Meeting a Real Legend

U.S. Legend spec racers look like they drove out of the Cars franchise, but they're serious vehicles that put the emphasis on the driver.

- EZRA DYER

I am in the final self-reflection and spousal-counsel stage that precedes awesome life moves, which in this case means getting a Legend race car. I figure that when I'm on my deathbed, my final thought is unlikely to be "I wish I didn't get that cool Legend Car." Unless that is, I'm having that thought from the driver's seat of a Legend Car. Then maybe I'll wish I'd taken up golf instead. But there are risks there too. I mean, an alligator has never attacked a Legend driver during competition.

Legend Cars, compact spec racers that look like a nitromethane Shriner fever dream, have been around since 1992. In 2018, U.S. Legend Cars International introduced a rowdy new engine from the Yamaha FZ09. It's a fuel-injected 847-cc three-cylinder tuned to make 136 horsepower and rev to 12,000 rpm. That buzz bomb drives the locked rear end through a six-speed sequential transmission. The car weighs about 1100 pounds without the driver. If all of that sounds to you like a recipe for good times, I'd agree.