The 24hrs of LeMons

[BigPontiac]

The Feb 2007 issue of Car and Driver magazine has an article about their entering a race called the "24 Hours of LeMons." The race consists of $500 cars racing against one another. The C&D team picked up a 1995 Olds Aurora as their entry: Copper Mist with 175,315mi and crash damage for $500 on eBay.

Graphic on the car's hood: C&D magazine cover shot from when the Aurora was introduced

Graphic on the back bumper reads: "Probably your father's Oldsmobile"

24 Hours of LeMons website

A few interesting excerpts from the article:

Still high from my victory in an Olds in the artfully crafter "Battle of the Diesel Beaters" [C/D, April 2006], I felt a need to remain loyal to that international symbol of automotive competence.

We hoped to find truth in this old maxim: GM cars run bad longer than most cars run at all.

We struggle through the last 30 minutes in 22nd place, only to find out that we've won the uncoveted "People's Curse." We're to be crushed come morning.

Lamm had planned to destroy the cursed car by dropping it from a crane or running over it with a tank. Neither proved feasible. In the end, three women with pickaxes, claw hammers, and sledge hammers savage the Aurora. Unsatisfied with the level of "destruction," the crowd rolls the Aurora onto its roof. Cheers erupt. Satisfied, the mob rolls the Aurora back onto its feet. Shocking the mob, the Olds starts right up. Oldsmobile, bitch, Oldsmobile.

Just minutes before 4 o'clock, the lead car, the '82 Toyota Corolla of "Team Corsa Uber-Fantastico/Road & Track," comes to a halt on the track. Forced to downplay R&T's affiliation by their editor out of fear their that LeMons entry would sully the esteemed reputation of the magazine, they now find themselves in danger of losing the lead. Since they were kind enough to share their brake fluid, Robinson squares up the Olds and pushes the Corolla (it had a seized differential) for an entire lap to take the checkered flag and the $1500 first-place prize. As a thank-you, the winners toss a burlap sack of nickels ($250 worth) onto the Aurora's windshield, shattering it.

We ended up 17th after completing 767 laps (422 laps out of first). Next year, Lamm tells us, the "C/D Junior Varsity Race Team" has the "Charm of Invincibility," which means we can't be crushed. We're hooked, we'll be back, and we're already looking for another Oldsmobile.

There's also a small section on the 3 other Oldsmobiles entered in the same race: 1994 Achieva, 1984 Cutlass Supreme Brougham V-6 and a 1977 Cutlass Supreme.

[ocnblu]

Thanks for posting a thread with more complete coverage of this article than my "Good or Bad?" thread here in the Olds section, BP. That ol' Aurora proved tough as nails, even at the end of her useful life.

[BigPontiac]

Oops, sorry...didn't mean to double post. I scanned the Olds section and didn't see anything that referenced C&D or the race, so started a new thread.

I couldn't believe all the punishment that car took and kept going...particularly the rollover and beating!

[ocnblu]

No need to apologize, BP.

[thegriffon]

"…Since they were kind enough to share their brake fluid [and since we both have the same publisher], Robinson squares up the Olds and pushes the Corolla (it had a seized differential) for an entire lap to take the checkered flag and the $1500 first-place prize. …"

[ocnblu]

So much symbolism and irony packed in that sentence. Powerful.

[big blue]

Heh that statement of a GM engine running bad longer than other engines run is so true. My grandfather's 97 lesabre has been hit 4-5 times and that 3800 just keeps on rolling. To top it off, the engine had leaked all of its coolant out at the water pump and died on the road. We took it to his mechanic and he got it running again, but the catch is it's running on FIVE out of the six cylinders now. Hey I'm surprised the damn thing still starts, it sounds like its going to explode but it doesn't. My grandfather still uses it to drive around town and the 3800 just won't die. That engine is a tank I tell ya.

[Flybrian]

Remember, this is one of those gee-whiz electronic-filled GM cars that surely breaks often because an American car with modern gizmos is totally junk.

[RBB]

I read that article. That was a fun read, and why I still read every issue.

Oldsmobile, bitch, Oldsmobile.

Had me lawling...

-RBB

[AM6_Cutlass]

Whoa... I want , no NEED, that Oldsmobile racing decal on the rear quarter!! The quest has begun...

[BigPontiac]

Full article is up on the C&D website with additional pics...

Article

[A Horse With No Name]

Still sad to see that olds die that way...

Chris