Junkyard genius builds world’s first racing airplane for endurance race

In the annals of the 24 Hours of LeMons — the racing series that combines a $500 vehicle spending limit with "Let's Make a Deal" costumes into a weekend jubilee of junkyard engineering — few racers and builders have brought more innovation to the track than Jeff Bloch. Bloch, known around the pits as Speedycop, has built 13 cars for the series over the years, none more involved than the craft he unveiled this weekend that combined Toyota minivan power with the body of a Cessna to create "The Spirit of LeMons" — a road-racing airplane.

Most LeMons projects involve a few friends pooling money and tools, creating a theme and finding a cast-off car (the more unique and less suited to racing, the better) that might run 24 hours around a track over two days if everyone wishes hard enough and stays sober while wrenching. Compared to those cars, the Spirit of LeMons is a Saturn V rocket with warp drive.