With all the recent attention paid to LeMons Legend Speedycop‘s recent creations—say, the road-racing ’56 Cessna 310 or the road-racing Viking pop-up trailer—it’s important to remember that Speedycop and the Gang of Outlaws have been building amazing race cars for more than four years, and some newcomers to the series may not know about one of our all-time favorites: a 1979 Pontiac Bonneville with the full Donk treatment.
A proper Oakland-style donk should be a full-size GM product with large-diameter wheels, low-profile tires, and serious suspension lift. Speedycop had been wanting to build a donked LeMons racer for a couple of years, and he finally surprised everyone by showing up with this bright yellow Pontiac at the 2011 Capitol Offense race in West Virginia.
Everyone who saw this car backed away in awe, and those who would soon be sharing a road-course track with it wondered what it would be like on the track.
Your LeMons correspondent (unwisely) volunteered to take the SpeedyDonk out for a few laps on the Summit Point track, and the car proved to be a jouncy, bouncy, tippy, tire-lifting handful.
With a Malaise Era 301-cubic-inch Pontiac V-8 under the hood and an apartment-building-esque center of gravity, the Donk wasn’t blisteringly quick, but it had enough power to pass other cars here and there.
By the time the 2011 Boston Tow Party and Overhead Cam-Bake rolled around, the Gang of Outlaws had learned to work with the Donk’s many handling quirks.
Imagine seeing this in your rear-view mirror!
The Donk proved to be quite reliable, and the Outlaws managed to keep the shiny side up.
Would you believe 16th place (out of 52 entries) for the Donk? It’s true! This resulted in the first of many Speedycop and the Gang of Outlaws Index of Effluency trophies.
Source: CarAndDriver
No comments:
Post a Comment