boxybutgood.us

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it’s race day

Martin wielded the grinder, expertly creating perfect fish mouths at precise angles. Scott tig’d them in place and the results are impressive.

We got more than just candy as treats on Halloween morning.  The local junkyard was holding an All-You-Can-Carry for $75 event, and we scored large.  You just have to carry everything off the ground for about 50ft.  Our very own Incredible Hulk, Keith carried a lot of heavy parts across the finish line.  I’m still amazed he did it.

In the picture above, he had a bag on his back that had a pair of wagon rear springs, and a turbo and cast iron exhaust manifold (not light), and then he bent down and heaved this entire rear axle, with differential, trailing arms, and shocks still attached, and walked it from start to finish.  We’ll have to weigh the whole bounty at some point, but it was easily 200+ lbs total.  Click the pic above for a closer view to see his veins about to burst out of his arms.  Just remember not to make Keith angry because you won’t like him when he’s angry.  Grrr….

In short, we ended up with the following for $80 after tax:

• Rear axle with ALD (automatic locking differential) from a ’93 940 Wagon – vast improvement over our current open diff.
• Trailing arms with rubber bits that are in better shape than what we currently have.
• Wagon rear springs
• New-ish rear shocks to replace the OEM ones that were put on our car at the factory 240,000 mi. ago.
• Turbo and manifold from a ’92 940 Turbo w/ 99,960 mi.  (it’s a smaller turbo, but will work as a backup)
• Gauge cluster from an ’88 740 Turbo wagon.
• An extra 740 turbo black grille in case ours gets busted some day at the track…hey it was light.

These was our donor car for the rear-end parts.  Apparently the previous owner was a witch, and had it set up to run on broom power.

The place was mobbed on Saturday morning, though.  There was even a line of cars waiting to get in the gates for the 7:00am opening.  I had some guys ready to fight me to the death over a set of smoked VW taillights, and there was another guy who kept flinching every time I walked near his pile of VW grilles.  It was fierce.

Luckily, we were smart.  For the Volvo parts, Chuck, Keith, and I went the day before to scope the place, and liberate the parts from their donor cars.  After a couple hours of battling the rusty bolt demons, we hid the emancipated parts in the back of a completely unrelated car that would almost certainly garner zero attention on Grab Day…a rusty 1992 Subaru Loyale Wagon whose trunk wouldn’t open from the outside.

We threw the axle, springs, and turbo in the back of this lonely Loyale, and covered our treasure with various door panels and radiators to make it look like just a pile of random crap instead of junkyard-pirate booty.

The next morning it was all still there, and after Keith spent a bit over an hour getting some VW parts he needed, we flew our Jolly Roger as we dug out our treasure, and lugged it up to the carry zone.  Then I taunted Keith, telling him that his yellow wheels looked gay, and that his mamma’s hairy armpits smelled worse than his TDI’s smoky exhaust.  That made him angry, so out came the Hulk, and we got all the parts on our wishlist for $80.

Happy LeMons,

Brice

– Edited 7/31/09 –

Jalopnik Coverage:

1. Jalopnik Uber Gallery Part 1 — 18 pics of our car
   
2. Jalopnik Uber Gallery Part 5 — 3 pics of our car at the top
3. This is the Jalopnik article that details most of the cars in the race. We are 19th down.
4. We got a nice picture on Jalopnik with a comment further down from smalleyxb122 saying “My new favorite LeMons theme is the Lego Volvo. That is too cool.”

Newspaper & Video:

1. Here is a video from the Hartford Courant newspaper that Martin found.  Keith gets some airtime while smashing of the PImpala chosen as People’s Curse (look for his green VW shirt), and our Lego Volvo can be seen on the track.

Web:

1. Here is a blog that mentions us.
2. Here are some pics from someone’s Flikr account saying they like our theme, and especially Scott’s Lego heads:
   • Pic 1
   • Pic 2

Forums:

1. Found a forum post about the battle we had with the #16 Saturn.  They liked our theme.  Joined the forum just to reply…we’re BoxyButGood, of course.
2. And other people who liked our Lego theme – our own jeromio (Jeremy) started the thread.
3. This is older, from before the race, but it does declare us unofficial winner for Best Team Name.

-Brice

Historical Updates Coming Soon

We went over a month during the build of the car without giving any updates (since June 9th).  That was because we had to seriously buckle down and scramble to finish the car.  We did finish it just in time, with the last roll cage bar being welded in the day before the race.

We did take a bunch of pictures during that month though, and at the track, and in the next couple of weeks, after we all recover from sleep deprivation, and after we make up for lost time with our lonely spouses, we will be filling in the blanks with the build history of the car, and will post pictures and videos of the actual race days.  Since then we finished installing the cage, bought brakes, tires, safety equipment, etc, etc, etc, and cut 7 large diameter pool noodles into over 200 Lego nubs, and painstakingly glued 196 of them to the top of the car.

Until we post more updates, Jeremy already posted some quick real-time race day updates below using his iPhone at the track….and here are some pictures of the completed car to whet your appetite for the build pics and race pics:

-Brice

Carbotech Brake Pads

One thing I must say now is that Carbotech brake pads are absolutely amazing.  We had zero fade, and were able to dive deeper into the corner off the main straight, often making passes that way because others braked much earlier.  The pads were always there, and were very confidence inspiring.  No one had any criticism for the brakes.

And no, we did not get free pads from them, or any other type of payoff…I listed them on our sponsors page for the minor discount they gave us, but I only write my praises for them because of the astounding performance of the pads themselves.  A few years ago, I had Hawk race pads on my old BMW Turbo track car.  The Hawks did brake well when hot, but didn’t brake well when cold, and I also experienced fade with the Hawks.  In contrast, the Carbotechs gripped the same hot or cold, and none of us experienced fade during the LeMons race.

Whether you need pads for your track or street car, Call them up (877-899-5024).  Ask for Mike Jr., who is one of the owners.  He will spend the time with you to find just the right compound for your application like he did with us.  For us he chose XP8, and it was perfect.  I got a set for my VW TDI daily driver (and occasional track day car), too.

We’re all proud to have the Carbotech stickers above the Volvo’s front wheel wells.

-Brice

Awards: must be present to win.

The awards. Will we get one? Doubtful.

Completed 948 laps for 19th place. We were 11th in Class 2.