Index of Effluency

Index of Effluency (or IOE) is the top prize awarded in the 24 Hours of LeMons automotive racing series. General criteria to win this award is a car that is too unreliable to be driven effectively on the streets yet manages to complete a decent number of laps on the race track. IOE can be awarded to a vehicle that was deemed unreliable from the factory (e.g. Volkswagen Karmann Ghia) or a more reliable car with an unwise engine transplant (e.g. Ford Thunderbird with a BMW diesel engine). The award is named after the "Index of Thermal Efficiency", a prize briefly given in LeMons' namesake the 24 Hours of Le Mans to the car that scored the highest based on a complex formula that took into account car weight, fuel usage and average speed.
Prize.
The Index of Effluency title comes with a trophy. Prior to 2010, the trophy varied in design and was often made from recycled automotive parts. Beginning in 2010, the IOE trophy was made from heavy gauge metal and is of a racer running from an inverted car. The base of the trophy is a steel silhouette of a lemon, the series' logo. Laminated to the base is a printed label of the race name and year.
Along with the fame comes a cash prize, generally paid in the form of a standard, bank issued check written by race organizer John "Jay" Lamm but occasionally paid, as is the winner on laps, in nickels. When local banks do not have enough coins in stock to pay the winner on laps, checks are drawn, but usually on a medium that makes a winner's bank deposit an embarrassing experience (i.e. a toilet seat). However, IOE winners are frequently spared this layer of ridicule.
The amount of the IOE prize has changed over the years. In 2008 and 2009, the prize was $500. In 2010, in order to raise the significance of the Index of Effluency over that of winning the race outright (completing the most number of laps), the IOE prize was raised to $1501, one dollar more than the then-current race-winning prize of $1500. As the prize awards for winning the race outright and/or winning different race classes have changed over time, the IOE prize has continued to be set at one dollar more than the next-highest prize amount, to emphasize the IOE's status as the highest award in LeMons.