Jules Cluzel meets his Suzuki and World Superbike crew

FIXI Crescent Suzuki new signing Jules Cluzel made his first visit to the team’s headquarters in Verwood, England today to get his first chance to meet his crew and try out for size the Suzuki GSX-R1000 that he will be racing in next year’s Superbike World Championship.

Cluzel immediately felt at home in the fresh surroundings, as he was introduced to his new Crew Chief Lez Pearson and the rest of the team that he will be working with next season. The 24-year-old Frenchman was eager to swing his leg over the race bike and immediately said that he couldn’t wait to get it out on the track, because it felt right straight away.

The FIXI Crescent Suzuki GSX-R1000 was emblazoned with Cluzel’s racing number 16 when he first set eyes on the bike and he quickly adapted himself to the seating position, even asking the crew to make adjustments, and suggested some future alterations, to enable him to start the first test with a bike that fits him.

Cluzel will get his first chance to ride the Yoshimura-powered FIXI Crescent Suzuki at a test in Spain early next year, before he begins his competitive career with his new team at Phillip Island in Australia on Sunday 24th February. Before that though he will meet up with new team-mate Leon Camier tomorrow, when the pair will be attending an official function on behalf of the team’s title sponsor FIXI.

Jules Cluzel:

“I am really happy to have come here to England and meet the team and see my new bike. I am really looking forward to riding the Suzuki GSX-R and I am very excited about the first exit in the first test, because the bike felt great as soon as I sat on it, now I want to ride it! This is a new challenge and I am really happy to be involved in this with FIXI Crescent Suzuki. I have met all my new crew and they were really friendly and I’m really looking forward to working with all of them.”

Lez Pearson – Crew Chief:

“I have met Jules briefly before, but it was good to meet him properly today and get his first impressions of the bike. I became a fan of his last season and saw that he was a real talent and I’m sure that is something we can help him grow at FIXI Crescent Suzuki. He’s an intelligent and enthusiastic guy and the whole crew are excited about seeing what he can do on the bike. He’s already given us some ideas about how he would like the bike setting up for him, so we already have an idea of what he wants. We are all really looking forward to working with him and the first test can’t come soon enough.”

with TWOWHEELSBLOG

HONDA CB750 STAINLESS BY STEEL BENT CUSTOMS

This Honda CB750 cafe racer by Steel Bent Customs is a fantastic example of minimalist custom motorcycle building, there’s nothing on the bike that doesn’t need to be there from a purely functional perspective and I kind of think that this is how it should be.

The bike started life as a 1980 Honda CB750 in need of a little TLC, the team at SBC stripped her down and gave her a good sorting before rebuilding her with only the absolute essentials. They fabricated a set of clip-on handlebars, fitted a set of levers from a GSXR, added a fuel tank from a 1982 Honda CB900 Super Sport and bolted on a brushed 4 into 1 exhaust.

As is the norm with Steel Bent builds they took the engine to bits and re-jetted the carburettors, changed all the fluids, added new tires on the front and back, a new sealed battery, new plugs and wires. Considering the stock reliability of the CB750 this cleaned up example should be capable of a hell of a lot of milage without breaking a sweat.

If you’re interested in the bike you can pick it up for $6,500 USD via Steel Bent Customs here, they’ll be posting it on eBay next week so now might be a good time to get in before people start bidding.

from Silodrome

Toyota GT 86 ad banned in UK because it promotes 'dangerous driving'

Toyota's "The Real Deal" advert for the GT 86 has been banned in the UK because it "condoned dangerous driving".

Although Toyota’s ad is set in a fake CGI city as a way to distance itself from any sort of dangerous real-world driving, it has been banned in the United Kingdom because it might “encourage motorists to drive irresponsibly” and also because it “condoned dangerous driving.”

One of Toyota’s representatives told UK’s Advertising Standards Authority that the ad doesn’t condone such behavior and that it is impossible to recreate it in real-life conditions. Although it’s banned from TV, the ad is live on YouTube and everyone can see it. 

Kawasaki Custom Anniversary Z1 showbike – EICMA 2012

40 Years of BMW M: Reunion at the 'Ring

What better way to celebrate the M division’s 40th anniversary than to sample some of the highlight cars at the track where it all began: the fabled Nürburgring. 

Understandably, BMW pulled out all the stops for this one. The historic fleet, along with a full chronological roster of M5s and M6s, took to the Nordschleife; meanwhile, a selection of M convertibles headed off into the switchbacks of the surrounding Eifel mountains. Some of the manufacturer’s more agile offerings of recent years (E46 M3 CSL, 1M Coupé etc.) used a loop of the GP circuit to highlight handling abilities, and the event was rounded off by a thunderous display from racing cars spanning four decades, with the drivers clearly enjoying being reunited with their old steeds.

---

3.0 CSL ‘Batmobile’ (1972)


Though it doesn’t carry the eminent ‘M’ badge, the CSL was the first offspring of the Motorsport division. A lap around the Nordschleife in a heritage fleet example wearing just 25,000 miles proved its embodiment of the phrase ‘right first time’; the seats are supportive, pedals nicely aligned for heel-toe gearchanges and the metal three-spoke wheel reminiscent of a 1960s GT car. Softly purring at idle, the inline-six delivers a rasping crescendo as it approaches the 6,400rpm redline – a point commonly neared, given the four speeds offered by the Getrag gearbox. 

---

BMW 320 Group 5 (1977)


When it joined the Group 5 invasion of the DRM (the German Touring Car Championship which preceded today’s DTM), it hardly did so quietly. Thirty-five years later and it’s still up to its old tricks; the reunion saw the Formula 2-engined ‘Flying Brick’ enjoy repeated drive-by screaming matches with the 1999 V12 LMR racer as they passed each other in the pit lane – despite the Group 5 car having a third of the engine capacity. Out on the track in the hands of driver-in-period Marc Surer, it also provided some fascinating battles with contemporary equivalents in the form of Bruno Spengler and newly signed Alex Zanardi’s M3 DTMs. 

---

BMW M1 (1978)


When you’re behind the wheel of an M1 road car, about to embark on a lap of the Nordschleife, what could possibly make you relinquish your driving seat seconds before you’re due to leave the pit lane (aside from the comically askew driving position)? The sight of M1 progenitor Jochen Neerpasch wandering past your driver’s side window – and the chance to question him about the car that he and his team sired, while he takes your place to drive it round the 80-odd corners (the precise number is open to debate, and depends on the car) which were instrumental in its development. 

Though understandably disappointed by the pace of the train of cars ahead (restrained by a cautious escort, since two of the historic fleet had already been ‘lost’ the day before in greasy conditions), Neerpasch reminisced about the Procar series. “For the first race, we had to pay the F1 drivers in cash to get them on board. After they drove the cars in the first race, we didn’t have to pay them again,” he chuckled.

---

BMW M3 Generations


So well-respected is each generation of the M3 that deciding which to pilot first was almost as difficult as a lubricated and aptly named Angst Kurve. It was the boxed arches and legendary status of the E30 that swung it, though, and following the engagement of the dogleg first gear, and a chirp of the rear tyres, we were off into the Grüne Hölle. The years haven’t been as kind to the steering feel (not on our low-mileage car, anyway) as they have to the looks, but the chassis remains one of the all-time greats – and in 20-or-so years, we fully expect the also-impressive E46 CSL to receive similar praise. 

---

BMW M5 Generations


All five generations of the M5 were in service for laps of the Nordschleife (again led by an understandably wary escort), as was an example of the M535i antecedent with a barely run-in odometer reading. On the rain-greased surface, the later versions gave a perfect insight into the developments made in traction control technology over the years, despite the power hikes. The sweet spot in the bloodline was the E39, the direct steering and abundance of V8-induced surge marginally outweighing the charm of its ancestors and almost excessive muscle of its successors. 

---

BMW X5 V12 LM (2000)


There were some confused (read ‘disgusted’) looks as a first generation X5 joined the line-up of roundel-wearing motorsport legends on the grid for the demonstration run. But some recognised the gold BBS wheels and deeply vented bonnet from some 12 years ago, when BMW decided to counter the blasphemy of adding an SUV to its range by shoehorning a V12 from the Le Mans racing car into the engine bay. Producing 700bhp, the straight-line acceleration is flabbergasting; to put this into some perspective, it once beat the Z8’s Nordschleife lap time by 25 seconds with Hans-Joachim Stuck at the helm. 

---

Text: Joe Breeze
Photos: Max Kirchbauer

Mercedes-Benz G 500 Pick-Up: Plenty of room in the back…

Mercedes’ G-Wagen has become a design classic in its own right. German tuning company Wolf Factory has made a weapons-grade version: the utility vehicle to end all utility vehicles. 

The matt-black monster, running on tyres big enough to ford the Nile, is based on the wheelbase of a five-door G Class, but with an extra flat load area built onto the back. Overall length has been increased to 6.3 metres. 

German Shepherd apart, what would you place in it? Our guess is either a super-sized Weber grille, or The Scorpions’ practice amp.