Cars and Going Fast

And hello. One thing I do want to talk about is where I get some of my inspiration and how. There are a few places, but the one I am most excited about would be a man by the name of Dick Fritz. Dick if you are reading this at any point, then my hat is off to you sir. Dick Fritz is a rather cool guy, he started out after college in the early '60s working with Chinetti Motors in New York, the first company to import Ferraris into the US. They were not a well known car manufacturer at this time and even his father thought they were crappy cars. Dick then went on to work with many of Ferrari's racing divisions and was part of their Formula 1 in '69. Besides Ferrari's he is credited for getting the McLaren F1 street legalized for use in the United States. He also tangoed with the Russian mob when they tried to sell him 2 cars, then scammed him and ran off. Not only did he get his money back, but he got the cars in the end as well. He is also considered a legend by Car and Driver magazine. Let me tell you, the man is quite interesting.

Now you maybe wondering why I'm talking about this Dick guy so much. Well it turns out he is a Clarkson University graduate and has come back to help out with our FSAE team. In the 3 or 4 hours that we conversed with him and showed him around our facilities, I learned a great deal. He left us a resume so we may look it over. There was one page with some brief history, then about 8 or 9 magazines that he was all mentioned in, along with some Ferrari manuals. Cool stuff.

My other location for a lot of my inspiration is the Internet. Doesn't sound to exciting, but I have learned a lot. Looking at other race cars, Formula SAE cars and Formula 1000 cars, has yielded me a great deal of ideas. Check this one out, its from Stohr Cars and is not an amazing photo, but does show quite a bit. http://www.stohrcars.com/f1000.php I do like their differential housing and suspension mounting 'box' that they use and will look into something like that for my car. I have many more pictures like this that have good information in them that I review from time to time to inspire my self and gather ideas.

Well that's about all I have for now. Have a good one.