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DAKAR ; Stage 11 ; Barreda (HRC) et Al-Attiyad (Mini) récidivent

Déjà vainqueur la veille à Cachi, Joan Barreda n'a pas baissé de rythme – loin de là – sur la route de Termas de Rio Hondo avec une deuxième victoire consécutive. Second de l'étape du jour, Paulo Goncalves ne relâche pas la pression sur Marc Coma. Nasser Al-Attiyah assume lui son statut de leader du rallye autos depuis la deuxième étape avec brio. Le Qatari a encore fait étalage de son talent et déroule vers la victoire à Buenos Aires.



Déjà très rapide lorsqu'il a un rallye à gérer, Joan Barreda devient carrément intouchable lorsqu'il est libéré de toute pression. Et l'Espagnol semble décidé à démontrer qu'il était bien le plus rapide de l'édition 2015 en s'offrant un deuxième succès consécutif, son quatrième depuis le départ. Mais la performance la plus notable jeudi était à mettre au crédit d'un Paulo Goncalves qui n'a pas renoncé à la victoire finale. Le Portugais reprend 2'23'' à Marc Coma pour revenir à 5'12 au général. Mais les efforts du pilote HRC pourraient être vains puisqu'il sera crédité de quinze minutes supplémentaires au classement général pour avoir changé de moteur. Un moteur emprunté à Barreda qui a lui-même bénéficié du sacrifice de Jeremias Israel, contraint à l'abandon après avoir donné le bloc de sa Honda à son coéquipier lors de cette étape marathon.



Coma reste donc solide leader, mais devra encore faire le dos rond lors des deux prochaines étapes s'il décide de conserver le même moteur sur sa KTM. Ivan Jakes a lui pu s'en donner à cœur joie avec une troisième place à 1'35'' qui représente son meilleur résultat depuis le départ devant Ruben Faria et Toby Price. L'Australien profite d'un Pablo Quintanilla très malade pour lui reprendre près de deux minutes et monter sur le podium provisoire au général. Helder Rodrigues, Alain Duclos et Stefan Svitko complètent le Top 10 du jour.

En quad, Christophe Declerck a réalisé la démonstration du jour en créant un écart de 6'35 sur son plus proche poursuivant Nelson Sanabria et 6'50 sur Walter Nosiglia et Willem Saaijman qui terminent dans le même temps. Une première victoire d'étape cette année pour le Français alors que Victor Gallegos a été contraint à l'abandon sur casse moteur, laissant Rafal Sonik avec 2h50 d'avance en tête du général.



Mener le rallye avec près d'une demi-heure d'avance sur son second ne donne manifestement pas envie à Nasser Al-Attiyah de lever le pied, bien au contraire. Le Qatari semble même augmenter la cadence depuis deux jours avec un deuxième succès consécutif vers Termas de Rio Hondo qui laisse à penser que le pilote Mini veut véritablement marquer le Dakar 2015 de son empreinte. Il faut dire qu'il s'agit déjà de sa cinquième victoire d'étape, la 25e de sa carrière. Un Dakar durant lequel Orlando Terranova aura également brillé à de multiples reprises, lui qui termine – comme hier – juste derrière Al-Attiyah à 27 secondes. Giniel de Villiers semble pour sa part avoir renoncé à ses derniers espoirs même si sa troisième place du jour à seulement 39 secondes prouve qu'il n'aura une nouvelle fois pas manqué grand-chose au pilote Toyota pour battre les Mini.



La surprise du jour est venue du Lituanien Benediktas Vanagas qui réalise sa meilleure étape sur le Dakar pour sa troisième participation avec une belle quatrième place à 40 secondes du vainqueur. Un classement décidément très serré puisque Vladimir Vasilyev était lui aussi dans un bon jour en complétant le Top 5 à 1'16. Une journée qui aura été marquée par l'abandon de Yazeed Alrahji au lendemain du gros crash de Nani Roma. En panne quelques kilomètres avant le départ de la spéciale, c'est le troisième du classement général qui disparait alors qu'il réalisait une énorme performance pour son tout premier Dakar. Pas pour déplaire à Krzysztof Holowczyc qui monte sur le podium virtuel, position qu'il n'a encore jamais occupée à l'arrivée du Dakar en neuf participations.

Chez les camions, Hans Stacey a réédité sa performance de la première étape en venant conquérir une deuxième victoire face à son rival et compatriote Gerard de Rooy pour un peu plus d'une minute à l'arrivée de la spéciale. La bataille des Kamaz s'est faite à distance cette fois avec la troisième place du jour pour Eduard Nikolaev qui reprend deux minutes à Airat Mardeev (9e) et maintient la pression au classement général sur son coéquipier à un peu plus de onze minutes.




Already a winner the day before in Cachi, Joan Barreda did not lower the pace – far from it – on the way to Termas de Rio Hondo with a second consecutive victory. Paulo Gonçalves, the second placed finisher on the day's stage, has not released the pressure on Marc Coma. Nasser Al-Attiyah has handled his status as the rally leader in the car category since the second stage with vigour. The Qatari again demonstrated his talent and is slickly heading for victory in Buenos Aires.



Already quick when leading the rally, Joan Barreda becomes almost untouchable when he is free from any pressure. The Spaniard seemed to have decided to show that he was indeed the quickest rider on the 2015 edition by picking up a second consecutive triumph, his fourth since the start. However, the most noteworthy performance on Thursday came from Paulo Gonçalves who has still not given up on final victory. The Portuguese rider regained 2'23'' from Marc Coma to move within 5'12 in the general standings. However, the efforts of the Honda HRC rider could be in vain because he will receive a fifteen minute penalty in the general standings for having changed his engine. He borrowed this engine from Barreda who in turn had benefitted from the sacrifice of Jeremias Israel Esquerre, forced to exit the race after giving the engine of his Honda to his team-mate during this marathon stage.



Coma still remains in the lead, but will have to pull out all the stops over the next two stages if he decides to keep the same engine on his KTM. Ivan Jakes had a field day with third place, 1'35'' behind the stage winner, which is his best result since the start of the rally, finishing ahead of Ruben Faria and Toby Price. The Australian took advantage of Pablo Quintanilla feeling very ill to regain more than two minutes and thus climbs onto the provisional podium in the general standings. Helder Rodrigues, Alain Duclos and Stefan Svitko were the other riders in the day's top 10.



In the quad category, Christophe Declerck provided the day's performance by opening up a gap of 6'35 over his nearest pursuer Nelson Sanabria and 6'50 over both Walter Nosiglia and Willem Saaijman. The Frenchman gained his first stage victory this year, whilst Victor Gallegos was forced to withdraw after breaking his engine, leaving Rafal Sonik with a lead of 2 hours and 50 minutes in the general standings.



Leading the rally with an advantage of almost half an hour over the second placed driver has evidently not encouraged Nasser Al-Attiyah to ease off. On the contrary, the Qatari has even seemed to increase his pace over the last two days, with a second consecutive stage victory in Termas de Rio Hondo, enabling the Mini driver to veritably leave his mark on the Dakar 2015. It was his 5th stage victory this year and the 24th of his career on the Dakar. Orlando Terranova has also shone several times on this year's rally and finished – like yesterday – just behind Al-Attiyah, by only 27 seconds. Giniel de Villiers seems to have given up all hope of winning outright, although his third place today only 39 seconds behind the stage winner again showed that the Toyota driver is not lacking much to beat the Minis.



The surprise of the day came from Lithuanian Benediktas Vanagas who achieved his best stage on the Dakar on his third participation with a fine fourth place, 40 seconds behind Al-Attiyah. It was evidently a very close day today, because Vladimir Vasilyev also put in a good performance to complete the top 5, finishing 1'16 behind the Qatari. However, the day did witness the withdrawal of Yazeed Alrahji the day after Nani Roma's major crash. Having broken down several kilometres before the start of the special, the third placed driver in the general standings exited the race whilst he was in the process of accomplishing a wonderful performance on his very first Dakar. This situation smiled on Krzysztof Holowczyc who climbs onto the virtual podium, a position he has not yet ever achieved at the finish of the Dakar on his nine participations.



In the truck race, Hans Stacey reproduced a performance similar to the first stage by grabbing a second victory ahead of his rival and countryman Gerard de Rooy by a little more than one minute at the finishing line of the special. The battle between the Kamaz took second billing today as Eduard Nikolaev finished third, regaining two minutes on Airat Mardeev (9th) to maintain the pressure in the general standings on his team-mate who is a little more than eleven minutes ahead.

Back when the police drove convertible Porsches

There was a time when the police didn’t use only nondescript, high-performance saloons to bring highway lawbreakers to task. In the 1960s, police stations across Europe used Porsche sports cars in active service – including this 356 cabriolet…

Blue lights and sirens... on a convertible Porsche?

On 23 November 1960, Porsche delivered a white 356 cabriolet kitted out in special equipment to the police in Düsseldorf. The 75HP Porsche was henceforth used by the autobahn patrol, capturing 160,000km on the odometer (and undoubtedly numerous crooks) before its well-deserved retirement in 1966. It subsequently remained static for 25 years before being discovered and brought back to life as part of a restoration completed in 2000. It was then kept in a Belgian collection.

Fleet of 40

But it wasn’t only in Germany that Porsche 356s could be seen in police uniform. In 1960, when a new, 500km highway network was opened in the Netherlands, the Rijkspolitie were left wondering how they would catch aggressive or unsafe drivers. Their German colleagues, from the land of unrestricted motorways, recommended the purchase of a fleet of cars from Zuffenhausen. No fewer than 40 356Bs made their way from Stuttgart after a few test miles – one such car, one of the first batch delivered, was recently sold at a Bonhams auction. Only specially trained officers were allowed to drive them, with further stipulations that they should be at least 25 years old and married, preferably with children.

Wet day at the office

Of course, there were special requirements of the cars, too. They were given flashing blue beacons, a loudspeaker, ‘stop’ signs, a larger fuel tank, radio telephones and antennae, twin internal rear-view mirrors, stickers, control buttons… and a water-repellant interior coating. Since the officers wore helmets and the 356’s headroom isn’t exactly generous, the fabric roof was kept down in all weathers – the only protection in its place being standard-issue caps, goggles and raincoats. In the 1970s, European police forces adopted more practical 911 Targas alongside their Ford Capris – an alternative explanation for the ‘safety cabriolet’ concept, perhaps?

The car pictured is a 1960 Porsche 356 Cabriolet used in period by Westphalia Autobahnpolizei, and currently for sale via German dealer Early 911s.

Photos: Rémi Dargegen for Classic Driver © 2015. 

You can find plenty of civilian Porsche 356s for sale in the Classic Driver Market.

Market | Cars

1960 Porsche 356 - CABRIO POLIZEI

P.O.R.

Long-term review: ICON 1000 Elsinore Boots

Review by Marlon Slack.

Of all the items of motorcycle apparel available, I find it hardest to get excited about boots. Jackets? Easy. Gloves? There’s a dozen pairs I want at the moment. There’s even a good variety of Kevlar jeans that don’t look like they’re designed for my Gran. But protective motorcycle boots usually look like a cyborg’s leg sprouting tumours – with lurid bits of plastic and obnoxious logos hanging off at all angles. And for a long time boots like these were the only real option if you wanted to protect your feet and ankles. But then there’s the Icon Elsinore 1000. Modelled after motocross boots of the 1970’s, the Elsinore 1000 tries to combine traditional styling with modern safety features. I think they look fantastic, but if you think that they look like ridiculous steampunk accessories there’s no helping you – you’re probably not the target market for the Elsinore’s anyway. But if you like the look of them, you should seriously consider buying a pair. Here’s why.

At first glance it’s easy to assume the boots are just a styling exercise aimed at the undernourished inner city hipster set rather than legitimately protective boots. But as soon as you pull them out of the box you’ll realize that they’re solid, well-made units. They have full grain leather uppers and the sole is replaceable. The sole also has a steel shank running through it, it has malleolus protectors, a hard plastic shin guard with its thick leather the whole thing just has a sturdy kind of feel to it. This continues when you strap them on – getting your feet in is easy enough using the zipper (the buckles are just there for adjustment, you ‘set and forget’ them) but when you’re all zipped up they firmly lock your feet and ankles into place. Which is great, because it’ll prevent twist and rotation during an accident and bad – because it’ll make you walk a little like you’ve got an acquired brain injury. To be fair they are comfortable enough to stroll around in, but the protection offered by the heft and stiffness of the boots means that extended walks can be a clumsy experience.

But for the majority of the time I’ve worn them on the bike they’ve been incredibly comfortable. They offer good feel on the controls and have great grip when putting your feet down. But it’s important to realize that they’re not an all-weather boot – they might hold off rain for a little while but in a heavy downpour they’ll become soaked through pretty quickly. But if you’re riding in that kind of weather it’s probably time to give up any plans of looking good and break out the Gore-Tex marshmallow man suit and lined boots anyway.

One thing potential buyers should be aware of when looking at the Elsinore 1000’s is the bulky cut of the toe box, which means that some riders might have problems using the shifter on a bike. I’ve had no problems on my Bonneville, or on a W650, DR650 or a host of other bikes I’ve ridden while owning the boots. But on the Royal Enfield Bullet I’m unable to get my foot underneath the shifter to change up a gear – I’m forced to use the outside edge of the soul to pick at the lever. Sometimes it works (praise Jesus!) and sometimes it doesn’t. This offers something different to worry about when riding a Royal Enfield – a welcome change from the worry of a catastrophic gearbox explosion or terminal piston separation. So if you ride a Royal Enfield save yourself $245USD and put the money towards quality fasteners, a proper chain and sprockets or psychotherapy.

As well made as Elsinore 1000’s are mine haven’t been perfect. There’s a metal cap on the heel of the boot secured by four screws. In my first week of owning the boot one of these tiny countersunk screws made a jump for it somewhere between Melbourne and Sydney. I wrote Icon an email asking for a replacement and a customer service representative said sure, just send us a self-addressed envelope and we’ll mail you off a replacement. No. It’s a 2 cent part and it’s fallen out in the first week of ownership. Just send me a new one, mmmk?

In the scheme of things this is pedantry and I think this is an exception to the experience that most customers have had with the Portland-based Icon. There’s a few stories floating around on the internet about early production Elsinore’s that had the buckles break within a few weeks of ownership. And that’s a huge problem – but to Icon’s credit they went out of their way to track down every customer affected by the defects and replaced the boots for them. That’s nice.

I’ve had my Elsinore 1000’s for 18 months of constant commuting and touring across all kinds of terrain and through all kinds of weather. They’ve held up better than any other boot I’ve owned and with a bit of wear and tear on them now I think they look even better than the day I bought them. They’re really comfortable on the bike and in the event of a spill I’ve got no doubts they’ll go a long way towards protecting my feet and ankles. If you’re looking for a good pair of motorcycle boots and if you think they look more On Any Sunday than Wild Wild West, I can’t recommend the Icon Elsinore 1000’s enough.

[In the interest of being transparent, ICON is a sponsor of Pipeburn. On this occasion the reviewer purchased the boots using his own hard earned clams. We have been sent the new ICON 1000 Prep boots and will do a review as soon as we have done enough milage in them.]

via PIPEBURN

Special editions for Land Rover Defender’s final year

In order to mark the iconic Defender’s final year in production, Land Rover has revealed a trio of limited-edition models…

So versatile is the Defender that Land Rover’s designers weren’t able to define a single identity for a special model that represented its character, so they made three instead: the Autobiography, Heritage and Adventure editions.

Autobiography 

The most exclusive is the Autobiography, which sports duo-tone paintwork, Windsor leather upholstery and a boost in power from 122HP to 150HP, among numerous other interior and exterior flourishes. Available only in a ‘90’ bodystyle, it will cost £61,845 and be limited to just 80 examples in the UK.

Heritage

Next up – and by far the Classic Driver office favourite – is the classy Heritage edition, which takes its design cues from the earliest Land Rovers. Wearing Grasmere Green paintwork with a contrasting Alaska White roof, it has a heritage grille and HUE 166 graphics, referencing the numberplate of the first pre-production Landie, nicknamed ‘Huey’. Priced at £27,800, production will be limited to 400 in the UK.

Adventure

The Adventure edition boasts additional under-body protection and rugged Goodyear tyres, along with unique decals and a leather-trimmed cabin for exploring in style. Also included is a roof rack, snorkel and rear-access ladder; it’s available in both ‘90’ and 110’ bodystyles, with the former given the same power upgrade as the Autobiography. Limited to 600 examples in the UK, it’ll cost £43,495 and be available with Corris Grey, Yulong White or Phoenix Orange paintwork. 

Also marked by a 1km ‘sand drawing’ using six Land Rovers on the same beach that Maurice Wilks first sketched the iconic shape 68 years ago, 2015 will be the final year of Defender production in the UK. However, unconfirmed reports suggest it could live on in countries with lower production costs and less strict emissions laws, much like the VW Type 2 did in Brazil until recently.

Photos/Video: Land Rover

You can find numerous Land Rover Defenders for sale in the Classic Driver Market.

DEEP CREEK ITALIAN BASTARD

“Deep Creek Italian Bastard” – When that title pops up one can be forgiven for expecting an aggressive, attitude packed, neighbour scaring brute of a machine to be revealed in the pictures, but not so. This elegant, gentlemanly Guzzi from Kris at DeepCreekCycleworks is so damn charming that the neighbours would more likely invite you over for tea and crumpets, or rather espresso and biscotti. So why the vicious moniker? As refined and simple as the finished product appears, the effort and journey to get it to this state was anything but, this Guzzi was a bit of a bastard to build.

We first encountered Kris Reniers when he submitted his Ducati M900 “Green Machine” to the ‘Shed. He is a graduate in Electro-mechanics and works as a technician in a steel plant but is currently back at school honing his already advanced skill set with the aim of building motorcycles full time. The owner of this Guzzi V7 750 Special from ’69 recognised the talent and seized the opportunity to have Kris work on his bike, and so the “bastard” build began.

“The owner wanted his bike to be restored, a bit altered but not much. He came to me with a sad story of his bike – a dude began to strip the bike, when everything was in bits and pieces the thing went on hold. Years later the owner wanted his bike back, the bike was still in bits and pieces. So he came to me, asking me to start and finish this thing. I got a frame, engine and 2 wheels, 3 boxes of stuff and thats it.”

The problem Kris had was that he had never before seen a complete V7 of the vintage and was unsure if the boxes contained everything he needed. Predictably, they didn’t. Kris guessed there was a boxful that had gone awol so the owner gave him carte blanche to get whatever he needed – he just wanted to ride his Guzzi again.

The process of collecting the pieces together began. They came from all over the world, this model Guzzi saw service as police bikes in the US so that became a prime source of the parts Kris required, the rest came from Italy – “Thank God for eBay.” The ambition for the build was for the bike to go back in time, it needed to be simple and clean, lower, black and white with a dose of chrome but not too much. Kris wanted a small seat leaving the deeply valanced mudguards to steal the show.

Dime City Cycles were the providers of many key parts; the shorter rear shocks, lights, handlebars, levers, grips and switches along with the look defining whitewall tyres all came from there. Kris inevitably has nothing but praise for Dime City, “They have a great shop and the service is excellent”.

For help with the seat Kris looked closer to home, to the gentleman of MotoKouture in his native Belgium. “I needed the seat to be exact because of the frametube, I welded a baseplate and some mountings and then went to MotoKouture for the leatherwork, they did a great job.” Kris dispatched the frame for powder coating and that was the end of the outsourced work as he set about the paint job himself – and what a job.

“An engine overhaul was needed so I did that. Everything on this bike I did myself, the billet (frontfork) was handmade so I could fit the original speedometer in it, it looks slick now! The back of the frame was cut of and altered so that it bends along the fender. The battery was replaced with a smaller one and new wires were put in place.”

We are seriously unsure if Kris really needs to be back at school…

Tracking down the bits and pieces may have been a bastard of a job but in putting them together Kris has created a classic gent of a machine. Restored beyond its former glory and singing through those fishtail pipes the owner must be revelling in finally riding his Guzzi again.

Kris has shown great versatility of style with the two builds he has shown us so far at the BikeShed, we look forward to seeing what he sends us next, complete with Deep Creek Cycleworks elegant email sign off – Peace and Grease…

via The Bike Shed