Lenco fundraiser
A quick update, as I haven’t posted in a while. Last year the Board decided to take the road less travelled and opted to recreate an important race car. This is none other than the very first professionally built pro stock chassis to compete on the drag race strip at Koraal Tabak, Curacao. The year was 1975 and the car was “Bad Banana”.
Bad Banana leaving the starting line at Koraal Tabak, Cur. Photographer unknown.
Fast forward to a few years ago. In 2019, we opened our motorsports museum in a 60 m2 office space covering rallying, karting, drag racing, and hillclimb competition. And even though the museum was well received, the majority of visitors were disappointed not to see actual cars on exhibit. As we were forced to temporarily close during the pandemic, we decided to use the opportunity to look for larger exhibition space. After a rental market analyses we realised it was far better to build the building ourselves. A suitable location for this has been identified and we’ve been waiting for the government to issue the necessary paperwork since February 2023. And we have been assured it’s only a matter of time.
In the meantime, we’ve been busy trying to locate and save old race cars of significant racing pedigree. We are happy to say that we’ve secured three race cars, two of which are now undergoing restoration. The fourth one is the Bad Banana project, which is by far the most time consuming and expensive project.
Soon the body of a donor 1975 Chevrolet Camaro will be merged with an all-new pro stock tubular chassis, built in Curacao. As the original car used a 4 speed Lenco manual transmission, the replica will need a 5 speed Lenco (4-speeds are impossible to find or are very expensive).
As we are nearing the next big step in this important project, we hope to be able to count on the support of motorsport fans and our faithful supporters, as these kinds of museum projects can rarely be achieved without the help of many.
At the end of July, we will be holding a raffle fundraiser in order to help us purchase a used Lenco 5 speed manual transmission, which cost about $ 5000 in the USA.
Please check back soon for more information on this cool fundraiser. We are doing out utmost to have many many raffle prizes to give away!