24 Hours of LeMons: Pre-Buttonwillow So-Cal Junkyard Scabenger Hunt

Last December the 24 Hours of LeMons hosted the inaugural Junkyard Scavenger Hunt, a.k.a. The Day the Infamy Stood Still. On Sunday, August 2, about 20 participants from the upcoming Buttonwillow Histrionics (August 15-16) descended on a San Fernando Valley junkyard for Scabenger Hunt II: The Crappening. Why would seemingly sane people willingly show up at high noon to sweat themselves half to death in the filthy, 100+ degrees scorched asphalt nightmare of a Pick'n'Pull? For largely meaningless prizes, of course!

We came up with a list of items (heavy metal cassettes, unexpired prescription meds, X-mas tree air fresheners, etc.) one could reasonably encounter in a junkyard. Then we assigned each item a value. The team with the most points would win the pole position. That's right, the winners "earn" the chance to be the first car on the grid in a sixteen hour endurance race. Which is a bit like being the skinniest contestant on Dance Your Ass Off. Or something.

Sunday's winner was the legendary Team Porcubimmer, a "hella veteran" collection of track rats that managed to come in second place at the first LeMons scavenger hunt. This time, they concentrated on the low-value, but easy to find items and simply blew the competition away. The Porcubimmers were 300 points ahead of the other teams before we stopped counting. They even beat the team that wrenched the intake manifold off a V12 Jaguar XJ-S. Every team that participated got at least two Gerald R. Ford Memorial Pardon Certificates (that's LeMons speak for get out of jail free cards), as well as t-shirts and patches. Fun and heat stroke was had by all. Full inventory of items on the list after the jump, high-res images in the gallery below.

FIRST ANNUAL LA LeMons SCAB-ENGER HUNT

General Items

• photographs (5 pts per)loose change (10 pts per dollar collected, we keep the money)
• porn (30 pts, one per team, we keep the porn)
• V12 intake manifold (100 pts, one per team)
• metal utensils (10 pts per)
• working analog clock (15 pts per foreign-made; 25 pts per domestically made)
• hose clamps (2 pts per)
• homework (15 pts per)
• Italian Steering wheel (35 pts per)
• Lucas headlight (100 pts per)
• K-car turbos (25 pts per)
• tacky add-on dealer badging (10 pts per)
• 5-cylinder crankshaft (120 pts, one per team)
• cloisonne badges from manufacturers no longer sold in US (25 per)
• cloisonne badges from manufacturers no longer sold anywhere (40 per)
• valid auto-insurance cards (25 per name)
• prescription medications (20 per bottle/tube expired; 40 pts per bottle/tube not expired)
• heavy-metal cassette tapes (5 per)
• disco 8-track tapes (50 per)
• dope pipe (25 per)
• crack pipe (50 per)

Team Competitions (Awarded to One Team Only)

• Most Dead Domestic badges (40 pts)
• Best Bumper Stick/License Plate Frame (50 pts)
• Most Jesus Fish (50 pts)
• Most Darwin Fish (60 pts)
• Most Xmas-tree air fresheners (70 pts)
• Best "24 Hours of LeMons" written in emblem letters (100 pts)
• Best "Other" item (200 points – we'll know it when we see it)