter-mile!

The BABE Rallyers started to roll into No Problem on Saturday afternoon, having driven their heaps down from New York. Their cars and trucks fit right in with the LeMons cars, though their tool collections were noticeably smaller. In addition to the Trashwagon Toyota Camper here, we saw a Plymouth Volaré, an 80s El Camino, a frighteningly rusty Volvo 244 Turbo, a Fiero, an Olds 98 convertible, and a vast green aircraft carrier of a Lincoln Continental.

Once the day's LeMons race session ended, any racer or rallyer with $20 in his or her hand could line up at the dragstrip and go to it. Adding a note of hilarity, plenty of locals in 12-second Mustangs and the like showed up, which led to such entertaining matchups as a BABE Ford LTD with driver and passenger in full clown suits taking on a nitrous-snorting, wheelstanding 11-second Bronco. The Mopar F-Body Phanatics team decided that their Slant Six could take on all comers, provided they lightened the car by removing doors, hood, and trunk.

None of the LeMons cars had passenger seats, so I bummed a ride down the strip in this 460-powered, bling-enhanced Continental Mark IV. It wasn't so quick, but managed some excellent burnouts.

In the other lane was the Blue Goose VW GTI, which racked up the quickest quarter-mile time of all the LeMons and BABE drag racers: 15.8 seconds. Most of the LeMons cars were in the 16s; even the Celica that took the checkered flag the next day had a best time in the high 16s. Unfortunately, many of the LeMons teams declined to participate, fearing that they'd break their race cars (as if pounding the crap out of their cars on a road course all day long is considered low stress), so we decided to give each LeMons team that drag raced a Get Out Of The Penalty Box Free card for the next day's racing.

355 HP from a 3.5 liter twin turbocharged V6 is nothing to sneeze at, but we've never really heard verified quarter mile times for either the Lincoln MKS or Ford Flex, so we jumped at the chance to run them at Milan Dragway when Ford called us up. After all, big talk about stuff like "fuel economy" and "V8-like performance" isn't squat unless the cars can turn in the numbers. Although we've already driven the Lincoln MKS EcoBoost, we've yet to drive the similarly ecoboosted Ford Flex. We weren't allowed behind the wheel this time either, but we did get to watch as Ford engineers peeled out from the starting tree.

So we hit the "Test and Tune" night at the Dragway, better known as "run whatcha brung." The gates open at 5:00 pm and through them pour a wide spectrum of vehicles, everything from clapped together hoopties we're pretty sure tech looked the other way on to drag rails to snowmobiles. Yes, they race snowmobiles, nine second, 130 MPH snowmobiles. So when three MKS and a Ford Flex showed up, let's just say the crowd didn't exactly go wild. Once we popped the hoods though, those in the know crowded around the cars. "Yes, it's the SHO powertrain" was very often repeated.

And then over the loudspeaker "All street tire cars proceed to the staging area." We were up. It's a very strange thing to stage a quiet, luxurious, $48,000 Lincoln next to snarling, barely-road legal Mustangs and GTO's, but we made our way to the front of the line. We lined up at the lights, windows up, air conditioning off, traction control disabled, brake stand, revs at 3000 rpm and green! The unassumingly Lincoln then proceeded to return a 14.1 second quarter mile with a trap speed of 104.4 MPH. When we parked, there were quite a few more people interested in what was under the hood. Ours wasn't even the fastest time of the evening. Later in the evening, when the temperature had dropped and the cars had cooled down, former Jalopnik hack and Car & Driver man about town Mike Austin managed a 13.9 second run at 104 MPH. Yes, that's right — you can buy a 13 second Lincoln.

But what about that EcoBoost Flex? Well, despite all our ribbing and negotiating, Ford wouldn't let us behind the wheel, but that didn't stop them from having a good 'ole time of it. Would you believe the Flex, with all of it's 4500 lbs of heft and the aerodynamics of a brick wall managed a 14.5 second run at 98 MPH? Turns out 355 HP and a torque curve as flat as Iowa can really wake up a car's performance.

Here's the thing about both of these cars — they were running consistently all night long. If you want to be a bracket racing hero and take the kids out to soccer practice the next day, the Flex will do 14.5 s at 95 to 98 MPH run after run after run. Same with the MKS, speeds were in the 103 to 104 MPH range and we picked up 1/10 of a second for each 5 degrees the temperature dropped, 14.1 to 13.9 as the night grew cooler.

Someone should really tell Ford they need this setup in the Mustang.

The "Beat the Heat" program started in 1984 and has grown into a huge event with custom drag-racing cop cars and tons of participation. The aim of the program is to educate kids and hooligans alike on the dangers of street racing and give them a cheaper alternative. Of course, having some fun and good PR is an added benefit.

The event is hosted at local dragways and is fully funded by donations and the $25 entry fee. As long as you're over 18 and have a license you can bring whatever you want and go up against your choice of suped-up squad car. Organizers are quick to point out a marked decrease in illegal racing in nearby areas since the program began. If you're interested and live in the area, the next event is set up for May 23rd at the County Line Drag Way in Miami-Dade County, Florida. If you ask us, this is a darn good idea. [Beat The Heat, Officer.com]

The "Cool Bus" is a one-of-a-kind exhibition drag racing vehicle, hand-crafted by its owner, Ken Nelson, to look like a school bus (built to scale, of course). At 20 feet long, 6 feet wide and 6 feet high, we're told it's believed to be the longest wheelbase wheelstander ever created.

The highly detailed body designed and built by Ken, is made of aluminum and fiberglass. All lights and flashers operate in the same manner as a real school bus and the body is painted regulation yellow and black with all the details you'd expect from a school bus. Well, except it's the "Cool Bus."

The chassis is constructed of steel tubing and meets all NHRA and IHRA safety specifications including a full roll cage, safety harness, emergency shut-off switch and other requisite safety items.

But it's under the hood that's the really cool thing in this school bus. The "Cool Bus" wheelstander is powered by a rear-mounted, alcohol-fueled, blown and injected big block Chevrolet engine which produces around 1000 HP! The power is transferred to the rear wheels through a GM 400 Turbo transmission, into a transfer case, then into a full floating rear-end.

Ken has over 25 years experience as a car and chassis builder, having built his last five wheelstanders. He has also built vehicles for several other exhibition teams and many street rods. He's not some newbie in a garage-built monstrosity. But that doesn't stop accidents from happening. Flash forward to the end of this past month — March 28th — and this video of Ken Nelson's "Cool Bus" Wheelstander hanging on to the wheel stand for just a little bit too long, crashing at the O'Reilly Thunder Jam at Edinburg International Raceway in Edinburg, Texas. The good news is, he was out of the bus before the rescue crews got there and was up and walking around with no injuries. The bus however, looks like it'll be out of commission for a little while. Hopefully not too long.

[Cool Bus]

Photo Credit: kid_entropy, mladymeisha

This makes a nice follow-up to the documentary of the 1965 Targa Florio race. Totally different type of racing, of course, but the same sense of golden-age racing action. Thanks to Hellhammer for the tip!

It turns out that No Problem Raceway, site of the Laissez Les Crapheaps Roulez LeMons New Orleans race in June, has a full quarter-mile dragstrip. That means that the very same cars that spend all day Saturday being beat to hell on the racetrack (which should feature parts-breakin' 100-degree/100%-humidity weather conditions) will be able to spend the evening making like the protagonists in a Jan & Dean song (had Jan & Dean included references to cane fields, voodoo, and big scary swamp insects in their drag-racing-themed work). Ah, the smell of fried clutches… the staccato chorus of E30 engines bouncing off the rev limiter… the sight of connecting rods fleeing their confines via new holes in hoods and oil pans- it ought to be concentrated essence of hoonage. But hold on there, Big Daddy- it gets even better! Those LeMons cars won't just be knocking off 16-second times against each other; the Big Apple To Big Easy Rally contestants will arrive in New Orleans just in time for the 24 Hours Of LeMons. The BABE Rally features $500 cars, just like LeMons, and we're sure the BABE teams will be eager to put those so-called race cars in their place when the Christmas tree goes green. So make sure you mark your calendar for the first weekend in June, because you'll definitely want to be there for the First Annual JunkerNationals! Here's what LeMons Chief Perpetrator Jay Lamm has to say:

Don't let the crocs and the voodoo dissuade you, mon cher: There's just one week left to enter LeMons New Orleans (aka "Laissez les Crapheaps Roulez," 23-24 May at No Problem Raceway in Belle Rose LA). Get those apps in no later than midnight on Saturday, 28 March 09, or you cry in your gumbo without us. Click here to apply.

What's that? You say that endurance-racing $500 junkers in full Nomex at 100% humidity isn't quite idiotic enough for you? You think it'd be easier to just stay home, seal yourself in a trash bag, and spin in the dryer all weekend? Fear not: In addition to the usual LeMons hullabaloo, Saturday will see the first-ever BABE Rally vs. LeMons Drag-Race Junker-Nationals. If those limeys think their $500 rally cars can blow up more spectacularly than our $500 racecars on the dragstrip, they've got another think coming. It's two ill-conceived, rod-bearing-destroying motorsport contests in one, n'est-ce pas?

That's right, Jalopnik Book Reviews are in the house, and I'll do my best to make this a regular weekend feature. If it's printed and has something to do with cars, we might be reviewing it here- shop manuals to NASCAR romance novels!

We're going to start off this series with a book about a subject that had damn well better be dear to the hearts of all our readers: Mickey Thompson. Thompson's 1964 memoir, Challenger, should be considered a 27-alarm must-read (well worth the crazy high price tag for a used copy; that's my read-50-times thrift-store copy on the left), with its accounts of the 1953 and 1954 Carrera Panamerica races alone being worth the cost. However, Challenger was written only halfway through MT's career, and he was too sharp a businessman not to make his memoir a masterpiece of promotional spin for his various endeavors. Especially maddening is the lack of detail concerning Thompson's revolutionary Indy 500 cars, which were still works-in-progress during the writing of Challenger.

Erik Arneson's Mickey Thompson: The Fast Life And Tragic Death Of A Racing Legend tells the whole MT story, from his early days of salt-flat madness and drag racing innovation, through the speed-parts and indoor off-road-racing businesses, to his murder and 20-year pursuit of the former business partner who was convicted of the hit in 2007.

This book gets an excellent Jalopnik Four Rod Rating™, thanks to the clarity of Arneson's writing style and the fascinating subject matter, but that rating comes with a caveat: the serious MT fan will emerge from the book wanting more. This book is attempting to be two books in one: biography of an innovative genius who revolutionized just about every field he entered, and true-crime/pursuit-of-justice account. Unfortunately for geeked-out gearheads like me, the focus on the kind of man MT was and the trial of Mike Goodwin comes at the expense of the mechanical stuff we want to know about.



For example, check out this photo showing a detail of the 406-MPH, quadra-Pontiac-engined Challenger's drivetrain. The chains! The gears! How did this setup work? What was it like to build? Now multiply that by ten thousand and you can sense the dilemma of trying to do justice to the engineering and fabrication übergod that was Mickey Thompson. The main sources for the book were Thompson's relatives, particularly his son, Danny, and thus it tends to heavy on the "Mickey was a great guy" and "Goodwin is pure pond scum" stuff while being light on the engineering and business-of-motorsports innovation Thompson accomplished. That's not to say that the story of the hunt for the killers of Mickey and Trudy Thompson doesn't make for fascinating reading, of course, but elsewhere… well, I'd be willing to swap the three pages of description of Thompson's house on the Palos Verdes Peninsula for another three pages on the building of the Carrera Panamerica cars, for example.


Fortunately, there's ample material on MT's Indianapolis 500 efforts of the mid-1960s. While bad luck kept his mid-engined, Buick aluminum 215-powered cars from serious contention, they marked the beginning of the end for the old front-engined Offenhauser-powered Indy cars, and Thompson designed everything from the chassis to the tires themselves. Later on, Thompson managed to find a way to turn Baja-style off-road racing into a profitable indoor spectator sport, and the twists and turns of the SCORE series make for interesting reading for students of the business of racing. Like I said, a Four-Rod Rating™. Murilee says check it out!

[Motorbooks]

The folks at Pep's Garage have gathered a great collection of old-time drag racing photographs, including quite a few from Mickey Thompson's legendary Lions Drag Strip. Wheelstanding bathtubs, puking engines, and some head-clutchingly scary setups are here for your viewing enjoyment.
[Pep's Garage, thanks to McLarenF1LM for the tip]

With the usual round of tuner tweaks, Hennessey has cranked the ZR1 from a crazy full-bore hypercar to a "We're going to hell in four dimensions" doom rocket. With a basic intake, pulley, tune and exhaust, the ZR1's output screams up to 705 HP and 717 LB-ft of torque in a completely streetable, reliable package.

The first part of the clip has the drag launch money shot. You'll enjoy it.

[Streetfire]

It seemed like everything was going so well, he was already in second and pulling strong. Maybe he just realized he was about to lose to a wagon and bailed. Hey Pa, can you go fetch the rifle for us, because that's one Mustang with a seriously broken leg.

[Streetfire]

We really wanted to swap in a more potent small-block Ford and take the V8olvo to the dragstrip, then put the LeMons engine back in when we were done burning rubber and howling at the moon, but that fragile Dana 30 rear could never stand up to the abuse. It's on the ragged edge of disintegration right now, being road-raced with a 1986 Ford 302. Hellhammer had two choices: make the existing race car LeMons-ineligible by blowing the budget and putting a beefy Ford 9" or GM 12-bolt in it… or buy another cheap Volvo 240 and make a super-sleeper drag car out of it, keeping the Black Metal V8olvo on the LeMons circuit. And if you're going to do that, why, you might as well get the sporty two-door 242, preferably a '75 so's the smog cops don't kick down your door (1976 and newer vehicles must pass emissions tests in California). And, as luck would have it, Hellhammer did some horse-trading and now has a healthy 450-horse stroker small-block Chevy sitting in his garage, right next to a drag-ready Powerglide. As we already know, the Chevy fits nicely in the Volvo 240 engine compartment.

So, eventually the List That Is Craig's produced a long-dormant 1975 Volvo 242, sunk to its axles in the redwoods and ferns of the Santa Cruz mountains and priced down in scrap-metal territory. Bay Area law-enforcement types will tell you that these hills are a body-dump magnet for murderers from throughout the region, since it's freeway convenient, yet remote enough that suspicious eyes won't be on your digging in the nice soft shovel-friendly dirt… and you definitely get a weird, haunted vibe tromping through the woods in search of a cheap car (the secret meth labs and their twitchy, heavily-armed workers add a frisson of real danger to the experience as well). The guy selling the car was the property owner, but he was out of state and just mailed Hellhammer the key and bill of sale; we hooked up the trailer and ventured down some winding single-lane roads to find the car. There it was, right next to a long-abandoned Transporter!


The back window was busted out, so the interior was pretty icky after 10 years of exposure to the elements, but the mechanical stuff all looked solid. The junkyards are overflowing with well-cared-for Volvo 240s, so it's no sweat to find interior components in nice shape.


Some critter had been nesting in the engine compartment for quite a while. That old B21 isn't frozen and might work fine- and, in fact, there's been some crazy talk going around about building a Volvo-powered LeMons Spitfire- but it's going to need all those gnawed wires and hoses replaced. For now, it's going to sit in the weeds behind Hellhammer's garage, with all the other future project engines.


A couple hours of digging, cursing, and wrestling of floor jacks in the mud were required to get some good wheels and tires onto the car, enabling us to hook up a chain and drag it out with Hellhammer's beater Chevy pickup. Then we had a really exciting adventure rolling it down a long driveway to the main road, the nearest level spot to get it onto the trailer; this task was made (slightly) easier by the semi-functioning brakes. That's right, a Volvo can sit in the woods for 15 years and the brakes will still work! His plan is to get the body and interior looking good, then set it up as a street sleeper/weekend drag racer machine.