24 Hours of Lemons

"Start with a $500 car. Cheaper is fine, but no higher. Then decorate it outrageously. Maybe with a giant rubber ducky, or a flying pig. Now put it on a racetrack with scores of other half-broken art-cars — and drive it fast as hell for 14 and a half hours.

"That’s the formula for 24 Hours of Lemons, a grass-roots race-carnival held since 2006. What’s the grand prize for completing the most laps? A rusted trophy. Sometimes, you get a big bag of nickels.

"Jay Lamm, the ringleader of this circus, hatched the idea during a weekly lunch with car buddies at a Chinese restaurant in Berkeley, Calif. Nearly 15 years later, Lemons is a multimillion-dollar franchise held in dozens of cities across the United States, Australia and New Zealand.

"It’s a real race, but winning is mostly irrelevant. What is actually tested (and celebrated) is the ability of resourceful hobbyists — armed with only basic tools and their wits — to revive a worn-out vehicle for a weekend of low-rent, high-speed high jinks.




"In arguably his most masterful act of provocation so far, a year ago Mr. Lamm changed the sacrosanct laws of Lemons. He put up $50,000 to create a prize for the first pure electric car to win any 24 Hours of Lemons race. To up the ante, electric cars are exempt from the $500 limit. (For all cars, that $500 mark does not include safety gear.)

"Mr. Lamm said the electric vehicle prize would be paid exclusively in nickels, delivered to the winner’s driveway by a dump trunk..."

                                                             ----from Bradley Berman's piece in NYT Sept 6 2020