Rossi concerned and Lorenzo frustrated in Sepang

Valentino Rossi was disgruntled and Jorge Lorenzo refused to speak to the press at the end of Thursday’s test session at Sepang, with both citing tyre problems for their frustrations.

Rossi explained that he was struggling to get the maximum from his Yamaha YZR-M1 with the new specification Bridgestone tyres for Sepang2, having produced his best time at Sepang1 on 2013 rubber.

After finishing fourth and 0.566s off Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa’s pace on Thursday the Italian stated, "The main thing at this test is to adapt the M1 to work well with the new Bridgestone tyres. We’ve worked a lot and tried many things but at the end of the day we are not very happy. I’m in fourth place and the lap time is quite good, but I’m half a second behind Pedrosa, but I’m also behind other guys."

"We’re suffering because with this tyre our bike becomes difficult to manage. Tomorrow we will try again but we don’t have much that we can do."

Meanwhile, Yamaha Factory Racing Team Manager Wilco Zeelenberg spoke to the media on behalf of a frustrated Lorenzo, who had ended the day ninth and over a second down on Pedrosa.

"Jorge is disappointed, so there is your quote and that is our problem," Zeelenberg said. "We knew from the last test that we could struggle with this new tyre but at that test we were able to use the tyres from last season and we were much more competitive."

Asked whether the problem was a major worry for Yamaha’s race competitiveness Zeelenberg added, "I cannot answer that because we are in Sepang and this tyre does not work well for us here and at the Phillip Island test we’ll see how it is for us there, then Qatar is again another situation."

Valentino Rossi et Jorge Lorenzo ont du mal à s’adapter aux nouveaux pneus Bridgestone cette semaine au second Test Officiel de Sepang et ont respectivement fini la seconde journée aux quatrième et neuvième positions.

Valentino Rossi (Yamaha Factory Racing) a expliqué qu’il n’avait pas réussi à configurer son YZR-M1 pour les nouveaux pneus Bridgestone et est bien moins compétitif que lors du premier Test Officiel de début février, lors duquel il avait signé le deuxième temps avec les pneus de 2013.

Rossi a terminé la seconde journée d’essais de la semaine en quatrième position mais à 0.566s du leader, Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda).

« Le point clé est d’adapter la M1 aux nouveaux pneus Bridgestone, » a affirmé Rossi. « Nous avons travaillé dur et essayé beaucoup de choses mais au final nous ne pouvons pas être satisfaits. Je suis quatrième et le chrono est assez bon mais je suis une demi-seconde derrière Pedrosa, puis aussi derrière d’autres pilotes. »

« Nous avons beaucoup de problèmes avec ce pneu, notre moto est devenue plus difficile à contrôler. Nous réessayerons demain mais il n’y a pas grand chose que nous puissions faire. »

Le team manager Wilco Zeelenberg s’est quant à lui adressé aux médias à la place de Jorge Lorenzo, qui a fini la journée en neuvième position, à plus d’une seconde de Pedrosa.

« Jorge est déçu, maintenant vous avez une déclaration et c’est notre problème, » a affirmé Zeelenberg. « Nous savions depuis le dernier test que nous pourrions avoir des problèmes avec ce nouveau pneu mais lors de ce dernier test, nous pouvions encore utiliser les pneus de la saison dernière et nous avions été bien plus compétitifs. »

Questionné quant aux conséquences sur la compétitivité de la Yamaha en course, Zeelenberg a ajouté : « Je ne peux pas répondre à cette question parce que nous sommes à Sepang et que ce pneu semble ne pas nous aller ici mais nous verrons comment ça se passera à Phillip Island et ce sera encore une autre situation au Qatar. »

Front end set-up tweaks propel Pedrosa forward / Mise au point réussie pour Pedrosa

Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa attributed his afternoon improvement in Sepang on Thursday to some ‘big changes’ on his bike and a tweaked front end set-up, which aided his leap to a 2’00.039 best time.

The Spanish rider had been stranded in the unfamiliar territory of 11^th spot on the timesheet earlier in the day and was uncomfortable on the RC213V before his crew made some key set-up changes.

Pedrosa was still suffering from some jet-lag and had a quiet morning, only completing 15 laps. In the afternoon he began to work properly, focusing on setup of the front of his Honda prototype and also with mappings, completing 57 laps with a fastest time on lap 55.

“Things went well this afternoon,” reflected Pedrosa. “Even though this morning we were still having some issues and I wasn't able to ride comfortably. I had to stop early in order to make some big changes to the bike, and when we restarted after lunch I felt more comfortable and put in better laps.”

He added, “We focused on the front end and were able to find a good setup. Tomorrow we will focus on making progress with the rear, because we have to get the new tyre working better and increase grip. If all goes well, then perhaps tomorrow we will be able to do a race simulation.”

On Friday, the final day in Sepang, Pedrosa will switch to work on rear setup before he and his team head to Australia for the final winter three-day test.

Le pilote du team Repsol Honda a été le plus rapide jeudi à Sepang et a affirmé que ses progrès étaient dus aux modifications effectuées sur le train avant de son RC213V.

Onzième sur la feuille de temps en début de journée, Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda) était de retour aux affaires cet après-midi à Sepang et a signé le meilleur temps de la journée en 2’00.039. Le Catalan n’a fait qu’une quinzaine de tours ce matin sur une RC213V sur laquelle il n’était pas vraiment à l’aise mais s’est ensuite montré beaucoup plus rapide l’après-midi après avoir trouvé de meilleurs réglages à l’avant de sa machine.

« Ça s’est bien passé cet après-midi, alors que nous avions encore des problèmes à résoudre ce matin et que je n’étais pas complètement à l’aise, » a commenté Pedrosa. « J’ai dû rentrer assez tôt pour faire de gros changements sur la moto et lorsque nous sommes repartis, après le déjeuner, j’étais beaucoup plus à l’aise et j’ai pu faire de meilleurs tours. »

« Nous nous sommes concentrés sur le train avant et nous avons trouvé un bon set-up. Demain nous nous concentrerons sur l’arrière parce que nous devons tirer davantage du nouveau pneu arrière et gagner en grip. Si tout se passe bien, nous pourrons peut-être faire une simulation de course. »

En l’absence de son coéquipier Marc Márquez, blessé à la jambe droite, Pedrosa travaillera sur l’arrière de la RC213V vendredi lors de la dernière journée d’essais en Malaisie et continuera son travail de lundi à mercredi prochains en Australie, où il sera de nouveau le seul représentant du team Repsol Honda.

HELL'S GATE METZELER 2014 FINAL HIGHLIGHTS

FIFTY YEARS OF KICKS – MOTORCYCLE DOCUMENTARY

I love a good documentary, especially when it’s about motorcycles and it was made by friends. This fantastic 20 minute film follows the story of Paul Rodden and Larry Murray, two slightly older off-road motorcyclists who regularly go out on the trails with much younger men, and literally leave them in the dust.

Hit play and enjoy the film, I’ve seen it twice.

THE ULTIMA GTR

The Ultima GTR is the automotive equivalent of raw, uncut heroin. It’s offered by the factory as either a turn-key supercar or as a kit car, that latter option allows buyers to configure the final vehicle to their own specifications and price point. Most owners choose a large American V8 coupled to a Porsche G50 transaxle and horsepower figures from 350 all the way up to over 1,700 have been reported. As you can probably imagine, driving the GTR is a fun, frightening and borderline religious experience.

The Ultima was first launched in 1983 by acclaimed automotive engineer Lee Noble, over the past 31 years the Ultima has seen a steady pace of improvement with the current GTR being the evolution of the company’s original Ultima MKI. All Ultimas have been built using a rigid, lightweight steel space frame chassis with GRP bodywork and a mid-mounted V8 – this combination has been found to be the best balance between low cost and low weight.

The flexibility of the GTR has led to it being used by racing teams around the world for a variety of motorsport events, an Ultima chassis was also used by McLaren when they were testing the drivetrain of the McLaren F1 – possibly the greatest vote of confidence a small car maker could receive.

Pricing on the Ultima GTR has always been surprisingly affordable due to the fact that the kit can be bought part-by-part which helps to significantly reduce the initial financial outlay. Sourcing a suitable V8 and transmission is the only other large expense and this can be done relatively cheaply if you don’t mind buying secondhand and doing the refurbishment work yourself.

In 2009 a 720hp factory-built version of the GTR set a slew of new world records including:

Fastest 0-60mph time: 2.6 seconds
Fastest 0–100mph time: 5.3 seconds
Best performance on a skidpad: 1.176g of lateral grip
Fastest road car over the 1/4 mile: 9.9 seconds @ 143 mph
Fastest 0-100-0mph time: 9.4 seconds

Each of these records was set with a road legal car, fitted with road legal tires. Fans of the UK TV show Top Gear might also be interested to know that the GTR holds the unofficial lap record of the Top Gear Test Track with a time of 1:12:28 – over a second faster than anything previously seen at the makeshift circuit.

If you’d like to build an Ultima you’ll need to ensure you have a little space in your shed or garage, then US residents will need to click here, and UK/Rest of the World residents will need to click here. I’ve always thought that the great benefit of the Ultima is that it offers Lamborghini and Ferrari spanking performance at a blue collar price point, in some respects the GTR is the democratisation of the supercar. Now I just need to clear some space in the garage.

The images in this article show an Ultima that has been modified slightly from stock, all Ultima owners customise their cars to a degree, so it’s quite difficult to find one in factory-stock condition. If you’d like to see an unmodified Ultima GTR fresh out of the factory you can click here.

Photo Credits: G F Williams

ACE CAFE : Flat Track Day

Electric Shock: The Icon E-Flyer bicycle

This retro beauty is the Icon E-Flyer, an electrically powered bicycle inspired by the hairy-chested board racers that were seen careering around oval ‘Murderdromes’ throughout America in the early 20th Century…

Developed by Icon in collaboration with Vintage Electric in California, the chic cycle aims to capture the classic elegance of the American board track racers that raced at the very dawn of the motorcycle age. Don’t be fooled by the vintage styling, though; the E-Flyer is crammed with state-of-the-art technology.

The ultimate in retro-cool, each example is hand-built around a hydroformed aluminium frame and finished in a stylish powder-grey. Features include billet aluminium and steel forks, Avid disc brakes, an LED headlight and an ultra-cool leather saddle, hand-stitched by Brooks England Ltd. And that’s before you get to the trick EV system.

Power comes from either the person pedalling, or a 3,500-watt brushless DC hub motor, itself deriving power from a 52-volt battery, aided by clever regenerative braking and fully charged in just two hours. In street-legal mode, 750 watts from the motor allow up to 20mph for 35 miles (more than enough to hold your own on the morning commute), while race mode unleashes the full 3,500 watts, propelling the bike up to 36mph; perfect if you find you have an abundance of old wooden boarding and several friends to race against. And you certainly won’t be late for work astride the quickest electric bike on the market.

The E-Flyer’s versatility means it’ll be right at home wherever you take it – be it cruising nonchalantly along a riverside path, or powering along a winding mountain road. Just 50 examples are being planned, priced at $4995, and you should strike quickly because, as Icon puts it, they will not be around for long.

For more information visit www.Iconelectricbike.com.

KTM Freeride takes Beemers on a challenging adventure

Never trust an Englishman on a KTM350 Freeride when he says a trail is easy and you're on big adventure bike.

Bonhams announces single-marque auction at Mercedes-Benz Museum

Building on not only the success of the Aston Martin Works auctions in Newport Pagnell, but also last year’s record sale of the W196, Bonhams has announced a single-marque sale that will take place at the Mercedes Museum in Stuttgart on 12 July 2014…

With a lotlist set to feature no fewer than 40 important cars from the illustrious marque’s back catalogue (further consignments are still invited), the newly announced sale forms the latest chapter in a so-far highly successful partnership between the British auction house and Mercedes-Benz Classic. Having worked together closely since the early 1990s, the pair joined forces last year to achieve the World Record sum of £19.6m paid for the ex-Fangio Mercedes-Benz W196 GP car at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

The collaborative auction will take place at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, Germany, on 12 July 2014. Classic Driver will preview the sale closer to the time.

In the meantime, you can find hundreds of classic Mercedes in the Classic Driver Market.

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Johnny Cash - Big River