LeMons

For the past 10 weeks or so Philip and some of his friends from work have been rebuilding a "race car" for 24 hours of LeMons. This is a silly car race parodied from a historic European race called 24 hours of Le Mans. For this LeMons race you buy a car for $500 or less, strip out all the unnecessary parts and then turn it into something you can race. Sooo every Tuesday evening and Saturday morning 4-7 of Philip's friends have been coming to our house and working on their sweet 1994 eclipse to get it race ready. They finished the car tonight and their first race is this weekend. Philip won't be able to drive in this race because we will be at a family wedding, but he will get to participate in the next race in December.

before the work began

For the most part I am thrilled that they are done working in my driveway and garage twice a week and that the crazy looking was carted off in a trailer tonight. However, Levi (and Philip) has been having so much fun "working" with the guys and learning about the "race car" from his Dad. Philip is the only guy in the group to have any children (some of them are married), so I didn't know how they would react to having two little curious boys around as they worked. Luckily, all the guys have been so sweet to both of the boys and always took out time to talk to Levi, play with him and answer all his questions. I'm pretty sure he is going to be really sad when they don't keep showing up to work. I am hoping to take him out to the track to see his Daddy drive the race car at the next race because I know he will be over joyed to see it racing :).

I must say Philip is young at heart and has been really enjoying this whole process. You can tell the guys had a blast working together from the planning, scheming, designing all the way through the building. They decided on the team name "Piston Broke" and very male pun...but what can you expect when you get 7 guys brainstorming together. The logo they came up with is pretty fun and they had T-shirts and decals made. They even made a tiny Levi sized shirt :). Another theme they are going with is "Come and Take It" which is part of Texas history. Here are several pictures of the process...

only needed parts left inside (lighter is faster and cheaper)

Happy helper :)

race seat (the safety rules are strict)

Levi is his car by the "race car" with new stripes

this was the scene in my driveway twice a week

Philip welding in the roll cage

adding some "style" decals and a flag (I sewed the flag)

the cool logo decal on the hood

most of the team (2 are missing)

ready to head to the race...and out of my driveway :)

I have a feeling this won't be the last you will hear of this car on the blog...when Philip gets to race in December the will surely be stories to be told :).