When you bring a 40-year-old air-cooled Volkswagen to a LeMons race, you expect to finish way, waaaay down in the standings. When your Type 3 Fastback pulls off a 39th-place (out of 123) finish, you get the Index of Effluency!

GM continues its dominance of LeMons racing's top prize, with a Chevrolet Beretta hanging with the VWs and Toyotas for an excellent ninth-overall finish.

LeMons racing's highest award, the Index of Effluency, goes to the vehicle that achieves the most from the least. This time we saw a Daihatsu Charade finish 34th and a Plymouth Belvedere finish 33rd... but one car beat them both.

When a LeMons team races a '61 Cadillac, then runs a '63 Ford Thunderbird at, drops a BMW V12 into the car and races it, then stuffs a BMW turbodiesel in it and races that... well, IOE glory will come!

The Rocket Surgery Racing '56 Renault 4CV was, in the words of LeMons Chief Perp Lamm, "three weeks from being ready" when the race started... yet the Rocket Surgeons last-second frenzy-o-wrenchin' got the car onto the track Saturday afternoon.

When an East German car with an ill-advised Subaru/Volkswagen drivetrain swap finishes mid-pack in a 24 Hours of LeMons race, those rusty Warsaw Pact hands tend to grab the Index Of Effluency trophy and hang on for dear life.

When you bring a Renault Le Car with skunk tail and fur to a LeMons race, you've already got a big jump on the Index Of Effluency competition. All you need to do is keep the thing running all weekend.

Is there any way that a Chevy Citation X-11 that doesn't blow up during a weekend of road racing can be denied the Index Of Effluency? We didn't think so, either. Congratulations, Schumacher Taxi Service Craptation!

If you're a serious 24 Hours of LeMons fan, you know that the Index Of Effluency (given to the team that overachieves beyond all expectation with an all-around terrible car) is the real top prize. Who's leading after Day One?

Serious LeMons fans know that the Index Of Effluency— given to the team that accomplishes the most with the crappiest car— is the true top prize, and the Dust-N-Debris Dodge Shadow utterly dominated the IOE this time around.