ACE CAFE RADIO

    mardi 20 janvier 2015

    Delecour Testing - 2015 WRC Rallye Monte-Carlo

    Watch the tests of François Delecour (Porsche - Michelin) for the Rallye Monte-Carlo.

    L'équipée en Himalaya - Episode 1/3



    Cinq amies parisiennes, amoureuses de vieilles bécanes, enivrées par l'aventure, à la découverte des toits du monde : Himalaya.
    Five Parisian girls, old bikes lovers, intoxicated by adventure, discovering the top of the world : the Himalaya.



    History of the GS - Part Two

    In the 1940's, BMW began making motorcycles for the German military. 

    The R71 model was such a utilitarian workhorse that the United States government asked Harley Davidson to build a model like the BMW, and the Russian motorcycle manufacturer Ural makes a similar model to this day.

    The ultimate sidecar machine was the R75, a 925-pound monster that featured nine gears and could ride over almost any terrain while carrying two people and a machine gun. It was the King Tiger of the motorcycle battlefield and BMW produced more than 18,000 units between 1941 and 1945.

    When Germany was invited back to the Six Days enduro in 1951, BMW continued to make improvements to their off-road motorcycles.

    This time the bikes were increasingly different from the production models with larger front wheels, raised exhaust systems, telescopic forks with gaiters, protective oil pan covers and crash bars.

    Compared to the lighter two-stroke machines of the day, the heavy BMW models were seen as relics from the past.

    In 1963 a new frame and suspension was unveiled which resulted in a shorter wheelbase and improved ground clearance. The new bike won the German off-road championship in 1964 and 1965. 

    These technological developments led BMW by the end of the decade to release a new model range, the slash 5, which marked the beginning of BMW's modern era. 

    Stay tuned for the second installment in our 'History of the GS' video series!



    REZIN Wood.


    REZIN introduces the Summer look 2014 with a road-trip done along the Normandy's coast in France, riding the famous Citroen 2CV.
    Check the REZIN Sunglasses on the Official website : rezin-wood.com

    Harley-Davidson Street 750 – Kustom Kommune



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    Words by Martin Hodgson.
    When you’re thrown the keys of a brand new Harley-Davidson Street 750 and asked to build the first custom example in Australia the pressure to deliver is on. But with the first “small” capacity HD in a generation up on the bench the team at Kustom Kommune have knocked this one out of the park and delivered a perfect homage to the mighty XR750 tracker legend.
    The brainchild of Kommune Racer Jimmy Goode the Street 750 is a perfect example of just how to make a new bike look old again while still maintaining all of the 21st century improvements, it’s no easy task. Need some extra pressure? There was just five weeks to build the bike and the Kommune boys had yet to even lay their eyes on a Street 750, but working between 8pm-2am three nights a week they brought this one home first past the post.
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    The first thing to hit you upside the head is the engine turned tins that immediately give the bike some real dirt track cred. The tank is made by VM Production team in Japan, while the replica XR750 seat made by Red Max Speed Shop in the UK was narrowed by KK before being mounted to a new custom subframe. The race plate is in fact a heavily modified tracker seat that now houses all the electrics for an ultra-clean, stripped down, race bike feel. The tuck and roll saddle is the work of Mile Style, while the incredible artwork is done by the brilliant Karl Stehn of KDS Designs.
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    The KK crew never built this bike to be a static display; it’s built for the dirt and will be raced hard so taking care of the handling was a high priority. The front end is from a Yamaha R6, with the standard Street stem pressed into the R6 trees and requiring an in-house machined spacer to fit. The top tree was then machined to allow for risers to hold the obligatory tracker bars. The rims are XR1000 front wheels fitted to both ends of the bike, but you can’t just bolt old Harley wheels to a modern Yamaha USD setup. The front axle is machined to fit the XR wheels, while KK’s own aluminium spacers allow for the twin disc front. Further fettling then allows for the HD discs to work in unison with the R6 calipers, leaving a front end with perfect form and function.
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    If the front end is impressive the rear requires more than a double take to appreciate the workmanship that was employed in such a short period of time. Harking back to another classic of days gone by is the twin shock cantilever suspension that dare I say it is even better than that once sported by the iconic Vincent Black Shadow. Utilising the standard Street swingarm the KK crew then fabricated the full cantilever setup that allows for twin Burley Slammer shocks to swing from the frame. Not only is it an impressive piece of engineering it also narrows the bike in true tracker fashion and balances the proportions of the slim rear rim.
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    You can’t build a dirt racer and then fit a set of street tires so bolted on are Shinko Trail Pro 110/80/19 tires front and back. Taking weight out of the bike was further helped by stripping the entire loom and removing all lights and unused sensor. While an external high flow fuel pump is neatly mounted in tail section. Cracking the throttle is a 1/4 turn setup and the bark comes from a custom rear pipe that hangs off the factory street headers.
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    With the bike completed in time for its first showing at the end of 2014, Kustom Kommune now have their eyes set on taking the first custom Street 750 to the track to show just what the standard Harley-Davidson Revolution XTM V-Twin Engine can do. With a wildly talented in house crew pulling off an incredible build for one of motorcycling’s most iconic brands, 2015 means the pressure is off and the throttle can be held wide open, it’s time for KR750 to let the dust fly!
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    via PIPEBURN

    Can creativity be inherited? A conversation with the Spada family


    Like father, like son: with such legendary cars as the Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato and the Alfa TZ, Ercole Spada has helped to write design history. Today he is still creating cars - together with his son Paolo. We met the two creative minds in their Turin studio for a chat...
     
    What's your oldest memory of cars and motoring?
     
    Ercole Spada: When I was a child, I had a very small Auto Union model, and some magazines which talked about this car. I was fascinated. At school, we exchanged these magazines with other students if one of us couldn't afford them. I did some sketches of every technical aspect detailed in the magazines. Since then, I've always liked to collect little models.
     
    Paolo Spada: I remember the first time I went to Monza. Lauda and Regazzoni were racing the star Ferraris, but my favourite was Mario Andretti. Then my grandmother took me to a raffle and we won a moped, which stayed in the garage. But once, aged 11, I drove it in secret on the roads near my grandparents' house. The same year, my father taught me to drive while sitting on his knee, and then I did the driving school course at Monza, even though I didn't have my driving licence!
     
    Ercole, your first car was the DB4 GT Zagato, right? How was it to work at Zagato at the time?
     
    Ercole: Yes, that's right. The atmosphere there was very special – as I designed the car in a 1:1 scale directly onto a big panel, others were working behind me, modifying for real what I changed on the sketch. It was easy to work there: everyone was so enthusiastic. I was the only designer, with a great deal of freedom in my work, and I could follow the manufacturing of the bodies and try out the cars to validate (or invalidate) some choices, some evolutions, some changes – like the coda tronca.
     
     
    What is so special about the DB4 GTZ?
     
    Ercole: At the beginning, for me, it was just a job, but in the end it became my definite favourite. John Wyer, who was at the time Race Manager at Aston Martin, wanted something lighter to beat the GTOs. So I kept the body as close as possible to the chassis, like a skin over bones. It was a wonderful car, very efficient but also very expensive, and the 19th wasn't sold for a very long time.
     
     
    You've said that you tried to improve some aspects of the car yourself, especially in terms of aerodynamics, like the conda tronca. What is this exactly, and has it become your signature?
     
    Ercole: Well, the coda tronca is not my invention. In the 1930s, two German engineers specialising in aerodynamics proved a drop of water to be the perfect shape. But it's impossible to realise on a car, as the rear section would be much too long. But they also proved that it was possible to create the same effect by cutting off the drop at a certain point. Nobody had the courage to cut the rear off a car as they suggested, so everyone simply designed cars with round rears. I was just the first to cut the drop as it should be, creating the cut tail, or coda tronca in Italian. This was my most successful aerodynamics experiment of the 1960s.
     
    Then you worked for BMW. How different was it?
     
    Ercole: It was completely different. We had a real design studio, we had more time, more possibilities, and the biggest change for me was that we had a wind tunnel to test our aerodynamic choices.
     
     
    What's the main difference between designing in the 1960s and now?
     
    Ercole: In the 60s, you first designed at a 1:10 scale, and then at 1:1. Today, the skectching time is shorter, you have less pencil and paper, you use a 3D visualisation room to see your car virtually and then you make changes very quickly. In the 60s, everything was possible. Now, a lot of things are controlled by the requirements and costs.
     
    Which cars are you most proud of?
     
    Ercole: The DB4 GT Zagato for sure, the Alfa TZ (the original coda tronca), the Lancia Fulvia Sport, and the BMW 5 and 7 Series.
     
    Which is your favourite car of all time, based on the design?
     
    Paolo: Definitely the Brabham BT55 Olivetti, but I also like the Bugatti Atlantic and the BMW 7 Series my father designed.
     
    Ercole: The Jaguar E-type coupé Series 1.
     
     
    For you, who was the best designer of the 20th Century?
     
    Paolo: Davide Arcangeli, who designed most of the Pininfarina cars of the 90s, and the BMW 5 Series of the Chris Bangle era: he has excellent inspiration, and a good sense of shape. 
     
    Ercole: Giorgetto Giugiaro, because he took on difficult projects and worked so hard: he didn't only work on luxury cars, but also on many very popular cars.
     
    Is there a car you'd like to redesign?
     
    Both: The Audi R8. We're working on something at the moment...
     
     
    Can creativity be inherited?
     
    Ercole: In a way, yes, but you still have to educate children as young as possible in regard to good taste, the materials, the shapes...
     
    Paolo: At the beginning, I was just seen as 'the son of...'. That's why I went to Germany, to Smart and Mercedes-Benz, with Michael Mauer. As I expected, it proved impossible to work long-term in a big organisation, so I decided that Spada should become a brand, a signature.
     
    How did you do that?
     
    Paolo: Well, we thought the name Spada had a strong enough significance, based on the coda tronca, so we decided it would be a good idea to create a new expression of the coda tronca. In 2008, when we checked, we discovered that the name coda tronca had never been patented. So we did it! And my father's masterpiece is now the property of our design studio. We designed our vehicle on a Corvette chassis, which was for us the right basis: sporty, easy to drive, powerful, and with the right architecture. This car was a link between our past and present. We launched our design studio as we believed there's still a place for Italian body designers and makers. In fact, we have two businesses: Spada Concept, which is a design studio that works on many projects (bikes, helmets,  boats, etc.), and Spada Vetture Sport, dedicated to the production of one-off vehicles.
     
     
    How are the Spadas still influencing automotive design today?
     
    Paolo: Well, we launched our Codatronca model in 2008. Have a look at the frontal design of Lamborghinis since 2009, beginning with the Estoque, and compare it to the front of the Codatronca... you'll see what we mean.
     
    What are your future projects?
     
    Paolo: We want to launch an evolution of the Spada Codatronca Monza: the Daytona, a barchetta dedicated to track days and even more extreme than the spider. We also have some bike projects: a café racer and something very extreme. It would be based either on a BMW or a Guzzi. Wait and see, but Spada will still be a major name in motoring design in years to come.
     
    Photos: Rémi Dargegen for Classic Driver © 2015

    The Race of Gentlemen 2014


    The Race of Gentlemen is a one-of-a-kind vintage hot rod and motorcycle festival that re-creates beach races and exhibitions of yesteryear. The multi-day celebration of American heritage evokes a bygone era when hand-built pre-WWII cars and motorcycles were pieced together in backyards and garages, then tested and proven on the flat, hard sand of the beach. Created by a group of vintage hot rod enthusiasts known as the Oilers Car Club, this action-packed event pays tribute to historic motoring events at locations around the country where they were once held.
    In October 2014, The Race of Gentlemen was held in Wildwood, NJ in the shadow of the beach town’s legendary boardwalk and amusement park. If you weren’t lucky enough to make it, here’s what you missed.

    LAND CRUISER 60TH

    LAND CRUISER 60TH from déri on Vimeo.

    Black .