LeMons Sears Pointless Inspections: Bozo Texino, VR6-ized Vanagon, and a Hillman Imp

Here we are, back at legendary Sears Point aka Sonoma Raceway in Northern California, for the fourth annual Sears Pointless 24 Hours of LeMons. We’ve got something like 180 entries, and we spent a long, long day inspecting most of them for cheating (or lack thereof), safety equipment (or lack thereof), and general jaw-dropping amazingness. We got Bozo Texino. We got Hello Grumpy Kitty. We got everything here in the 24 Hours of LeMons! If you’d like to see all the cars we saw today, make the jump over to the timelapse video we shot, which compresses eight hours into about five minutes. After that, admire the Westafari Volkswagen Vanagon, which features VR6 power, heavily modified suspension, and a spliff-esque smoke machine. Yes, build a Vanagon, get cut a certain amount of budget-interpretation slack; that’s what we call the Vanagon Loophole. The bad news is that every single VR6 that has ever competed in LeMons (perhaps four engines) has melted down within several hours of the green flag. Eyesore Racing, masters of winning races and creating excellent costumes, is back with a Flinstones-themed Miata. We’ve got a Popemobile with decaying zombie pope and gender-blendered nuns. Remember the Stick Figure Racing MRolla, which featured the front half of a Corolla joined to the rear half of an MR2? Well, SFR is back, this time with a twin-engined Corolla FX16. Eight cylinders, 260 or so horses. You’d think an all-wheel-drive FX16 would be a quick road-race, but our experience with the MRolla has convinced us that this car belongs with the slower cars in Class C. Speaking of Class C, the LeMons Supreme Court believes that the BMW 850i, V12 and all, deserves to race in the most important LeMons class. That means the former $100,000 Bavarian statusmobile will be competing toe-to-toe with the TransMission IMPossible Hillman Imp. We love British cars in LeMons, of course, and we’re overjoyed to have our second Rootes Group car. Which one will finish more laps this weekend, the V12 German or the elderly rear-engined Mini competitor? Our money is on the Brit. LeMons Legend Spank’s Hell’s Treehuggers Harley-engined Toyota Prius is back, this time with an escort of several dozen Harley riders. Hella Shitty Racing showed up with a Hello Grumpy Kitty theme on one of their BMW 325s. You never know what sort of odd cultural mashups you’ll see at one of our races! We’ve seen a couple of LeMons Monzas, but this is our first Buick Skyhawk. If you’re going to have a Skyhawk, you need at least one example of its Vega ancestor. The Jettarossa came out from Texas and shocked us all with its beautiful tiki-ization. Every surface of the car has been hit with the Tiki Stick. There’s a fully functional tiki bar in the back. The strakes are bamboo. The roll cage is covered with bamboo and rope for that lashed-together look. The brake lights are built into coconut shells. Bozo Texino! It was inevitable that LeMons racers would jump on the Harlem Shake bandwagon; here’s the result. Curious about what will happen when these cars take to the race track on Saturday? Check in on the Car and Driver LeMons homepage for updates!