lundi 6 juillet 2015
Le GT Tour fait le plein d'émotions au Val de Vienne
La troisième étape du GT Tour sur le circuit du Val de Vienne a tenu toutes ses promesses avec de belles bagarres en piste et un public comblé sous la chaleur estivale.
Championnat de France FFSA GT : Le week-end des premières !
Course 1 : Une victoire héroïque pour StratégiC
Au Val de Vienne, pour la quatrième manche du Championnat de France FFSA GT, l’équipe StratégiC a signé sa première victoire ! Une première victoire héroïque, décrochée à l’issue d’une intense bataille et d’une course à rebondissements. Sacha Bottemanne, Benjamin Lariche et Nicolas Misslin s’imposent devant une autre Porsche, celle du Team IMSA Performance-Matmut confiée au champion en titre Raymond Narac, à Olivier Pernaut et Sébastien Dumez. Le Team AKKA-ASP complète le podium avec la Ferrari de Philippe Giauque, Jean-Luc Beaubelique et Morgan Moullin-Traffort, qui a dû résister jusque dans les dernières secondes.
Course 2 : Le Sébastien Loeb Racing renoue avec la victoire
Certains ont déjà pris quelques longueurs d’avance. A commencer par le trio de la Ferrari/Sport Garage n°6. Stéphane Lémeret, Eric Cayrolle et Arno Santamato semblent tout bonnement inarrêtables depuis le début de l’année ou, plus exactement, depuis la deuxième manche au Mans. Dans la Sarthe, les trois hommes avaient réussi la performance - rare - de grimper sur les trois marches du podium lors des trois courses au programme. Un instant de grâce sur une piste détrempée ? Pas franchement, puisque les intéressés ont remis ça à Spa, sous un soleil de plomb, remportant la course 1 et terminant 4e de la course 2.
Porsche Carrera Cup France : Jules GOUNON et Mathieu JAMINET signent leur premier succès !
Sous une chaleur écrasante ponctuée de gros orages, la troisième manche de la Porsche Carrera Cup France 2015 disputée sur le circuit du Val de Vienne a permis aux Jeunes Talents de briller. Ce sont en effet deux rookies, Jules Gounon (Team Martinet by Almeras) et Mathieu Jaminet (Racing Technology) qui signent tour à tour deux superbes victoires sur le très technique tracé viennois. L’équipe Racing Technology rafle la mise en plaçant ses deux pilotes en tête du classement général provisoire après la victoire de Mathieu Jaminet et les deux deuxièmes places de Jim Pla. Jules Gounon glisse à la troisième place provisoire, une position qu’il doit partager avec Maxime Jousse (Sébastien Loeb Racing) auteur d’un beau podium samedi. Perdant de gros points après un score vierge sur la course de dimanche, Steven Palette (Team Martinet by Almeras) se retrouve au cinquième rang à 16 points du leader.
Chez les Gentlemen, Christophe Lapierre signe son 30ème succès dans la catégorie, toujours en tête au classement général avec 6 points d’avance sur Roar Lindland (Sébastien Loeb Racing), vainqueur de la deuxième course. Après un podium dimanche, Oleksandr Gaidai (Tsunami RT) se classe troisième, à 21 points de Christophe Lapierre.
La prochaine étape du GT Tour se déroulera à Magny-Cours les 29&30 août prochain.
WRC Rally Poland 2015 Les brèves de Pologne…
Au menu des brèves polonaises, de très hautes vitesses mais très peu d’abandons, du Dakar… La 7e manche du WRC sera sans doute la plus chaude de la saison 2015 avec plus de 45°C sur les pistes et des écarts infimes au classement.
Krzysztof Holowoczyc, 3e du Rallye Dakar 2015 et 10e WRC-2 en Pologne, ne devrait pas être au départ de l’édition 2016. Il s’est tourné vers le Rallycross… En revanche, Mikko Hirvonen et Michel Périn devraient au départ à Lima sur une Mini ALL4 Racing et Sébastien Loeb chez un copilote pour l’épauler sur la Peugeot 2008 DKR…
Rien n’est confirmé pour l’instant, mais Stéphane Sarrazin et Bryan Bouffier devraient être au départ du Tour de Corse sur Ford Fiesta RS WRC.
Après sa touchette dans la Power Stage, Jari-Matti Latvala a dû bricoler et a pointé 4 minutes en retard au CH TC19A, d’où 40 secondes de pénalité. Le Finlandais a donc terminé 5e du Rallye de Pologne.
Le Rallye de Pologne 2015 a été remporté à 121,40 km/h de moyenne par Sébastien Ogier (1h28min10s à fond !). Le record est toujours de 122,89 km/h au Rallye de Finlande 2012 par Loeb. Si on soustrait les trois Superspéciales artificielles tracées sur une sorte de circuit, on arrive à 125,60 km/h. Le Rallye de Pologne 2015 serait donc le plus rapide de l’histoire.
Comme en 2014 où il avait gagné la spéciale la plus rapide de la saison (136,88 km/h), Andreas Mikkelsen a remporté Gorklo à 131,1 km/h de moyenne cette année.
Il y a aussi des jumps en Pologne, notamment dans la spéciale de Swietajno : 26 mètres pour Tanak et Kubica au second passage.
Sur ce rallye hyper rapide, il y a eu une seule WRC en Rally2, Elfyn Evans, dimanche matin, après un problème de pompe à eau. M-Sport a préféré retirer la Fiesta n°5 après la Power Stage pour pouvoir, si nécessaire, changer de moteur avant le Rallye de Finlande.
Sébastien Ogier a remporté sa 6e Power Stage d’affilée cette année. Cela représente 18 points au championnat Pilotes, plus que le total de Robert Kubica !
L’organisateur n’avait pas prévu d’eau au tyre fitting zone de Goldap et aucun ravitaillement extérieur n’était autorisé. Il faisait plus de 40°C en plein soleil sur la place. Le copilote de Jean-René Perry, Joshua Reibel, fut malade toute la nuit suivante, forçant la Citroën DS3 R3 n°66 à se retirer.
Le premier abandon du Rallye de Pologne fut à mettre à l’actif de Pierre-Louis Loubet, auteur d’une spectaculaire sortie de route au Shakedown. Il paraît qu’il fallait de tenir le téléphone à au moins de 50 cm pour éviter une perforation du tympan quand son père Yves a été mis au courant !
Après ses sept tonneaux au Shakedown, Kris Meeke avait pour consigne de ramener sa DS3 WRC sans une (autre) égratignure à l’arrivée. Ce week-end, Citroën Racing a confirmé son engagement en WRC en 2016.
Dans la famille Oleksowicz, le fils Maciej a devancé le père Krzysztof de près de 10 minutes. Tous deux étaient au volant de Ford Fiesta R5. Krzysztof fait partie du top 100 des plus grandes fortunes polonaises avec sa société Inter Car (pièces détachées automobiles) qu’il a montée tout seul avec un diplôme de mécanicien en poche…
Week-end faste pour M-Sport avec un podium en Pologne et une victoire de la Bentley GT3 en Russie (Blancpain Sprint Series).
Débuts probants du jeune Finlandais Teenu Sinunen en catégorie WRC-2 au volant d’une Skoda S2000. A suivre…
On parle de plus en plus de la Chine au calendrier WRC 2016…
Our WRC notes from Poland (Round 7 of the 2015 FIA World Rally Championship) include tales of high speeds, low attrition rates, the Dakar, narrow margins and ground temperatures in excess of 45°C.
Krzysztof Holowoczyc, who came third on this year’s Dakar and 10th in WRC2 in Poland, has turned to rallycross and probably won’t take part in the 2016 Dakar. However, we hear that Mikko Hirvonen and Michel Périn will do the event in a Mini ALL4 Racing and that Sébastien Loeb is looking for a co-driver to join him in a Peugeot 2008 DKR…
To be confirmed, but Stéphane Sarrazin and Bryan Bouffier are expected to drive Ford Fiesta RS WRCs in Corsica.
After his smash on the Power Stage, Jari-Matti Latvala had to carry out makeshift repairs to his radiator and was four minutes late at TC19A. The penalty (40s) dropped him to fifth overall.
The average speed of Rally Poland winner Sébastien Ogier was 121.40kph (total stage time: 1h28m10s!). The WRC record of 122.89kph (Finland 2012) is still held by Loeb. However, if you subtract last week’s three super-specials, the winner’s average speed increases to 125.60kph.
As in 2014, when he claimed the season’s fastest average stage speed (136.88kph), Andreas Mikkelsen won 'Gorklo' at an average of 131.1kph this year.
The big jump on ‘Swietajno’ saw Tanak and Kubica perform 26-metre leaps on their second passes.
Despite the high speeds, only one WRC driver made use of the Rally2 ruling: Elfyn Evans (water pump problem on Saturday morning). M-Sport decided to withdraw the N°5 Fiesta after the Power Stage to be able to change its engine – if necessary – for Rally Finland.
Sébastien Ogier collected his sixth straight Power Stage win of the year. That represents 18 Driver’s points, more than Kubica’s personal total!
The organisers didn’t have any water available at Goldap Tyre Fitting Zone (40°C in the sun) and no outside servicing was authorised. Jean-René Perry’s co-driver Joshua Reibel was ill the following night, forcing the N°66 Citroën DS3 R3 crew to retire.
Rally Poland’s first ‘retirement’ was that of Pierre-Louis Loubet who crashed out spectacularly on the shakedown. His father, ex-works driver Yves, gave him a good ‘shaking down’ over the phone.
After rolling seven times in shakedown, Kris Meeke was instructed to reach the finish with no additional scratches to his DS3 WRC. Citroën Racing has confirmed its involvement in the WRC in 2016.
Maciej Oleksowicz beat his father Krzysztof by almost 10 minutes. Both were driving Ford Fiesta R5s. Krzysztof is one of the 100 richest Poles thanks to his automotive spares business Inter Car which he built up alone with little more than a mechanics certificate.
In addition to its Polish podium, M-Sport came first in the Blancpain Sprint Series race in Russia with a Bentley GT3.
Finnish youngster Teenu Sinunen had a promising debut in WRC-2 driving a Skoda S2000. One to follow…
There is increasing talk of a WRC round in China in 2016…
‘86 Yamaha SRX600 – Dagger Cycles
Japanese Motorcycles make up a large part of the custom scene. CB Hondas of the 70’s are everywhere. 90’s litre bikes built the Street Fighter Scene and the modern machines from the land of the rising sun are turned into everything from modern café bikes to turbocharged drag strip warriors. The gap has largely been in the period of the 1980’s where the bikes were often square in design and down on power. But the SRX was the bike that caught Roby’s eye as a young man so now three decades later as the owner of Dagger Cycles in Biella, Italy, he took the chance to build the bike from his youth. A 1986 Yamaha SRX600 in less than great condition is the basis for this punk machine and Roby wanted it to be a visual smack in the face.
The engine was pulled from the frame and required a full rebuild which Roby did with absolute precision before painting the covers black and polishing the cases. The 608cc single cylinder 4 stroke punches out a healthy 45bhp and with a relatively low compression ratio it’ll do it all day long and pull from low rpms. To capture the thumper sound the exhaust is all stainless with a matching shorty muffler poking out from under the frame. Before the engine was bolted back into the frame Roby took the time to have the frame, swing arm and rims all powder coated black.
One of the features that first captured the attention of a young Roberto Polizzi was the fact the Yamaha was a lightweight machine with a three disc setup. It might be considered standard now but it was ahead of its time in the 1980’s. The front stock brake discs are kept with revised calipers and Brembo radial master cylinder while the rear is an overhauled stock system with braided hose.
With a dry weight of just 149kg the Yamaha pulls up in a hurry and now it’s been given the suspension to match. The front forks have totally rebuilt internals to both improve handling and match the lowered stance that saw Roby push the forks down through the triple trees. The rear was one of the last lightweight Yamahas to sport a twin shock rear, so Roby upgraded the classic look with better performance thanks to a pair of twin GAS shocks.
At this point Roby had himself a smooth running, great stopping, lightweight machine but the looks just weren’t for him. A bikini fairing from an MV with a small headlight starts the look with “Ignore Alien Orders” graphics on the right side, a hint at Roby’s way of thinking. The tank is stock but has been given a heavy flake paint job in Cherry Red with the Dagger Cycles logo.
The tail section is handmade from fibreglass in a matte finish and sporting some unique race graphics. The seat is a clever reworking of the standard item that fits up to the tank perfectly and is finished with custom stitching. While the rest of the body work like the side covers and oil reservoir were finished in matte black to blend more easily into the frame.
To get the riding position he was after Roby mounted the clip-ons in an inverted position that when viewed from front on gives a flat bar look. To reduce clutter the switch block is from an enduro machine and the speedo is all the visuals you need straight from an RD Yamaha. With a Brembo item on the right side clutch duties are taken care of by a Renthal lever and MX grips for your hands. The rear lights for roadworthy are round units integrated into the tail with bullet indicators to match.
Dagger Cycle don’t follow trends and Roby is unapologetic about that fact, they build what they like and if it doesn’t match what’s trending then even better! “Maybe the only problem it had is that it belonged to a period, the mid-Eighties, in which the classic shapes of the old bikes were changing into something new.”
“That bike was a little ‘messy’, but on another side, it was a good start for such a different project.” And different it is, a 1980’s Japanese machine, built by a Punk from Northern Italy, designed to look mean and shred the streets. Roby is not after your approval but he’s earning a lot of respect and the heavily tattooed, beard sporting builder has built an SRX to intimidate all others.
via PIPEBURN
Aston Martin Ulster spearheads Bonhams’ solid Goodwood sale
Last Friday, in the surprisingly quiet confines of the Bonhams tent situated just behind Goodwood House, auctioneer Robert Brooks brought the gavel down on 70 cars, achieving an impressive £17m all in…
World Record
As expected, the big hitters were Stirling Moss’s Porsche RS-61 Spyder, fetching a bang-on-estimate £1,905,500 (inclusive of buyer’s premium, as all listed prices are), and the Aston Martin Works Ulster LM19, which achieved £2,913,500 after an agonisingly long spell of tactical bidding, smashing its £1.6-2.2m estimate and earning a new World Record price for a pre-War Aston Martin in the process. Don't expect to see another offered for sale any time soon...
Perfect Porsche, perfect price
Several cars well exceeded their pre-sale estimates, including the Citroën SM from the collection of Rolling Stone Bill Wyman (£61,000), the matching-numbers Aston Martin V8 Vantage Volante (£306,140), and Richard Hamilton’s ‘perfect’ Porsche 911 S (est. 250,000-300,000), the latter fetching a staggering £393,500. And we can’t say we’re surprised – it really did look terrific in the metal.
Crime pays
The £51,750 achieved for James May’s Porsche 911 3.2 Carrera confirmed our thoughts that its £28,000-34,000 estimate was more than reasonable, while the Ferrari 308 Vetroresina’s £60,000-80,000 estimate proved similarly conservative, the achieved £117,980 seeming to us, at least, a little more on the money given its condition. The Ferrari Enzo (est. £600,000-800,000) – recovered by the National Crime Agency and sold under the Proceeds of Crime Act – made £897,500, a strong price given its confusing back-story and dodgy owner.
A number of Series I Jaguar E-types sold well, one gunmetal Coupé surpassing its high estimate by £54,000. And we must admit, we were a little surprised at the £1,513,500 attained for the (t00?) outrageous Mercedes CLK GTR Roadster, a ’90s hypercar showing just eight (yes, eight) kilometres on the clock. What were we saying about ultra-low-mileage classics, again?
A solid sale
It wasn’t all rosy on the day, though, with several key lots failing to sell – take the sale's sole Mercedes 300 SL ‘Gullwing’, both the Ferrari 512BB and black Dino, and the ex-Autodelta Alfa Romeo 2000 GTAm, for example. While there were no ‘steals’ as such, we reckon the low-mileage, matching-numbers and highly original Porsche 930 3.3 was a good buy at £102,300, the buyer’s premium nudging it just over its lower estimate.
Photos: Peter Aylward for Classic Driver © 2015
You can find more than 5,000 classic cars for sale in the Classic Driver Market.
Shinola brings new life to Detroit design
Why start a watch-making business in Detroit? That was the question posed countless times to Tom Kartsotis when he founded Shinola in the crisis-ridden ‘Motor City’. But the experiment paid off, becoming a true American success story…
That’s where the phrase ‘you don’t know shit from Shinola’ originated...
For American soldiers in World War II, the dark brown shoe polish made by Shinola was standard equipment. Legend has it that one rebellious GI polished his commander’s boots with dog faeces instead, his action luckily going unnoticed as the commander proudly displayed his shiny boots. That’s where the phrase ‘you don’t know shit from Shinola’ originated and, despite the brand closing in the 1960s, the phrase lived on.
A new start in Detroit
Tom Kartsotis, who founded Fossil in 1984 as a college drop-out, creating a multi-billion-dollar lifestyle brand within 10 years, only knew Shinola from this old tale. The American brand had faded out in the ’70s but, in 2011, Kartsosis adopted the name Shinola and opened a huge brick complex in midtown Detroit, the once-thriving ‘Motor City’, where there was previously a research laboratory for General Motors. The company might be producing a range of very different products, but Kartsosis and his team remain true to the spirit of the original Shinola – as an iconic American manufacturer that began as a small company with big ideas.
Swiss instructors, American apprentices
Since the collapse of the American automotive industry, Detroit featured in the headlines primarily for unemployment, emigration, crime and decay. Amid the ruins, Shinola set up and recruited new employees to make its watches. Candidates were abundant, most having worked previously in the automotive industry. Watch experts were a little harder to find, so Shinola commissioned Swiss watchmaker Ronda to produce its movements and train its workers. Today at Shinola, not only are the intricate movements assembled, but the dials are painted by hand, too. Furthermore, the leather straps are produced in-house.
From watchmaker to design factory
The first timepiece from Shinola appeared in 2013 – a simple and robust watch available in two sizes. The company produced 2,500 pieces and they sold out within two weeks. Today, Shinola aims to build 150,000 pieces over the course of this year, with a series of watch ‘families’ named the Runwell, the Brakeman, the Rambler, the Birdy and the Gomelsky. But that’s not all – Kartsotis then moved into other aspects of design. Bringing in a proven partner, the Horween Leather Company, together they produce straps for Shinola’s watches, wallets, iPad cases and even American footballs.
Back to a bygone era
Even bicycles are assembled at its Detroit premises. Created in conjunction with Richard Schwinn in Wisconsin, they are signature Shinola, with trendy, easy-to-recognise aesthetics and robust functionality.
Shinola’s success harks back to a bygone era but, once again, the name carries prestige; and it has brought new life to Detroit. The Shinola brand has so far created 380 jobs in the vulnerable city (170 in manufacturing) and, more importantly, provided hope for the future. The brand has been well received in the rest of America, too – former president Bill Clinton is said to have 14 Shinola watches…
Handcrafted in Detroit
It’s not just buyers in the US delighted by the classic American success story. Shinola’s first European flagship store has just opened in London, and you can even buy its timepieces in Switzerland, the promised land of watchmaking. Production continues to grow in Detroit, with more and more products featuring in its range – even the famous shoe polish was reintroduced. Whether it’s used by the American military again is, however, another question….
More information can be found at shinola.com.
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