The Racing Vans of the 24 Hours of LeMons! [Wise Choices in Race Machines]

While many 24 Hours of LeMons teams persist in making poor car choices (despite our ample advice), others become LeMons Legends by racing big fat luxury cars, AMC products, or backwards trucks. When you’re searching for your next LeMons machine, it’s best to ask yourself this simple question: Could this vehicle’s original owner ever have envisioned it being driven hard on a road-course racetrack? If the answer to that question is uncontrollable laughter, you’re on the right track. So now we present: Racin’ vans!


The first van to compete in the 24 Hours of LeMons was this ’89 Plymouth Voyager Turbo, which Mysteries Inc. Racing brought to the 2009 Goin’ For Broken race at Reno-Fernley Raceway in Nevada. The Voyager was essentially a K-car under the skin, which gave this van LeBaron-like handling. (Photo courtesy of Head-On Photos)


The Mystery Machine campaigned in LeMons for another year or so and turned out to be surprisingly competent on a road course. Many 2.5s got destroyed in the process, but that’s a fairly common fate for these engines in LeMons. (Photo courtesy of Head-On Photos)


No doubt inspired by the Mystery Machine, this ’87 GMC VanDura one-ton van was raced by Team Morrow’s Auto and Snoopy’s Quest for the Holy Nickelbag at the 2009 Lamest Day race at Nelson Ledges. This hacked-up cargo vehicle featured a small-block Chevy V-8 moved four feet rearward.


Sadly, the Holy Nickelbag’s engine blew up, and then its replacement followed suit. Still, that was enough to get Morrow’s Auto the Most Heroic Fix award, the first of many trophies for this legendary Pittsburgh-based team.


The following year, Morrow’s Auto attempted to solve the van’s reliability problems by adding an all-junkyard twin-turbo setup to the engine. This worked about as well as you’d expect (KABOOM!), but provided the forced-induction experience Morrow’s needed to build their supercharged AMC Gremlin.


By that time, LeMons aficionados were asking themselves, “What would happen if a bunch of really good drivers put together a well-sorted Chrysler minivan and raced it?” In 2010, the Soccer Moms responded to that question, and their answer took the form of this 1993 Dodge Caravan with a five-speed and lots of Shelby Chrysler underpinnings.


Competing in the very difficult LeMons West Region, the Soccer Moms have won Class C and Index of Effluency trophies with their shockingly quick grocery hauler. To the slower teams in Class C who complain, we always answer, “How could we put a minivan in any other class?” Loophole alert!


In spite of the Class C Minivan Loophole (the Chrysler LH and Quad 4 Oldsmobile also fit through this loophole), only one other team has assembled a proper minivan for LeMons racing: Apex Vinyl Racing in Texas. Already equipped with a six-wheeled Toyota Hilux pickup, the Apex guys decided that a Pontiac Montana would be just the ticket to LeMons success.


After two years of trying, the Montana still hasn’t managed to stay on the track for more than a few laps. Still, we have high hopes for this high-performance GM racer.


Here’s the latest entry to the LeMons Race Van roster: the Team Westafari Volkswagen Vanagon, which debuted a couple of months back at the 2013 Sears Pointless race. (Photo courtesy of Head-On Photos)


The Westafarians (who work at Go Westy, of course) dropped a VR6 engine and some basic suspension upgrades in their van, haven’t quite reached Soccer Moms–grade levels of performance yet, but this van may be able to give the Caravan a run for its money in a future race. We’ll give you a feature on Team Westafari’s ride soon, so keep checking into the C/D-LeMons page. (Photo courtesy of Head-On Photos)


The Spirit of LeMons 1956 Cessna 310 was built on a Toyota Space Van chassis, so we’ll consider it a race van as well. What’s next for LeMons race vans? Well, we have yet to see a GM Dustbuster van!



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