Cop builds upside-down car, races at LeMons

(Credit: Video screenshot by Michelle Starr/CNET Australia)

You get to see some pretty interesting vehicles at 24 Hours of LeMons (not to be confused with 24 Hours of Le Mans), the series of endurance races across the U.S. for cars that cost less than $ 500.

Police officer Jeff Bloch — also known as Speedycop — has driven a few different builds in the races, including a bright pink Cadillac, a modified camper van, and a repurposed Cessna cockpit paired with a Toyota engine.

This year, he went completely topsy-turvy, literally, with what he calls the Upside Down Race Car, driven at the Pacific Northwest GP circuit on July 20-21.

The car is actually two cars: a 1990 Ford Festiva, around which he wrapped the upside-down body of a 1999 Chevy Camaro in a process that took around two months. The Festiva’s engine was, bluntly, awful: a tiny, 1.3-liter model with nearly 190,000 miles — not exactly suited to endurance racing, especially when trying to carry a much larger car’s body in addition to its own.

“Putting this thing on a r… [Read more]