Agent Provocateur 'Love Me Tender' Rosie Huntington Whiteley

Tunisia Strikes Back: a Desert Trip

Another Time New year Eve in Tunisia, but more offroad, more bikes and a 4x4 too! (issues included)
a KTM 950, BMW F800 gs, KTM 690 Rally and a Fantastic '96 Toyota RAV4.
Thanks to Katie for the cool shots and to all the new Tunisian friends that helped us along the way!

Tunisia Strikes Back: a Desert Trip from Mariscos Yeah on Vimeo.

Honda CX500 – Moto Motivo

Words by Martin Hodgson.

When you build GT40’s that are the only replicas licensed to officially carry the full Gulf Oil livery it’s clear you can build a serious automobile. When you can also build some of the best custom Ducati’s on the planet it’s clear two wheels or four you’ve got it covered. So when a customer told Johann Keyser it was impossible to create a stunning CX500 the man behind Moto Motivo took on the challenge with justified confidence.

The donor bike was no ordinary CX500 it was the deluxe model, ‘The Plastic Maggot’, made even worse with a full set of Vetter fairings and panniers. Many builders see the CX500 as a challenge to be conquered; Johann was keen to make that challenge even harder. The 1978 CX had only seen a few years of service when the original owner put it into storage in 1982 after a small incident with a dog on a highway. Having sat for 32 years with oil and fuel still on board it’s a testament to the Honda engineers that it required Johann to fit only a new battery to get the old girl ticking over, but that’s when the real fun started.

The design idea for the build came from one Johann had intended for a Moto Guzzi build, one that would require a frame up restoration of the old CX. The Honda was completely stripped back and the frame was stripped of all unnecessary brackets, mountings, rear shocks and ugly rear subframe. Johann then designed and fabricated a new swingarm that would now run a mono shock, a fully adjustable Ohlins item straight from a Ducati 900SS. With the frame modifications now complete the whole thing was then powder coated in Satin Black.

With the rear end so well sorted it made no sense to leave the front end be, so being the Ducati specialist Johann knew the exact front forks to fit. Taken from a Ducati Monster S2R 1000 the fully adjustable forks also use modified Ducati Triple clamps to fit the CX frame. The front brake is a left side Ducati Sport Classic brake rotor and caliper, while a Ducati radial master cylinder supplies the pressure. Tidying up the notoriously ugly CX front view is the addition of an elegant LED electronic dash that does away with Honda’s factory monstrosity.

The appeal of the CX is undoubtedly the V twin engine, without which it is hard to see why anyone would take on the bike. But its Moto Guzzi style layout, smooth torque and reliability give it the sort of charm a Café Racer deserves and stripped of all the excess weight can perform strongly. The motor was completely chemically cleaned and painted in satin black and all exterior motor bolts were replaced with stainless steel bolts. Fuelling duties are taken care of by New Mikuni units fitted to custom aluminium intake manifolds topped off with Velocity Stacks from a Ducati 748. Taking care of spent gases are custom 2 into 1 headers and finishing out the back is a Moto Motivo stainless steel muffler.

Johann isn’t a fan of wrapped exhausts so with the help of some friends he chose a ceramic coating colour normally used on firearms to cover the exhaust. The theme then extends to the valve covers, velocity stacks, intake manifolds and other piping leaving an ultra-clean look not often seen on many CX builds. The colour also works amazingly well with the brown leather seat that adds comfort to the custom Moto Motivo fibreglass tail piece. The tank is Modified and 4 inch stretched unit supplied by Airtech and having sliced and diced my fair share of CX tanks I can attest to the workmanship. Made with ethanol proof epoxy it’ll handle any pump fuel you throw at it, but Johann prefers his fuel alcohol free! The paint is a Honda factory colour, 1973 Honda SL350 Candy Panther Gold, with Moto Motivo tank decals so you know just who swung the spanners.

The rearsets are nothing short of Ducati Superbike items and not even the ugly gearshift unit was left in place. Whereas most builders will use black paint to hide it, a Moto Motivo unit adds both incredible form and function where once both were devoid. Having been set the challenge to do the impossible Moto Motivo head honcho Johann Keyser believes “This bike truly turned out as the coolest Honda CX500 in the world”. As a fellow CX builder I’m not going to argue, mission complete!

via PIPEBURN

Jochen Mass, how does a merchant sailor become a racing driver?

An experienced merchant sailor, Jochen Mass never dreamed he’d end up as a racing driver, until – in 1967 – he attended his first hill climb. Classic Driver spoke to the legendary Le Mans and Formula 1 driver in Zurich…

All for love

Mr. Mass, how did a 21-year-old merchant sailor end up a racing driver?

For love – why else? And I don’t mean the love of cars. My girlfriend at the time was a member of the Mannheim Sports Touring Club and worked as a marshal at the 1967 Eberbacher hill climb in the Neckar Valley. For me, it was very exciting, looking down on the cars from our post. The noise, the smell of rubber and fuel – fascinating!

Which cars excited you the most?

The little Puch 500s and Abarth 1000s – they were really fast. Oh, and the Glas 1300 coupés and ingenious little Alfas, too. In retrospect, it’s odd how little it took to inspire us, in sharp contrast to today. But once I took the decision to become a racing driver, I chose the right cars – Alfa GTA and similar models – for a quick drive up the mountain.

It’s difficult for a young man to afford the expense of racing. How did you manage it?

The first question, of course, was how to get a racing car. I just didn’t have enough money to buy one and maintain it, so I had to find someone willing to support my efforts to become a racing driver.

Easier said than done.

That’s right, you’re hardly going to find a race car owner who turns to a young guy who’s never raced and says, “Great! We've been waiting for someone like you, here are the keys – foot on the gas – off you go!” In my situation, the only way was to work for the owner of a race car, in my case Alfa dealer Helmut Hähn in Mannheim. Hähn was not only an important dealer, he also ran a successful racing team. I still remember the beautiful Alfa Romeo GTA, then driven by Gerd Schüler and Reinhard Stenzel – and later by a certain Jochen Mass.

"Hey, you can really drive!"

So what happened?

About a month later, Hähn came to me and said (in a typical Mannheim expression), “Hey, you can really drive!” I was to go and take part in a race in Eberbach. I asked what I would be driving, hoping that it would be the GTA, but it was the Giulia Super owned by his tax adviser, who was on holiday.

And was the tax adviser thrilled that you’d raced his car?

He only found out many years later… when I told him.

Later in your career, in Formula 1 or at Le Mans, did you ever feel fear?

I never felt fear, but there were times when I felt anxious before the start of a race, especially in Formula 1 when we virtually swam across the race track in pouring rain. But on the whole, I never had problems with anxiety. I always relied completely on my instinct.

A team player

If you look back on your early years as a professional racing driver, what have you learned since then?

Teamwork. You cannot win a race alone. To be successful in racing – as in many other areas of life – you have to contribute to the team. I could drive well, but without good engineers and team management there was nothing I could do with this talent.

What would former members of your teams say about you?

I think they would say that I was a good team planner. I have always been very loyal and have always got on well with the team for which I was driving. I remember many conversations with the mechanics between races, and it was always clear to me that we each had our part to play. I drove and they worked on the car – both sides need to do their job well if you’re going to win a race.

So you had an equal role, because you both pursued the same goal?

It’s quite simple: life is like a narrow conveyor belt on which we travel through time. On the left and right is a credit and a debit side, and fate decides which side you fall before you climb back onto the belt again. Am I a better person because I have a talent for racing? Certainly not. Others are gifted engineers, and it is the symbiosis between these two aspects that makes up the whole.

Real-life warriors

Movies such as Rush or Le Mans paint a picture of racing drivers as warriors who live life in the fast lane. Do you recognise that picture?

Yes, definitely. We mustn’t forget that racing at that time was a highly dangerous affair. There were many friends with whom you’d share a joke before the start of a race, but never again, because they died in an accident during that race. Hovering over you was an aura of bravery and daring – and that’s why we were perceived differently. Today, people look up to some of the drivers because they are so rich. We were important not because we were rich, but because we did something that could cost us our lives. Added to this was the fact that so many people would like to be a racing driver, but it’s only possible for a few.

And indeed, there were some tragic moments in your career.

That’s right. Such as Riccardo Paletti’s accident in 1982, shortly after the start in Montreal. It started, I was in the March - and a gap suddenly opened up on one side – but I didn’t feel it was really there. Something was wrong. But Paletti thought it was okay – you could hardly see at all through the tyre smoke from the start – but it wasn’t okay. Riccardo drove into the back of a Ferrari at high speed and was killed.

The race wasn’t cancelled, though?

No, it wasn’t. Paletti was taken away, the track was cleared, the race restarted. That was that. Riccardo was a young driver who had only just started his career. But such incidents were – at that time – almost terrifyingly normal.

Formula 1 – then and now

Did this Sword of Damocles constantly hovering over you and the others lead to you being closer?

In terms of competitiveness?

Yes, but did you feel more connected?

There was always competition, but there was – I think – a greater feeling of appreciation and respect than there is today.

Would you like to be racing in today’s Formula 1 circus?

Always! Well, I just like to go racing, and if I had grown up racing with the likes of Vettel and Co., then I wouldn’t be surprised by a cockpit with all those buttons. In 1994, I did drive a modern F1 car: it had to be enlarged because I was a bit on the big side. It was still uncomfortably tight and rather strange and stressful, but the car was remarkable. By the third lap I was doing 347km/h and I thought to myself, “If you could could only turn back the clock, but...”

A very rapid gentleman

How seriously do you take the racing at the Goodwood Revival?

Very seriously! You must remember that you are going extremely fast – in precious cars that have been entrusted to you by the owners. And it is sensationally good fun to drift those ‘old boxes’ round the corners.

Many of the gentlemen drivers take their racing extremely seriously.

Of course, since many of them can at last afford their dream of racing, an experience that for whatever reason they were denied in their earlier life. Some drive very well, others have more luck than talent but, by and large, it’s a great thing.

What will you be doing over the next 10 years?

Whatever time and health allows.

Photos: Getty Images / Rex Features

1953 DODGE M37 POWER WAGON

by HARRY WAGNER

Contributor

Cool Fact

The ambulance version of the M37 was designated the M43, while the military radio truck was designated the M152.

The difference between the average vehicle owner and the people who read 4WOR is that for most people a vehicle is just transportation from point A to point B. They pick it based on color, looks, and mileage. There is no passion in that. Joe McDonald built his '53 Dodge M37 over the past 18 years out of nostalgia for the Dodge Power Wagon he had used to explore the coast of Northern California when he was a kid. "We didn't have Nintendo back then," Joe explains, "or even a TV for that matter!"
While nostalgia is all well and good, Joe wasn't overly interested in messing with ignition points, a carburetor, manual steering, or drum brakes. He kept the vintage sheetmetal, blackout lights, and sparse interior of the M, but added modern conveniences like power steering, fuel injection, and an overdrive transmission. The result works so well that Joe uses the truck as his daily driver, snowplow, parts hauler, and trail rig. That sure sounds like passion to us.