The Archives

"Good things come in small packages"

 Standing at a less than menacing five feet, seven inches in height has resulted in listening to the aforementioned phrase on numerous occasions.  It was a pretty annoying thing to hear as a high school kid who wanted to play football instead of the trumpet.  However as time progressed and adulthood set in, there was a realization that being well below six feet tall has advantages like fitting comfortably into low roofed sports cars as well as better power to weight ratios on motorcycles.

With an ability uncommon for their small stature, there are some in the automotive world that embrace this kind of mighty midget sentiment.  Those that quickly spring to mind are the original Mini Cooper, racer Perry McCarthy, and the Brawn GP team of 2009.  FPH's roadtrip through central New York discovered another one of these anomalies that is more breathtaking than its diminutive size would lead you to believe.  This amazing place is the International Motor Racing Research Center located in Watkins Glen.

One Lap Of The Original Watkins Glen Grand Prix Circuit

We went on a little road trip to Watkins Glen this week and the above video is of the old 6.6 mile racing circuit of 1948. Danny Chin did the driving in his Mazdaspeed 3 and I rigged a Sony Bloggie video camera tethered to a stand from a GPS unit. At normal speeds, the lap can be completed in approximately 9 minutes on public roads. We decided to speed up the video to convey a better sense of speed.

Celebration!! Oh F*CK!

Hey guys, we wanted to make something special for our 2-year anniversary on December 8th, but video editing is more difficult than I thought and the hotel's internet is incredibly slow. Oh, And our anniversary is actually December 6!

We've got some videos and cool stuff to show you guys in a couple days and it may trickle into next week.

For now, TGIF everyone and have a great weekend!

Teaser: Where's FPH Going?

Stay tuned!

The Art Of The Perfect Pit Stop

The Team Red Bull's performance this season has been nothing short of dominant. Adrian Newey's design gave the RB7 performance where it mattered and right out the gate, it has been lightyears ahead of any of the competing Formula 1 cars. What's more, Sebastian Vettel's talent behind the wheel earned him a total of 15 pole positions, one more than the previously held record by Nigel Mansell in 1992. Simply, not once did Red Bull Racing ever lose a grand prix to another opponent due to a lack of outright pace.

But Red Bull isn't invincible and a race can be won or lost by tire choices and pit stop strategies. A well oiled pit crew can save a team's race and a bad wheel gun could tear their race apart. If a Red Bull gets caught behind a McLaren and has trouble completing a pass even though its capable of turning a faster lap, the team might rethink their strategy and dive into the pits a lap early to rejoin with fresh tires and clear air. At the same time, if the McLaren does get passed and has trouble taking back the position from the Red Bull or trouble maintaining the gap, he may follow the Red Bull into the pits and hope that new tires or a quicker pit stop can send him ahead again.

Here are a selection of pit stops, some perfect and others disastrous, that display the importance and dynamism of what an array of mechanics must do within 4 short seconds.


The first video examines Force India's pit crew and the roles of each mechanic. Note that the 2009 season was the last season that permitted refueling during a pitstop.

Ebay Finds: Because Race Car

How would you like to own a Porsche that's cheaper than a Carrera GT, rarer than a Carrera GT, has racing pedigree like the famed 917, and is connected to the current American Le Mans championship team?  Well, here's your chance to own a piece of Porsche history.  For sale on Ebay is a Porsche 962 powered by a 700 horsepower Andial 3.2 liter turbocharged flat-6.  This particular car competed in the IMSA GT class in the mid 80s while other 962 with smaller displacement raced and won in Europe.



The history of the 962 is quite fascinating and I would do it no justice with a summary here.  Google it at your own leisure and check the ebay posting.

Toyota 86: I am Iron Man

Iron Man was a great movie. It starred the second-best (behind Xavier) damn Marvel superhero of all time; it was performed by the talented cast of Robert Downey Jr., Jeff Bridges, Terrance Howard, and Gwyneth Paltrow; and most of all, Iron Man was great simply because it was directed by fellow Queens native and Bronx Science alumni, Jon Favreau.

I knew I had to catch it but, unfortunately, I couldn't find the time until its very last week in theaters. By then, everybody and their grandmother had already seen it and raved on and on about the movie. Best movie ever! Blew my mind! Shit was bananas!

By the time I went to see it, I've been fed a month's worth of buzz and entered the theater with unjustified expectations. It was a disaster. What could have been a life changing cinematic experience turned out, at moments, to be slightly boring. Somehow, the movie was just too predictable and it almost seemed like I've seen it before. Because of the great number of people that couldn't stop talking about it, Iron Man was ruined. I barely enjoyed it.

I'll go straight to the point. The Toyota 86 is my automotive Iron Man. Ever since the FT-86 was first unveiled at the Tokyo Motor Show in 2009, we've seen so many concept variants and it's been reported, speculated, and promoted so relentlessly in so many different mediums (auto shows, magazines, blogs, twitter, forums, spy photos at Nurburgring, Gran Turismo 5), I've honestly grown tired of it.