Index Of Effluency Battle Heats Up: Audi 5000 Vs Citation X-11 Vs Omni Charger Vs Alfa Romeo!

If you're a serious 24 Hours of LeMons fan, you know that the Index Of Effluency (given to the team that overachieves beyond all expectation with an all-around terrible car) is the real top prize. Who's leading after Day One?

At this point, it appears that the Uchill Audi 5000 has the strongest IOE position. Would you believe 9th place overall? Sure, the heavy rainstorms we had during the day helped the big Audi, but not as much as its avoidance of penalties and busted parts.

Then there's Dog Ciao Racing. A genuinely horrible Alfa, it hadn't managed to string more than a few hours of breakdown-free operation together in its previous few races... but today it looked pretty strong!

Some of you may remember the Craptation X-11 from the New England '09 LeMons, a race that chewed up and spat out the Citation in about 15 yards of engine-explodin' racing. This time, however, the Craptation has returned with a new 180-horsepower late-model GM V6 (and the same terrible suspension and brakes). After spending the first few hours of the day up on jackstands with multiple suspension and oil-leakage issues, the Craptation hit the track and started to go around and around. No black flags and plenty of power on the straights (don't ask about the turns) earned the Chevy a respectable 43rd-place position at the end of Saturday's race session. The IOE favorite? Maybe!

Not quite as terrible a car as a Citation, yet holding down 41st place after the day's racing ended, the Dodge Boys Omni-based Charger had a similar good-straights-terrible-turns MO. Like the Chevy, it started out the day in a flurry of wrenches and cursing, but is geared up to make a strong Sunday run at the IOE. Who's it gonna be?