ALMS Eye Candy

Did you miss the American Le Mans race that took place at Lime Rock Park this past Saturday?  If you did, go look up who won.  Then come back and look at these pics of what you may have missed.

More Cars, More Coffee

This past Saturday two big names from the Boston area hosted separate Cars and Coffee events.  The Herb Chambers Porsche/Audi dealership and the Larz Anderson Auto Museum put on quite a show, showing off more exotic hardware than a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon's office.  Here are some of the sights from both.  Enjoy!

Warning: large photos ahead

You Can't Handle the Truth (in 24 II: Every Second Counts)

Any enthusiast worth his nomex driving gloves knows that Audi is a powerhouse in the world of endurance racing.  With ten overall Le Mans victories since the race in 2000, no manufacturer has ever achieved the same levels of success that the boys from Ingolstadt have in such a short amount of time.  So, what happens when your trophy cabinet is overflowing with French hardware?  Relive the glory by making a documentary, of course!

Fresh from a screening held at the Larz Anderson Auto Museum in Brookline, Ma, I can share my thoughts on the second documentary that...errrr... documents the Audi way of life at Le Mans.

Sunoco Sponsorship

When you can say you've been associated with Penske, McLaren, Donohue, Porsche, Audi, and Ferrari you're kind of a big deal.  While Sunoco isn't much of a team sponsor these days, choosing instead to put their backing into being the title fuel sponsor of NASCAR, they still were one of the iconic liveries of the 70's. In fact, they were so closely linked with the Camaro Trans-Am program that when the Camaro was relaunched, they were a part of the first Grand-Am Continental Tire Series GS effort (along with the matching #6 as well).  Enjoy!

Photos By Jay Bonvouloir

Photo By Wayne Lamport

Photos By Louis Galanos
Also check out a couple of Mr. Galanos' stories (1969, 1971) on historic races including the story of the 1969 24 Hours of Daytona in which the winning Sunoco sponsored Penske Lola was later stolen and chopped up!

Photo by Nancy Nally

Photo by Bo Nash

Cars and Coffee

This past week has been a hugely exciting time to be a petrolhead.  Chrysler's unveiling of the new 2013 SRT Viper left jaws dropped at the New York International Auto Show on Wednesday.  Pictures of that can be seen here.  Halfway across the world in Qatar, MotoGP started its season with a tooth and nail fight amongst Dani Pedrosa, Jorge Lorenzo, and Casey Stoner that lasted to the checkers.  Right here in Boston, the Lars Anderson Auto Museum kicked off the Cars and Coffee season with great showing of exotica.  Kick back and click the pics!

Ebay Finds

Here's a quick and dirty post about three phenomenal cars for sale on Ebay right now.

Ferrari F40:  You know it, you love it, buy it for $600g

Jaguar C-type reproduction:  Curves this good don't need to be real.

Jaguar by Kougar Engineering:  She's expensive, old, and ugly... but still a Kougar.

In The Red

Take a good, long look at the picture above.  It's an advertisement from the current issue of Road & Track.  Notice anything automotive related?  Hit the jump to read my conspiracy theories.

Force Fed Friday

Alliteration is a great device to use when telling anecdotes to a group of friends.  It can turn an awful storyteller into an amazing one... or at least make the words more interesting to hear.  I don't think a story about a partially petrified paleolithic pancreas is that interesting but it's fun to say!  Sorry to all the archaeologists out there!

Where was I?  OH!  Alliteration!  Yes, it's fun.  In fact, this being the weekend, make a drinking game out of it.  At a wedding reception, we, the wedding party, all had to take a drink every time a word started with the letter "L."  We were soon talking about litigious lesbians loving lipsticked lawyers.

You should convince your friends to give it a shot.  You can use words that start with "F" but try to use innuendo more than cussing and swears.  I'll start you off with Force Fed Friday.

Incidentally, that sounds like a great title to use for a bunch of videos about turbo and supercharged cars too!  Enjoy these somewhat artsy, kind of informational, partially awe-inspiring videos.

Fragile females fracture forearms from falling. Drink! (responsibly and don't drive)

Happy Friday!  Feel free to add your own alliteration or video in the comments!


Streetgasm Top Secret Twins - RPM Online from Seifer Chimera on Vimeo.



MRC WIDEBODY S4 - THE SEQUEL 204.4MPH from MRC Tuning on Vimeo.

Spoiler Alert: The New F1 Nose

Last week Jerez played host to the first test of the 2012 F1 season.  Without delving into the details, the normal order of things hasn't been shaken up too much with the exception of Lotus-Renault showing some pace.  You can see the combined times here. Oh yeah, don't pay much attention to Mercedes' time.  It was done while testing their 2011 car.  While there isn't a huge surprise in the times, the front end of the cars look quite different from last year.

2011

2012

Flow Ridaz

For those that don't follow F1, the teams are slowly revealing their 2012 entries and as is the case with any new season, there's a huge emphasis on finding an aerodynamic edge.  Additionally, this year the exhaust-blown diffuser, which produced huge amounts of grip for repeat champion Red Bull, is banned.  While there are no videos of the current F1 cars in the wind tunnel, here's a video from sometime between 2005 and 2008 explaining some of the basics of managing the air around an F1 car.



Compare the complex flow of that to how the air stays connected to a street car with a lot of R&D put into its development.

Snick Snick

2011 has officially come and gone and with it there has been some depressing news.  Ranking pretty high on the list of unapologetically stupid actions by carmakers is canceling all production of manual transmissions.  The primary culprits of this heinous crime are no other than Ferrari and Lamborghini for not only murdering their manual transmissions but, in the process, committing manslaughter against their beautiful gated shifters.  Instead of mourning the passing of the gated shifter, we've decided to celebrate its life.  Enjoy and Happy New Year!

Gestation of an Amateur Photographer

Nine months ago, I picked up my first real camera hoping to capture some really kickass photos for FPH.  At first, I thought it was going to be easy.  How hard could it be to aim at something and hit a button?!?!  Was I ever in for an awakening!  Not only were my pictures stagnant and off-color, they didn't illicit any emotion.  Now I don't confess my pictures are frame worthy and should be hung over a fireplace.  However, I do feel I've learned a lot since I unboxed my Nikon back in March.  Knowing that I still have a lot to learn, I present, what I think are, the best pictures of 2011 in chronological order.  Enjoy!

P.S. Some of the pictures get cut off on the right side due to formatting issues.  Click on them to view in large format.

The Saratoga Auto Museum

What if I told you that within a state park located somewhere in the middle of New York lies a bottling plant that holds a treasure trove of some of the most iconic cars in international motor racing?

Last week, Danny Chin and I embarked on a road trip that brought us to the Saratoga Automobile Museum. Lucky for us, we arrived on a cold, damp, and gloomy Wednesday. The museum was completely empty and ours to enjoy! Inside, we found an eclectic collection of not only automobiles, but paintings, photographs, and sculptures as well.

To celebrate 60 years of Porsche in North America, the Saratoga Auto Museum is currently featuring an exhibit dedicated to the iconic German automaker. From a selection of Porsche 356 coupes and convertibles loaned from private owners, to the Porsche GT1 and Porsche 961 LeMans endurance race cars provided by Rennsport, here is a video I've created (hashed together) to share my favorite cars on display. Enjoy!



In order of Appearance:
Porsche 904
1966 Porsche 906
1967 Porsche 910/6
1972 Porsche 911
Porsche 914-6 GT
1998 Porsche GT1-98
1986 Porsche 961
1981 Porsche 928S
1981 Wingho Autos W3 Triposto
1987 Porsche 959
Porsche Carrera GT
Porsche 356A Speedster
Porsche Gmünd Coupe
Porsche 356 S90
Porsche 356C
Artwork by George Frayne
1951 Ferrari Bardahl-Special
1950 Allard J2

The Ferrari 250 LM

Penned by the late, great Battista Pininfarina, only the first Ferrari 250 LM was fitted with the 250 engine, while the rest of the 30 odd models were powered by the larger 330. In 1965, the North American Racing Team privately fielded a 250 LM, driven by Jochen Rindt and Maston Gregory, to participate in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. To date, it remains Ferrari's last overall victory at the world's most famous endurance race.

This one isn't it. But it's still damn sexy!


Ferrari 250 LM #6045 from GridStars on Vimeo.

Check out more videos from Gridstars.

A Tribute To Sergio Scaglietti

May your soul love on forever within the greatest Italian sports cars the world has ever seen.

Sergio Scaglietti, standing 8th from the left, beige coat

It's a bit... okay it's not that great. But it's nice to just play Scaglietti for half an hour.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!