altamont lemons 2008
Teams competing in the 24 Hours of LeMons race can check in and get their cars past the
tech inspection judges on Friday afternoon or Saturday morning. Teams showing up on Friday get first shot at the good pit spaces, and Team
Black Metal V8olvo decided to claim some real estate today. Tech inspection went smoothly and we're cleared to race.
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24 hours of lemons
When we started out to build a
V8-powered Volvo 244 for the May 10-11
24 Hours of LeMons race, most of the team members assumed we'd be using the good ol' C4 automatic transmission. You know, automatics are way easier to swap, with no troublesome clutch linkage to futz with. But Crew Chief Hellhammer (formerly known as Dave) pointed out that he's built plenty of manual-equipped rods, and then he directed our attention to several Ford V8-compatible T-5 5-speeds (and no C4s) sitting in the weeds behind his shop (he's been working on a '57 Ford project, so his stash-o-parts is heavy on Ford running gear). With our minds filled with images of slushboxes overheating and dying at last year's Altamont race, we decided to go with three pedals instead of two... then held our collective breath when it came time to make it happen for real.
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24 hours of lemons
While the Black Metal V8olvo crew was working on the rear of the car, we took care of the Number One Priority immediately by
installing a Fiero wing. Now, you'd think that such a wing would radiate such an impenetrable aura of
cool that no other driver would dare hit our car, but we figured it wouldn't hurt to get some cheap insurance by dealing with one of the most vulnerable points on the Volvo 240 race car: the fuel filler. By all accounts, LeMons Volvos tend to get hit in the right rear, which knocks the fuel filler pipe loose and causes a fuel leak, which makes the guys with the black flags get all upset (and they've got a two-strikes-yer-out policy on fuel leaks). It's an easy fix, though!
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