You don’t go to a 24 Hours of LeMons race for the speed. Because for race cars that cost no more than $500, speed isn’t a thing.
You go to a LeMons race to witness the barking mad, clapped-out vehicles perilously navigate turns at 6 mph. You go to watch the officiators utilise the “Wheel of Misfortune” to decide a punishment for lousy driving, such as the “Mime Your Crime” penalty, where the driver must paint their face in white and mime their infraction before being allowed back on course.
At last weekend’s LeMons race at New Jersey Motorsports Park, the premier of the Upside Down Race Car, a Speedycop production created by the wackiest of LeMonsters, Jeff Bloch, was revealed.
Under his Speedycop banner, Bloch and his cronies have been famed for their Franken-wheel creations, leading up to the debut of the Spirit of LeMons – a 1956 Cessna 310 and a minivan engine blended to create a road-racing airplane. All in, Speedycop has built 14 lemons over the years.
The Upside Down Race Car, despite looking like the results of a rough street race, is a 1999 Chevy Camaro flipped on its lid and fitted with a beat-up, 190,000 mile 1.3 liter Ford Festiva engine and subframe.
