Racing 24 Hours of Lemons in the 2 Engine MRolla

*Pics Courtesy of Doug Dodd and Eugene Yen*

In August I was approached with the opportunity to race a two-engined Toyota in the 24 Hours of Lemons at High Plains Raceway. That's right - two engines! The premise behind the 24 of Lemons is that you and a couple friends take a $500 beater car, build it in to a racecar, pick a theme, and go race it against a bunch of other beater cars for twenty-four hours. Beater cars don't usually last twenty-four hours, so it's really just a long daytime race with a nighttime break for the inevitable and often heretic repairs. When team captain Larry Sanders offered me a seat on his 24 Hours of Lemons team, the absurdity of racing a two-engine car made it an offer I couldn’t refuse.

Our car was called the MRolla. The letters are grafted together just like the 1986 Toyota Corolla and 1986 Toyota MR2 that they represent. The A-pillar forward was all Corolla, including the front engine, manual gearbox, steering, and front wheel drive system. The rear half was all MR2, which included the rear engine; automatic gearbox, gas tank, and rear wheel drive system. The result is an all-wheel drive car powered by two independent engines that looks like the bastard child of an illegitimate love affair between two 1980's econoboxes. Imagine the result of Screech from Saved by the Bell and Bob Sagget of Full House getting morphed into a hideous monster by the clone machine in the movie The Fly. If that didn't make you throw up a little, then ask your parents what I'm talking about. The thing is, unlike '80's era B-rated TV, '80's era B-rated (Japanese) cars were good. Very good! Both the Toyota Corolla and MR2 were light and agile little cars powered by the same feisty high-revving 1600cc twin cam 4AGE motor. The Toyota 4AGE motor is a direct copy of the legendary Ford Cosworth BDA twin cam racing engine (Sherwood 2008). They were also from the age of reliability, before cars were festooned with technological gadgetry in the oxymoronic name of safety and info-tainment. The result is a light, agile, and reliable monster - perfect qualities for an endurance beater racecar. Larry’s care and development of the MRolla ensured that we had a good chance of success in the race.

The MRolla

I would be the only team member who could not practice driving the car before the race. My baptism in the MRolla would take place by fire as the starting driver of the race. An hour before the grid I settled into the bare metal cockpit to familiarize myself. There were two instrument clusters (one for each engine) and two gearshift knobs (one manual and one automatic). My immediate impression was that my multiengine flying skills would come in handy. Larry explained that you drive the car using the manual gearbox of the front engine. The rear engine and its automatic gearbox just tags along. There is a shift light on the front engine cluster set below the rev limiter because the rear engine could over-rev the front engine far beyond its 7200 rpm redline. I made a quick note of how to scan the engine instruments for each engine. It went like this: "front coolant temp, front oil pressure, rear coolant temp, rear oil pressure, and fuel." The five point harness and seat were standard fare, while the Nascar door bar was lower than usual. There were no window nets or side nets, which helped visibility, but made me note to sit on my hands if I rolled. I put my helmet and gloves on and cinched the harness down. Then I closed my eyes and practiced egressing from the car a few times. I wanted the muscle memory for the harness release and door handle to be automatic. 15 seconds is all the fire protection my racing suit provides. If I could be out of the car in 7, that would give 7 more to shed the suit and roll.

Car Familiarization

Strapping In

Team Strategy = Banana Peels

Familiarization done, it was time to race. I slammed a bottle of water in addition to the Venti Starbucks and SoBe energy drink already swelling my bladder. A dozen trips to the plywood hutch couldn't stop the inevitable. I was going to have to pee. What I wasn't prepared for was the back of the yellow car I gridded behind, which said, "I got to pee." Stupid themes - already getting in my head. Dammit man!

Psychological Warfare by the Car In Front of Me

I Did Have to Pee - Damit!

Driving to Grid

The start was a rolling start with the green flag thrown randomly in the middle of the pack. I was at the back of the pack, but because the flag was thrown at random I actually started in 6th. I spent the first dozen laps learning the car and incrementally increasing my speed. I wanted to preserve the car for the long haul and not get black flagged, but I also wanted to open up a lead on whoever our closest rivals would be. Once I settled in, the speed came naturally. I metered my aggression enough to pass a lot of cars while not getting passed. At the same time I focused on putting down fast and consistent lap times and avoiding being distracted by the cars I was passing. I drove a similar line to the M Coupe, but noted the distinct differences of having two engines. The rear engine was always chugging along. It shifted at random, reminding me of an early turbo kicking in. Sometimes I could get it to downshift in turn 7, which helped going up the hill. An Audi caught in fire within the first hour bringing out a prolonged full course yellow flag. After the yellow was lifted, I got back to work. Soon, we found ourselves in 1st place and I held it for rest of my driving stint.

Rescue Truck Staging for the Inevitable

Green Flag

MRolla In First Place

Practice Lap Video of the MRolla
Turn up the Volume and you can hear both engines

Black Audi After the Fire

James was our next driver. The pit cost us the lead, but that was expected. As the morning turned to afternoon and we cycled through drivers we began to realize a shortcoming of the MRolla. Lemons rules require the original fuel tank or a fuel cell in an isolated compartment. There is no room anywhere for a fuel cell, so the MRolla had to make due with the original ten-gallon tank designed for one engine. With double the fuel burn, we were needing to pit about every hour and a half. We were nearly as fast as lot of our rivals, but the frequent pit stops started costing us. We were able to maintain our place in the bottom half of the top ten as we cycled through Chris, Eugene, and Larry.

Pit Stop and Driver Change

During Eugene's stint the brakes started going. When they failed, he put four wheels straight off at turn 6 (the safest option). We got a black flag and inspected the car. Everything looked great. As the pads wore they just couldn't dissipate the heat. We collectively struck a bargain with the brake system. If we braked at about 60-75% the pads would continue to tolerate the heat. Threshold braking for more than half a lap would result in almost no brakes for the latter part of the lap. You could make a “withdrawal" from the brake "bank" to make a pass or out-brake someone, but you had to plan for no brakes later in the lap. I used this strategy very effectively during my second driving stint. I would brake later, but harder while passing cars down the back straight into turn 4 and turn 6 if necessary. This would result in scary speed through turn 4 and more so in turn 1 on the next lap, but it worked very effectively. Right up until the point that it didn't!

I had been racing a blue BMW E30 for most of the stint. They must have had a fast driver in their car, because the car was markedly faster than earlier in the race. He finally slowed down (to preserve the car I found out later) and I had a shot. At the same time, the only other E30 entered the track. I was behind both, but closing when we reached the back straight. I got caught up in the moment and went for a double pass. It took me deep into braking zone. I knew before I hit the pedal my chances of making it were low. As I rolled onto the pedal, my fears were confirmed. I could have probably kept the car on the track through turn 4 with a heroic drift, but I didn't want to risk crashing the MRolla. Instead, I gently drove the car off on the outside of the turn. It was completely composed and free of drama. Once the traffic was clear I drove back on, but I'd get an automatic black flag. I'd made my bed, now I had to lay in it. In Lemons, the rules literally say "It's always your fault." It was my fault of course, so I took my medicine, inspected the car, and swapped out for Chris, who would finish the day.

The Blue E30
(my nemesis)

Our Hilarious Competition

^Okay the Acura NSX wasn't racing, but it deserved a picture!

The Other MR2's

This MR2 Was Powered by a Motorcycle Engine

(in the passenger compartment, driving a chain to the rear axle!)

My shenanigans dropped us to 11th place. I felt terrible, but we had bigger problems. According to our calculations we would run out of gas a few minutes before the finish. Chris took advantage of other team's pit stops and clawed us back up to 6th place, but with the looming fuel shortage we asked him to dial it back a bit. When the empty light came on with fifteen minutes to go, we employed a technique that nobody else could - we shut down the rear engine. Our lap times dropped about forty seconds, but we had a large gap on the car behind us. After a few more laps we realized that gap was quickly closing. We went for broke and told Chris to start the rear engine and flog it. He crossed the line in 6th a handful of seconds ahead of the 7th place car. Phew!

Our Base Camp

Anxiously Watching the Finish

Shredded Tires

The crazy thing was, that was only half of the race. We spent the night admiring the other teams crazy cars, the heroic repairs going around us, and swapping brake pads on the MRolla. Sleep came quickly. Sunday was a repeat of Saturday. Somehow we managed to linger in the bottom half of the top ten throughout the day. We were faster than some of the cars ahead of us, but our frequent pit stops kept us out of the top five. At the completion of the two-day race we finished 6th place (3rd in class). Against all odds the MRolla survived 314 laps without a hitch. Even though we only got 3rd in class, the race organizers recognized this accomplishment and awarded us the Index of Effluency award, the most "prestigious" in Lemons!

Heroic Repairs in the Paddock

Index of Effluency Award

Team Volatile Ram