Category: friday feature

By David G. Firestone

It seems everyone is doing gift guides for the Holiday season. So, in honor of Black Friday, I figured I would get in on the action. We all have a racing fan we know, whether it be a coworker, friend, family member, neighbor, or whoever, and you might not know what to get them for the holidays. Racing fans are not that difficult to shop for as one might think, so here is a list of things ideal to give the racing fan in your life.

Racing tickets-The ideal gift for any racing fan is a ticket to see the race live in person. Plus, if said person lives with you, it gets them out of the house for a day, which is nice.

Anything, and I mean ANYTHING with their favorite driver’s name and/or number on it.-Let’s be honest, racing fans want anything that is branded with their favorite driver. I’m fully convinced that male fans will buy a dildo, if it has their driver’s number on it. Just make sure you get the right driver. You don’t want to give a Joey Logano fan a Matt Kenseth branded item…or vise versa. Also, WHY DOES NASCAR SELL ROMANTIC NOVELS?

A big screen tv-To watch racing on…obviously! Turn racing on, and the fans will watch, and you can go about your life without them.

Food delivery gift cards-Racing fans do not like leaving the house to get food, so give them the ability to eat without leaving the house.

Beer-Can’t watch racing without beer. Most racing fans aren’t sophisticated so when it comes to beer…the cheaper the better! Make sure they choose a designated driver first.

Bacon-Now if I really have to explain why this is a good gift, you probably should be reading Cosmo instead of this…

Red meat-See above.

BBQ Sauce-Goes on the red meat.

Potato chips or other snacks-To be eaten with pizza, bacon or red meat.

Soda-Used with beer to help wash down the pizza, bacon, or red meat

Maalox, Pepto Bismol, or any other antacid-A racing fan after pigging out on pizza, bacon, or red meat while watching a race is not pleasant to watch. Said fan is even worse to deal with after the fact, so this should help.

Air freshener-See above.

Follow this easy guide, and the racing fan in your life will be happy!

By David G. Firestone

Last week, I discussed one of the most important tools in auto racing, the steering wheel. This week, we are going to look at minor tools that help one of the other major tools in auto racing. We are going to look at parts of the engine. The engine of a race car is like the mechanism of a Rolex watch, in that all of these intricately designed pieces, each with a very specific function come together, and interact with each other to propel a car from 0 to 300 MPH in a matter of seconds.

Let’s focus on NHRA nitromethane engines. These are some of the most powerful engines in auto racing. These 10,000 horsepower engines require $5,000 worth of parts for one single run. Some parts can be used for more than one run, but for the most part, moving parts are used for only one run. The most well-known moving part is the piston. Each piston, generates 1,250 horsepower, and is in a sleeve, which is placed in the engine, and attached to the crank shaft. Often, the piston head, and the piston shaft have been removed from each other before being sold to collectors. This head is from and signed by Brandon Bernstein, and this shaft was used and autographed by Bob Vandergriff.

Pistons in an engine need things to function. An example are valves, and valve springs. The valves move in conjunction with the movement of the pistons. One set introduces fuel and air into the engine, and the other set removes exhaust from the engine. These examples are from Bob Tasca’s funny car.

Valve springs help the opening and closing of the valves at the speed the engine requires. These are three examples, one from Cruz Pedregon, and two from Paul Lee.

On the subject of Paul Lee, these are what are known as manifold burst panels. These are specifically design to burst when the pressure in the manifold gets too high. They are meant to sacrifice themselves to save the engine.

I also have this head gasket from Paul Lee. NHRA engines are sealed systems, under a lot of pressure and heat. Expansion of engine parts will occur, and copper head gaskets are used to keep the seal intact. They will expand with the rest of the engine. This is an example Paul Lee’s funny car. It is bent, and shows staining from race wear.

I’ve discussed the importance of spark plugs, and their prevelance in the auto racing memorabilia market before, so I won’t go into that again. I will show one of TJ Zizzo’s race-used spark plugs, which he managed to autograph. Given the size of the plug, that isn’t easy to sign.

In keeping with the tool theme, next week, we will look at a helmet worn by the driver’s closest group…the pit crew. Stay tuned!

By David G. Firestone

I will occasionally talk about quirks of racing design, and there are many. But this is one I hadn’t really considered too much, until I found this on eBay. It is referred to as a “camera puck.” “What on earth is a camera puck?” you ask, well let’s discuss in-car cameras for that answer.

First, a little history. In-car cameras in auto racing date back to 1979, where in both Australia, in the 1979 Hardie-Ferodo 1000, and in the United States at the 1979 Daytona 500. These early cameras were heavy, weighing in at over 30 pounds each. As time went on the cameras got smaller, and more of them could be placed in race cars. This technology eventually moved to IndyCar, Formula 1, and almost all other forms of motorsports.

In the 1990’s, the “roofcam” became the most popular form of in-car camera in NASCAR, but there was a problem. The camera was housed in a pod on the roof, which completely changed the aerodynamics of the car. Furthermore, the drilling of holes into the roof was met with disdain from teams, who spend a lot of time setting up cars. For a short time, the roofcam was banned because of these issues. This didn’t set well with the fans, who love the roofcam, and they demanded that it be brought back. NASCAR agreed to do so, but had to do something, as Vince McMahon would say “in the interest of fairness.” Did I really just quote Vince McMahon…oh well…

The issues of roofcams affecting performance was settled with the introduction of the camera puck. The puck is the size of the roofcam housing, and is the same weight. For those teams who are selected to have a roofcam, the puck is removed, and the camera is installed. This is done so that the cars are as equal as possible, and no accusations can be levied against NASCAR for favoritism. Like everything else, the dimensions, and weight are closely monitored, and cheating is taken very seriously.

The current in-car configuration used in NASCAR is referred to as “the three camera setup.” One camera is on the roof, one in what would be the passenger seat in a street car, and one camera is on the back bumper. Additional cameras are also used in the front bumper, wheel well, and above the pedals as needed. Cameras are sponsored, and the sponsor picks which car gets the in-cars. Low end sponsorships run from $30,000 to $50,000 per race.

I recently acquired a camera puck from Aric Almirola’s #43 US Air Force Ford Fusion. I’m not sure what year it was used, since 2013 and 2014 , all look almost identical to each other. This design would not have been used in 2015, but more on that later. It is roughly the circumference of a hockey puck, and is as tall as two hockey pucks stacked on top of each other. It is the weight of the in-car camera, which is well over a pound, and I would estimate close to two pounds. It has two screws, with original nuts present as well. Richard Petty, the King of NASCAR has signed the puck on top.As I mentioned, this particular design would not have been used in 2015, due to a rule change. When the Gen 6 car debuted in 2013, roofcams weren’t initially used on 1.5 mile tracks, due to NASCAR worrying about aerodynamics. As the 2013 season progressed a design change was implemented, the round puck design was replaced with a teardrop design, as seen here. Since the US Air Force scheme was only used on 1.5 mile tracks in 2015, this design, used on short tracks, road courses, and super speedways, would not have been used. The only difference between the two is that the teardrop design doesn’t allow for 360 degree views.

Quirks of racing design exist in many different aspects of racing, and next week, I’ll discuss one of the most important aspects of racing.