ES1 : Une « vraie » Superspéciale

La Superspéciale « Fernet Branca » a été remportée sans forcer par Sébastien Ogier (VW/Michelin) devant les Norvégiens Mads Ostberg et Andreas Mikkelsen, les Finlandais Mikko Hirvonen et Jari-Matti Latvala et les deux pilotes Hyundai Thierry Neuville et Dani Sordo.

Le Rallye d’Argentine 2014 a débuté cet après-midi par une Superspéciale de 6,04 km tracée aux portes de Villa Carlos Paz, dans un immense parc – le Parque Tematico – situé près de l’autoroute menant à Cordoba.

Contrairement à son appellation officielle - Fernet Branca, une boisson argentine aux vertus laxatives – cette Superspéciale est loin d’être « chiante » ! C’est même la plus belle Superspéciale du championnat, tracée dans un auditorium naturel, bordée de talus faisant office de gradins pour des milliers d’aficionados. L’ambiance y est électrique. Les voitures évoluent par paires sur deux pistes parallèles qui se croisent grâce à un pont étroit, et un beau jump régale les spectateurs. Deux boucles complètes sont à parcourir, soit 6,04 km chronométrés.

Les duos sont toujours savamment composés par l’organisateur, comme Meeke/Evans, en l’honneur de sa très Grâcieuse Majesté, Mikkelsen/Neuville, au bon souvenir de l’IRC, Latvala/Hirvonen, hommage aux Flying-Finns… A 16h00, c’est par un duel baltique Ketomaa/Tanak que le spectacle a commencé, sous un ciel nuageux auréolé de quelques arabesques d’un biplan de voltige.

Le Finlandais Jari Ketomaa a remporté ce 1^er duel. Nicolas Fuchs a fait de même face à Nasser Al-Attiyah, tout comme Prokop face à Protasov. Le 1^er match WRC a opposé Dani Sordo à Robert Kubica, deux victoires de spéciales chacun cette saison. L’Espagnol, vainqueur du Shakedown ce matin, a battu le Polonais de 4s6 pour s’installer provisoirement en tête du rallye. « C’était très glissant et la piste va s’améliorer au fil des passages », a affirmé le pilote Hyundai i20 WRC.

Kris Meeke a défait son compatriote Elfyn Evans de 2s9 pour prendre la 2^e place à 2s1 de Sordo. Mais l’Espagnol a perdu sa 1^ère place après le duel Mikkelsen/Neuville, 3^e Rallye d’Argentine chacun, duel remporté par le Norvégien en 4min55s2.

Les généreux Finlandais Mikko Hirvonen et Jari-Matti Latvala ont assuré le spectacle ! Le pilote Volkswagen y a laissé la moitié de son pare-chocs mais s’est incliné pour 1/10^e de seconde face à la Ford Fiesta RS WRC N°5 créditée du 2^e meilleur temps provisoire à 6/10^e de Mikkelsen : « J’ai fait quelques petites erreurs, mais c’est très glissant », a confirmé Latvala.

En 4min51s7 (contre 4min42s1 son record établi l’an passé) le champion du monde sortant Sébastien Ogier (VW/Michelin) a remporté son duel face à Mads Ostberg pour s’installer en tête du rallye devant les Norvégiens Ostberg (+3s) et Mikkelsen (+3s5) et les Finlandais Hirvonen (+4s1) et Latvala (+4s2).

Sordo (Hyundai) wins shakedown / Sordo (Hyundai) gagne le Shakedown

After 32 days of ‘inactivity’, the WRC stars resumed their driving duties at this morning’s shakedown in Argentina. The fastest time was posted by Spain’s Dani Sordo (Hyundai i20 WRC/Michelin). The rally proper starts with this afternoon’s super-special (4pm local time).

The drivers were clearly eager to get behind the wheel of their respective cars because there were no WRC cars left in the service park by 7.30pm, by which time they had all parted for the shakedown stage (4.59km) a short distance away, near Villa Garcia-Cabalango. It’s the same test that competitors have used for years, with an extremely fast start followed by a short downhill section, a hairpin bend and a water splash. The final part is more technical.

After the first two runs, the order was topped by the three VW Polo R WRCs, with Latvala (2m32s) in front, ahead of Ogier and Mikkelsen. Most of the drivers fitted the soft-compound version of the Michelin Latitude Cross, but Ogier opted for a combination of ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ tyres. “I just wanted to see how the car handled like that. The stages are quite rough this year and it won’t be easy running first on the road. Except for a few stretches of mud, the conditions are essentially dry. We’ll take things cautiously to begin with and then see where we stand.”

Ostberg and Meeke (Citroën DS3 WRC) both called it a day after two runs. “We chose soft tyres,” the Briton told us. Indeed, the ‘soft’ compound is the nominated choice for Rally Argentine where each Priority 1 driver has a total allocation of 28 ‘S2’ tyres, plus 16 harder ‘H2 alternatives.

Ogier, too, settled for two runs, but Mikko Hirvonen, Elfyn Evans, Latvala and the two Hyundai i20 WRC drivers went back out.

Hirvonen (Ford Fiesta RS WRC) established a new benchmark time (2m31.7s) which was ultimately bettered by the final attempt of Dani Sordo (Hyundai i20 WRC, 2m31.3s). His team-mate Thierry Neuville improved to go fourth, behind Latvala. The final order continued with Ogier (2m32.5), Mikkelsen (2m32.6s); Ostberg (2m33.1s), Robert Kubica (2m33.9s), Meeke (2m34.9,s) and Martin Prokop (2m35.2s).

Nasser Al-Attiyah was the fastest WRC-2 competitor (2m37.1s), ahead of Protasov (2m39.6s), Nicolas Fuchs and Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari (all in Ford Fiestas).

The 2014 Rally Argentina begins with a 6.04km super-special this afternoon near Villa Carlos Paz. The first car is due to start at 4pm local time.

Après 32 jours de repos, les pilotes du WRC ont repris le volant des voitures de course pour participer au Shakedown du Rallye d’Argentine. L’Espagnol Dani Sordo (Hyundai i20 WRC/Michelin) a signé le meilleur chrono. Le rallye démarre cet après-midi avec la Superspéciale à 16h00 (21h00).

Ils étaient sans doute très impatients de reprendre le volant car à 7h30, la plupart des World Rally Cars avaient déjà quitté le parc d’assistance de Villa Carlos Paz pour se rendre au départ du Shakedown, Villa Garcia-Cabalango (4,59 km), à quelques kilomètres de là. Une spéciale d’essai empruntée depuis des années avec un départ hyper rapide jusqu’à une petite descente en épingle et un gué, puis une fin plus technique.

Après deux passages, les VW Polo R WRC occupaient les trois 1^ères places avec Latvala (2min32s), Ogier et Mikkelsen. La plupart des pilotes avaient choisi des pneus Michelin Latitude Cross S2 (soft). Ogier avait décidé de panacher soft/hard. « Juste pour voir le comportement de la voiture. Les spéciales sont plutôt cassantes cette année et ça ne va pas être facile d’ouvrir la route car, hormis quelques portions boueuses, les pistes sont globalement sèches. On va opter pour une stratégie prudente au début, on verra bien. »

Les Citroën DS3 WRC d’Ostberg et de Meeke sont restées au parc après deux tours. « On préfère économiser les pneus soft », nous a dit le Britannique. Le pneu soft est le choix principal du Rallye d’Argentine : 28 enveloppes sont disponibles pour chaque pilote prioritaire 1. Chacun d’eux dispose aussi de 16 pneus H2 (hard) en joker.

Seb Ogier s’est lui aussi contenté de deux tours. En revanche, Mikko Hirvonen, Elfyn Evans, Jari-Matti Latvala et les deux Hyundai i20 WRC ont repris le chemin du Shakedown. Hirvonen (Ford Fiesta RS WRC) a amélioré et signé le meilleur temps en 2min31s7.

Puis dans son ultime tentative, Dani Sordo (Hyundai i20 WRC) s’est hissé en tête avec 2min31s3. Son équipier Thierry Neuville a lui progressé pour prendre la 4^e place derrière Latvala. Suivent Ogier (2min32s5, 5^e), Mikkelsen (2min32s6, 6^e) et Ostberg (2min33s1, 7^e), Robert Kubica (2min33s9, 8^e), Kris Meeke (2min34s9, 9^e) et Martin Prokop (2min35s2, 10^e).

Nasser Al-Attiyah a réalisé le meilleur chrono en WRC-2 (2min37s1) devant Protasov (2min39s6), Nicolas Fuchs et Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari, tous sur des Ford Fiesta.

Le Rallye d’Argentine 2014 démarre cet après-midi avec une Superspéciale de 6,04 km tracée près de Villa Carlos Paz. Départ des 1^ère autos à 16h00 (21h00 heure française).

Cafe Racer Girls

Cafe Racer Girls from Tyler West on Vimeo.

from Tyler West

Nagoya Streets

We will be on the streets of Nagoya next month with the guys from THE LOCAL HERO JAPAN, so this film just gets us right in the mood.



via FUEL MAGAZINE

Is This Real Life?

There are fast cars and then there are race cars. Seeing a car built for the race track tackle a normal sort of road really drives home that point, and this mesmerising clip of David Hauser blasting through the Course de Côte de St Ursanne hill climb in Switzerland is case in point. Aside from the the speed, it’s the blind faith the driver puts in the Dallara GP2 single seater’s aero that probably impresses the most; making this short little section of twisty road look like it’s being driven in fast forward. Hit play and be amazed…

WRC : Bienvenidos a Carlos Paz

Bienvenue en Argentine pour la cinquième manche du Championnat du monde des Rallyes FIA 2014. Les équipages viennent de terminer les reconnaissances avant le Shakedown demain matin (jeudi) à partir de 8h00 heure locale (13h00 heure française).

On a compté et recompté : c’est notre 15^e voyage dans ce merveilleux pays qu’est l’Argentine – 10 Rally Argentina et 5 Rallye Dakar - mais c’est toujours aussi loin depuis l’Europe ! Et avec la dérive des continents, les choses ne vont pas s’arranger…

Pour se rendre à Cordoba, à quelque 700 kilomètres au nord-ouest de Buenos Aires, on a grosso modo deux options : 1) par Santiago du Chili et il reste une heure de vol pour traverser la Cordillère des Andes jusqu’à Cordoba. 2) par Buenos Aires où il faut généralement changer d’aéroport (compter 1h30 de taxi) avant une autre grosse heure de vol jusqu’à Cordoba.

L’an passé, nous étions passés par la capitale chilienne. Cette année, nous avons atterri à Buenos Aires noyée dans le brouillard. Par un heureux hasard, on avait réussi à dégoter un vol pour Cordoba directement depuis l’aéroport international Ministro Pistarini d’Ezeiza. Plutôt cool, malgré l’attente interminable pour sortir du terminal principal et les quelque 300 mètres nous séparant du Terminal C où nous attendaient nos amis de Volkswagen en provenance de Francfort.

Le soleil brille au-dessus de Cordoba et le thermomètre de notre rutilante Renault Clio 2 indique 24°C. Après une quarantaine de kilomètres, nous voici enfin arrivés à Villa Carlos Paz, Hôtel Portal del Lago, le PC, l’âme du rallye. Chambre 505 ? Tiens, la même qu’en 2005, que nous avions quittée précipitamment aux aurores après une nuit passée au Zébra !! Il fallait bien fêter la 1^ère victoire argentine de Seb Loeb…

Le parc d’assistance est toujours installé le long du lac San Roque. Les structures M-Sport, Volkswagen et Citroën sont alignés en rang d’oignons, Hyundai Motorsport est un peu plus loin au bout du parc. A droite, à l’entrée, sont groupés les trois manufacturiers de pneumatiques représentés cette année sur le rallye.

Il est 16h00 (21h00) quand les 1^ers équipages rentrent des recos, alors que les vérifs techniques se terminent peu à peu. Chez Citroën, Kris Meeke souffrait d’une intoxication alimentaire, mais ça va mieux d’après le physio. Chez Hyundai, le vainqueur 2010 Juho Hanninen ne participe qu’aux reconnaissances. « Le timing était trop serré pour disposer des pièces nécessaires pour pouvoir engager trois autos », nous a-t-on dit.

Le parcours du Rallye d’Argentine 2014 est assez classique, hormis une spéciale inversée (Giulio Cesare) et quelques autres modifications. Il a énormément plu sur la province de Cordoba de mi-février à fin mars, Villa Carlos Paz a même été touché par d’importantes inondations. En spéciale, les gués sont remplis d’eau et certaines portions sont encore bien boueuses. L’eau a également charrié de grosses pierres en bord de pistes et dans les cordes… La pluie est annoncée pour samedi et dimanche.

Here we are, up and running in Argentina for round five of the 2014 FIA World Rally Championship. The crews have completed their recce of the stages ahead of Thursday morning’s shakedown at 8am local time.

We’ve calculated that this is our 15^th visit to Argentina: 10 times for the WRC event and five for the Dakar. Even so, it’s still a long way from Europe, and the phenomenon of Continental Drift isn’t bringing it any closer to home!

To fly to Cordoba (700km northwest of Buenos Aires), you’ve basically got two options: via Santiago de Chile and a one-hour flight back across the Andes, or via Buenos Aires, which generally means a change of airport (a 1½-hour taxi ride) followed by a one-hour onward flight…

Last year, we chose the Santiago option. This time, we landed in fogbound Buenos Aires and, more by luck than good judgement, found ourselves booked on an onward flight from the same airport. Not bad, despite the interminable wait to leave the main terminal followed by a 300-metre walk to Terminal C where we came across our colleagues from Volkswagen who had just arrived from Frankfurt.

Anyway, here we are in sunny Cordoba and the thermometer of our valiant Renault Clio 2 hire car reads 24°C. A 40km drive takes us to Villa Carlos Paz’s Portal del Lago Hotel (Rally HQ) where we are allocated Room 505, the same as in 2005 which we vacated at dawn after spending most of Sunday night at the Zebra night club. The celebrations that followed Loeb’s first Rally Argentina victory made it a night to remember!

Once again, the service area is located on the nearby shore of San Roque Lake. The facilities of M-Sport, Volkswagen and Citroën are neatly aligned alongside each other, while Hyundai Motorsport’s spot is at the other end of the park. On the right, just after the main entry, you come across the workshops of the three tyre manufacturers involved this weekend.

At 4pm local time, the crews started to return from recce as scrutineering was gradually coming to an end. In the Citroën camp, Kris Meeke is suffering from food poisoning, although his physio says he’s feeling better. At Hyundai, the event’s 2010 winner Juho Hanninen was only there to take part in recce: “There wasn’t enough time to prepare the parts we needed for three cars,” we are told.

The itinerary of this year’s Rally Argentina is relatively conventional, with the exception of ‘Giulio Cesare’ which is being run in the opposite direction, plus a few other detail changes. We have learned that there was heavy rain in the Cordoba region from mid-February to mid-March, and Villa Carlos Paz suffered major flooding. As a result, the event’s infamous water splashes are fairly deep and the crews have reported a certain amount of mud. The rain has also carried a lot of big stones onto the sides of the roads, while further rain is forecast for Saturday and Sunday…

Hibernation - Minnesota Finding Its Way Through Long Winters

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  HIBERNATION : is a photo documentary series about Minnesota Motorcyclists and their machines waiting out the winter.

  About Sean O'Brien
  Sean is a husband, freelance creative, and photographer, living with his wife in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He's been lucky to work in the creative industry for the majority of his life allowing him to travel the country and most of the world. As a devout loyalist to the throttle, he spends as much of his free time on two wheels as possible.

  Follow Sean's 'Hibernation' series on Exposure or visit him at slwnstdy.tv, Tumblr, or Instagram.

  
  

  Follow the story at http://slwnstdy.exposure.so/hibernation

  via IRON AND AIR MAGAZINE

Kott Motorcycles 1973 Honda CB750 Custom Cafe Racer

Dustin Kott of Kott Motorcycles near Los Angeles, California shows us his latest build, a custom cafe racer based on a 1973 Honda CB750. 

TRIUMPH SCRAMBLER BY BRITISH CUSTOMS

By Shaik Ridzwan | The Mighty Motor

Desert sleds still have a place in modern motorcycling iconography. Originally an American phenomenon, today it’s the Triumph Scrambler from across the ditch that embodies the spirit most closely. And it doesn’t take much to give a modern Scrambler a touch of the desert sled vibe, as this 2012 Triumph from British Customs shows.

Desert sleds been around since the late 40s, and were originally based on street bikes from Indian and Harley. Fitted with trials tires, the bikes were still as heavy as sin—even after a thorough diet. The British 650cc twins came a little later, and pretty much ruled the desert until the 1970s.

In the early days, the mods were all trial and error—and mostly a reflection of the rider’s style. Not a lot of aftermarket parts were available for bolt on modification; most stuff was invented and built from scratch in garages.

CRXR by Shaw Speed & Custom

GARB: COOLER AFTERNOONS

Pack the brauts, beverages, and balm.

Gant Rugger Nylon Hoodie ($225). Gant by Michael Bastian Oxford Shirt ($175).Gant Denton Sunglasses ($125). Gant Rugger Silk Flower Belt ($120). Rogue Territory Officer Trousers ($185). Tudor Heritage Black Bay Watch ($TBA). Billykirk Bottle Opener ($20). Mismo Express Bag ($430). Vintage Thermaster Cooler ($54).Vans J.Crew Sneakers ($60). Burt's Bees Lip Balm ($4).

This edition of Garb is presented by our friends at Gant.

miss tuning

hellas rally raid (day1)

What a good amateur-car in combination with a good driver and navigator can perform we could see in the opening stage of the "Hellas Rally Raid" on Tuesday. The locals Dimitriadis / Kalfas (last year leading until the last stage) could win the stage about 67,2 kilometers with their Mitsubishi Pajero V20 in 01:38:40 hours - only 1:38 minutes in front of the powerful Overdrive Toyota Hilux of the French duo Jerome Pelichet and Eugenie Decré.

Third became the Austral-Greek duo Jerie / Athanasiou in their former factory Isuzu D-Max (we reported, +5:51) in front of the Italians Camporese / Terranova (Isuzu Scorpion Proto) and the famous Israelians Heyman / Segal (Segal Proto, +15:32).

From the beginning of the stage we saw a pulsating minute-by-minute fight between the French Overdrive Toyota and the Israelian Segal Proto whilst the later winners Dimitriadis / Kalfas and third Jerie / Athanasiou were in the lower range of the field.

For the French duo, the Hellas Rally is the second event in Greece - last year they had to retire after the half of the race. In 2013 the international experienced crew told us "we have to learn how to drive and handle this kind of rally here" - and this is exactly in good progress for 2014.

The Israelian Team, always pushing to the limit, had a bad start yesterday. "We were driving fast, no question" said navigator Hillel Segal, who is also the constructor of the yellow rallycar. "But I had stomach and felt bad, so I made some navigation mistakes which costs us the leading position. But we will see, tomorrow is a new day. We only lost 15 minutes, which is nothing here. The rally has just begun."

Next to Heyman/Segal, which competed in many rallies like the "Dakar", "Silk Way" or "Pharaons", there are three more cars this year from Israel. The duo Aviv / Izhar started with a British "Rallyraid UK Desert Warrior" and finished 7th (+19:06), the team Shpira / Moldawsky is competing in a FIA T2 (production class) Mitsubishi Pajero V60 (12th, 02:21:40 hours).

Like Heyman/Segal for the second time in Greece is the blue "Shekel Proto" of the crew Nitzan / Dov, looking like a buggy but based also on a Mitsubishi Pajero. "As Mitsubishi the car rolled in the Silk Way Rally," the team told. "So we decided to give him an own new design." But the rocks in the stage were not the best friend of the low car and they lost time after destroying a front tire.

A very good show and the best result in the T2 production cars showed the Italian Roberto Musi and his beautiful navigator Eleonora Dal Pra (this year competing in the Dakar rally in a Mercede Unimog truck). Since last year they are driving together in Musi´s long-station Land Rover Defender Pickup.

Last year Musi also wanted to start - but his "Landy" had no rollcage - so he helped the organization as "Zero-car". This year Musi learned and prepared the car - in the last minute. "The cage was ready one day before we arrived," he reported with a smile - "don´t touch, it´s still warm!" In SS01 they finished 8th with 26:34 minutes to the leader. A great result for the long and "old school" car...

A very bad day had the Italian Isuzu Proto-crew of Vincenzo Cangi and Paolo Manfredini. First they got stuck in a river-crossing and could only get out with the help of some photographers (the car blocked the stage), later they overturned and damaged the front wheels. With the help of some belts they could fix the damage and finish the stage - but with nearly 10 km/h average speed and a limited steering.

In the SSVs, all eyes were on the Austrian "KINI"-team with their leader Heinz Kinigadner. "Kini" showed why he is a biker-legend, he started behind the quads and after some kilometers he overtook the most of them and was definetely the fastest SSV. But in the evening he was in the last position - what happened?

"I had a front crash" he told in the evening. "At the end of the stage the navigation was very tricky. Everybody was searching for the right way. An other SSV crew eventually thought that they were wrong and they made a turn in the stage, driving against the right direction. We crashed frontal with them and our Polaris RZR has a big damage, I also have some pain in my knees. We will try to fix it to continue, but not for Wednesday. We will see."

For his paraplegic son Hannes Kinigadner the day was better. His first rally in a SSV, his first stage - and he finished 5th with only 25:34 minutes to the stage-winner. His team-mate and also paraplegic driver Reinhard Karner finished 8th with +41:11 minutes.

Winner of the day was legendary Josef Machacek from the Czech Republic in his "New Hornet" MRP Buggy with 02:10:57 hours, fantastically fighting with the Arctic Cat of Dusan Randysek (also Czech Republic, +1:02 minutes) and the Bulgarian Martin Ivanov (Polaris RZR, +3:04). In the middle of the stage, all three SSVs were driving in a row together with the later fourth Bulgarian Cvetelin Canev (Polaris RZR, +24:25)... 

Overall results after SS02 Wednesday CARS

PL	DRIVER / NAVIGATOR	RALLYCAR	TIME	DIFF
01	Pelichet / Decré (F/F)	Overdrive Toyota Hilux	01:14:20	00:00:00
02	Heyman / Segal (ISR/ISR)	Segal Proto	01:32:11	00:17:51
03	Dimitriadis / Kalfas (GR/GR)	Mitsubishi Pajero V20	01:43:39	00:29:19
04	Cholakov / Granchev (BG/BG)	Toyota Hilux Proto	02:15:38	01:01:18
05	Koutsoubos / Vasileiadou (GR/GR)	Toyota Land Cruiser	02:20:50	01:06:30
06	Shpira / Moldawsky (ISR/ISR)	Mitsubishi Pajero T2	02:29:16	01:14:56
07	Aviv / Izhar (ISR/ISR)	Desert Warrior	02:39:15	01:24:55
08	Petruzzelli / Lombardi (I/I)	Mitsubishi Pajero	02:40:26	01:26:06
09	Musi / Dal Pra (I/I)	Land Rover Defender	02:41:38	01:27:18
10	Shekel / Dov (ISR/ISR)	Shekel Mitsubishi	03:33:53	02:19:33

Overall results after SS02 Wednesday BIKES

PL	RALLYDRIVER	RALLYBIKE	TIME	DIFF
01	Walkner, Matthias (AT)	KTM 450 EXC	06:59:31	00:00:00
02	Klymciw, Ondrej (CR)	Husqvarna 450TE	07:04:30	00:04:59
03	Pastori, Christian (I)	Beta RR498R	07:05:57	00:06:26
--	Prata, Pedro Bianchi (PT)	Husqvarna TE	07:05:57	00:06:26
05	Barbieri, Roberto (I)	Beta 498RR	07:06:13	00:06:42
06	Prazzoli, Massimo (I)	KTM EXC350	07:36:02	00:36:31
07	Catanese, Francesco (I)	KTM 950 RR	07:37:31	00:38:00
08	Poskitt, Lyndon (UK)	BMW LPR690	07:39:46	00:40:15
09	Perry, Darren (UK)	Husaberg FE390	07:49:34	00:50:03
10	Iugasy, Nadav (ISR)	Husaberg FE390	07:52:17	00:52:46