"SPIRITS" :regardez en accéléré une succession d'aurores boréales

from Nicholas Buer

This film was shot mainly around the Tromvik area of Northern Norway at approximately 70 degrees North.

Tromvik is located right in the heart of the aurora belt and because of this even quiet displays of the Aurora Borealis will always be visible overhead on clear nights.

I was very lucky in the time that I visited in that a CME (coronal mass ejection) from the sun hit on the first night I arrived. The earths magnetic field reverberated for the entire week that I was there and I was lucky to witness strong displays every night.

The Aurora Borealis is the most beautiful natural phenomenon I have ever had the pleasure of witnessing. I love astronomy, and for me there is nothing more tranquil that watching our own galaxy rise but the Northern lights was quite a different experience, one that was in some ways even more humbling.

I was fascinated with how the aurora changed so quickly, from rolling like a never ending curtain of soft light stretching, weaving and contorting itself across the Arctic sky, to sharp fingers of green and red piercing the black to its own percussive rhythm.

A friend of mine spoke to a native Norwegian shortly before I embarked on this trip and he told him that Norway "is good for the soul" And after visiting I could not agree more.

Music composed by Fieldscarecrow:
soundcloud.com/fieldscarecrow

Motion control Dynamic Perception Stage Zero:
dynamicperception.com/

Spirits from Nicholas Buer on Vimeo.

VELOCETTE MSS 500

Photography by Benoit Guerry, © Guerry & Prat Images.

6H ESTORIL VdeV : DÉCISIVES POUR LE TITRE...

Pour ces Six Heures d'Estoril Protos, la situation est quasiment identique à  celle du GT. Tout va se jouer entre la Norma M20 FC Palmyr n°1 des tenants du titre David Zollinger et Philippe Mondolot et la Norma M2O FC n°26 de l'équipe CD Sport des prétendants à la couronne 2012, Thomas Accary et Sébastien Dhouailly.

Si l'exposé des faits est limpide, l'issue en est tout aussi incertaine, avec de nombreux paramètres à prendre en compte et autant de facteurs aléatoires.

Au classement actuel, l'avantage va pour l'instant à Zollinger et Mondolot, qui occupent la première place  avec 159 points contre 145 à Accary et Dhouailly. Cet avantage doit cependant être tempéré par le règlement qui prévoit qu'on ne prend en compte que les sept meilleurs résultats et donc que  chaque équipage doit déduire son plus mauvais résultat de la  saison. Dhouailly et Accary n'ont marqué aucun point à Dijon et n'ont en conséquence rien à retrancher à leur total tandis que Zollinger et Mondolot doivent enlever les six points de leur dixième place de Nogaro. L'avantage réel des pilotes Palmyr n'est donc en fait que de huit points.

Huit points, c'est peu et c'est beaucoup à la fois. Peu, car le coefficient des Six Heures d'Estoril est de 1,5, beaucoup car à supposer que Accary et Dhouailly l'emportent au Portugal, ils marqueraient 37,5 points, mais si dans le même temps Zollinger et Mondolt terminaient deuxièmes, ils marquaraient 30 points et seraient donc déclarés vainqueurs du Challenge 2012 pour 0,5 points !

Il sera donc impératif pour les pilotes CD Sport d'intercaler au moins une voiture entre eux et la  Norma n°1. Pour cette dernière manche, l'équipe  de Claude Dégremont, ex-Champion de France de Formule Renault, s'est attaché les services de Philippe Dumas, le Team Manager de Hexis Racing, Champion du Monde FIA GT1 World  2011, qui va reprendre du service en tant que pilote mais dont les conseils sur la  stratégie de course seront également précieux.

Dans le camp adverse, le jeune suisse  Fabien Thuner sera de nouveau au volant de la Norma  n°1. Thuner a disputé trois courses de VdeV cette année et a été deux fois vainqueur et une fois deuxième, ce qui se passe de commentaires.

Les deux teams  ont également affûté les équipages de leur deuxième voiture. Kevin Bole Besançon sera assisté  sur la Norma n°25 par deux pilotes qu'on a davantage l'habitude de voir en GT, Eric Debard, champion FFSA GT 2009 et vice-champion 2012, et Anthony Pons, vainqueur du Challenge VdeV GT 2011, champion LMES GTE Am 2012 et deuxième des 24 Heures du Mans 2012. Palmyr comptera sur la Norma n°3 de Grégory Fargier et Christian Vaglio-Giors, assistés depuis Magny-Cours par le  jeune Marc-Antoine Dannielou, transfuge d'Extrême Limite.

Les deux teams  pourraient voir sur leur route les opposants traditionnels que sont les Norma TFT et la Norma Extrême Limite avec un Stéphane Daoudi qu'on a vu à son avantage à Magny-Cours, mais  surtout la  donne pourrait être troublée par les autres marques, car les Norma, bien que nettement majoritaires, ne seront pas seules.

Ligier, Wolf, Tatuus

Estoril sera en effet la première confrontation avec la présence des quatre marques. On a déjà vu une fois une Tatuus PY012 cette année, mais avec un équipage de gentlemen drivers tandis que cette fois la Tatuus est engagée par le constructeur italien.

Une seule Ligier JS53 sera au départ, la  Ligier MecaMoteur vue à Magny-Cours où elle a terminé deuxième. Yann Clairay aura cette fois pour équipiers Julien Schell, champion Le Mans Series FLM 2011 et deux fois vainqueur du Challenge Protos, et Robin Longechal, un équipage donc de haut niveau.

Avelon Formula, le bras armé de Wolf Cars, fait son retour en VdeV à Estoril, avec Ivan Bellarosa, champion SPEED Euroseries 2012 et qui revient tout juste de Daytona où il  a participé aux essais sur une Riley Porsche avec Max Papis, et son jeune compatriote Alessandro Latif, les deux italiens l'ayant emporté au Paul-Ricard cette année.

Le Tatus Racing a engagé la Tatuuus PY012 n°12 pour Brandon Maisano, le jeune français étant membre de la Ferrari Driver Academy et champion de Formule Abarth 2010, et de Fabio Francia, Champion d'Italie Prototypes  en CN2 en 2011, un très bel équipage donc là aussi.

Ligier, Wolf et Tatuus auront évidemment le désavantage de n'avoir qu'une équipe de pointe à Estoril, mais ces trois marques pourraient avoir une nette influence sur l'attribution du titre.

L'expérience de Zollinger et Mondolot, à la recherche d'un quatrième titre consécutif après leur victoire dans le Challenge en 2009, 2010 et 2011, ce qui serait exceptionnel, contre la  fougue  de Accary et Dhouailly...En Six Heures, bien des choses peuvent se produire.

Résultat définitif dimanche prochain.

Le classement du Challenge Protos est ici

by Claude Foubert     (Endurance-Info.com)

PORTLAND TO DAKAR TIGER

The sun was setting fast as the bikes began the arduous climb out of the Sarlacc pit. The deep sand had levied a burdensome tax on the majority of the Tigers’ bearing surfaces. But they soldiered on, knowing that salvation would only come upon reaching the distant checkpoint. A journey that started weeks ago in the urban confines of Portland city limits had taken both riders, bikes, and gear to the very limits of endurance.

Here on this lonely dune, amidst the straining motor, rapidly dropping temperatures, and darkening skies, they learned to live again. This was Portland to Dakar, and it would take everything.

www.RideIcon.com/PortlandToDakar

It was an ugly task that Team Icon laid at the feet of our Tiger 800s. To complete our ‘Portland to Dakar’ challenge, we asked the near impossible: miles of asphalt, vertical faces of rock, endless stretches of soft sand and deep snow, and more water landings than a Pacific campaign. The term dual-sport failed to even remotely describe our journey, which is why we chose the Tiger 800XC. The fully adjustable seat and bars, large operational range, and oversized generator for electrical auxiliaries made long miles in the saddle no problem, while serious off-road credentials such as a 21″ front wheel, muscular motor, stout suspension, and a burly frame delivered us from the aforementioned evils of our passage.

MORIWAKI KAWASAKI

The Moriwaki Kawasaki is a motorcycle that set the world of competitive motorcycle racing on its head in the late 1970s, piloted by New Zealander Graeme Crosby the remarkable looking broke convention with its upright riding position and despite much pessimism about its chances, it actually took the fight to the big boys with aplomb.

The Moriwaki Kawasaki is a stock Kawasaki Z1 that was tuned by Mamoru Moriwaki, it was first ridden by Crosby at the 1978 Suzuka 8-Hour Race and it’s performance can probably best be summed up by Crosby himself;

“I could not believe how fast and stable it was. First time out I was two seconds under the lap record. The bike was a real cracker. Tony Hatton and I then rode the bike in the 1978 Suzuka eight-hour race and finished in third position, despite Tony running out of gas and having to push it back to the pit area. We had a ball. The bike formed the building block for my attack on the UK racing scene in ’79 and I stuck a similar one on pole for the Suzuka race in that year too.”

After the Suzuka 8-Hour Race a small crack was found in the bike’s frame, Moriwaki had an all new frame created using lightweight alloys and added additional strengthening in key areas. This improved motorcycle was then shipped to the UK to take part in the TT F1 race at Brands Hatch, the TT F1 Mallory Park race and of course, the Isle of Man TT.

Crosby took the UK by storm and was a popular underdog at races around the British Isles, he clocked a number of 2nd and 3rd place finishes running against the well funded works teams. His 1979 season went down in history as one of the most successful first seasons of any motorcycle racer in modern history and the bike he did it all on is now for sale via the Bonhams Autumn Stafford Sale on the 21st of October.

The Moriwaki Kawasaki is expected to fetch between $32,000 and $41,000 USD, which seems like a hell of a good deal to me, click here to view the official listing and read more about the bike’s history.

from SILODROME.COM

Confederate X132 Hellcat Combat

By guest writer Ian Lee.

The Bonneville salt flats are a magical place. A sprawling wasteland that comes alive at different points during the year, with the sound of silence overcome by hard revving engines, and the ghosts of legends who have been there before. The whole nature of the place pushes bike (and car and truck) builders to the the edge of their engineering limits, and it takes some skills to come out on top. Confederate Motorcycles are one firm who have what it takes. After taking their X132 Hellcat Combat to 177.211 miles an hour on the flats, they have taken the landspeed record for the fastest big block V-twin ever. It’s an achievement that is 21 years in the making, through natural disaster and multiple learning experiences, but it sure is worth it. 

Confederate motorcycles started out as an idea in 1992, the first 9 months of the company based on building a conception of what a good proper American motorcycle should be like. A move to San Francisco, by chance meeting up with America’s leading drag racing chassis engineers ended up with some good ideas and some direction for the first prototype. Using Confederate’s own principle of ‘skeletal minimalism’, the bike had to be bare bones, with a lack of flair for flairs’ sake. As much design and manufacture was done in house, with Confederate using their own engine and transmissions in their bikes. The first round of customer bikes were built, then Hurricane Katrina hit and made a mess of Confederates’ workshop, and the bike building firm were given a chance to reassess their second gen bikes. It also gave them a chance to reassess their goals, and something that came up was a run at the Bonneville Saltflats.

Using their road-going X132 Hellcat, little was required equipment wise to prepare a bike for a high speed saltflat run. Boosting the rake from 23.5 degrees up to 29 degrees pushed the wheelbase up to 66.5”, making for more stability at high speed. The 17” Pirelli Diablo Rossi shod Blackstone rolling hardware was carried over from the roadbike, as well as the frame, showing the quality of the build of the plain street (if you could call it that) Hellcat bike. Marzocchi 50mm forks up front, matched to a Custom race tech suspension setup, with both allowing for adjustability in rebound and compression, to suit high and low speed applications. 

When you’re taking a bike to 177.211mph, you want a damn good braking system to pull you up at the end of your run. Confederate has raided the parts bins of the best in the friction business, to be able to stop this 490lb machine. Front end equipment includes dual Beringer 4 pot calipers biting into Aeronal floating ductile iron rotors. Back end is fully Brembo equipped, with a two piston caliper on a crossdrilled stainless steel disc.

Confederate are lucky in that they have the ability to design and build their own engines to use in their bikes, making sure nothing is left to chance in the majority of the build. Their fuel injected X132 street bike has been carried over, it’s presence dominating the Spartan frame. A one piece forged crank, working with a square 4.00” bore and stroke, produce a 2163cc capacity. Combat dual side draft intakes with 58mm throttlebodies, controlled by a ‘Combat’ performance ECU allow the bike to put out 160bhp, with 160 foot pounds of torque, exactly what you want when chasing a landspeed record. 

Aesthetically, Confederate’s ‘skeletal minimalism’ principle  shows. No fairings, a simple Motogadget readout, the Combat reverse hide racing saddle being no larger than what is required to hold a butt, show that this is bike as more for go than show. Like many bikes on Pipeburn though, the end result is easy on the eye, sometimes more for beauty of engineering than anything else. The olive green 4.75 gallon fuel tank, as per pretty much everything else, is Confederate designed and manufactured. If you should happen to purchase one of the 36 customer supplied models, you get personalised tank graphics as well. 

It’s a bike with a purpose, built with a philosophy of barebones engineering in mind, using the best parts available, whether they had to be outsourced or manufactured by Confederate motorcycles themselves. A world class bike, a land speed record, all coming from a workshop in New Orleans, that started up 21 years ago when the firm decided to build a motorcycle from scratch. And what a long way they have come.

I will let James Hoegh, the rider who took the X132 to the landspeed record, have the last word:

“A landspeed record is the culmination of countless hours of work, preparation, sweat and expense. There it’s very gratifying and emotional, even, when it pays off. It means our Confederate team is among the finest, the bike world class, and my skills adequate, though not complete. It validates that we belong at Bonneville, and that we are not only in the race, but at the cutting edge of performance”