We were a bit shorthanded at LeMons HQ at Carolina Motorsports Park last weekend, so I wasn't able to do the usual Index Of Effluency winner post. Check out the Rusty Bolt Racing E12!
Yes, it's a 1975 BMW 530i done up in Jägermeister Gruppe 5 flares, orange paint, and antlers. Rusty Bolt Racing managed to beat out a pretty tough IOE field, including a Fiat 124 Spider, a Plymouth Acclaim, and a Chrysler Sebring; the car was quite slow, but it kept going around and around and only lost a single wheel flare over the course of the weekend.
I'm proud to say that I had a small role in this triumph; back when the team was still wondering what to do with their newly-obtained bright orange future LeMons car, they emailed me to ask if I thought a Dukes Of Hazzard theme would be a good idea. We've had a few variations on the General Lee in LeMons already (including a Chevy Nova and a Nissan Sentra), so I suggested they keep brainstorming. This fine race car is what they came up with. Good work, Rusty Bolt Racing!
The Organizer's Choice Award went to the Barfing Duck Saturn SL Batmobile. There's quite a story behind this car…
At the LeMons South Spring '09 race, Team Barfing Duck had such a lame theme- some sort of "Driver Ed" thing- that we forced them to Sawzall a spoiler out of their trunk lid. They didn't whine about it, but they also gave no hints about the awesomeness that was to come.
One of the team members let his son use the car for his college commute (betcha he was the only student on campus with a caged Saturn), and a little tree-cutting mishap ended up crushing it while parked. What to do now?
Simple! Just chop the top, add fins and some black paint, and you've got a fairly credible Batmobile. The weight savings helped on the track, too, with the Barfing Ducks nailing down an excellent 9th-place finish. Congratulations!
The much-sought-after Heroic Fix Award went to the anti-Obama-themed, Soviet-flag-bedecked Hong Norr CRX. I've done a few Civic engine swaps, so I know what a knuckle-shredding ordeal it can be; that's why it was so impressive that the Hong Norr guys went through four engines over the course of the weekend (they're CRX drag racers and brought a big stash of nitrous-thrashed engines with death rattles). In the photo above, we see the final engine going up in flames.