This December at Buttonwillow will be my 5th LeMons race. I wouldn't trade the experience for a lifetime of autocrossing. My favorite moment was my team's first race - at Buttonwillow in 2009. Achieving Least Horrible Yank Tank was a trip!

If you want to see one of these up close and personal, Chrysler may have theirs on display at the Chrysler Museum in Auburn Hills, Michigan:
http://wpchryslermuseum.org/newsrelease.do;jsessi...

The Cummins B-series 5.9 & 6.7L engines do have a gear drive cam, but it's in the block. Yes, even the 24-valve engines have pushrods. They still kick ass, though.

The sports car handling comes from the Cutlass "chassity" of course.

The "modern Hemi" cylinder numbering is wrong. It is numbered back and forth from bank to bank, like the old small-block Mopar was.

Come on out to the West coast and run with us in the LeMons neon. I understand that you know how to drive one of those. You could hang out with Jonny then...

Coincidentally, there was an article in the LA Times just last week regarding a pilot program for an all-electric powertrain retrofit to the postal LLVs. AC Propulsion - consultant on the Tesla roadster and builder of the Ebox - is building a prototype. The postal service may end up contracting for conversion of the LLVs to battery electric vehicles...or maybe not.

Where are they getting these vans? In Japan? Maybe they are ex-US military vehices. Or - worse yet - people are actually buying them in the US and importing them just for this purpose. The Dodge B-van can be a nice tow vehicle for your racecar...but racing the van?

Since the LA Times no longer has any sort of auto section - and they subsequently lost Dan Neil to the WSJ - I'm surprised that many papers even have a "Wheels" section (or auto writer) any more. Should we listen to Jalopnik commenters who hate Chrysler LX cars without having actually driven them? Are those people our "new" experts? I'd like to think that magazine comparison tests still have some relevancy, particularly for the non-enthusiast buyer.

I rarely turn on the radio in my Boxster S, preferring to hear the Boxer engine symphony. I usually listen to NPR in my commutermobile, since LA area radio sucks so badly.