First the good news: after we reported that Team Vlad The Impala was facing a frenzied all-nighter to repair their garbooned transmission, the team's wrenches proved to be made of sterner stuff; here's what VTI member Drumhurrin has to say: By the way, they got that thing out, apart, back to together and back in within three hours. All nighter? Pshaw! However, once back together, we didn’t realize we had cracked the oil cooler. Doh! One more time, one more quick fix. Then back on the track! Quite a feeling, really. Probably the only car that got universally cheered just hours after being the paddock favorite for the People’s Curse. But I just think that was the scuttlebutt because we thought of it first. We can’t help it if a couple of unskilled NYPD cops slammed the thing over a curb and firing off both airbags meant that the city needed to auction it off to a pack of amateur racers for $400. We even have an stamped and approved receipt from the City of New York! Take that Brigati Alfa and your trio of Milanos. Make the jump to see some photos from Drumhurrin and UDMAN, plus get the story on what happened to Vlad today...
Heroic indeed, but what happened today scored a little lower on the Feel-Good-O-Meter. Vlad went back out on the track and was doing pretty well… but what's that horrible noise from the engine and why is it smoking so much? Yep, a connecting rod or two got loose and put some troublesome holes in the engine block, but the car was still running well enough to limp off the track and back to the team's pit. At that point, they decided the ol' brick-on-the-gas-pedal routine would be a lot of fun- which it most certainly was- but the resulting clouds of toxic smoke led the LeMons Supreme Court to sentence the team captain to the dreaded Al Gore Junior punishment.
When you get the Al Gore Junior (awarded to egregious polluters) you must plant a tree while your team members pelt you with tofu, and that's what happened here.