Alfa Milano comes in 8th in the 24hrs of LeMons

nizam · #1 (**permalink**) 10-08-2006, 10:11 PM

Yes, I spelled that right.

24 Hours of LeMons

In a nutshell, it's a race for "24 hours" (closer to 13 hours) and the car, plus improvements that aren't safety related, cannot exceed USD$500.

We entered a $200 Milano Gold, with 205,xxx miles. We came in eighth, in a field of 34 cars, after finishing 992 laps. The car had 5 drivers. It was rough out there, with some drivers -- knowing their cars were going to expire soon anyway -- set out to take other cars out.

Some other drivers were just ... <expletive>, but we kept running a clean race, and let those <expletive> types by only to pass them again when they've put themselves in the kitty litter, or the wall, or the tractor tires that were used as berms.

We ran that 2.5V6 engine pretty much at the rev limiter the whole time, and it continued to run fine ... until the fan switch became intermittent (yes, I should have just hotwired the thing!), and caused the car to overheat just 30 minutes shy to the checkered flag. We had come so far, and we were disappointed but to have arrived to that point with a $200 car was just amazing. Next year, we'll run it again.

Those Milanos are tough little cars!

nizam · #2 (**permalink**) 10-08-2006, 10:14 PM

A very impatient/aggressive Fiero just HAD to rub his nose into my door. Made the tire rub a bit, so we had to "roll the fender" with the jack handle.

It was a completely unnecessary pass because .... 5 laps later, his engine expired and had to be pushed off the track.

nizam · #3 (**permalink**) 10-08-2006, 10:20 PM

Picture of the team. We fielded two cars, a Lincoln Mark VII and the Milano. The Milano cost less, and ran almost the whole length of the endurance race. The Lincoln started strong then started to develop problems, and it eventually was kept out of the race.

Yes, the two lovely ladies in the pic (the redhead and the blonde) contributed greatly to the lap count of the Milano -- the only car they preferred to drive out there in the field.

Hit an Apex · #4 (**permalink**) 10-09-2006, 08:01 AM

That sounds fun! Congratulations! At the end of the race was there any noticable "bad sound" coming from the Milano?

nizam · #5 (**permalink**) 10-09-2006, 09:35 AM

Yup, there was the "knock of death" and it wasn't sounding healthy at all right at the end. We were in traffic and didn't notice the needle was straight up for a couple of laps. The driver did notice it was low on power all of a sudden and limped it in. It ran great till that point ... and unfortunately the blame was on us ... watch your gauges!!! That was a completely avoidable failure!

Even in the hot sun, as long as the cooling fan ran, the engine temps would hover at 215-225F. But once it hit 250, it should have been brought in but such is racing.

**Andrew** · #6 (**permalink**) 10-09-2006, 10:24 AM

Can you name all the drivers/participants? I recognize some but not all from the pics. Thanks
Andrew

**GTV Racer** · #7 (**permalink**) 10-09-2006, 10:26 AM

Love that bitchin' wing on the trunk. Way to go.

**jarrington** · #8 (**permalink**) 10-09-2006, 11:04 AM

So who won the "people's curse" award? The Fiero?

-Jason

nizam · #9 (**permalink**) 10-09-2006, 11:41 AM

Car and Driver entered an Oldsmobile Alero. It won the most hated award, and was beat to heck by "ladies with sledgehammers". Then they tipped it over onto its roof! The C&D team flipped it back onto its wheels, pounded the roof back out (it had a roll cage) and it re-joined the field towards the end of the race to come in under the checkered .... PUSHING the winning car across the line, which had died just a lap before the end.

I think the winning car got caught in a four-five way scrum for a corner that would generally fit two cars and it came out rather bent. For 'good karma', the C&D driver came around the course and pushed the winning car the rest of the way home

Hit an Apex · #10 (**permalink**) 10-09-2006, 05:40 PM

So what made this Milano a $200 car? What kind of prep went into it?

dave_fonz_164 · #11 (**permalink**) 10-09-2006, 06:01 PM

Thats freakin awesome, sounds like alot of fun and props to that Milano and getting a top 10 finish!

Would of been sweet if your Milano had an open filter and straitpipe!!!

75evo · #12 (**permalink**) 10-09-2006, 07:25 PM

Fantastico!

verdegrrl · #13 (**permalink**) 10-09-2006, 11:46 PM

Here are some pictures and captions about the event seen from our perspective.

http://www.cdglobal.net/nizam/lemons.html

For the record, the Alfa did not need to be any faster (it was virtually stock - and from the laps times shown in our link, was very competitive), but a limited slip would have been nice, and we should have lengthened our driving intervals. It was also nice to run the stock exhaust and not be deafened during such a long event as this - as well as have the extra torque that comes with a bit of backpressure.

spannerman · #14 (**permalink**) 10-10-2006, 12:07 AM

Pull the diff unit out and weld up the spider gears. Cheap and effective LSD.

verdegrrl · #15 (**permalink**) 10-10-2006, 12:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spannerman

Pull the diff unit out and weld up the spider gears. Cheap and effective LSD.