Twenty Four Hours?
If you want to go out and see some racing, just go to your local track this weekend. “This weekend??” I hear you saying, “There’s no IndyCar or NASCAR or F1 or WTCC at my local track this weekend…”
Who cares? You want to see racing. And that means screaming engines as cars piloted by maniacs are flogged within inches of their life. Which happens most days of the year at the “big” race tracks, especially on weekends.
On this particular weekend, there was a “24 Hours of LeMons” event at one of my local tracks, Sonoma Raceway. They actually name their events; this one, dubbed the “Good Effort Grand Prix” (complemented by the “Arse-Freeze-Apalooza” a month previous), was held over two days in January, 2015.
So it’s a 24-hour race? What’s the deal with that?
Well, not exactly. The racing itself actually lasted closer to 14 total hours–the sessions began at 10 AM, and stopped right around sunset, which was a little after 5 PM.
It’s less of an actual race than a way to just spend a bunch of time battling other people wheel-to-wheel on a closed course. Supposedly, you need a theme and a car that costs less than $500, but something tells me they are less than strict about that.
For example, this team didn’t seem to have much of a theme at all. They also dominated the first day, lapping (at least) a few seconds quicker than the next team in their class (yes–there’s an app for that!); however, a mechanical failure which led to a crash dropped them back by the end of the second day.
I’ve seen many types of racing in my life, but absolutely nothing sounds or smells like a LeMons race.
Take this 912 for example. Apparently it was powered by…some sort of turbodiesel?
Wow. It feels really strange saying that a Porsche was a unique sight at a motorsport event, but a water-cooled TDI 912 at a $500 crapcan event is, well, a unique sight.
One more pic of the 912 battling with a Volvo 240 wagon. Spectacular.
I was attending the race in support of my friends, “Team Surf Bums” in their Half Moon Bay surfer bro-themed E28 BMW. Actually let’s rewind a bit here. This is the part of driving a race car that’s not so glamorous–the part where you actually have to create your race car.
Enter this checklist. After work on Friday night, three of us (me being little more than a casual observer/documenter) arrived at the shop ready to work. As you can see, the wheels needed to be swapped (for a cheap set with fresh rubber); brakes needed to be checked (pads and rotors turned out to be fine, although the LCA bolts were loose); change diff (it was having major issues…I’ll come back to this); control arm bushings (they were destroyed, and solid bushings the cure); lastly, the exhaust was hanging down after two of its hangers in the rear broke, and needed to be secured. All that stuff, and then you just have to pack the truck and trailer for the drive to the track the next morning! Brilliant.
Immediately, the wheels were removed and the box of bushes was attended to.
The old bushes were torched, then yanked out.
The inserts were then Sawzall’d off (not shown), and the new bushes were pressed in.
In case you were wondering where race car work gets done…well there’s an example.
Here’s a quick glance at the interior; pretty gutted.
Since I love panning shots, here’s one of Art making a diff by carrying a diff. Unfortunately, this was the only thing that didn’t get done that night–it would have to wait for the track.
Anyway, we were loaded up and out of there by around 3.
On Sunday morning, this happened. I decided to get a good night’s rest so I wasn’t there when the green flag dropped, but I did get there to see Art’s stint.
Unfortunately, they didn’t replace the differential before the first session. At some point in its life it was an LSD, but after 400,000+ miles it would kind of lock and unlock sporadically, and given the torque of the straight six combined with the leaning nature of the suspension meant the inside wheel would spin helplessly if any throttle was given out of turns.
Despite this, they still battled flat-out. After all, that’s the point, right?
And really, that’s the draw of this sort of racing. You spend a lot of time actually on track, surrounded by like-minded lunatics, and instead of politics or cashflow, you can really concentrate on having fun.
Even if you’re just a spectator like I was, you can find a way to have fun at a LeMons event. The pits and paddock are completely open, so you can wander around and chat with people; it’s a great atmosphere.
Every garage is filled with snacks, tools, and all manner of gear and gadgets.
And you’re guaranteed to find laughter too.
The number of spectators was probably somewhere in the dozens, so you could get right up close at all the good locations where people usually pile up during major events.
The middle of the bridge is normally covered with ad banners during races, so you can’t capture shots like this.
Personally, I just like being close to the action, and luckily Sonoma is really great for that. I took this photo from a normal public viewing area.
Speaking of getting close, as one of my friends likes to say, “If you ain’t rubbin’ you ain’t racin’.” There was definitely more than a little rubbing here. Another car had outbraked itself and run into the E28, launching it into another car in the braking zone.
As you can see, everyone is concentrating on the front, which is where the major apparent damage was.
The rear quarter panel had crinkled up; it was the sort of thing that would total a regular road car, but didn’t really seem like major damage on this race car.
In any case, they raced on.
Golden hour was beautiful on this particular day, but unfortunately the car was pretty haggard. All they needed to do was limp it to the end and they could spend some time working on it for the next day’s action.
The last rays of light over Turn 2 were beautiful to behold, but it must have been a pain in the ass (or eyes) to drive straight up in to the setting sun.
This Mini Moke was slow, ridiculous, and awesome. It was definitely a rolling roadblock, but at least it was amusing and very much in the spirit of the event.
I just thought this thing was totally cool.
At this point, the track was starting to get nice and shady, but the day’s session was about to end, so it was time to head back to the paddock and see cars rolling back in.
This Citroën SM was leaving the paddock right when I showed up, driven by none other than…well, keep reading.
Our garage neighbor was this Volvo team, who were in for an unscheduled pit stop.
I thought their team was pretty cool, especially because I’ve spent a good amount of time hanging out in Bernal Heights in San Francisco.
This widebody Honda thingy was pretty rad; unfortunately I know nothing about it.
Then I saw the Citroën again!
Kind of a bummer that it was on stilts, but it’s still a beautiful design.
At this point, the owner got in and started to drive away. I positioned myself to get a good panning shot…
…and right after I captured a frame he slowed the car down, and stopped. Dammit! He looked at me and said, “Hey, you look like you know what you’re doing. Can you send me those photos?” So he gave his phone number and he told me to text him; he then introduced himself as Alex Roy. It didn’t ring a bell at first, but after he drove away, that name sounded way too familiar. I googled it and–wow! It was THE Alex Roy, the infamous dude who did the Cannonball Run (aka driving from NYC to LA) in 31 hours, as well as some other crazy/illegal stuff. Cool! I hope he likes these pics…
Anyway, so at this point I was just pootling around the paddock, taking in the sights.
This 964 belongs to one of the dudes on the E28 team. Yup, those are the new Fifteen52 52 Outlaw wheels.
I really like narrow 964’s.
Although the track was silent, the garages were buzzing. I thought it was pretty awesome that they get to use indoor garages instead of an outdoor paddock.
After a day of racing, the sun was setting, and the real work was to begin. Finally, the differential would be swapped out for a proper working LSD. As for me? I was outta there; prior commitments. The next day they were significantly faster, like 3-4 seconds per lap. With consistency in car and driver, these guys think they have what it takes to bring home a class win next time out. Let’s see what happens, eh?
Old Snap Sunday
I was just going through one of my Flickrs (yes, I have several accounts) when I found a pretty cool old snap. I took this last year (2013) at Indy Sonoma. They have a neat little viewing platform where you can stand right above the pit lane, which also happens to be right inside of Turn 1.
I wonder if I can scrounge up the original RAW and put some more effort into the editing. I think this is a cool capture, but it doesn’t really have any “oomph”. Oh well, it’s an old(er) snap, so I’ll just keep that in mind for next time.
Street Runner
Lately the content of this site has been a lot of “what I see at work” because I haven’t ventured out and covered anything. On one hand, that feels pretty stale for me; but on the other hand I realize that events that I might consider mundane are pure fantasy for some of you. This 918 that stopped by the other day is a great example. Unfortunately, I was busy at the time so I barely managed to get my camera out as he was leaving. I did what I could, which was run into the street to get a shot of it waiting at the red light.
More exciting content coming soon, I promise.
The Polestar Opposite
Every family car needs a halo version. This is not a fact, or even something backed up by research: it’s just my opinion. One of the reasons that halo cars exist is to help a brand make a connection from the bottom to the top; they’re the link that proves your poverty-spec model contains the basic ingredients to become a fire-breathing monster. For example, my sister had a base model Audi A4, which was kind of lame. But just knowing that there’s a beefy V8-powered and fender flare-equipped version out there made her feel a bit cooler. The same goes for the relationship between the C250 and the C63 AMG, or the Cadillac CTS and CTS-V, and of course the classic BMW 3 series/M3 relationship.
And that’s why this car is important.
Sure, you can get a Polestar badge on a regular V60, signifying that your engine is in a higher state of tune. But the regular Polestar treatment–a simple ECU flash–pales in comparison to what this car offers.
Let’s start on the outside. Subtlety is the name of the game here; the R-Design front bumper gets additional mini-lips up front…
…while out back you get a larger, dual-prong rear spoiler, as well as…
…a “rear diffuser”. Like the one on my FR-S, it’s a non-functional piece, but it does look better than the normal rear bumper.
The other big visual change is those huge 20″ wheels wrapped in 245/35ZR20 Michelin Pilot Super Sport rubber. It blows my mind that when I was growing up, twenty inches was a wheel size reserved for huge SUV’s; you would never think of putting such a size on a small performance car. Now with the advent of giant brakes (by Brembo in this case), huge wheels are commonplace.
However, the biggest and most important changes are something I couldn’t really even get pictures of: Eibach springs on Öhlins dampers (which are manually adjustable!) and the Polestar-tuned Haldex AWD (which unfortunately, is not. H4x coming soon?). Bushings in the rear have been firmed up and the AWD programming is said to be more rear-biased than the standard car, which is music to the ears of any performance driving enthusiast.
If you thought they were conservative on the exterior, check out the interior. This is where opinions diverge wildly: one train of thought says this is a very simple, clean, Scandinavian design and the new Polestar touches are a cherry on the cake, while another will say that the interior is too simplistic and cheap, and the Polestar mods don’t go far enough to turn this into a real sports or luxury car.
Count me squarely in the “simple is good” camp. One of the reasons I prefer the Volvo interior to the equivalent BMW, Audi, or Mercedes offerings is its simplicity. Everything is well laid out and easy to find and use.
And the additional Polestar touches? Spot on. I think there’s just the right amount of flair without going over the top.
Although I have to say, these seats are borderline. They are exactly the same as the normal Sport Seats, but wrapped with a bit of alcantara and topped with blue stitching. To be honest, I really just wish it was one material–either all alcantara, or all leather.
Although the tuned engine sounds fantastic through its bespoke exhaust, the engine bay itself is a bit boring.
See what I mean? It looks like any other T6 engine bay. Well, except for the carbon fiber strut bar. Unfortunately, you can’t exactly see the extra 45 ponies and 49 torks this car’s tune gets you (which is about twice as much as the standard Polestar tune). I know that doesn’t seem like a lot in today’s world of turbo tuning, but reliability is the name of the game here. This car is still covered by the standard four year/50,000 mile warranty like any other new Volvo.
When you deal with McLaren’s and other supercars all day every day like I do, you come to expect immaculate carbon fiber weave. Unfortunately, that’s just not always the case, as you can see here.
But what’s the point of this car?
To me, the appeal of this car is that it’s a black sheep; the weird choice in a marketplace filled with strong choices. Someone who buys this car will likely face the same barrage of questions I get about my FR-S: “Why didn’t you buy XYZ car instead?”
Strangely for a Volvo, but perhaps appropriate given the actual demand, this is an extremely limited edition car available via special order only. In fact, only particular “Polestar approved” dealerships can even take delivery of the car, similar to how only certain Nissan dealerships are equipped to sell and service GT-R’s. All told there will be 750 of these Polestar Volvos available to the entire world, with 120 units of that allocation for the USA: 80 V60’s and 40 S60’s.
At the end of the day, this is a car you buy because you really want one. No one will read Consumer Reports, Car and Driver, or even The Car Lounge and decide that the best logical choice is to purchase a $62,000 Volvo–they just won’t. Whoever bought this car brand new did so because they had some genuine interest in it. And for that reason, if you ever see one of these on the road, tip your cap to a modern black sheep.
Star Road 