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From: Brian Baker
(Ed note: To learn more about classic Honda vehicles, visit the HondaSportsRegistry.com)
Ellen was kind (or foolish) enough to ask me to write a short story for the web site on some aspect of my Honda life. For those of you who know me, you know that it is impossible for me to tell a SHORT story about anything, let alone something that is so intertwined with my daily existence! The more I worked on this project, the more out of control it became. So, if you don't have the stamina (or the stomach) for the whole story, I'll tell you how it ends; Brian, his family, and all of his Hondas live happily ever after. If you feel you're up to the challenge, please read on...
I?ve been involved with Honda cars for over 23 years now, and it is amazing to think back on how much my life has been influenced by my favorite brand of automobile!
It all started when my brother Jeff bought a 1976 Honda Civic. This action piqued my interest in finding out about older model Honda autos. I had remembered seeing advertisements in Jeff?s auto magazines for a smaller Honda known as a Z600 Coupe. I thought this might be an interesting adventure for my first automobile purchase.
After months of searching (with my father?s help and wisdom), I finally found a clean 1972 Z600 which I purchased in April of 1977 at the tender age of 15. I fixed and drove this car throughout my high school years. In my senior year of high school, a friend advised me where he had seen another Z600 for sale. I originally purchased this car with the intent of it being a parts car, but later ended up restoring it.
Here I was, 17 years old, with TWO Z600s. Still, something was missing. I wanted to find an earlier Honda. One of the first cars Honda had built...The S (for Sports) series. I hadn?t seen any in person, but I had heard and read about them. I had even seen a couple of photographs...coupes and convertibles! I had to find one!
Around this time, Mike Balogh, a friend of mine who also owned a Z600, introduced me to a friend of his by the name of David ?Bud? Woodward. Bud owned an N600 and TWO S600 roadsters! We quickly became friends! I begged and pleaded with him for a long time to sell me one of his S600s. No such luck.
Finally, on September 12, 1981, I purchased my S600 roadster from Bud, who really didn?t want to part with either, but financial circumstances forced him to sell me one. (Perhaps the previous 18 months of me begging and pleading with him to do so helped!)
I drove the S600 for a short period of time before putting it into storage. I drove one or the other of my Z600s as my daily transportation for a couple of years while I was working in a couple of athletic stores in local malls.
Throughout all of this time, learning how to work on the cars became somewhat of a necessity for me for two reasons; lack of finances to have other people do it, and nobody else seemed to know how to work on these little cars. As my experience grew, I started working on friends' Hondas for a little extra income. I also found that I really enjoyed this type of work, and soon I was booked with this type of work every weekend, doing it out of my mom's garage.
I started gaining more influence over friends and family in their automobile purchases. Soon, it seemed like everyone I knew owned a Honda!
It was around July of 1983 when my mom saw an advertisement in the newspaper that a Honda dealership was opening in a nearby city. They were looking for help, and she thought it would be a good idea for me to apply. Well, I did just that, and soon I was working in the parts department of the dealership.
Now that I was actually working at a dealership, even more friends started buying Hondas, many with my assistance. One of these people was my friend Matt Rechtorovic. Matt bought a 1984 Accord, which he had me service for him. Matt was so pleased with the service that I was providing, he started recommending me to his friends.
One of the people that Matt referred to me was his friend and next door neighbor, John Schmoll. I started servicing John's car, a 1981 Accord. John was also very satisfied with my work, so when his daughter's 1981 Civic blew a head gasket in August of 1984, he had her bring the car to me for repairs. Well, the rest, as they say, is history.
A few days later, Carolyn and I went on our first date.
We continued dating, and I continued working at the Honda dealership for the next few years. I was eventually promoted to service manager, and even managed the parts department for a short period of time, as well. In the latter part of 1987, I was not feeling good about the direction that the dealership was heading. Despite several meetings with other managers and the owner, I decided that I needed to leave with my reputation and conscience still intact.
On a cold February weekend in 1988, my brother came over to my house, where we stayed up late into the wee hours of the morning discussing the situation. (At this time, he was managing the parts department of the sister Acura store.) After staying over for the night, we continued our discussion where we agreed that we wanted to continue our association with the Honda & Acura automobiles, but that it could not be where we currently were. There were no other Honda or Acura stores in the immediate area, and we didn't want to move or have a long commute.
Thus, the idea of going into business for ourselves.
We left our respective positions in March of 1988, and rented an old 4 bay building that we spent eight weeks refurbishing before we even opened our doors to the public. On June 1, 1988, Formula H Motorworks, Inc. officially opened for business. (Jeff had come up with the name, meant to suggest our "formula" was Honda, and also to show our interest in Formula 1 racing, in which Honda had become so successful.)
We started with just the two of us doing most everything, with our mom as our bookkeeper, and our girlfriends (to become wives) helping us out during evenings and weekends. Success came quickly, and after only 5 months, we were already hiring our first associate, Al, who is still with us today. With three more hires over the next 18 months, we had outgrown our facility, so the search was on to find a larger facility that we could grow into.
 Meanwhile, after proposing to her during Christmas '88, Carolyn and I were wed on August 12, 1989, which was the closest we could come to getting married on the fifth anniversary of our first date.
Virtually everyone who attended our wedding drove a Honda, including the minister who was, of course, a Formula H customer. The parking facilities looked like a Honda car lot!
Coming back to the business side of this story, one of our customers was a commercial real estate broker who hooked us up with someone who was rebuilding a large structure that was previously destroyed by fire. We purchased it, designed most of its features, and moved into our new facility in July of 1990.
We now had room for 10 bays, a dedicated parts department, and a showroom which was used to display our classic Honda vehicles. We hired more technicians and service advisors, to the point that we were now larger than the dealership's service department.
During 1992, I finally had the time to complete the restoration on my S600 convertible. This gave me the idea to invite everyone else I knew who had an S car to my shop for a weekend of S car mania. This became known as the S Car Gathering, which has been held annually ever since.
 Over the next couple of years, we started servicing Honda mowers, tractors, and snowblowers for our auto customers who also happened to own such. Somewhere around late 1995 or early 1996, one of our customers suggested that we start SELLING these items. Well, it was like a light bulb above our heads that lit up! In September of 1996, we took on our official relationship with Honda, and became a Honda Power Equipment Center.
On March 31, 1998 Carolyn and I were blessed with the birth of our daughter, Sarah. She goes to work with Daddy almost every day, unless Mommy doesn't have to go to work. She had her first ride in an S car on June 1, 1999, which was rather appropriately, Formula H's 11th Anniversary!
 Usually, Tippy and Mugsy, the official Formula H dogs, along with Sarah and myself, will all ride to work together in either the Civic 4WD wagon or the Accord wagon.
Here's Sarah almost one year later already following in her Daddy's footsteps - wrenching on a Honda Kick 'N Go!
Visit Formula H online at FormulaH.com
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