SILVERSTONE : UN BAPTÊME DU FEU HUMIDE POUR L'ALPINE A450.

- Pour sa première apparition en compétition cette saison, l'équipe Signatech-Alpine, emmenée par Nelson Panciatici et Pierre Ragues, termine à la quatrième place des 3 Heures de Silverstone.

- Cette première manche de l'European Le Mans Series a été interrompue après 2 heures et 20 minutes, dont une heure passée der-rière la voiture de sécurité, pour des conditions jugées dangereuses par la direction de course.

- Pour le retour de la Marque en compétition, Nelson Panciatici a occupé la tête du classement avec l'Alpine A450 après un excellent départ.

- Carlos Tavares, Directeur Général Délégué aux opérations de Renault, était présent à Silverstone pour soutenir l'équipe Signatech-Alpine et assister à la première course de l'Alpine A450.

La pluie a marqué la première apparition de l'Alpine A450 en compétition, 35 ans après la victoire de la Marque aux 24 Heures du Mans. Dès les essais libres, Nelson Panciatici et Pierre Ragues - les deux pi-lotes Signatech-Alpine - ont travaillé avec l'équipe technique pour adapter l'Alpine A450 à ces conditions particulières avec le meilleur temps de la première séance et le deuxième temps de la seconde. Lors des qualifications, Nelson Panciatici parvenait à placer l'Alpine A450 sur la deuxième ligne de la grille de départ.

La piste était sèche lorsque les concurrents s'élançaient pour la course... Mais un déluge de pluie s'abattait sur Silverstone durant le tour de forma-tion. Nelson Panciatici et l'Alpine A450 partaient de la troisième position, chaussée de pneumatiques Michelin slicks, et s'installaient en tête dès le premier virage alors que la voiture de sécurité faisait une première appari-tion au terme du premier tour. Nelson rentrait après cinq boucles pour repartir avec des pneumatiques intermédiaires.

Il reprenait la piste au neuvième rang et entamait une belle remontée jusqu'à la deuxième place au moment de passer le volant à Pierre Ragues.

Avec des pneumatiques ‘pluie', Pierre repartait en cinquième position. Il gagnait rapidement une place avant de voir, à nouveau, la voiture de sé-curité prendre la piste.

Après une heure de neutralisation et avec des coulées d'eau présentes sur tout le circuit, la direction de course choisissait de mettre un terme à l'épreuve. Les positions étaient donc figées alors que l'équipe Signatech-Alpine s'apprêtait à profiter de sa stratégie décalée.

« C'était un week-end très important pour toute notre équipe », soulignait Philippe Sinault, Team Principal de Signatech-Alpine. « Un très bon travail a été effectué pour préparer ce premier rendez-vous. Dommage de vivre une course aussi frustrante... Je donne un bon point à nos pilotes qui ont ramené l'Alpine A450 intacte. Mais, avec ces conditions exécrables, la compétition a été totalement tronquée. Nous avions une bonne stratégie qui aurait pu s'avérée payante au bout des trois heures. La voiture de sécurité et le drapeau rouge nous ont empêchés de concrétiser. »

Pilote junior Alpine, Paul-Loup Chatin a pris la deuxième place de la catégorie LM PC.

Source : Alpine

via Endurance-Info

SPECTACULAR !! THE ANATOMY OF THE KAIDO RACER

The Kaido Racer and zokusha are the epitome of Japanese car culture, or at least an obscure slice of it. It’s incredible that these sort of cars still exist and continue to be built, but even more so that younger generations are now getting into this sort of style. It’s not often that you come across these creations, but seeing the Nagoya Exciting Car Showdown usually attracts the local bozo clubs, well let’s just say I was more than ready to snap away at whatever turned up. I thought the best way to approach these rides would be a quick spotlight-o-rama…

… highlighting the main points that make these cars different from anything else you see on the streets of Japan. Starting off with this GX61 MarkII which boasts a shark-nose look created by extending the hood and fenders outwards and in this case dumping the stock headlights for a pair of S13 Silvia units fixed at an angle for extra effect. The deppa - or bucktooth/chin spoiler – is usually a must on these sort of rides, as is the externally mounted oil cooler. Owners take a great deal of inspiration from the old Silhouette racers of the late seventies and early to mid eighties…

… imitating their exaggerated detailing. So while this particular car isn’t that extreme, it did have overfenders that attempted to contain…

… the aggressive offset of the Watanabe rims and the wildly stretched rubber they were shod in.

The milder look and very clean execution really made it stand out. Pink Lobster FTW!

Here is the other extreme!

This particular car, running on “ichi-en-dama” (1-yen coin) wheels – aka SSR MK1s – boasts it all, starting off with that massively extended chin, plenty of fins running across the hood…

… including some non-functional scoops…

… and ending up with curiously shaped lights integrated into the massive rear spoiler. And when I say massive I really mean a good meter plus of length.

The takeyari, or long obliquely-cut exhausts, are the cherry on the cake!

Within the scene styles vary quite a lot, but this particular MarkII had most people confused thanks to its minimalistic beaten-up front look with exposed everything, including the must-have air horns, which in most cases play the Godfather theme song.

It definitely had a very evident home-built feel about it…

… especially around the rear end!

The takeyari exhaust extensions were also pretty uniquely shaped…

… helping tie everything in together!

The owner of this first-gen Toyota Chaser had just began the conversion over to Kaido Racer so the exterior was not quite complete yet. The main details like the bolted-on fender flares were already in place however…

… and the interior was already sporting the must-have wooden steering wheel, in this case a vintage Nardi item…

… and the decorative shift knob, sitting on an extended lever.

The period correct “Safety Drive” logo I thought was a cool addition!

No takeyari to be seen around the back, not necessarily a detail that everyone goes for.

And as a final car I selected this Crown Royal Saloon as it served as the perfect example to show how simple you can keep your ride…

… yet still managing to pull off the bozo shakotan look.

Once again we find a set of SSR MK1s with massive lip…

… barely fitting under the extended arches.

Much like VIP there’s a variety of levels of extreme (or crazy) that fit under the general Kaido Racer style.  There’s no point in attempting to make sense out of it all, rather one should just accept it for what it is – a fun and extremely Japanese way of having fun with one’s car.

Nagoya Exciting Car Showdown 2013 coverage on Speedhunters

Dino Dalle Carbonare

Chaz Davies wins race 1 at Aragon as leaders suffer technical issues

from Twowheelsblog

The first race of the second round of the 2013 World Superbike season was full of technical drama for the podium favourites, Eugene Laverty and Tom Sykes who both suffered from technical issues just a few laps into the race that was won by a highly impressive and fastChaz Davies who took his second Superbike victory of his career.

The race start was slightly delayed as Mark Aitchison’s Effenbert Liberty Ducati died on the starting grid and had to be pushed off to the pitlane. Once the lights went off, Aprilia’s Eugene Laverty got the holeshot ahead of polesitter Tom Sykes, followed by an aggressive Chaz Davies who immediately began nosing around Sykes and the two began exhange paint during lap 2. While Sylvain Guintoli kept his nose clean trying to follow the two battling riders, as Laverty tried to put as much space as possible between himself and the rest of field, while a struggling Marco Melandri dropped to eighth after an error.

During lap 4 while he was leading, Laverty ran slightly wide and his Aprilia began losing power dropping him to the penultimate position and then he was forced to return to his garage to discover what the issue was - he would later rejoin just to test his Aprilia, but his race was irreparably compromised.

With the Aprilia rider out of the contest, Tom Sykes took the lead, but less than two laps later, disaster would also strike the Kawasaki rider, as he too ran wide with an unspecified technical issues letting a close following Davies take the lead, as the Brit rider mestly returned to his garage.

Davies would continue his solitary race in the front unchallenged, while far behind him was Sylvain Guintoli trying to keep control his Aprilia, as Marco Melandri charged up the field disposing of four riders before easily chasing down Guintoli lap after lap, and by the 13th lap caught the French rider and passed him for second place.

However with just four laps left in the 20 lapper, the BMW rider hit a neutral gear and dropped to fifth and his charge for a podium finish began again, as he first disposed of Jonathan Rea and then Davide Giugliano, and would finally take the last spot on the podium, behind Davies and a very thankful and blessed Guintoli.

Heartbreak also struck Davide Giuglian who was looking for a sure fourth spot, but on the final lap just a few hundred feet from the finish line he ran out of gas which would promote Rea into the position, with Loris Baz and Jules Cluzel taking fifth and sixth, respectively. Carlos Checa was a distant seventh never getting into the mix as his Ducati suffers at the Spanish track, while Michele Fabrizio took 8th, unable to find a proper set-up on the performing Aprilia. Leon Haslam was just ninth unable to recover following his crash in QP2, while Ayrton Badovini closed out the top ten in the race that saw just fourteen riders finish.

2013 WSBK Motorlan Aragon Race 1 results:

01- Chaz Davies – BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK Team – BMW S1000RR – 20 laps in 39’50.332
02- Sylvain Guintoli – Aprilia Racing Team – Aprilia RSV4 Factory – + 5.216
03- Marco Melandri – BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK Team – BMW S1000RR – + 7.089
04- Jonathan Rea – Pata Honda World Superbike Team – Honda CBR 1000RR – + 8.196
05- Loris Baz – Kawasaki Racing Team – Kawasaki ZX-10R – + 14.417
06- Jules Cluzel – FIXI Crescent Suzuki – Suzuki GSX-R 1000 – + 18.332
07- Carlos Checa – Team Ducati Alstare – Ducati 1199 Panigale R – + 24.306
08- Michel Fabrizio – Red Devils Roma – Aprilia RSV4 Factory – + 25.884
09- Leon Haslam – Pata Honda World Superbike Team – Honda CBR 1000RR – + 35.721
10- Ayrton Badovini – Team Ducati Alstare – Ducati 1199 Panigale R – + 44.129

Après ES13 : Matinée difficile pour VW / a scary morning for VW…

There was drama on SS12 and SS13 in Portugal this morning. Mikko Hirvonen is now up to second overall and is splitting the Volkswagen Polo R WRCs of Sébastien Ogier, who still leads, and Jari-Matti Latvala (3rd).

L’ES12 et l’ES13 ont quelque peu relancé le Vodafone Rallye de Portugal 2013. Mikko Hirvonen (2e) est désormais intercalé entre les Volkswagen Polo R WRC/Michelin de Sébastien Ogier, toujours leader, et de Jari-Matti Latvala (3e).

The final day of the 2013 Rally de Portugal features a copious programme of 147.64 competitive kilometres, including two attempts at the awesome ‘Almodovar’ stage. The 52.30km test is the longest of the event and the toughest on tyres. It also includes some 32 km of ‘paved’ sections.

This year, the drivers’ total tyre quotas have been reduced by 40 percent compared with 2012’s visit to Portugal (24 covers for the entire rally) and the stocks of fresh hard-compound Latitude Cross H2s had diminished ahead of the start of the last leg. This morning, Ogier and Latvala left service with six ‘hard’ tyres, Mads Ostberg with five ‘hards’, and Hirvonen with four ‘hards’ and two ‘softs’.

The day began badly for Volkswagen Motorsport on the opening stage (‘Silves’, SS12) when Jari-Matti Latvala’s Polo R WRC switched to rear-wheel drive only, while Sébastien Ogier was slowed by clutch trouble. The Finn was passed into second place by Mikko Hirvonen (Citroën/Michelin) who has closed to within 37.9s of Ogier.

Latvala’s transmission problem continued on ‘Almodovar’, but Sébastien Ogier succeeded in posting the second best time (+168s) behind Mads Ostberg. “I was as gentle on the clutch as I could be,” said Ogier after the ordeal. The French is still in front, 49.3s clear of Hirvonen. Latvala is third, but fourth-placed Evgeny Novikov is only 41.4s behind him.

La dernière journée du Rallye du Portugal 2013 totalise 147,64 km chronométrés avec deux passages dans la terrifiante spéciale d’Almodovar (52,30 km), la plus longue et la plus dure du rallye pour les pneumatiques avec au moins 32 km de « secteurs pavés » comme diraient les fans de cyclisme en évoquant Paris-Roubaix.

Or, avec des quotas de pneumatiques réduits de 40% par rapport au Rallye du Portugal 2012 (24 enveloppes pour toute l’épreuve cette année), les stocks de pneus Latitude Cross H2 neufs ont fortement diminué au départ de cette dernière journée. Ce matin, Ogier et Latvala sont partis avec 6H2, Mads Ostberg avec 5H2, Novikov et Hirvonen avec 4H2+2S2.

Avant Almodovar, la spéciale de Silves (ES12) fut un bien mauvais scénario pour l’équipe Volkswagen Motorsport. La Polo R WRC de Jari-Matti Latvala s’est retrouvée en mode propulsion et celle de Sébastien Ogier a connu des ennuis d’embrayage. Le Finlandais a perdu sa deuxième place au profit de Mikko Hirvonen (Citroën/Michelin), lequel est revenu à 37s9 du leader Ogier.

Les soucis de transmission ont poursuivi Latvala sur les 52,30 km d’Almodovar, alors que Sébastien Ogier est parvenu à signer le deuxième meilleur temps à 16s8 de Mads Ostberg. « J’ai été prudent et le plus doux possible avec l’embrayage », a déclaré Ogier à l’arrivée, toujours leader avec 49s3 d’avance sur Hirvonen. Latvala est troisième, mais Evgeny Novikov est revenu à 41s4.