"Team Eccentric Bastard"--a 2008 "24 Hours of Lemons" Race Team.

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"Team Eccentric Bastard" ("TEB"), is a cheerful gang of scallywags that has formed a "24 Hours of Lemons" race team.

LIKE the Le Mans race in France, this one is also a 24-hour test of endurance.

UNLIKE the real Le Mans race, the "racecars" will be "bomber cars" with a maximum value of $500.

Thus the likelyhood of any of these racecars actually *finishing* the race will be largely based on Lady Luck, The Blessings of Zeus, The Plastic Jesus on the dashboard, the breeze from the wings of a butterfly in Central America and several other variables.

But we'll give it a shot........

TEB intends to fully exploit the rules of "The 24 hours of Lemons" to our *full* advantage. Much like the famous racing entrepreneur Roger Penske, we will always look for "The Unfair Advantage". Here, the crew models our Super Secret aero-dynamic racing helmets.

"The 24 Hours of Lemons" race (northeastern division), will be held Aug. 23-24, 2008 at the Stafford Motor Speedway in Conn.

By the way, just to divert you for a moment, here's a Fun Fact: What's "racecar" spelled backwards?

Our car has been named La Grand Fromage ("the big cheese"). It is a truly outstanding and special 1989 VW Jettta that will complete (hopefully!) the entire "24 Hours of Lemons" event.

One Sticking Point to this event:

About half way through the race, all the cars stop for a break. To keep the fans amused during this juncture, they will vote to select the one "lucky" car that will provide the entertainment during the lull in the action. The fans will be entertained by watching the "lucky", selected car CRUSHED by a bulldozer.

Remember when you were in 9th grade History class and the teacher would ask those really hard questions with all the dates and stuff?

And you kept your head down and tried to look invisible?

We'll be "keeping our head down and trying to look invisible" around the mid-point of the race because we don't want to "get lucky" and get a visit from the bulldozer.

That should be easy with a bright yellow car painted to look like a big piece of cheese.

Team members are The Three Daves, Damian, Fermo, Nial, Colin, Steven (and I've probably missed some folks or misspelled their names...please write to me so I can correct/add names) [aeronca65t~AT~yahoo.com].

Here's a "before" picture of the Fromage Jetta (we will add more pictures and video as time goes on).

Here are a few pictures taken during the repainting (to look like a big piece of cheese) in the art class of a local school

\/ ~ May The Cheese Be With You! ~ \/

Here's an article about the team (edited) from a local NJ newspaper.

When an art teacher oversees a project involving 35 high school students who are juggling a full load of classes alongside their daily psychiatric treatment, many would understand if she raved about the beauty of the final product. But Lisa Constas, art teacher at Cornerstone Day School in Springfield, is *hoping* her students' work is viewed as a bit unseemly. The students painted a car to resemble a chunk of Swiss cheese with a mouse burrowing through it. If it looks too professional, however, it would not suit its final purpose -- to be entered into a car race that allows only vehicles worth less than $500 to compete. Colin Miller, a Porsche mechanic in Morristown, heard about the race a few years ago and decided to enter this year with a dozen of his customers and friends. He asked his friend Constas if her students would be interested in painting the car on the cheap. "We let the kids go wild on it," Miller said, referring to the $350 '89 Volkswagen Jetta GL he found online. "It gives them a chance to feel a part of something." The race is known as The 24 Hours of LeMons (pronounced like the fruit -- or the car-purchase-gone-sour), to be held Aug. 23 in Stratford, Conn. Like the Le Mans race in France, this one is also a 24-hour test of endurance. Unlike the real Le Mans race, dozens of junky-looking vehicles are squeezed onto a short track, and rarely reach speeds above 70 mph. But participants try to capture the Gallic flavor of the legendary French auto race. One of Miller's team members owns a cheese importing factory -- hence the Swiss cheese design -- and decided to name the car Le Grande Fromage, or the big cheese. Some Cornerstone Day School students had the idea of adding a mouse to the painted scene on the car. It took several hours to paint a head on the hood of the car and a tail on the trunk, giving the appearance of the mouse burrowing through the cheese. "It was unique," a student said. "It was a group effort, we were all able to contribute."

Credit Link For The Article above---> http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/union/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1218342944223290.xml&coll=1&thispage=1

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OK, post-event, your humble editor had a GREAT time with the rest of team-members....truly an excellent gang of people. We didn't score high, but that didn't matter....we were only there to have fun anyway.

Didn't get to meet all the racers, but we were impressed by the college-kid team with the diesel-Benz "grease car". They had a ton of "heart".

As for the actual Lemons event, the organisers/officials and the "fairness" of the "rules"?.......Mom always told me that, "If you can't say anything good, don't say anything at all." .

And so, I'll say nothing at all.

I sure hope our team is able to meet up again in the future and run another event together. A *different* event.

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