East Belgian Rally 2013 - Ford Fiësta S2000 - Kobus/de Wild

A  very high speed stage in Belgium with one of the fasted dutch drivers of this moment, Hermen Kobus navigated by Erik de Wild.
Stage 10 of the East Belgian Rally 2013

The Impossible Journey - 1955.

With the glistening promise of two specially equipped Land Rovers, the expedition was up and running


On September 1, 1955 we took off from London. Two weeks later we were in Istanbul and heading to the Asian shore. By the time we had driven across 500 miles of desert from Damascus to Baghdad, the expedition had been on the road for nearly two months.



As undergraduates we had no money, no cars, no nothing. How about putting together an expedition to drive to Singapore? Crazy? Maybe. But why not?

It would be one of the longest of all overland journeys: halfway round the world, from the English Channel to Singapore.

On arrival to Pakistan’s cultural capital Lahore, an English-language newspaper heralded the expedition as “As a boat race on wheels”.

Next stop Delhi, then down the famous Grand Trunk Road to Calcutta. This was where the nursery slopes ended and the expedition really began.

While we had always planned to hit northern Burma in the driest month of the dry season, that year’s dry season had been the driest for at least a decade. It seemed that the gods who looked after Land Rovers and all those who travel in them were listening to our prayers.

Through Bangkok, Malaya and from there to Singapore. Six months, six days and nearly 16,000 miles, we pulled up and switched off, people clapped and cheered, flash bulbs popped, reporters buzzed out. We had arrived.

from Land Rover Owner 

Yamaha Star Bolt by JPD Customs

A little while back Yamaha gave one of their fresh off the factory floor Star Bolt’s to 10 custom bike builders. The brief was pretty simple, do whatever you want with it. Jeff Palhegyi from JPD Customs was one of the chosen builders. Over the years Jeff has created more than 60 individual custom Stars for Yamaha, but this was his first Star Bolt. After throwing around a few concepts, Jeff decided to turn the Bolt into a retro styled dirt tracker. "I have always been a fan of Dirt Track Racing and the Star Bolt ‘Dirt Track Concept' was a natural fit" he says. The bike may not have won the Bolt Build Off – that was awarded to Doc's Chops – but it did receive a lot of attention and is still one of our favourite Bolt builds.

Initially, Jeff and his team were just going to add dirt track wheels and bodywork to build this street tracker, after purchasing these items they figured out that the steering head was too high and the swing arm too long. Placing the chassis in the fixture they cut the top tube away from the chassis, along with that went the steering head down tubes and eventually the whole bottom of the chassis. 

After reworking the chassis, they realized that modifying the stock tank was going to work nicely. The stock tank was chopped down 2 inches. They also shortened the swing arm almost 3 inches and put everything together only to see that the shocks stuck out in the wind with the dirt track tail section. "Back out came the sawzall and the rear of the chassis was cut away, Geeze there was nothing left!" says Jeff. "I got on the phone with Penske and a custom dirt track monoshock was on the way. With all that done the tail was still not right, I sectioned it and added 2 inches, fabbed up a subframe, hand made aluminium side covers and number plates."

With the build deadline looming, Jeff still didn’t like the way the stock headlight looked and he also needed an exhaust."Burns stainless provided the cool ultra lite mufflers and a bunch of u-bends to build the exhaust. I went online and found the perfect size lights from KC and fabbed up the new aluminium front number plate. Yamaha R6 forks were used and we machined the retro TZ look carrier and front rotor, wheels are from Dave at Jupiter wheel, tires are Goodyear Dirt Track, seat was made by Howard McKee and the paint was laid on by our regular Benny Flores. When we were done, there was almost a complete Yamaha Bolt on the floor of the workshop, less the engine and electrical."  

The Bolt's simplicity really helped Jeff and his team achieve this stripped down retro dirt tracker. "I'll be the first to admit we got a little carried away with the fabrication work" he says. "It was great fun and that's what a bike build is all about." 

from pipeburn 

le VESPA !!!!!