Love Triangle

We hope all our east coast readers fared well this past week. Many people taunted the storm on their status updates but I, for one, was pretty close to shitting bricks. Irene is not to be effed with.

Anyway, back to our regular program. I found this adorable video by True Biker Spirit about how a couple's relationship kept growing upon their passion for motorcycles and adventure. Enjoy guys, There's some gnarly sidecar action to boot!

eBay Finds: Not Quite Sane Edition

The avid FPH reader knows that I'm not a huge fan of Porsche.  The brand is held in a place of respect and appreciated more than the current Camry producing mega conglomerate that is Toyota.  Yet, I will never love the marque... unless it's breathed upon by the master tuners at RUF.

For those that don't know, RUF isn't just another tuner company that stamps out cold air intakes and calls it a day.  Their modifications are so extensive that RUF is considered a complete car company in its native Germany.  As an example, their very own supercar, the CTR3, is 911 based but houses its engine midship in a tube frame just like a full on race car.

While the car on eBay isn't the CTR3, it still grabbed my attention harder than Playboy for a high school kid.  Old Porsches are infamous for being bi-polar beasts.  Taking the sphincter-puckering turbo version of that monster and adding the RUF treatment sounds like the right kind of crazy to me.  If you got the cash and plenty of stain resistant underpants, click the picture below and head over to the eBay listing for the 374 horsepower RUF BTR.

Cruise Night Photos

Here are a few select artsy photos from the past couple cruise nights.  If you're interested in photos of the cruise nights with more cars and less art, let me know and I'll post those pictures too.  Click the pic for full size, possibly desktop worthy high resolution.

 

Inside Rauh-Welt Begriff: Extreme Porsche Tuning 101

Believe it or not, Nakai San created the Porsche Tuner Rauh-Welt Begriff fifteen years ago. Today, he still creates the wildest Porsche you'll ever see. Here's an insider video of what goes into creating these incredible machines.



Have a good weekend, everybody!

BMW Short Films: Beat the Devil

Remember these? They were awesome.

Gettin' Sideways

While perusing the information super highway today, an unusual car/motorcycle/jet fighter thing caught my attention.  Now, usually these types of vehicles are quickly dismissed and never seen again.  The thought of a motorcycle being saddled with hundred of extra performance stifling pounds is a depressing notion while the idea of any joe blow being able to "ride" a three wheeled vehicle that is registered as a motorcycle makes me laugh at their "skill" on the street.  What you're about see is the exception to these rules.  It's primarily a high efficiency commuter car that brings some of the excitement of motorcycling.  With that in mind, this "car" is a great revelation for the typical commuter car buying crowd.  I'd take this over an IQ or Smart any day... any day that I can't ride a proper motorcycle, that is.  Enjoy these videos!

Around the Block in a Ford Focus

Straight and to the point, I've always been a fan of the Focus.  When the original Focus debuted in 1999, it showed a brand new styling language for Ford and backed it up with impeccable handling as well as a bit of grunt from the Cossie engined SVT in the U.S.  The problems with the Focus in America arose when Europe got an all new car in 2004 while the U.S. car was neglected like a red-headed orphan.  It grew uglier, lazier, and slower especially compared to the ST and RS versions that the old country received.  So with much expectation, I sunk into the sculpted driver seat of the 2011 Ford Focus SEL and was met with both delight and aggravation.  Read on to find out why.

Apologies for the awful, unstaged pictures!

Rivalry Adds So Much To The Charms Of One's Conquests

Hopefully, our readers are already familiar with Ayrton Senna's career or have had a chance to see the Senna movie this weekend. If neither apply for you, then I hope the following paragraph doesn't give too much away.

The Senna Franchise

Picture this: You are in your mid twenties, a fresh college graduate, and looking forward to starting a career. A career in what? Becoming a pro athlete? Please! You and what odds?

But if you're somehow half decent and earn some recognition in amateur competitions, a scout might discover you and you might get introduced to a team. And, if the team is half decent, they'll stay operational thanks to ever important sponsorships and endorsement funding.

But what if you're really good? I mean Michael Jordan good? The tables turn and it's no longer a matter of putting on sneakers and track jackets with a Nike Swoosh on it like a walking billboard. You'll find your name labelled onto everything Nike sells instead. It makes you immortal. It makes you legendary.

Schexy Beast!

The BMW M1 was one of those projects that had everything going against it. The M1 started as a project to create a competitive participant in the FIA Group 4 racing class but just as the car was near completion, a change in regulation required a new number of homologated versions of the race car to be produced first. That's bad news. And what's worse is that BMW was already struggling against torrential headwinds when the M1's chassis developer, Lamborghini, was facing the risk of bankruptcy and could not meet their end of the contract. In the end, 456 production models were built but it was not enough for the M1 to participate in the Group 4 races. You can never blame BMW for not trying though.

Formula 1 101

No, the title isn't in binary but is an introduction to a little crash course on Formula 1 history. Lean forward and enjoy!

The TransAm Series

We're all guilty of teasing muscle cars from time to time. But if you told Mark Donohuen that muscle cars could do nothing more than go in a straight line, the joke's on you!

Check out how they slide sideways at corner exit!


One of the top comments of the video (28 thumbs-ups, no less) asks, "why dont we have a racing series like this today??? wtf!" Well... we do... and we don't. Thanks to trusty ole' Google, I found that the SCCA TransAm series is still operating. I can't tell you much more than that, though. The romance, the racing stars, the fans, it's all gone. What's left is just too dreadfully dull to hold my attention.

That said, I'd love to be proven wrong. So to any current Trans Am fans out there, feel free to share some of your enthusiasm with us! Especially in the form of awesome race footage!

Hope everyone's having a wonderful weekend!

Drive-ins, Cruise Nights, and Club Meets

Throughout the summer, I've been trying to get to as many car events as possible to challenge my very amateur photography skills.  While FPH has covered the Mount Washington Climb to the Clouds and American Le Mans at Lime Rock, it's hard to constantly find race venues that are both within driving distance as well as willing to extend media credentials to FPH up here in the northeast.  To stave off the rust, I've also been attending car meets of various kinds.  Here are some of the more artistic shots I've taken.  Feel free to leave any kind of constructive criticism in the comments.