Hi. I'm currently working on an edit of Rat Race (my first fanedit). I have five goals with this edit:

change the terrible, terrible ending and get rid of Smash Mouth
remove unnecessary exposition at the beginning - the characters should be revealed by their actions, not by meaningless talk at the beginning that never comes up again later (e.g. Meryl and Vera having never met; for the whole movie they act like any normal daughter and mother, not strangers).
bring this movie a little closer to it's inspiration, It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, by doing a new Saul Bass-inspired animated intro and incorporating music from IAMMMMW throughout
get rid of some of the more over-the-top moments that take the viewer out of the movie
fix some technical glitches that are present in the original and make a few other minor edits

I'd love to hear comments/suggestions/questions from you all!

Changes I've already made:

cut the opening song/animation and begun planning a new saul bass-inspired intro
cut the opening scene to eliminate some dialogue between nick and the hotel clerk and just start on "afro whores"
reedited owen's referee scene to avoid jump cuts
cut out all but about 10 frames of first gloria allred appearance
cut down/reedited scene of vera and meryl meeting scene so they're just a little estranged, not meeting for first time
cut nick talking to his friend
started work on a new introduction + coin-finding for pollini (since he's the only main character who doesn't really get one)
reordered the "finding the gold coin" scenes to accommodate previous cuts and to make timing of reception arrivals make more sense
cut out vera taking a picture with owen, and the bit about the commemorative coin
cut meryl calling vera "vera" as she tries to drag her out of the reception
changed sinclair's "one throw of the dice" to "one throw of the die"
cut out "who let the dogs out" in stairwell scene, and started working on changes to other music throughout
cut out weird shot of someone's foot (stepping on glass in front of the camera?) in stairwell
cut out meryl calling vera "vera" in stairwell and while running for cab
cut out second gloria allred scene
cut out stupid and poorly-performed "i'm wigging out back here" by jason and one of bev's lines from car trip and tried to fix bad audio edit present in original
cut out heart beating gag
added two deleted shots / one deleted line ("you people are worse than the lucys") while bus is chasing balloon and slightly reedited scene to accommodate
started working on new ending for donald sinclair and the high rollers
added two new bus shots and one new balloon shot to ease transition from day to night
started working on new ending for the rest of the main cast

Changes I'd still like to make:

finish above bits that are still a work in progress: new opening, new pollini introduction, new ending, new music
add in a couple bits from the DVD's gag reel. this might not happen, as the whole thing has music running underneath the dialogue that will be more or less impossible to remove.
check for any more instances where meryl is acting weirdly distant from vera, e.g. calling her "vera" instead of "mom"
replace the bit with the soapy lucys with a deleted scene of the lucys reciting a scene from the show
possibly add in a deleted scene of a bus full of rickys
redo (some of) the credits, maybe with some animation like i'm having at the beginning