We've all heard of the 24 Hours of LeMans, the venerable endurance road race in a lovely town in France. How About the 24 Hours of LeMons? That's lemon, as in the slang for a car that just doesn't run right. While the French version features high-performance race cars worth a million or more, the LeMons version caps the investment in the race car and its preparation at $500, about what a tank of gas costs these days. The next one will be held in Kershaw, S.C., home of the Carolina MotorSports Park, July 26 and 27 and Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc. and University of Cincinnati's Emerging Ethnic Engineers are teaming to risk life, limb and reputation in this extended version of a county fair demolition derby.
A race highlight will be when one of the cars is judged by popular ballot to be pulled from the race and summarily crushed. The E3 Engineers have been getting their ride in shape to avoid such a fate, while Toyota is helping to foot the bill and sharing expertise. It's all in the name of furthering the science of automotive engineering.
Writer: David Holthaus
Source: Stephanie Arvin, Toyota
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