How Do We Get More Kids Racing? Ferdi Porsche & Rob Smedley - F.A.T. Karting League

The only places that Formula One teams go and look is in the European Cart World Championships.

So if you want to get there, the families have already spent like one and a half million dollars

to get there.

What sort of families can afford one and a half million dollars on their kids' hobby

on the slim chance that they're going to get picked up?

Welcome to The Inevitable, a podcast by MotorTrend.

Hi there, and welcome to this episode of The Inevitable.

This is our podcast, our video podcast, about the future of cars, the future of mobility.

And on this episode, what are the kids going to be doing?

Yes.

I forgot to ring the bell.

How are the kids going to get into racing?

And we have two incredibly special guests.

But before that, I'm going to let Ed Lowe here say a word or two.

Yes, The Inevitable podcast is sponsored by nobody currently, and we're currently seeking

sponsorship.

So please, if you want to sponsor an episode the whole season, t-shirts for us, booze

for Johnny, shoot me a note, Edward.loh at Hearst.com, H-E-A-R-S-T, or get into

our DMs, probably on Instagram, and let us know.

You missed a part of the intro.

You're supposed to tell the normal haters on YouTube to actually watch and listen to

this episode, because it's not about EVs per se.

It's not about that stuff that most of the YouTube audience tends not to like.

This is a really cool...

Just how are YouTube audience?

There's plenty of YouTube audience out there.

Yes.

This one is a very cool conversation with two really interesting guys, Ferdy Porsche,

and Rob Smedley, who are starting the Fat Carding League.

This is a new carding league that only recently came to the United States.

The goal is to democratize carding, which it can be horrifically expensive for anybody

who wants to get into the sport.

And we're talking about racing carts.

This is the stuff that would eventually lead to the top tiers of racing.

And...

So if your kid's dream involves your dream of them being an F1 because you didn't

make it, this is a cheaper way to do it than the traditional carding series.

For all of you fans of Formula One Drive to Survive and all those hot young drivers with

cool accents that come from fancy European countries, they came through carding leagues

probably in Europe and learned how to drive very quickly in what eventually becomes Formula

Cars via a program similar to FAT, yes, FAT, not PHAT, FAT, Carding League, which we'll

get into.

And our guests, again, you might know their name Porsche, you know, just an unknown Swiss

company famous for making refrigerators.

Nuts.

No, not that one.

The German sports car manufacturer, Ferdy is the great grandson of the founder

of Porsche.

And then...

Dr.

Porsche.

His partner on the technical side, the engineer that runs this, Rob Smedley, this guy worked

for, is a race engineer for a very small unknown racing team called Scuderia Ferrari.

Yeah.

And he also supported a very unknown and never won very many races, race car drivers by

the name of Philippe Massa, among many other race car drivers.

He very smart, you can tell, very experienced in the world of racing, Ferdy, also huge

racing fan.

And...

And can drive.

I saw this dude flinging around at Tycon on the FAT Ice Race in Austria last year, and

I was like...

Well, he would have to.

His name...

Can you imagine the pressure of a guy with the same Porsche, and if he couldn't drive?

I'm just saying, I was like, he was doing full Derifto on the ice, it was pretty

good.

This name is Porsche.

You know what?

Enough about us.

Yes.

Let's get Ferdy and Rob out here.

Ferdy, Rob, thank you so much for coming onto the show.

Well, thanks to Ferdy, you just got off a plane from Austria, is that correct?

In that case, Frankfurt today.

Frankfurt, okay.

So that's lovely.

Same, same.

Body-clockwise, it's like midnight or 1 a.m. your time.

I have no idea.

But it's fine.

Nine hours from now.

Thank you.

Half-eleven, maybe.

And Rob, also, for braving Hollywood traffic to get here, and then having to go back

in that traffic.

So, thank you so much.

We're talking about carding, fat carding, right?

So, first of all, this is great because we both have young sons, neither of us have any

kind of driving talent, and we haven't passed it on to our children, at least I don't think.

I'm a barricam.

I don't know.

So I was actually researching the fact cardingly because of a couple of folks I follow

on Instagram, and then when this lovely opportunity came through via your PR guy, Jordan, I was

like, oh, yeah, we definitely want to talk to these guys.

So for our audience, who I'm sure is as ignorant as we are, what is the fact-

As loves our audience.

I just sort of-

There's ugly-

How many views is this gonna give?

They smell bad.

But they can drive.

Maybe.

What is fat cardingly?

How do you tell?

How do you explain?

What's the pitch?

What do you tell people?

Okay.

The very elevator pitch is we build a system, Rob actually started building a system, and

we came in a little later and then added the fat to cardingly, and basically the whole idea

is to democratize motorsport because it's a sport that 1.6 billion people watch, and

it's really hard to get in, and cardingly is a very sort of expensive sport to do,

and it's not like the ball sports of any kind.

And maybe we're still not exactly there yet, but the whole idea is basically that

now it becomes a question of do I bring my kids to piano lessons, or do I actually bring

them racing?

Piano lessons is just an example here of something that is kind of-

But you're paying a reasonable amount of money, whereas you're always here like everyone

is an F1 now, they started karting and they were rich, and there's a lot of poor kids

who start karting because it's expensive.

So if you want to, there's this weird notion which is none of it's true, there's

so many myths to debunk here.

If you want to get to F1, there's these families that kind of start in karting, the only places

that Formula One teams go and look is in the European Cart World Championships, right?

So if you want to get there, the families have already spent like one and a half million

dollars to get there, and then maybe you're going to get picked up because you're in

the mix.

But what sort of families can afford one and a half million dollars on their kid's

hobby on the slim chance that they're going to get picked up?

Right.

So it's crazy, right?

I'm sorry, one and a half million, over what time period?

From what age to what age would they be spending money?

They're talking like kids can start at six, seven, all Grand Prix drivers or even the

top Indy car drivers, they'll start at like six, seven, and then they will elevate

the ways up through the categories of karting, eventually they'll get to European

Cart World Championships, something like that, and then they're going to get picked

up.

There's this myth that maybe they get picked up.

So between six and seven to what, like 15 or 16, you would spend, they're like 12 to 14

by the time they start to compete at the top level.

And yeah, but you know, the reality is a, like who can afford it, nobody, right?

You know, 0.001% of the world can afford like one and a half million dollars on their

kid's hobby.

And then be, even if you get there, right, like the chances of getting picked up and

the chances of getting sponsored are just so remote and so slim, 20 out of 8 billion.

The crazy thing is the sport is such a sort of numbers based, the stopwatch doesn't lie

kind of sport, right?

Like it's only about timing.

And then for the fact that it is like this, the whole system of, or the whole way for

kids to get into the sport is completely different, right?

It's based on money.

And then like there's some old white guy sitting next to the track and looking at

a kid who's potentially going fast.

But it's not at all data driven.

And that's also one sort of big angle of carting league is that we can normalize the

data of all the kids that race in our house.

So tell us what you're doing differently.

So how does fat change the paradigm of what, you know, the F1 feeder pipeline cost, cost

and accessibility, right?

So we collapse the price point by, if you say that you want to be, you know,

a national level card and it's like 100 K, 150 K, something like that.

You can do our championship in terms of dollars for about 5K, right?

We realize it's still 5K, but there's many, many more families can afford 5K per season.

Then there is families that can afford like 150 K per season, right?

Yes.

And anymore.

So where in those other, and I know a little bit about how the, the

carting has developed like Lewis Hamilton, that there's that, the, the, the tail of

him being signed at whatever, I think four or five years old or whatever.

And then, and then watching.

Yeah, 12, I think.

Was it 12?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Well, early age, I guess it's the newer generation that's being signed much

earlier and being watched because of what Lewis did.

But when you talk about one and a half million to go from six to 12 years old

or 100 to $150,000 for one of these championships, what, what's involved

in that cost?

Like what are people paying for the car, the cart?

The problem is now, and that's also where our league is very different,

right?

Ours is arrive and drive.

So you come, you get a ticket, you get into the cart

and you drive.

The way it works now is that there is a lot of people who make money off of

these parents who are kind of like wanting to bring their kids into the

sport and who have no idea how to do it.

So there's a mechanic.

There is somebody who sells you the tires.

There's somebody who bought, you buy the card.

So the current model is like Ferrari challenge where it's like you, you

have to buy your own mechanic.

You got to pay Ferrari to service the things.

You're buying the tires and you guys, it's like more arriving.

Well, actually it's even less regulated than Ferrari challenge.

You've got a whole like base of different chassis.

He's the Ferrari guy.

Yeah.

A little bit of history with Ferrari.

You know, so there's a whole range of chassis that are open.

There's a whole range of like different engines.

And then, and then, you know, you're going to, the top teams will

be buying like multiple engines, you know, like 10, 20 engines for

a season, something like that.

They will be constantly getting tuned because these are two stroke

like high performance engines.

So the costs are like really high.

Like just your capital costs, right?

Of the, of the equipment that you're going to buy.

Then you've got multiple sets of tires, but then it's even

deregulated about how much time you can have on the track.

So like you can get kids that the, you know, there's, there's

actually kids, there's a whole swathe of kids that aren't

going to school anymore.

They sat on a, on a go-kart track for like five days

a week testing, like throwing like thousands of dollars a day at it.

Um, and this is the, this is the perceived path to, to Formula

One.

So what we're doing, it completely changes the

paradigm. It's, it's, it's arrive and drive.

It's fixed cost.

You know, there's no, like the family can plan, right?

You can't, you can't really plan in an unregulated sport.

Um, how are you planning for what your budget is?

You can go into it and say, I'm going to be really squeaky,

but then a new part comes out, a new component that you've

got to have unless it's not, you know, or maybe your

engine isn't performing.

So you've got to spend more on that.

And, and, and what you find is the families kind of get to

a limit where they can't spend anymore, right?

And then because they can't spend anymore, um, they're

not keeping up with the guys at the front and then, and

then it becomes a miserable experience for the kids.

So we just want it to change the whole game and collapse

the price point and make it much more simpler.

Okay.

Could you walk us through like, like what, what a

season of fat carton looks like, like from, from, you

know, the, the family's involvement, like I'm

going to, cause my kid, he's eight.

He just started carting and he loves it.

He's just like totally into it, which is like

another, you know, everything he likes is a

fortune these days.

But, um, but I'm interested in fat

carton cause will is right here.

You know, so what does the season look like?

So normally in the beginning, we have tryouts.

So the, the idea of that is to get as many kids

into that, into the cards as possible.

So that's a few weekends that we just host tryouts

basically for the kids in the, in the new geo.

You just mentioned willow.

So Southern California is our third hub that we've

opened and basically we want to get as many kids to

try the cards and see what it's like.

And then ideally they commit to buy a season pass

and the season passes, uh, 10 races and you go

through these races, you collect points, you

basically do the full season and you try to

qualify for the world finals, which are

happening for the first time this year.

Also in willow springs in December.

Oh, nice.

Yes.

We like willow springs.

I saw that car track.

That is like, that looks like, uh, so willow is

the third hub, the latest hub.

What are the other two places you're, so it's

not just, it's not just one racetrack,

but it's almost always a geography.

Oh, got it.

So, um, the first hub was in UK where Rob is

based, uh, basically where all the F1 teams are

based.

So I think it's kind of, we have a good crowd,

right?

They're all really skeptical, you know, like

they come from the old system.

I think it's, it's a cool, uh, it's a cool

proof point that, that, um, we're at what

96% occupancy rate there.

Yeah, we're nearly sold out every, every year

there in the UK now.

Second hub was in Chicago and sort of

Midwest area and now we're in Southern

California.

Chicago, what like Chicago has a lot of

cars.

There's a lot of cars.

Yeah, there's a lot of people in there.

There's a lot of culture in Chicago,

in Indianapolis, like all around that

area, you know, there's a lot of tracks.

Yeah, lots of tracks.

That's right, close to India, yeah.

Yeah, so we're kind of, we, we, we

go between India and, and, and

Chicago.

Okay.

So that was the first year, so the

first year was this year, as Ferdy

said, um, oh, dear.

So for the podcast listeners, that

was a mobile phone.

Papa.

So, okay.

So, go ahead, go ahead.

Do you want me to start again?

No, no, that's fine.

Oh, we're running?

Yeah.

Okay.

Keep it going, for real.

This is a relaxed, yeah.

So, so three hubs, UK, and then in the

UK, what would have been, where, if

you're at 96% occupancy, who are you

taking from?

Like, what's the, is there a league

that you're, that you're competing

against?

No, no, this is the beauty of it,

right?

Everybody, like, when, when we

first started this, everybody,

like, in the incumbent system,

you know, the really expensive

system, they were like, oh, you

know, like Robert Ferdy and

moving in, they're going to take all

of our customers and I'm like,

do they like, we don't need your

customers, right?

If your customers want to come,

they want to come.

Right.

Like, because we've collapsed the

price point, right?

Here's a stat for you.

Because we've collapsed the

price point as far as we have,

we open up the market by a

thousand decks.

Yeah.

So this is like blue ocean

stuff, right?

This is new market stuff.

We're, we're bringing like lots

of new families into it.

In fact, the vast majority of

the, the guys that we brought

in from both Midwest, in the

UK, what we're seeing in, in

California, are new families

who wanted to do it and

haven't had the opportunity.

And that's always the resounding

message that we get.

It's always the recurring

message that, you know, we

couldn't have done this without,

you know, like, you know, little

Jimmy or little Jane, they wanted

to do carding forever.

They just couldn't have done it.

So, so we're not taking from

anybody, in fact, we're creating

the market.

Because very few people are

like, well, I was going to

spend 150,000, but now I'll

just spend five.

You're right, they're still

going to spend the 150, right?

Yeah, I think you cannot,

yeah, sorry.

So, like, it's coming

from Formula One, right?

You see, like, this, the

pathway of these, these guys

that get the Formula One, and

this is well trodden pathway.

And what you've got to imagine

in our series is you arrive,

you're given your cart,

the, it's a full service, so

everything's taken care of,

right? But you can't buy an

advantage, right?

So, so there's lots of people

in the world, and not lots

of people, but there are

people in the world who have

the means that don't want to

be in that system, right?

I don't want to be in a

completely meritocratic

democratized system.

Right, all achieved.

I don't rather give myself an

advantage. And hey, that's

that's that's capitalism.

That's very interesting.

Yeah, it is racing. I think

that bit's wrong. But but it

is the nature of capitalism,

right? There's nothing wrong

with that. But here's an

alternative for you.

There's an alternative that

works, that is meritocratic,

that is democratized, that is

much more affordable, much more

accessible for all the

families. So if you want to

be here, you can. And we do

even get families from this

super expensive. Oh, yeah.

Coming in. Yeah, for sure.

Yes, because like they're

getting priced out, it's

becoming more and more

difficult. And they see this

is something that actually I

can like, I don't have the

bank rob myself and my kids

can have fun.

And even like in the F one

pedagnow, right? It's not like

every F one driver has spent

the fortune. Some of some of

them were lucky also in a

sense, or I don't know, like

Schumacher grew up on a

car track and therefore had

the possibility to like

drive a lot even without

big money behind it. So there

is obviously, there's

obviously already some drivers

in the system who who made

it out anyways, right?

How did you get involved?

Because this originally was a

program you Rob had started

and then fat, first of all,

okay, so what is fat? And how

did fat have this become the

fat carding league?

Yeah. So fat used to stand

for Francais-Allemant

transits. So it was a transit

company, like a trucker

company, basically that

yeah, that transported fashion

from Paris to Germany.

And they sponsored all the

coolest race cars of the

80s, 90s, early 2000s,

Porsches, Ferrari, Sauber's

everything. We up to now

we found like 60 or

something race cars that

had like either a small

fat sticker or like a full

fat livery. And they won

them all twice. And basically

it kind of derived from what

what I started in Austria,

which is ice race. So we did

ice race pre COVID twice.

And the whole idea of that

was change, change how

motorsport or open up

motorsport to a younger

crowd, a younger group

of people, right? So I

obviously grew up on a ton

of car events. And I

always thought this is so

cool. I love the things.

I love the car as like the

conversation starter, but

everything around it is kind

of boring. And I wanted to

create something more fun,

more open, add some music,

culture, something like

something that like young

people would feel that it's

okay to come into this

sport. And I think now

like a lot has changed in

the last six, seven, eight

years since we since we

started this. So I think

like the whole sort of car

culture thing has opened up

in a sense, right? I think

Instagram did a big job,

job, etc. So I was just

because I went just before

you get to how you get in

the car. I went to the

ice race in Austria last

year. And it was A, awesome

and B, though, I was, you

know, I noticed like the

price point because you know,

I go kind of Pebble Beach

like, you know, 15 years

in a row or whatever. And

it's great. But like a

quail ticket is 1200 bucks.

It's 400 bucks to get on

the lawn. It's 1200 bucks

to stay at the the Hyatt,

which is basically a motel,

you know, per night. It

is the money is

impossible for for most

people. But like, you

know, you guys were

trying whatever was 100 euros

or something like that. And

it was packed and it was

youthful and everybody was

partying and fun. And it was

just like a really good

time. I was totally

impressed.

Yeah, I mean, the motto is

even fun over speed, right?

Because the ice track, you

can obviously never make

sure that the guy who

starts first and the guy

who start starts at the

very end of the of the

day have the same

condition. So it's not

like your typical sort of

proper race where like

everybody takes it super

serious. And like that

automatically kind of

transforms it into fun

overspeed and sort of like

bringing people together and

just enjoying like using

the cars, the conversation

started, but basically the

people bring the party. And

so then COVID hit. And I

thought, okay, I started

something that is really

cool. People like it. I

met some cool people

through it. There's some

sponsor activity like

people want to get

involved. Maybe there is

something there. And that's

when I kind of like looked

at all old race cars

from Porsche and the

logo is on there because

I was looking for something

that could kind of

encapsulate what we

started with ice racing

kind of opened open it up

for us to to do different

stuff than just a winter

event, basically. So you

acquired fat the brand or

it was it was it was

dormant, basically. Really?

Yeah, it was not there

anymore. And I like I

literally stumbled like it

was very it was a very

fast process, right? I

looked at the Le Mans

winners of Porsche. And

there was fat

international. I was like,

what the fuck is that?

How cool is that?

Because I mean, it kind

of already has this like kind

of like has everything

that we did with ice

race anyways, in the name

already. And it has

heritage. It has a cool

logo, etc.

It was a great

logo. So it was a what a

delisted company in France

or something. And you just

buy the it was a German

guy. And I don't know if

the company was based in

Germany or France, but it

was going between the two

countries. I wrote him a

letter also I've been

touched with him in a

sense. He never really

replies. But I heard I

heard from a friend. I

think he's he's rather

old now, but I heard

from a friend of his

that he really likes

what we're doing. And it's

great. He's excited. I

did sentence.

Fat joining Rob, how

to be involved with the

cars. So I mean, from

the ethos of what we're

trying to achieve, it was

kind of a perfect match,

right? So we tried to do it

or we already kind of

try to change motorsport

from the spectators

perspective. And he had

a like he had created a

tool basically to change it

from the ground up. And

so we met through a

friend. And Rob was in

the middle of raising

money. And I figured

this would be a perfect

match for fat to get

involved. And then also

kind of like, in the

beginning, I didn't even

thought that there was a

potential to do a full

joint venture. But that's

kind of what happened. We

clicked and I decided to

do this together.

Like, so like, we're not

when I started it, I

wanted to see whether it

worked. That was the

point, right? So we can

build it. I put some

money behind it. We

built carts like we

designed all the electric

drivetrain. We run the

championship. We kind of

got the model and proof

of concept and we run it

for a couple of years in

the UK. But what I was

always cognizant of

because like I'm an

engineer by profession. So

I wanted to like do it

under the radar, you

know, I didn't want to

start a business which

was all about like

marketing with no

substance underneath.

I've done it like in

probably the exact

opposite of a way to

build a successful

company. But I got the

product like somewhere

near right. But I

always had in the back

of my mind that that

what I what I can't do

what I don't bring is

is is brand, right? Is

is brand is, you know,

making this actually like

a community driven,

action orientated like

entity. And I always knew

that I wanted to like I

wanted to make it cool,

right? Sorry to

interrupt. But the fun

thing is he says that

but he built exactly

that. I mean, that's

basically what carting

league is, right? People

already kind of like go

there and gather and

like, like it already

kind of holds. I notice

at the ice race, like

the branding is so spot

on. Like I'm like, oh,

I need to get like a

scarf that says fat,

even though I don't at

all, I live in LA, I

don't need a scarf ever.

But a scarf, I got a, you

know, a toke, I bought

like a flask. I was

like, this is so cool.

Yeah, it's just from my

point of view, like

that's what I wanted. I

wanted it to be like

cool. It's got to be

like for the kids by

the kids, right? Right.

It's it's not it can't

be about like, you know,

some middle-aged guy

starting a carting

league. And that's

when like 30 and I

started where the

second middle-aged man

had to be like, you know,

like something very

differentiated in terms

of the brand and the

community in the field

and the and the look

of it. And that's where

I like 30 and I started

doing it. I was like, this

is like, great, like

you why don't you guys

just take care of all

that stuff. Nice. And

I'll carry on doing

the notes and ones.

So for the listeners,

if you're totally new

to this, the look just

Google fat for the

ice race, the carting

league, the merch is

really cool. The logo

is cool. It's got the vibe.

It's got the 70s, 80s

racing vibe, white

and blue, cool color

way. It you'll get it

once you see it. The

website is actually very

slick to the way the way

you you kind of engage

with it. I was doing a

little research. But

let's talk about the cars

because this is where you

came in, Rob. Like, so

they're electric

carts, fully

designed from the ground

up by you and your

team. Like what's

specs? What are we? What

are we? What was the

mission here for the

for the for the kids?

So so number one

mission is this, that

they have to be racing

carts, right? People

like, you know, it's not

always if you're completely

new to this, and you

think a carting, maybe

you think of like the

indoor thing like the

leisure, the fun end of

it, right? But there's

lots that already

exists, right? That's

already like a democratized

and a saturated market.

Like, you know, there's

big, like businesses

over here. There's K one

to the big one.

I want to talk about it.

K one is across here.

There's a business

called Team Sport in

Europe. You know, I

think those guys are

like starting to like

go into each other's

market, whatever, right?

It's kind of democratized.

You can go and do that.

It's a bit of leisure.

But if you want to go

and do the outdoor

stuff, like where is

a standardized and

democratized league,

right, which is like

affordable or more

affordable. So that

didn't exist, which is

what we're doing. So

these are outdoor

racing carts, right?

You can start at five.

You can, there's three

categories for the for the

for the five, six year

olds, then you go up to

like the 10 year old

kind of thing. And then

you go up to the bigger

kids, like, which go all

the way up to 16.

These things will do

like 65 mile an hour.

They're proper racing

carts. They handle like

racing cars. They teach

the kids how to drive.

It's no surprise that in,

you know, we're in the

market where we've got a

bit of maturity in the

UK, always the same kids

that win, right?

Right, which, which means

that they are the best

kids. They're going to

be coming across here to

compete with the best like

us kids. And because

the, the carts are like

a single fleet of a single

standardized fleet of, you

know, more or less

similar performance and

you kind of dodge about

the carts all season.

You're never given the

same cart. So you're

in and out of different

carts. So, so your,

your, your performance

is like kind of

standardized across the

season. You know, it's

average balance balanced.

So, so it had to be

racing carts and they

had to have like a given

level of parity.

And the best way to do that

really was through the

electric drivetrain. So we

designed the electric

drivetrain from the ground

up. Basically, like, I

just took the knowledge

that I had from like an

MG UK, which is like

the electric part of a,

of a Formula One car.

So we took that pretty

simple, like three basic

components. We've then

started to design like

all a an integrate our

own electronics are behind

it, which is really cool.

That's going to blow it

up. And yeah, we're on the

third generation of the

drivetrain now. We'll

continue to, to, to

iterate. Jen, generation

four will be coming out

in the back end of next

year. And we'll just

continue. Like we just

want to keep pace with,

with technology chassis

themselves are fairly

simple. They're a tubular

steam, tubular steel

frame.

Are they like off the

shelf?

Yeah, we, we, we have a,

we have a partner that,

that we do that with,

you know, there's no,

there was no, I don't

want to, you know, as an

engineering, we didn't

want to build an engineering

business that did like

tubular steel, steel

chassis, because it's so

simple to, to, to kind of

just go out and get a

partner to do that. So we

do that. And we build a

lot of components there

bespoke bill for, for our

specification.

And the MG UK is that's

the hybrid assist motor

from a F one car or like

in motor generator unit

kinetic WC. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

The whole idea basically

is electric makes it

easier to maintain. It

makes it cheaper and

make sure that that

the playing field is

leveled. Right. So everybody

has the same power. And if

the parents complain

afterwards, we can show

them that they have the same

power. Yeah. Or just

throw them in another, you

know, well, okay.

And I mean, and one, one

more thing, maybe the

cards or the card still

behaves like a combustion

card. So we, the power

curve is basically similar

to, to a combustion car

because otherwise you

could kind of like, say

that if you go from an

electric car to like

combustion car racing

after what, what, what

it's kind of the idea

of the whole thing, right

is to end up in formula

one at some point, then

maybe you haven't really

learned driving properly

if you can cheat your way

out of corners.

Is there a single single

single? No, no, no. They're

just the single single

speed. Yeah. Okay. Well,

then there's that right

because you're not, you're

not teaching kids to

no, but, but even, even

like the, the incumbent

system doesn't do that.

There are shifter cuts, but

like, you don't, you

don't do that until you

get in a car, but

nobody's shifting any

more these days, right?

People are getting like,

two pedals, right.

And then, and then, and

not that I would know

anything about this.

What, what, what's the

power? Like, what do you,

what do you tell people

the output or, and then

it's a bad, the battery's

on board. How long can they

go? Like what, what's a,

what's a race distance?

So, so the biggest one

is around about 12, 13

kilowatts of power.

Like all up the cart

will be like, with the

kid in it will be like

160 kilograms.

So that's like 20 horsepower

and 340 pounds.

I wouldn't have been able to

do that.

We wouldn't have wasted the

rest of the hour.

I've spent so much money

doing a period of metric

conversion.

Anyway, power to weight

ratio is really high.

You know, you can't just

like, you know, you're not,

you know, flat everywhere

with that type of power and

that type of weight.

They're fast.

And then last like

25 minutes, something

like that.

We built the battery to last

like 25 hours, 25 minutes,

sorry.

But, but we never really

get anywhere near like

depleting the battery all

the way anyway, because

of the way that we run the

event, like the three

categories are constantly

out on track at different

times. So when, when one

category is out, the other

one's in charging and the

kids are away.

I think quick charging

is how do you charge them

with the track?

We built our own charging

system.

So we built that from the

ground up and we just

plug it in.

And we set all that up.

So each, each, each circuit

that we go to, it's like a

roaming championship.

Right.

We go there, we set up,

we set up like the pit

lane, we set up the like

all of the baby formula

one, like a baby formula

one, and we put all the

charging out and the, the

cars roll in and roll out.

How, how, just how quick

to charge? How, how, how

long does it take?

Well, I mean, you can

like for, for your more

nerdy.

Yeah.

Nerds.

Yeah.

For your.

We have a couple of nerds

that live.

So, so, so we, we charge,

we charge, charge it around

about, we can charge it

around about like

three, four C something

like that.

So we can charge.

We could charge if we

wanted to in about

20 minutes.

We're currently developing

a battery that we can

charge in two minutes.

Yeah.

We wouldn't do that because

you don't need to, right?

What's the point?

Yeah.

Well, the carts are out on

track and like the other

other categories are out

on track running.

So you just charge to

that, to that window,

but we can really do what

we want.

Like we're not limited

by.

So you don't pull the,

it's not like a pull

the battery out.

No, no, no.

I'm, I'm, I'm a bit

of a like when it comes

to that type of stuff,

I'm, I'm, I'm a purist

because I'm like, okay,

if you can have

removable batteries,

you can have sliding

seats, you can have like

are all like movable

by the drivers,

you know, like in a,

in a leisure cart,

but that's not a racing car.

That's, you're adding

mass and you're adding

compliance to the vehicle.

Okay.

And if you had compliance,

like the one thing that

you need out of a racing

car is stiffness and,

and, and like a complete

lack of compliance so that

the driver can feel

the tires through his

the, yeah.

Buttocks.

There's a few times that

like they have to be a

racing car.

What's, what's the

big difference between

like what, like a

typical indoor track would

have and what the

car, an electric car from

K1 and one of yours.

What would be the big

what would be the big

differences?

Mass.

So ours would be much

lighter.

The chassis would be

much more flexible.

So like you start to drive

it like, don't forget

that like a cart is

like a single axle.

Yeah.

It's like, so it's kind

of like having a spool

diff in the, in the car.

So it's a fixed

solid axle at the rear.

So the only way you

can get it to go

around the corner at

high speed is that

you're going to lift

one of the wheels up

at the back.

So you're going to

have a very flexible

brake.

We design all of the

chassis and all of like

the vehicle dynamics.

We've got like full

simulation tools where

that's all been designed

in so that the car

will go around the

corner really quick.

So the difference is

that these are much

lighter.

They handle like,

like almost like a

racing car.

They handle the same

in a racing car where

you break on top of

the corner.

You turn very,

very late and

acceleration and power

is a completely

different ballgame.

You couldn't put

our carts in an

indoor track.

It would just be

broken kids in like

the first hour.

Okay.

Which is fun, but

it's not legal.

Yeah.

It's a neighbor's kids.

I've seen the pictures

on the site,

but now that we're

talking technical,

where does,

like where's the

MG UK and the battery

relative to the

driver?

Is it the side

and back or?

So like if you take

the biggest and

heaviest one,

which is like the

20 horsepower one,

we put like the motor

and the,

we put the motor

and a single

battery,

a single like

one kilowatt hour

pack on the,

on the right hand side.

And then we put

two,

two other

single kilowatt hour

packs.

So it's like modular

on the left hand side.

And then that kind of

like balances.

We played about

with it in simulation

and did lots of

calculations to get

like the balance

like really, really nice

so that the things

like, you know,

it doesn't go around

the court like a

right hand corner

different to what it

goes around the left

hand corner.

We did a lot of

NASCAR.

Like to go around.

Yeah.

Both directions.

Okay.

Now I'm going to put

I'm going to put my word.

What do you know about

Europe?

I'm not anymore.

I'm going to put

my concerned parent

head on and say,

well,

I've heard all these

things about

Tesla's

catching fire

or the cell phones

and the

the batteries

and the cell phones

exploding.

You expect me to put

my kid in between

two of these big

batteries.

How dare you like

small batteries?

Yeah,

they're bigger than the

battery in this

bigger than that one.

Yes.

Yeah.

So I mean,

what we what we've

been very like,

you know,

even in formula one

when you think about

what is the principle

parameter that

you are designing for

you're in racing,

you're always

designing for safety.

Right.

And this may sound

weird to people

like kind of a watch

formula one,

but I've never been

on the inside,

but you're

the number one thing

that you're always

designing for is safety.

You do safety.

You do legality.

You do reliability.

And then you do performance.

And if you always

have that hat on,

like from a design

point of view or an

operational point of view,

you're going to make sure

that you're never in a

situation that you regret.

So one of the things

that we have designed

is like a battery

monitoring system,

which,

which connects via can.

If there's any of the

eeks out there,

network canvas.

Yes.

Yeah.

So we connect

through can protocol

into the battery

management system

and also into

the ECU.

So we can monitor

all of these things.

So if we start to see

any kind of like

temperature increase,

which is outside of the norm,

the system,

no device,

the engineers,

there's the smart

alarms that tell us

what's going on.

And then

at that point

when we see that

we're going to get

thermal runaway

just to debunk

another myth.

It usually takes around

around about nine hours

before it sets on fire.

So you can actually

put it in the back

of your car,

drive up to Scotland,

throw it in the sea,

and it would just be

on fire.

This is another clue.

You know,

Rob's a real engineer.

He used thermal runaway

instead of saying

fire.

So there you go.

Okay.

So you can tell

he's English.

All right.

So real quick,

real quick,

I looked it up.

I did the math,

I should say.

So it's about

60 and 17 horsepower

and 352 pounds.

Okay.

160 kilograms.

Still,

still hell of a

power to weight ratio.

Yeah.

Okay.

So I can tell

pretty advanced telemetry.

You can see

what each kiddo

in the car is doing

around the track

at any given time.

So they can come back

and look at their

cornering speed

or their racing line.

And is that part

of the learning

and the training?

So,

so this is

very mentioned

it before.

This is,

this is a real

differentiator

for our league

is when we sat down

and we thought about

like scaling this,

right?

The ambition is

that we want to scale

it into 50 different

countries, right?

Now,

so that means that

so,

so 50 different places

around the world

in the next five years.

Well,

right?

So that's going to,

if we're going to have

the traditional method

of scouting,

like I go in

and standing on

the side of the fence,

that's going to keep

me and Ferdy really

busy at weekends.

Now he has

like a playboy lifestyle.

Right.

Like,

I don't want to

eat the fear.

You got to maintain

that.

Yeah.

It's good.

It says the man who spent

like 25 years

and from the one.

No,

but in like,

like jokes aside,

so we need to have

a data-driven

like system

where we're actually

identifying the kids.

So we've designed like

an electronics box.

It's still in early stage

like development is

but like through,

like having an RFID

like wristband on,

on the kid,

they tap into the cart.

We know which kid

in which cart

in which session

in which country

on which track.

We know all of that,

right?

Wow.

And then we start

to drag the data off.

We put that in the cloud.

We're using exactly

the same type of analytics

and simulation

because we built all of

that internally

that we would have done

in Formula One to make

like the driver go faster

but we're using it now

for a completely different

purpose.

So using all of that

methodologies,

we're already getting

data on the kids

that we understand

what they're doing.

We're going to make

that much more granular

next year as we go

to the next generation

of this like electronics

box.

And then the next output

is we want to start

outputting straight to

the kids as well.

So we want to put it

on an app on their phone

which says to them

in this particular corner

you break too early,

you break too late,

you turn in too late,

whatever it is,

and you start

to give them that feedback.

And you can also show

them where they are

in the world, right?

Yeah.

Like you are

at the top 10%

of all of the kids

driving car.

And then they can like

So this sounds like

you got the business

of bringing democratizing

carting to the masses

expanding into 50 countries.

But then you also have

this maybe future

perhaps bigger program

which is driver development

like identifying

top talent and then

maybe you can be

their entryway

Fat athletes.

Yeah.

No, the whole

fat drivers.

No, I mean the whole

so basically now

we've we've developed

a system for 5 to 17

right and then

what do you do?

Right.

Basically that's

then you hit

another ceiling right

because F4 is usually

what you would do next.

Right.

That's around a million

dollars or euros

even then F3

2 million per season.

Right.

F2 which is right underneath

formula one and F3 and F2

you already follow

the F1 calendar

which already kind of

makes it more expensive

etc.

That's what F2 is

5 million or season

something like this.

So it's it just

becomes crazy expensive

again.

Right.

So we decided

sponsors of that

I mean right.

I mean yeah

you might have

sponsors at that

but but sometimes

you as the kid are

required to get

your own sponsors.

Sure.

And I mean

think of football for

like a sponsor

would just be additional money

for you if you're

I don't know

if you're

a cool guy

or whatever if you're doing

if you're doing great

then you should get

additional sponsorship.

That's fine.

But your talent

still gets you in the

into the first league

for example.

Right.

Which in motorsport

it doesn't at this point

right.

Yeah.

It's crazy.

So what we're doing

and what we're launching

this weekend

or showing the world

for the first time

is our own F4 car.

So we're

we're closing the loop

so over the next years

and then the winners

of karting league

will

will feed

will feed this

sort of fat

is this your design

is a four car.

No no no

we're just going to

like end the cars

into the current system.

Got it.

We will do like

you know

we will on like

this this massive team

of like

eight F4 cars

three cars

two F2 cars

but delivery is our

design.

Yeah.

And they're your

drivers.

It's basically

it's drivers that

through your through the

they can only come up

through the system.

Yeah.

We've got like this

this system called

like fat points as well.

So if you come in at

like five years old

you're collecting like

your fat points

all the way

to like your age

appropriate like 15

16 you get to the

world final.

If you're good enough

like we'll select you

to go into a shoot

out.

So like next year

for everyone

already mentioned

the the world final

that we'll do

in Willow Springs

on December the 14th

come to an open event

to support the kids.

Yeah.

Definitely.

And there from

the from the top junior

category we will choose

the best four drivers

and then we'll put them

into a week long shoot

out in

UK in the south of Spain

on next February

from there

January.

Okay.

January.

Yeah.

January.

He's the

he's the date.

Yeah.

So that's exciting though.

That's

super cool.

I mean that would have

made them into

simulators

cards

the F4 car.

Yeah.

We're doing press

trainings with them.

Like we're really

like trying to figure out

from the four kids

that made it

made it to that

to that point

who will be the fastest.

So many questions.

Yeah.

Okay.

And how long have you

guys been running

this program

sort of fat

carding in the U.S.

This is the first year.

So we open.

Yeah.

The second hub

was

Indy and like

Chicago area

that's cute.

That's cute too.

That is cute too.

It's like the half fourth thing.

Yeah.

It's so of an idea.

And then

Southern California hub

we launched in

August.

So we're

fairly new in the

in the U.S.

What

what's the talent

like in the U.S.

and feel free to break our hearts.

Like I know that

U.K.

is probably

a lot more history

and around

carding.

Yeah.

But so far maybe

one general thing

the cool thing

about carding league

also which is very

what it already exists already is

we have 40 percent girls

or 37 percent girls.

Yeah.

Which is cool

because actually

like it's one of those

few sports that boys

and girls physiologically can

both compete at

and be good at.

I mean I was just

I was just reading

you know like f1

fans right now

the fastest growing

segment is women

ages like 14

32 or something

No sorry

14 to 24.

Yeah.

It's like it's

really rapidly growing.

Yeah.

So that's great.

How are the kids in

U.S. fast right?

Yeah.

the on the same track which is why we come together in a world final like we

kind of have a decent idea of where they all rank now but we need to get them on

the same track which we'll do in Willow Springs and then and then we'll see

where that comes out so so the way it will work actually is that there's two

like junior categories two weight categories and so we will pick so the

the person who wins the whole event it's not just a final let's say you

know they've got to win the whole event over the three days so we'll

pick one from it so they will self-select from from from each category and

then and then Ferdy and I and you know another group of people get to pick

two wild cards as well oh we kind of see that okay maybe this guy didn't have

like such a great world final sure but we think that you know the town looking

at the data we over the over the full season we see that there's some

talent so you think I mean America you guys have set up two regions now

here it's we have a large population that likes a certain genre of motor

sports that carding doesn't normally align with which is nascar well I know

but so you feel like this this marketplace though is a is hugely

untapped I think for one for one carting is kind of the can be the base to any

sport like to any motorsport right can be rallying can be Indy car can be

NASCAR whatever right the junior sport is always carting in a sense so that's

that's for one second I think the US is like a fast-growing market in terms

of formula one specifically but also motorsport in general it's a huge

country as you said well yeah Indy viewership is also like best year ever

so far yeah 2025 and I know like like this year Kota the F1 race or 24 was

like 430,000 people showed up and the year before it's 440 so yeah it's

like it's the biggest rate F1 race by far yeah yeah yeah okay so let me throw

some stones at this though okay so first of all throw back though we got K1

speed here it's we've got one in Torrance like I can go there it's pretty

democratized I can throw it got my kid can go in there they're pretty fast

there's a leaderboard like nice you okay so you guys just totally poo poo

though that's that leisure stuff has no business there's nothing there's no

no no kid who does well at K1 could ever hope to achieve no I wouldn't

say that no I think like you can do all sorts of carting right you can also you

can also just drive around like I mean it's not it's not like there's only us

and then there is the 150k solution to carting right there's many but I think

we're unique in a sense that we are a merit-based system that will make it

very easy for you to come to be a part of it of it and if you're fast

we'll find you will spot you and then we have the ladder also right

we'll bring it into F4, F3, F2 yeah K1's not bringing you to F4 you know

I don't even know like they could right then we were just competing I don't think

they are they're just a business and it's different I think like what K1 are

doing is great right you know that so fun but it's a different area of the

market they have pizza yeah and it's the same you know like the the guys in

the UK who have a really big footprint there you know like we're like we're

good partners with them right team sport we kind of help them we want

to see their kids come out they they're big fans of hours because you know they

get kids that you know they come in and they they will start on the indoor stuff

which is slower heavier all the stuff that we've just talked about but that's

fine because these carts have to last a lifetime right you know it's $40 per

half an hour or something like that the problem is then what do the kids

do get to the top of that where do they go so for people like you know

K1 for people like team sport where do you guide someone when you're

spending like you know hundred hundred fifty dollars a month and the next step

is like you know ten grand a month it's like yeah something in the middle right

so so they like us because we offer like a throughput to their their better

drivers you know I think it's we're just we're differentiated we just we

filled the hole in the market that was there very well I would say and also

I mean it's a sport that 1.6 billion people watch right and it's constantly

growing so I think there is there's enough for there's enough space for

everybody I think and then at this point becomes a question if you want to

drive a Porsche or something else my second question then is when you talk

about it's a Ferrari when you talk about racing and kids where do where do

video games what is sim racing come into this is it is it additive yeah like

can you can that I mean my kids great on Mike he's great in Gran Turismo

does he have any hope does it translate to to this I think it does

actually I mean one it gives you like yeah I think it's a similar story to

what raptor said to letter carding anything that you that you do in this sport

and that were you like if you're good at I mean it's the same features in the

sense right also in in in sim racing I don't think sim racing alone will get

you or necessarily will get you in like into a proper racing career I think you

do need some seat time in the in the end also sure but it's a great like

way to enter also and I think at some point like when when when this really

works maybe sim racing becomes a sort of qualifier because we won't have

enough seats in all the in all the hubs so that's how we think about sim racing

right at some point maybe it becomes a sort of qualifier and I'm just here so

you say within five years you want to have 50 markets yeah hubs I mean so you're

gonna be this is a full-time job you're just gonna be open in marker hubs like

I mean it's fun and and to I think that the whole system like this really

becomes proper the more talent we have right and to the more like the more

places we bring this to the more diversity the more fun the more the more

different people like the more data we will collect about the kids and who's

fast can you tell us your next year your next us up can we can we yes we

can yeah so the next one is Texas yeah that's yeah so like Austin Houston or like

the whole so we'll be up in Fort Worth Dallas Fort Worth as far down as Austin

yeah get down to Austin come on like I love LA but Austin's so cool yeah

right there yeah it's a good facility I think it like over the next years the

US can or will probably have something like 10 hubs holy moly for us

it's a big country and also we can maybe like have hubs that kind of

travel right so they spend some time in the winter there for the south and the

summer there further up so I think there's also one you'd go to Portugal and

Spain and there's no not like this but I think in the in the dark region I think

we can also like even in winter time you can like it's okay to kind of keep

it there okay so that will for sure get a hub northern Italy we want to

get a hub to Spain France Portugal yeah so China yes yeah yeah yeah if this is

going to be global we've got to be in China we've got to be in Africa and we're

already in advanced talks about about going to Africa Kenya and we're going to

be we've got to be in India right you got to be in those three places yeah

lots of population you know like talent is everywhere opportunity isn't so we're

creating the opportunity nice okay that's great that's super cool okay let's take

it down to brass tacks okay we're in a cat we're in your third hub John your

son's eight he's eight and he's loves K1 and he wanted to sign up for the league

and I was like there's this fat thing happening okay my kid is he's gonna

actually turn five next Friday nice I looked at your I looked at your minimum

requirements he is just over the he's about 43 inches tall that's 110

centimeters and he he actually might not be 40 21 kilos yet but let's say

he is give him a couple protein shit I wish how does it work so is there event

tomorrow is that correct yeah okay so let's say around the willow reimagined

opening thingy there's okay our carting league is already in willow and if there

was I didn't check to see if it was if I could sign him up for that but let's

say I did I would show up with I could show up with him if he was if he was

six years old a mature the 43 inches tall and 46 pound limits yeah and he has

zero experience perfect okay so so we built a program which we call ready to

race driver training essentially okay and that over a series of I mean you can

basically do everything in one weekend it's a series of like three to four

half days so if you wanted to you could just do everything in one one

weekend we'll take you from never having sat in a car before to be ready to race so

it's a fairly imaginative title right the program so that was British

basically so you start on like you go through these three levels so we'd

start them on level one the beauty about the electric drivetrain is that we can

turn it right down to almost walking pace because the worst thing you can do

with a six-year-old is put them in something that is doing like at full

speed the little cars will do like 25 mile an hour yeah right that's really

really fast for a tiny kid that's never sat in anything before so we

kind of turn it down to like walking speed we've got a whole coaching

system and like a ten point plan for each of these different levels and we

just walk the kids through them and we bring them on in a really safe way that

they're super confident by the end of it they'll then graduate to level two they'll

go to level two for half a day and then they'll graduate to level three and all

the time we're increasing the power we're asking more of them we're teaching

them more skills by the end of it they're ready to race and then you just

buy a season pass and you enter into the championship it is so simple and all

the safety equipment for that even from the very beginning the helmet the suit

and the neck protector is available but you need to buy a

re-protector something or so what happens is when you come to us because so when

you come to us for the first time and I'm now assuming that you're going to be a

new customer maybe not to maybe not to have got the contract with me

December are you doing it at December in the at the finals yeah okay now we're

doing a ready to race no no the finals is literally just the finals

but the hub is here so yeah so when you first come to us in the ready to

race program we supply all the the PPE we supply the helmet and the suit because

we've got a pool of this stuff yeah when you grow so yeah yeah and the other

thing is like what we recognize you know we wanted to do it like that because

maybe comes down he doesn't like it right and then you've just dropped like

yes you know maybe $500 on suit and helmet and all the rest of it so but

once you get in so we have a pool of stuff for like our our driver training

program once you're going to do the the racing then the parents would would

buy their their own equipment so that's that's the only capital outlay

that that we we require okay very cool and then I have a question how do you

know my my kid early early reader can't get him to ride a pedal bicycle he's

not so pretty shit on the scooter like I don't have one day he's gonna see this

and he's gonna be like that you know what my kid was never great on any of that

put him on a cart and like he just loved it and like he he was in some race

with like there's like eight kids and he was somehow leading and then his cart

ran out of battery and he like laid down on the couch at K1 and cried for it

was inconsolable for a half hour and I'm like the battery died it's not your fault

mechanical it happens to the best drivers and he just couldn't do is there any

are there any clues when kids are so young about having the coordination or

the skill to being a driver any tip off kind of I mean it's all about

hand-eye coordination right you know it's all about what they can feel like

whether or not you see you see the kids who pick up like they start getting the

right lines you know we'll teach them the right lines but at five six it's not so

hard not so easy to comprehend but you start seeing it straight away you start

seeing the drivers who can drive okay you know I think it's that there are

signs but then all kids you know it's like it's like football so when I was

soccer soccer sorry soccer we'll be getting a cheeky

so it's like football so when I was very young I was actually a very very good

football player very hard to believe I'm maybe exaggerate no but I was I was a

decent player and I used to play at a very high level and then what happened

was penalty sucks yeah but then obviously like I stopped growing especially in

terms of like you know how bulky I was other kids like developed skills like

better than me and you end up like being fairly mediocre right I think that

happens in like in all sports sure and and so I think if you take your kid and

they're not very good at it you know maybe they're going to develop and we're

trying to work all this out as well like we use like a lot of artificial

intelligence to try to say like you know at very early stage you know the talent

ID system that we talked about a very early stage if a kid sat in the car

for you know an hour two hours three hours we can start to see trends and

we can start to see like are they like way above the median and are they

going to track way above the median and that like tells us like okay we've

got a there's a big alarm that goes off back in the Oxford studio in Vienna and

says right he's awesome get first refused so let me just review a couple things and

this this episode is going to come out after the October 11th sessions go on yeah

but for those of you who listen listen or in California or know about Will

Springs International Raceway up in Rosamond we should mention they've

complete I mean that is they went from like a real sketchy go-kart track to

like it looks like the best one in the world right now I mean I saw super I

saw James Palmfrey showed me like a drone shot he's filming a movie out

there with Sun Kang and I was like that's that's a carting track like

that's it's it's got runoff and it's colorful will have got a glow-up as a

kid say it looks beautiful the practice session that we talked about

starts tickets start from $384 per the website for tomorrow and then if you do

any of these the the regional round one practice is $420 and then if you go up

and you're in the regional championship or the pro championship this is the

season pass starts at 3,145 bucks that's all sounds pretty reasonable yeah

especially if like your kid plays hockey or something crazy where you got to

buy pads and helmets and gear every year I bought a tennis racket yeah tremendous

it's all your money do the prices I was gonna check the Midwest are they do

they vary by by hub or no they only because of the amount of races that you

can do so like in the Midwest this year we're doing like we were doing like

more races we had to come started earlier yeah because we started early

we started in April where we had to compress like a little bit so there's

a few races so it's kind of just program they're the amount of time the weather

dependent and they vary in the UK to the US they vary little bit so speaking of

weather I was wondering if we could change the topic here for a second you're

going to Montana yes yeah so the fat ice race in Montana yes so I am I

mean ice race kind of originally comes from Austria right that's where we it's

an historic event that we revive Zellemzi in 2019 for the first time

but that doesn't mean it can only be in Vienna right when we always over the last

years also saw like a huge increase of of Americans coming and like this is

such a cool sort of motorsport savvy or like car culture country especially LA

especially car week there's so many like I have a ton of friends here yes I

figured why not why not try and bring it here and so Big Sky Montana end of

February yeah yeah but Montana usually has snow I think it's probably more of a

risk for snow because we're not super high up right I think Montana has a high

up be it's rather cold and we don't need much snow right we need we need like

cold temperatures and then we can create the ice it's all frozen I mean it's

frozen lake racing it's not on a lake that's not allowed anymore at least

in Europe it wouldn't be in in Montana we didn't find a lake so it's next

to a golf course okay really nice setting and Big Sky so that's what an hour

from Bozeman I guess five minutes is it a one day or two days two days two days

two different to Austria two days okay lots of parties around it yeah as I

said fun over speed yeah less cars just because we don't have that much

space so 50 to 60 cars something so really trying to curate a crazy

collection of cars something you usually wouldn't see okay all

exotics vintage exotics it's everything so in in cell for example we had

everything from like you know this Eastern German Traby things all the way to

like an F1 car and Max for stop and driving it so that's kind of the idea

last time we had the event in the US in Aspen and we had a GT1 the Le Mans

winning car driver nice but we also had like a BMW 2002 so it's literally

like the whole idea is to to display or like to show the car world

basically like what's yeah so the one that blew me away when I was there with a

little Audi s1s and they like were just like straight piped they were spitting

fire they were just the coolest things but then like you know there was like

Beatles and you know the the Grenadier pickup truck like jacked up whatever it's

called the I was gonna make a joke master California we have all these

Montana play did yeah it's all great that weekend all those cars I'm trying to get

I'm trying to get two of I think one might have a Montana play but I got some

cool cars you'll meet him tomorrow my buddies nice yeah you should come guys

I think it's gonna be it's gonna be a mega event and also I'm there kind of

first time at a new location second time in the US and yeah so fat's got

the carting league you got the ice racing you'd get this driver

development f4 racing fat racing yeah we got a coffee place on Grossglockner which

is the highest mountain Austria and one of the best driving roads ever such a

good road you do like four or five big events a year it's only open in

summertime but you can always like rock up and private jet program or

something we don't have a private jet program clothing clothing yeah we do some

collapse so we do so basically the whole idea or what I always I think

everybody right like if you look at what racing looked like in the 80s or 90s or

70 everything was like better designed more attention to detail there was a

graphic designer who once looked at this before it was printed like people just

took more care of all that stuff and like we try to bring that like quality

back to do with fat because racing wasn't a billion dollars a season like

F1 is now or whatever it actually cause you had like one sponsor and so the

cars are beautiful you know like and and now there's like you know 80,000

sponsors and everywhere there's a GoPro there's like you know gotta have five

logos and it just looks a mess yeah look shit yeah right I mean that's yeah

that's because I remember at at a wrench port you brought the or you got

proper you were driving was that 962 yeah with the fat international on it

and it was like it's the white car with one logo and it was it just stood

out in like a sea of Porsches somehow this one was like God that's cool yeah I

mean like think about like the McLaren's of the like oh yeah Senna Prost McLaren's

like the 808 I mean they were so beautiful yes yeah Porsche engine they

would at least the early ones the early ones yeah yeah yeah but then but then like

even the the ones with the Honda engine I'm allowed to say that yes you

that's kind of like we we both love that you know and like even like when I like

started in Formula 1 like they're not like that things were just so simple I

don't want to look at it when did you start what year 97 okay 1897

just we got we I would I would I thought we would spend it like 30 minutes just

talking to Rob about his his career as a race engineer supporting drivers like

Felipe Massa including through the era where he had that the spring hit him in

the face but we're out of time so we're gonna have to have you guys back

on probably somewhere between the 40th and 50th hub launch whenever it opens

just to get an update on how this is yeah I like that but this has been super

awesome the site the best place for more information right is fat dash

carding league comm that's FAT hyphen carding with a K league comm and you

can see the California events the UK events everything one place by tickets

where's the merch I want to get some merch that's that's FAT hyphen

international dot com FAT international for the cool swag and it's been super

awesome to have you on we got you out of here at half 5

legends thank you I need a shower maybe you have five it's half four so for 30

please it's half way to five people yeah four thirty yeah it's half five it's not

half five it's half way to five o'clock we would like in Germany in Germany would

also be half five I know but like because that's logical not logical they

just say have four they also drive on the wrong side of the road so I don't

turn 50 I've never heard anybody say half five is is anything half past four so

half past four yes that's what half way to four no how can you never agree

you just like you know whatever it's just all the things whatever it says to me

half whatever I look at my watch I go do you mean for 30 they go yes I go great

forest this is the first time in the 33 years I've been on the planet I've

ever heard this utter confusion and nonsense welcome to Los Angeles

two great people separated by a common language kippling I think alright thanks

for coming on it's awesome chatting guys and best of luck this sounds amazing

it's not my kid up for this what my wife thinks

How Do We Get More Kids Racing? Ferdi Porsche & Rob Smedley - F.A.T. Karting League

About this episode

Porsche

carding league

karting

Formula One

Scuderia Ferrari

Ferrari Challenge

Sauber

Le Mans

drivetrain

hybrid assist motor

motor generator unit

kilowatts

horsepower

power to weight ratio

spool diff

solid axle

thermal runaway

F4

F2

NASCAR

ice race

car week

BMW 2002

Audi S1

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