Polyvance Participates in 24 Hours of LeMons Race

For the second year in a row, Polyvance participated in the 24 Hours of LeMons race at the Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, AL.  This year, we brought along a bigger crew.  We had 4 members from Polyvance driving, 1 member from Polyvance as a crew member, a guest driver from ABRA Auto Body (who flew in from Chicago), and a member of our advisory board who also drove. In case you are wondering what this race is about, you can find out all about it at their website

2016 was the first year we participated and we learned a lot. For example, we learned that to be competitive, we needed a bigger engine. So, we took out the tired 1.6 liter engine (with over 200,000 miles on it) and replaced it with a tired 2 liter engine (with over 200,000 miles on it) from an 200SX SE-R that we found on Cragslist for dirt cheap. That was the only major change we did this year. It helped, too, because our average lap times dropped by about 10 seconds a lap. We were *almost* competitive this year! (Best lap of 2:01).

Unfortuantely, we did have a few problems. Our water pump went out and we had to replace it. We lost a few laps when we were black flagged for passing while under a yellow flag. We also lost a lot of laps when the car skidded off of the road and wouldn't restart. Finally, the end of the race happened late Saturday when we blew the head gasket. It was still a lot of fun, though, and we will be back next year.

Driving to Brimingham

Racing

Replacing the Water Pump in the Dark

The Perpetual Losers