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Cessna 310 Junkyard Fuselage Born Again as Race Car

Gemini Sparkle

Key Takeaways:

  • Jeff Bloch, known as "Speedycop," constructed a unique race car called the "Spirit of LeMons" by mating the fuselage of a 1956 Cessna 310 airplane to the chassis of a 1987 Toyota minivan.
  • The vehicle was built for the "24 Hours of LeMons" series, which features races for cars with a $500 spending limit.
  • The "Spirit of LeMons" successfully completed a 24-hour race and was awarded the "Index of Effluency Award" for its performance despite its unconventional design.
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Though his racing suit is devoid of sponsors’ patches, Jeff Bloch has built 13 racers over the years — but none quite like this one. The shiny aluminum race “car” is actually the fuselage of a 1956 Cessna 310 light twin, mated to the chassis of a 1987 Toyota minivan. Bloch (known as “Speedycop”) and his team buried themselves in five months’ worth of sweat, tears and Sawzall shavings to bring the “Spirit of LeMons” to fruition — the ultimate in junkyard engineering.

You might recall our story on the unusual Cessna 310 from December. The project is all part of Car & Driver’s “24 Hours of LeMons” series, which does its best to live up to its fanciful citrus-related lampoon name. The goal of the series of races around the country is to field an entry that can somehow continue motoring for 24 hours over two days without self destructing, but with a spending limit of $500 per car (probably an average lunch tab for a Nascar crew).

Mark Phelps

Mark Phelps is a senior editor at AVweb. He is an instrument rated private pilot and former owner of a Grumman American AA1B and a V-tail Bonanza.

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