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That’s how long I’ve been working on our car (aka ‘Cheesy’) for 24 Hours of Lemons and finally got to race it on the track. Six long months and I’ve finally done it. The first few minutes on the track I was a little emotional and when we finished up the race the second day I was emotional again. It’s an amazing feeling to put so much time into something and actually achieve it. It’s one of the best experiences of my life so far.

I honestly didn’t know what I was getting myself into in the beginning! Just finding the car and meeting the rules and regulations was a lot of work. Getting the car competitive was even more.

I’m incredibly proud of my teams and the car. It once was a piece of crap that ran on 4 of 6 cylinders, brakes barely worked, horrible suspension, bad tires and look liked crap. Now it’s actually slightly competitive; we can pass other (slow) cars!

The feeling of being on the track, racing bumper to bumper with other cars, squealing tires around turns, pushing yourself to brake later, accelerate harder and push yourself to the limit is an addicting experience. Working on a car with your bare hands, slowly improving it bit by bit is also addicting. Being able to point to something and say ‘I built that, it’s awesome because of me.’ is fulfilling.

Here’s a list of everything I can think of that we’ve done to the car:

• Stripped interior, dash and all extraneous weight (glass, carpets, headlights, etc)
• Had a roll cage installed
• Installed racing seat and harness
• Widened racing seat
• Raised racing seat so we could see over the steering wheel
• Mounted brake light to trunk
• Installed fire extinguisher
• Bled brakes (multiple times)
• Upgraded all brakes and 2 rotors
• Replaced engine (which also involves removing exhaust and drivetrain)
• Lowered the suspension by cutting the springs
• Installed new front struts
• Had new straight exhaust installed
• New rims & tires
• Built new dashboard with gauges
• Changed all fluids many times (oil, coolant, transmission, differential)
• Built ghetto cool suit system (best thing ever for a hot race!)
• Painted entire car
• Installed kill switch
• Decorated car
• Replaced master brake cylinder (twice)
• Mounted radio
• And many other random things that broke or were required by the judges

We turned this:

Into this:

Our first race our fastest lap at Thunder Hill was 2:37, now our fastest lap is 2:33, so we’re definitely improving!

To wrap it all up here’s a video of our fastest lap. I’m super excited to race again in December!

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Phew, just started up CrossFit again after taking a long hiatus due to a few months of physical ailments. Anyway, I’m back and my first workout was only 1/2 of a normal workout:

• 800m row
• 3 sets of:
  • 10 sit-ups
  • 10 stretches holding a pole from waist over the head to back with both hands
  • 5 YMW’s (hold weights in each hands, make ‘Y’ with arms, ‘M’, then ‘W’)
• 10 minute sprint, do as many of these sets as possible (I did 6):
  • 5 pull-ups
  • 10 push-ups
  • 15 squats

Needless to say, I am beat. But, I’m hoping to do the Tough Mudder in October, which looks awesome!

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After many months of hard work team BVD Skidmark completed its first 24 Hours of Lemons race! It was two awesome days of driving with few mechanical problems and lots of fun. I have to say I’ve never felt so proud of something (especially my team, everyone put a lot of effort and made it a great experience for all of us).

Overall 24 Hours of Lemons is an awesome experience. It’s over a hundred teams and everyone is there to have fun and enjoy the art of keeping a crapcan working just long enough to finish a race. There were lots of hilarious themes:

Our car was a 1986 BMW 325es (the ‘e’ stands for economy, meaning we had a much lower horsepower engine than a normal 325) nicknamed Cheesy Gordita Crunch. Even though it had been completely underwater at some point before we purchased it (mold growing on the engine block and all the carpets and insulation were completely waterlogged), it proved itself worthy, completing the entire race with minimal technical issues.

In-car video of us racing:

Our best hack for the car were our temp guages:

Yep, those are cooking thermometers. Other ends were zip tied to the radiator. When they beeped it meant we were overheating, or, the roast was done.

Honestly I think Lemons racing is much closer to real racing than taking your fancy car to a track day for a few hours. We became 100% knowledgeable about every piece of the car.

We stripped out the entire interior (actually a lot of work), replaced brakes and rotors, tires, brake cylinder, removed the A/C unit, removed windows, removed the entire dashboard, replaced the gas line, installed the racing seat and harness, re-routed wires, installed a kill switch (which involves cutting a 1-inch thick wire, not an easy task), re-routed coolant tubes and so many other crazy hacks. You form an emotional attachment to your car after you spend so many weekends working on it.

Anyway, it was an awesome experience and I’m already psyched for our next race in August! See you on the track!

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