Front end set-up tweaks propel Pedrosa forward / Mise au point réussie pour Pedrosa

Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa attributed his afternoon improvement in Sepang on Thursday to some ‘big changes’ on his bike and a tweaked front end set-up, which aided his leap to a 2’00.039 best time.

The Spanish rider had been stranded in the unfamiliar territory of 11^th spot on the timesheet earlier in the day and was uncomfortable on the RC213V before his crew made some key set-up changes.

Pedrosa was still suffering from some jet-lag and had a quiet morning, only completing 15 laps. In the afternoon he began to work properly, focusing on setup of the front of his Honda prototype and also with mappings, completing 57 laps with a fastest time on lap 55.

“Things went well this afternoon,” reflected Pedrosa. “Even though this morning we were still having some issues and I wasn't able to ride comfortably. I had to stop early in order to make some big changes to the bike, and when we restarted after lunch I felt more comfortable and put in better laps.”

He added, “We focused on the front end and were able to find a good setup. Tomorrow we will focus on making progress with the rear, because we have to get the new tyre working better and increase grip. If all goes well, then perhaps tomorrow we will be able to do a race simulation.”

On Friday, the final day in Sepang, Pedrosa will switch to work on rear setup before he and his team head to Australia for the final winter three-day test.

Le pilote du team Repsol Honda a été le plus rapide jeudi à Sepang et a affirmé que ses progrès étaient dus aux modifications effectuées sur le train avant de son RC213V.

Onzième sur la feuille de temps en début de journée, Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda) était de retour aux affaires cet après-midi à Sepang et a signé le meilleur temps de la journée en 2’00.039. Le Catalan n’a fait qu’une quinzaine de tours ce matin sur une RC213V sur laquelle il n’était pas vraiment à l’aise mais s’est ensuite montré beaucoup plus rapide l’après-midi après avoir trouvé de meilleurs réglages à l’avant de sa machine.

« Ça s’est bien passé cet après-midi, alors que nous avions encore des problèmes à résoudre ce matin et que je n’étais pas complètement à l’aise, » a commenté Pedrosa. « J’ai dû rentrer assez tôt pour faire de gros changements sur la moto et lorsque nous sommes repartis, après le déjeuner, j’étais beaucoup plus à l’aise et j’ai pu faire de meilleurs tours. »

« Nous nous sommes concentrés sur le train avant et nous avons trouvé un bon set-up. Demain nous nous concentrerons sur l’arrière parce que nous devons tirer davantage du nouveau pneu arrière et gagner en grip. Si tout se passe bien, nous pourrons peut-être faire une simulation de course. »

En l’absence de son coéquipier Marc Márquez, blessé à la jambe droite, Pedrosa travaillera sur l’arrière de la RC213V vendredi lors de la dernière journée d’essais en Malaisie et continuera son travail de lundi à mercredi prochains en Australie, où il sera de nouveau le seul représentant du team Repsol Honda.

HELL'S GATE METZELER 2014 FINAL HIGHLIGHTS

FIFTY YEARS OF KICKS – MOTORCYCLE DOCUMENTARY

I love a good documentary, especially when it’s about motorcycles and it was made by friends. This fantastic 20 minute film follows the story of Paul Rodden and Larry Murray, two slightly older off-road motorcyclists who regularly go out on the trails with much younger men, and literally leave them in the dust.

Hit play and enjoy the film, I’ve seen it twice.

THE ULTIMA GTR

The Ultima GTR is the automotive equivalent of raw, uncut heroin. It’s offered by the factory as either a turn-key supercar or as a kit car, that latter option allows buyers to configure the final vehicle to their own specifications and price point. Most owners choose a large American V8 coupled to a Porsche G50 transaxle and horsepower figures from 350 all the way up to over 1,700 have been reported. As you can probably imagine, driving the GTR is a fun, frightening and borderline religious experience.

The Ultima was first launched in 1983 by acclaimed automotive engineer Lee Noble, over the past 31 years the Ultima has seen a steady pace of improvement with the current GTR being the evolution of the company’s original Ultima MKI. All Ultimas have been built using a rigid, lightweight steel space frame chassis with GRP bodywork and a mid-mounted V8 – this combination has been found to be the best balance between low cost and low weight.

The flexibility of the GTR has led to it being used by racing teams around the world for a variety of motorsport events, an Ultima chassis was also used by McLaren when they were testing the drivetrain of the McLaren F1 – possibly the greatest vote of confidence a small car maker could receive.

Pricing on the Ultima GTR has always been surprisingly affordable due to the fact that the kit can be bought part-by-part which helps to significantly reduce the initial financial outlay. Sourcing a suitable V8 and transmission is the only other large expense and this can be done relatively cheaply if you don’t mind buying secondhand and doing the refurbishment work yourself.

In 2009 a 720hp factory-built version of the GTR set a slew of new world records including:

Fastest 0-60mph time: 2.6 seconds
Fastest 0–100mph time: 5.3 seconds
Best performance on a skidpad: 1.176g of lateral grip
Fastest road car over the 1/4 mile: 9.9 seconds @ 143 mph
Fastest 0-100-0mph time: 9.4 seconds

Each of these records was set with a road legal car, fitted with road legal tires. Fans of the UK TV show Top Gear might also be interested to know that the GTR holds the unofficial lap record of the Top Gear Test Track with a time of 1:12:28 – over a second faster than anything previously seen at the makeshift circuit.

If you’d like to build an Ultima you’ll need to ensure you have a little space in your shed or garage, then US residents will need to click here, and UK/Rest of the World residents will need to click here. I’ve always thought that the great benefit of the Ultima is that it offers Lamborghini and Ferrari spanking performance at a blue collar price point, in some respects the GTR is the democratisation of the supercar. Now I just need to clear some space in the garage.

The images in this article show an Ultima that has been modified slightly from stock, all Ultima owners customise their cars to a degree, so it’s quite difficult to find one in factory-stock condition. If you’d like to see an unmodified Ultima GTR fresh out of the factory you can click here.

Photo Credits: G F Williams