Hooniverse 24 Hours-of-LeMons Craigslist Weekend – Make way for the Vomit Comet (What a great theme!)


The 24 Hours-of-LeMons is one part race, one part craziness, mixed in with art cars. Lets face it, the judges and organizers are looking for not only the crappiest cars on the track, but great themes as well. Here is your chance to have both, with a grouping or wretched early 60s Mercury Comets, with a built in theme. Just mix in a little puke (something that comes naturally in this event by the way) and you have the Vomit Comet…


There were more running Comets in the Craigslist listings than I could ever imagine, and they would all look glorious on the track, even if they can’t keep up with the high-strung European or Asian crap cars. This is (not) a 1964 Comet Sedan from a spelling challenged seller on Long Island. According to the listing, this Comet has new tires, new brakes, and it runs and drives. What more could you ask for? It has the Falcon Six Cylinder, and an Automatic, so you could become the rolling chicane like I was. But you would finish the race, and bag the IOE award in doing so. As I said in other postings, you could just Cage it, Seat it, Number it, and Race it. The asking price is $650, so the price is right once you sell off the tail lamps, and the grill. See the listing here.

Here is a 1961 Mercury Comet Villager Wagon, with peeling woodgrain siding, and the seller states that it runs and drives. I would have to imaging that there is a six-cylinder under the hood, and that is comes with an automatic, but who cares? Having an early 60’s wagon mixing it up on the track would be awesome, and the six should last longer than a lot of front-line contenders. It will need a gas tank, easily rectified with a fuel cell, and you’re golden. The asking price for this choice Comet is $1,000, but I’m sure you could settle for a little less. Just spray paint “Vomit Comet” right down the Wood Paneled sides, and off you go! See the listing here.

The next car is what I have been talking about for a LeMons racecar. It has bags of character, has all the important items looked after like a new radiator, master cylinder, full tune-up (which should include plugs and points), but still needs a fuel pump (of which I would install an electric one). The seller states that it runs and drives, and I have no doubt that it does. I would even run with the white walls, well at least the first few laps. This is the ultimate in Cage it, Seat it, Number it, and race it. There is more than enough filigree to sell off to get it under $500, and you are left with a reliable 60’s car that would be an eventual IOE winna. See the listing here.

Engine swaps have become all the rage in this race series, and here is a crazy engine swap that you can take credit on your own, without actually doing so. Yes, that sounds a little dishonest, but that it the point of this weekends listings, take the credit, run the race, without actually working up a sweat. I call it the easy way out, the lazy mans participation, take credit for another persons work. It seems to be working for government and big businesses, so why not at LeMons? Case in point, here is an actual 1964 Comet, with a Chevy 350 transplant, and a Turbo 350 Automatic. It runs and drives, but the seller states that it smokes a bit. No big deal in LeMons racing, but look at the engine compartment with what looks like a new radiator, and the air cleaner that peeks through the hood. This is probably one racer that will blow-up while you are racing, but you will go out in a blaze of glory because people will actually think your team put this together…. Suckers. See the listing here.
Just think of what a Comet could do in one of these races. Go out an get your own Vomit Comet.

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8 responses to “Hooniverse 24 Hours-of-LeMons Craigslist Weekend – Make way for the Vomit Comet (What a great theme!)”

  1. buzzboy7 Avatar
    buzzboy7

    The innocent little moredoor. Racing it.

  2. OA5599 Avatar
    OA5599

    Here are two Comets for $600 OBO. Offer $500, haul them home, and sell the running one for $500. Take the remaining zero dollar parts car, Sell the 289 to somebody restoring a Mustang, find a suitably unreliable French/British/Italian drivetrain to swap in, and show up to the Lemons race to collect your IOE.
    http://seattle.craigslist.org/skc/cto/2511249846….
    <img src="http://images.craigslist.org/3kf3od3l75P45X25R2b7obf1f6fc077801771.jpg"&gt;
    <img src="http://images.craigslist.org/3m03od3l95T65W05S0b7o71c4450e17bb1236.jpg"&gt;

  3. $kaycog Avatar
    $kaycog

    I guess it could be worse……the Honda Fit.

  4. parkwood60 Avatar

    Wow, if I'm not mistaken in order to get a small block Chevy in there there needs to be a tunnel in the oil pan for the steering linkage to run through. Maybe that is why it is sitting up so high? If I remember the falcon 6 motor, isn't the sump in the front as its installed?

  5. CptSevere Avatar

    Dammit. I'm a slacker. There was a '64 Comet sedan not three blocks away from here in Tombstone that I failed to buy, for three hundred bucks (that's what it said in white shoe polish on the windshield), and the damn thing looked like the normal lawn monument well-preserved Arizona car, that we usually see around here. Somebody scored it, and I wish them well. I'm guessing that it had the little six and Fordomatic, but who cares, it would have been a great car concerning this subject.
    Drinking at the bar tonight, I was talking about LeMons, and of course nobody was taking me seriously. I still know where that '53 Packard Clipper is, and was drinking with the guy who hasn't been paid for it yet. It's a beater piece of shit, as far as cosmetics are concerned, except for the glorious chrome grille and bumper, but the 288 flathead straight eight runs well, and that's my ride of choice for LeMons.

    1. Van Sarockin Avatar
      Van Sarockin

      Double dog dare ya.

  6. Van Sarockin Avatar
    Van Sarockin

    FYI, LeMons got some mainstrean coverage this weekend: http://www.boston.com/cars/newsandreviews/overdri

  7. yellofury Avatar

    needs hydraulic shocks, some 13" gold wire rims. and an airbrushed naked Aztec goddess on the hood holding some maize
    then we can vomit