It’s time once again for the endurance racing series that has taken America by storm. No, not ALMS. I’m talking of course about the 24 Hours of LeMons.
Lemon racing has been popular for a while in the UK (£500 bangers to Morocco etc) but in the ‘States they do it right. No charging ex-eBay scrap around Europe on public roads, mostly while drunk: this is a proper raceworthiness test of man and machine. Albeit very cheap machine.
Team Lemon Martini have been racing their 914 (above) for a few years now and it just keeps getting better – or should that be worse! Lemon Martini started with a rough Teener and made it even rougher, then took it out and raced it. The job was made a lot easier as one of their number is the legendary Jim Breazeale, owner of EASY Porsche Parts in San Francisco.
Lemon Martini’s latest incarnation is an absolute classic. The boys have painstakingly replicated the runt of the litter from an unholy 908/914 union. Jim takes up the story:
“We used an old 912 front bumper and turned it upside down. A bit of trimming, bending and “persuasion” made it fit to form the front of the car. We then used an old aftermarket 911 fiberglass front bumper to form the bottom half. The tops of the fenders were formed by using parts of fenders from old 924 Porsches. All Porsche parts, just not intended to be used on a 914. The rudders were formed from electrical conduit and sheeted with 20 gauge metal. The rear deck is the old rear lid turned upside down.”
And you all thought it was an MX-5 front end! Never!
Good luck to Jim and the whole Martini ‘Teener team, racing this weekend in the 24 Hours of LeMons at sunny Sears Point (Infineon Raceway). Check the LeMons website for more details and have a drink for me.
Here’s some spot-on video to round it off:
