CAFÉ RACER 76: 07/01/14

mardi 1 juillet 2014

Après Assen , Lorenzo se confie / Lorenzo opens up to After the Flag

Le double Champion du Monde MotoGP™ se livre dans le dernier épisode d’After the Flag, accesible gratuitement sur simple inscription sur motogp.com.

Jorge Lorenzo avait terminé l’année 2013 sur une impressionnante série de neuf podiums consécutifs dont trois victoires sur les trois dernières manches et avait repoussé le sacre de Marc Márquez jusqu’au dénouement du GP de Valence.

Opéré cet hiver, le pilote du team Movistar Yamaha MotoGP a cependant eu du mal à retrouver sa condition physique cette année et a aussi souffert de plusieurs changements techniques sur sa machine.

Après un début de saison difficile, Lorenzo s’est confié à After the Flag et a affirmé : « Je n’ai pas encore pu courir à mon vrai niveau. Peut-être au Mugello, où j’ai pu me battre, en Argentine, où j’avais fini troisième et à Montmeló, pas en fin de course mais plutôt sur l’ensemble du week-end. »

« Mais il y a quelque chose qui ne va pas sur ma moto, qui ne va pas à mon style de pilotage, à mon feeling sur la moto. Le litre de carburant en moins cette année rend le moteur Yamaha un peu plus agressif à l’ouverture des gaz. Ce changement et les nouveaux pneus font que c’est plus difficile cette année. Je n’étais pas en grande forme en début de saison et il y avait donc trois facteurs qui jouaient contre mes performances. C’était vraiment difficile d’être compétitif. »

Le Majorquin se sent néanmoins maintenant plus fort et prêt pour la seconde partie de la saison : « Maintenant je me sens bien physiquement. Après Montmeló, nous avons essayé quelque chose avec l’électronique, la moto se comporte davantage comme l’an dernier et je comprends aussi mieux les pneus. Nos trois problèmes sont donc résolus. »

Quant à ce qu'il aime le plus de sa carrière sportive, Lorenzo a ajouté : « On prend beaucoup de plaisir à doubler. Quand on se fait doubler, un peu moins ! C’est la nature de ce sport. Personne n’aime une course où le vainqueur s’échappe dès le départ. Quand vous gagnez comme ça tout va bien pour vous, mais pas si vous êtes un spectateur. »

« Quand je regarde d’autres sports, je veux voir de la concurrence. La concurrence qu’il y a eu l’an dernier entre Marc et moi a produit de très, très belles courses. Cette année, le pourcentage de course ‘disputées’ est encore plus élevé. Je pense que c’est plus que jamais le sport le plus spectaculaire de la planète. »

Jorge-Lorenzo-Movistar-Yamaha-MotoGP-NED-RACE-573468

Double MotoGP™ World Champion Jorge Lorenzo provides a revealing insight into his racing philosophy and his performances so far in 2014, in the latest episode of After the Flag - which can be watched for free upon registration here on motogp.com.

The Movistar Yamaha MotoGP rider finished last season in incredible form with nine successive podiums and three wins in the last three rounds, taking the title fight with eventual winner Marc Marquez down to the final lap in Valencia.

However, after surgery in the winter which proved difficult to recover quickly from in terms of his overall fitness and some technical changes to his race package, the 2010 and 2012 premier class title winner has not visited the top step of the podium so far this season.

Speaking to motogp.com for the After the Flag show, Lorenzo explains, "My real performance this year has not arrived yet. Maybe in Mugello I was able to fight, in Argentina I finished third and in Montmelo I was ok, not at the end of the race but all the weekend I was ok."

"But there is something that is still not really right for my bike, for my riding style. For my feeling on the bike. The one litre less of fuel this year makes the Yamaha engine a bit more aggressive at the first touch on acceleration. This together with the new tyres, which are harder this year, along with my not good physical condition at the beginning of the season, makes it three conditions against my performance. It was really difficult to be competitive."

Fortunately Lorenzo is now feeling stronger as the half way stage of the season approaches. "Now I feel good physically," he asserts, "After Montmelo we tried something on the electronics which makes the bike more like last year and now I understand the tyres more. So these three conditions are now nearly solved."

Asked about his emotions when riding and his overall vision of Grand Prix racing, the man from Majorca replies, "When you overtake you enjoy it a lot. When they pass you, you enjoy it not so much! It is the essence of the sport. No-one likes a race where the winner just gets away right from the start. If you are the one winning everything is perfect for you, but not if you are the spectator."

"For myself too when I am a spectator and I watch sport I want to see competition. Obviously the competition between me and Marc last year was really, really beautiful, in some races. This year the percentage of ‘fighting’ races has been even higher. I think now more than ever it is one of the most spectacular sports in the world."

Ogier mène à la mi-temps

A mi-championnat 2014, Sébastien Ogier mène le classement Pilotes avec 50 points d’avance sur Jari-Matti Latvala. Volkswagen Motorsport est leader du championnat Constructeurs avec 147 points d’avance sur Citroën-Total Abu Dhabi WRT.

Il y a un an, après la 7^e manche du championnat 2013, Sébastien Ogier comptait quatre victoires bonifiées (28 points) et 64 points d’avance au championnat sur Jari-Matti Latvala. Au lendemain du Rally Poland 2014, le Français a remporté cinq victoires dont trois maxi bonifiées et compte 50 points d’avance sur le Finlandais.

Avec l’équivalent de deux victoires d’avance, on peut dire que Seb Ogier a fait le break au championnat à l’issue du Rally Poland où il fut accroché par un autre de ses équipiers, Andreas Mikkelsen. Le Norvégien avait bien préparé son affaire et entendait profiter de la découverte du parcours de l’ensemble des pilotes pour faire un coup.

Mais l’expérience du Français a payé. Samedi matin au départ de l’étape, Seb Ogier avait l’œil du tigre. « On va bien voir s’il m’en met aujourd’hui » avait-il murmuré en s’installant dans sa Polo R WRC. Les deux hommes sont partis sur un rythme sans doute trop élevé dans l’ES12, très piégeuse, et le champion du monde s’en est le mieux sorti. Ensuite, Andreas a lâché prise peu à peu pour assurer sa 2^e place, son meilleur résultat depuis la Suède. Seb Ogier en avait encore sous le pied et a arraché trois points supplémentaires dans la Power Stage.

Sur un parcours ultra rapide, il fut étonnant de voir les Finlandais Jari-Matti Latvala et Mikko Hirvonen en difficulté en début de course. Jari-Matti a réagi le lendemain, alors que le pilote Ford n’a pas su hausser le rythme. Jari-Matti avait le podium en ligne de mire avant de rechuter au classement (amortisseur), puis de revenir dans la bagarre pour la 3^e place. Bref, une course en dents-de-scie pour le Finlandais qui échoue finalement à 7/10^e de son compatriote Hirvonen auteur d’une prestation plus régulière.

Sans cette fameuse pierre cachée dans les hautes herbes (ES14), Mads Ostberg (Citroën) aurait pu prétendre à un nouveau podium. Il était même revenu à 9s6 de Mikkelsen. Partis très vite, Kris Meeke et Juho Hanninen ont été désavantagés sur les spéciales creusées de Lituanie et ont progressivement rétrogradé au classement. Thierry Neuville a quant à lui connu une progression constante au fil des spéciales pour finir sur le podium après avoir défendu farouchement sa position dimanche matin.

Côté Constructeurs, Volkswagen Motorsport compte 147 points d’avance sur Citroën-Total Abu Dhabi WRT, contre 46 en 2013 à pareille époque. Le constructeur allemand pourrait être titré dès cet été, au Rallye d’Allemagne par exemple… Les tests asphalte de la Polo R WRC/Michelin débutent le week-end prochain.

‘79 Honda CX500 – JMR Customs

via PIPEBURN

‘Plastic Maggots’ they called them. And all for an unassuming little fairing that some ‘genius’ decided didn’t suit their tastes. Talk about throwing the baby out with the bath water. Thirty five years later and the Honda CX series’ full potential is only just being realised. With a bullet-proof v-twin, shaft drive, liquid cooling and failsafe electrical system, this is a bike that oozes potential. Just ask they boys who used the bike to take the 500cc pushrod record at Bonneville. Them, and the very talented Josh Mott of JMR Customs.

“This is my latest creation, a 1979 Honda CX 500 custom,” says Josh. “I’ve always wanted the chance to put my own twist on a CX, so I put the word out around the Boise area and a couple of months later Boise Vintage Cycle unearthed one that they kindly donated to us. The bike was in very rough condition, but like always I do my normal checks. If it has spark and compression then nine times out of ten I can clean the carbs up and get it running. The bike had both and it fired right up.”

As soon as Josh knew he had something to work with, he began coming up with ideas. But not before stripping everything off the bike that he wouldn’t be using. Then he and his dad started brainstorming. “I had been noticing that most everyone building up the CX model had done a low-mount exhaust. The idea was to do 2-into-1 pipes and have it exit out the center of the rear fender right above the wheel. I was able to have them come straight back and connect right in the center of the rear wheel. The rear fender I made around the exhaust in 3 sections of 16 gauge steel.” He also made the seat out of fibreglass - remarkably, it was his first time working with the material and he managed to impress himself with the end product.

By building the exhaust up through the centre of the bike, Josh had the added task of relocating the wiring, battery, CDI, and the regulator/rectifier. Unsurprisingly, the only place he had room to place them was underneath the motor. Accordingly, he built a battery box that he could mount all of it components inside cleanly; the wiring now runs down the frame in between the carbs and neatly into the battery box.

The headlight assembly was all hand-made with the headlight itself coming off of a XS650 Yamaha. Josh wanted to make a cool-looking dash and headlight bucket all in one piece, so the speedo, tacho, temperature gauge, choke, and ignition switch are all mounted onto the dash itself. And the hat tip to the original ‘plastic maggot’ fairing has not gone un-noticed… at least here in the Pipeburn offices.

“After most of the chassis was mocked up, I noticed the stock suspension and triple clamps made the bike look slightly like a chopper with its uphill stance. The stock triple clamps raised the stance 1 inch. So I found a set of CL360 clamps that (surprisingly) fit the frame with no modifications and it dropped the bike by 1 inch. It helped, but it still was not where I wanted it. I then shortened the forks 1 inch from the inside and installed 1 inch longer eye to eye shocks on the rear. By doing this, it gave the bike a great ‘bulldog’ look and made it look nice and level.”

The wheels were something that Josh took a chance on. He pre-drill holes 2 inches apart all the way around the wheel, powder coated them black, and then drilled them again for a highlighted look. With the white wall Shinko 777s, we think they came out pretty damn nice.

“Everything on the bike was done in-house, except the powder coat and upholstery. The paint credit goes to my dad, Randy Mott, and the photo credit goes to my girlfriend, Kate Robbins. If you have any questions, feel free to get in touch.”

Don't blink! What not to miss at the Goodwood Festival of Speed 2014

One of our biggest challenges of the year is choosing what to include in our Goodwood Festival of Speed preview, such is the sheer wealth of entertainment on offer throughout the weekend. Here is this year’s attempt to narrow down our highlights into a ‘what not to miss’ at Goodwood guide...

Star cars

Where do we start? Well, before paying tribute to your favourite machines of yore, you might want to catch your first glimpse of their latest descendants. This year’s Festival debutants includeJaguar’s limited-production Project 7, the race-inspired Bentley Continental GT3-R, Morgan’s retro-tastic Plus 8 Speedster and the Aston Martin DP-100 concept, the latest in a series of ‘Visions’ made for the Gran Turismo video game. There’s also a new McLaren 650S by McLaren Special Operations, and a UK debut for the Maserati Alfieri and Centennial Editions. Visitors will also witness the first public coming-together of the LaFerrari, McLaren P1, Porsche 918 Spyder andKoenigsegg One:1 – a long-awaited battle made more exciting by the fact that the Supercar Run will be timed this year.

As well as watching the countless classic and historic racing cars giving their legs a rare stretch by bombing up the hill, you’ll also be able to acquire your own – should your bidding nouse outwit that of the others at the Bonhams auction, that is. Sale highlights include the ex-Graham Hill Lotus 49B, an ex-Works Ferrari 375-Plus and one of the rare Aston Martin ‘Ulsters’.

Anniversaries in abundance

Almost every event in this year’s calendar honours Maserati’s centenary in one way or another, and Goodwood will be doing this in the grandest manner possible: no fewer than 20 important cars from the storied manufacturer will climb the hill, with a class all to themselves. Other milestones to be celebrated include 60 years of the Jaguar D-type, 50 years of nail-biting racing at Goodwood from Derek Bell, and 120 years of Mercedes Racing – the latter marked not only by way of the centrepiece sculpture, but also the 18 cars being flown from the museum.

Historic heroes

With all these potent (and often priceless) machines storming up the hill, there will be plenty of professionals trying to ensure they remain on the narrow, ribbon-like asphalt. Derek Bell will celebrate his Goodwood golden jubilee by piloting a Bentley Continental GT V8 S. Meanwhile, John Surtees OBE will complete a tandem display with Kimi Räikkönen, both in their respective Championship-winning Ferraris. Other racing legends in action include Sir Jackie Stewart, Sir Stirling Moss, Emerson Fittipaldi, Damon Hill and Brian Redman, the latter of whom will be reunited with his Porsche 917 (albeit with period-altered bodywork). They’ll be joined by many of their modern-day F1 successors.

Oddities and rarities

If your motoring preferences are a little more... ‘style conscious’, the Cartier Style et Luxe display will be a priority destination. Now in its 20th year, the unmissable pageant again promises a “definitive celebration of fine automotive design” which, in previous years, has meant a fair few curiosities finding their way onto the lawn. This year will see dedicated classes for both 1950s Maserati GTs (with entrants bodied by Pininfarina, Zagato, Frua and Allemano) and a Mad Men-inspired group of ‘aspirational’ American two-seaters. There’ll no doubt be plenty of head-turning machines elsewhere, including the Maserati Tipo 151/3 – better-known as ‘the other Breadvan’ that was last seen (unpainted) at the 2012 Revival.

Beyond four wheels

As if there weren’t already enough cars to have you buzzing around all weekend, there will also be bikes, planes, helicopters – and goodness knows what else Lord March has in store. On the two-wheeled front, Giacomo Agostini will be showing off the talents that have made him the most successful GP racer ever. In the air, the Red Arrows will commemorate their 50th anniversary with a new sequence for the ever-engaging acrobatic display, as well as a new tailfin design.

The last remaining Avro Vulcan jet will also be in action, having undergone a revision to its wings that will keep it from being decommissioned for at least two more years – a £400,000 operation funded entirely by supporters. Thankful chief pilot Martin Withers has promised them and the other Festival attendees a spectacle in return: “I’ll turn her on her side and fly up Lord March’s drive, then ease the throttles up to 90 per cent to make her Olympus engines howl as we climb out.” To us, that alone sounds like reason enough for the trip to Chichester.

Photos: Classic Driver/Goodwood

‘64 Bultaco Mercurio – The Gas Department

Sure, Café racers are great. But you can’t deny that they are also very, well, they are very British. Not that there’s anything wrong with that; some of our best friends are English. But what if you wanted to build a bike that was true to your own roots, and not those of some leather-clad Pommies who lived a world away and an age ago? What if you wanted to take the essence of the scene and then put your own spin on things? If you were from sunny España, you’d start with a Bultaco, add a cup of café solo and maybe go for a little raza around the autopista. Which coincidentally is exactly what Bacelona’s Gas Department has just done. And they’ve also created a bike which we think is probably the best-looking Bultaco we’ve ever seen. Here’s their ‘Summer Night’ café racer.

“Most people look and don’t see,” says The Gas Department’s Dani Ebo. “They restrict their view to the fashionable image, the trending topic, the easy initial impression and the first glance. Here at Gas Department, we want to feel our work, respect the origins, improve the past, open up a new path and bring back to life the heritage from our projects.”

These fine Spanish lads say that they had always wanted to design something like this - some streamlined beauty to portray their history and the passion for motorcycles they experienced from their youth and their parents. “We hunted for a motorcycle capable to represent us. Since we live in Barcelona, Spain, an original Bultaco would do the trick. Bultaco was founded in Barcelona in 1958, and they produced several models until 1983. Mostly known by their off-road machines, there were a few sport models and even several racing world championships.”

Low and behold, they found this 1964 Bultaco Mercurio 155 at a friend’s garage. Some searching, pictures, Photoshop and a few beers later, the final design was done. Once they had it on the lift at the workshop, they realised that there wasn’t too many parts that would need to be made or found to get what they wanted out of the bike.

“The main lines of our design resembled a lot those from the most famous Bultaco, the Tralla, and one of its racing versions, the Tralla Super Sport, or TSS. In order to embody the spirit of this bike, we decided to replace the gas tank with one from the old TSS racing bike and surround the tail section within a bespoke rear cowl made a little more rounded than the TSS original.”

“As we didn’t want to spoil the round shape of the tail, nor the flowing looks of the whole tank-tail combination, the rear light was deeply sunk into the rear cowl. The extra long tank is held in place thanks to a gorgeous leather belt. Made out from the same leather used for the seat, it is directly bolted to the frame just in front and behind the tank. Xtrim Seats manufactured both the seat and the leather belt for the tank.”

It goes without saying that the new single-seater needed a nice, new pair of racing footrests. Surprisingly, these were made from Yamaha R1 stock parts, but with new bearings and fancy stainless levers added. This achieved that light racing look without losing the old-time appeal the boys were after. The exhaust had to be shorter too, but all the internals were saved and fitted to the shortened can so as not to alter the bike’s rather sweet two-stroke performance.

Being an old smoker, the engine took a lot of reconditioning work; inside it was fitted with new bearings, gaskets and rings. Outside it was blasted, polished, and also painted. The brakes remain unaltered though thoroughly refreshed. A similar treatment was given to the front forks, which now have their lovely springs on display. The rear shocks come from a Virago cruiser; they had the exact height needed, plus they provided a great improvement in the bike’s roadholding.

Then the only task left was the paint. Once cut and polished, the chosen colour gently recalls the 60′s, but the subtle pin-striping also manages to add some unexpected pep and sprite to the bike’s tobacco brown retro-ness. Lovely.

via PIPEBURN

Ferrari Testarossa Koenig Competition: King of the neighbourhood

Those who really wanted to stand out in the Eighties (no mean feat, we’ll admit), took their Ferrari straight to Willy Koenig’s tuning studio, for a steroidal injection of unashamed muscle. Love them or loathe them, the market is beginning to covet these rare machines once more…

Willy Koenig was the undisputed emperor of the wild Eighties tuning scene.

Every generation gets the supercar it deserves and, in that regard, the Eighties spoke for itself. Even the Germans, today so concerned with keeping well within the boundaries of taste, wanted something a little more exciting. Anything went: if it had more wings than an aircraft (and more horsepower, too), it was worthy. Enter Willy Koenig, the undisputed emperor of the wild Eighties tuning scene. As early as 1961, Koenig was forging an impressive career in motorsport. In the subsequent years, he would drive Ferrari 275 GTBs, the legendary Ford GT40,BMW M1s and the Porsche 962. But his joy didn’t end on the track – his real dream was to develop the ultimate road-going sports car.

Poster-car looks and up to 1,000HP

Design, aerodynamics, equipment, engine and suspension – nothing was safe from Koenig’s discerning eyes. It all began in 1974 with the Ferrari 365 GT4 BB, followed by a raft of countless other Ferraris, as well as Mercedes-Benzes, Porsches, Lamborghinis and Jaguars. The recipe was simple: install a ridiculously powerful turbocharged engine, widen considerably and add huge spoilers and deep ventilation tunnels. The most successful and best-known Koenig Special was the Koenig Competition, based on the iconic Ferrari Testarossa. Its testosterone-fuelled, F40-esque design was real poster-car stuff and, if requested by the customer, its twin-turbo V12 could produce up to 1,000HP. Its list price was appropriately outlandish: one million Deutsche Marks.

Gone were the Testarossa’s of-the-era gills (though they were later used as distinguishing features in Koenig’s Mercedes-Benz SEC and Porsche 928), but in came stance and muscle. Those cruising the red-light districts of Frankfurt and Hamburg in a Koenig Competition would rightfully feel like the kings of the neighbourhood. In the Nineties, however, the tuning craze slowly faded and in-house manufacturers at BMW M and Mercedes-AMG came to dominate the market. The Koenig Specials disappeared, often without trace.

A certified classic?

As the Eighties generation grows older and wealthier, it was perhaps inevitable that the brutal, tuned monsters would be rediscovered by serious collectors. A genuine and well-preserved Ruf Porsche, Alpina BMW or Koenig Ferrari isn't easy to find and hence prices are rising, rapidly. At Artcurial’sLe Mans Classic sale on 5 July 2014, a 1987 Ferrari Testarossa Koenig Competition Evolution II will go under the gavel. One of just 12 built and with a mere 46,000km on the clock, the car is estimated to fetch between 80,000 and 120,000 euros (not that different from a bog-standard Testarossa). Barmy? Regardless, we can’t wait to see what it brings.

Travel in style with these vintage suitcases

Distant lands and legendary hotels – for those who lived during the early Twentieth Century, travel was still a great adventure. We’ve found 12 classic suitcases in the Classic Driver Market which would certainly have some tales to tell…

The golden years of travel

The golden years of travel are long gone but the glamour of that cosmopolitan era, when you could decipher the history of a traveller by the numerous hotel stickers on his leather suitcase, still resonates with us deeply to this day. You can still find the cases at auction houses or antiques dealers – elegant items from Hermès or Louis Vuitton, plastered with stickers from the Waldhaus in Sils Maria, the glamorous Lutetia in Paris or the infamous Shepheard Hotel in Cairo, once branded the ‘second worst hotel in the world’ by Mark Twain. The following 12 well-travelled examples from the Classic Driver Market have seen their fair share of the world and should inspire some wonder in their new owners. Who knows where they’ll travel next?