Latvala tops Mexican shakedown order / Latvala le plus rapide aux essais

The WRC drivers found themselves back on gravel today for the first time since last year’s Wales Rally GB, more than 100 days ago. Jari-Matti Latvala (VW/Michelin) posted the fastest time.

With the two days of recce completed, the crews switched to their rally cars this morning for Rally Mexico’s shakedown which visited ‘Llano Grande’, the Qualifying Stage in 2013 when Mikko Hirvonen was fastest with an effort of 3m57.2s on soft-compound Michelin Latitude Cross S2 tyres.

The concept of Qualifying Stages has been dropped this season, but crews must now complete four passes of the shakedown test. After two familiarisation runs on hard Michelins (H2), Sébastien Ogier returned to the service park in Leon with the best provisional time in his pocket (3m57.5s), ahead of Latvala and Kris Meeke who were equal on 3m59.7s. Mads Ostberg (4m0.5s) and Mikko Hirvonen (4m1.6s) were next on the list, while the two Hyundai i20 WRCs were seventh and eighth. The Korean team’s Chris Atkinson, who is making his WRC comeback after a year’s absence, reported that his suspension set-up was too hard.

Ogier’s third attempt saw him improve to 3m55.6s, but team-mate Latvala‘s final run produced a 3m53.6s, an improvement of 3.6s over 2013… on ‘hard’ tyres! Meeke (Citroën DS3 WRC) ended up with the second-best time (3m54.7s), ahead of the world champion.

The top five was rounded off by Andreas Mikkelsen (VW Polo R WRC) and Mads Ostberg (Citroën DS3 WRC), chased by Hirvonen (Ford Fiesta RS WRC) and Thierry Neuville (Hyundai i20 WRC) who failed to get beneath the four-minute mark.

After two runs, the WRC-2 timesheet was topped by Ott Tanak, ahead of Nicola Fuchs and Quentin Gilbert, all in Ford Fiesta R5s.

Thursday’s menu will end with the spectacular start ceremony in Guanajuato and the 1.01km super-special which visits the maze of tunnels that lie beneath the former mining town.

Plus de cent jours après l’arrivée du Wales Rally GB 2013, les pilotes du WRC ont retrouvé leurs marques sur les pistes en terre à l’occasion du shakedown disputé ce matin. Jari-Matti Latvala (VW/Michelin) a réalisé le meilleur temps.

Après deux jours de reconnaissances, les concurrents ont enfin pris le volant de leur voiture de course pour parcourir la spéciale d’essais, Llano Grande, identique à l’édition 2013, où Mikko Hirvonen avait réalisé le meilleur chrono en 3min57s2. Il s’agissait alors de la Qualifying Stage qu’il avait disputée en pneus Michelin Latitude Cross S2 (soft).

Plus de Qualifying Stage au programme cette année, mais quatre passages d’essais obligatoires. Après deux tours parcourus en gommes H2 hard, Sébastien Ogier est rentré au parc d’assistance de Leon avec le meilleur temps provisoire (3min57s5) devant Jari-Matti Latvala et Kris Meeke ex-aequo en 3min59s7. Les pilotes Volkswagen s’étaient élancés au shakedown dans l’ordre de la 1^ère étape vendredi. Suivaient Mads Ostberg et Mikko Hirvonen (4min00s5 et 4min01s6). Les nouvelles Hyundai i20 WRC pointaient aux 7^e et 8^e places avec des suspensions trop dures pour l’Australien Chris Atkinson, de retour en Mondial après un an d’absence.

Le champion du monde en titre a amélioré le temps de référence en signant 3min55s6 à sa 3^etentative, mais son équipier Jari-Matti Latvala a sorti un 3min53s6 lors de son dernier run, soit 3s6 de moins qu’en 2013 et en pneus Michelin hard ! Kris Meeke (Citroën DS3 WRC) a signé le 2^e temps en 3min54s7 devant Sébastien Ogier qui n’a pas amélioré à son 4^e essai.

Andreas Mikkelsen (VW Polo R WRC) et Mads Ostberg (Citroën DS3 WRC) complètent le top-five devant Mikko Hirvonen (Ford Fiesta RS WRC) et Thierry Neuville (Hyundai i20 WRC) qui n’est pas descendu sous la barre des 4min00s. En WRC-2, après deux passages, Ott Tanak détenait le meilleur temps devant Nicola Fuchs et Quentin Gilbert, tous sur Ford Fiesta R5.

La journée se terminera par la spectaculaire cérémonie de départ à Guanajuato et la Superspéciale d’1,01 km tracée dans les entrailles de l’ancienne cité minière.

MOTONERO BLACK ROADSTER

Motonero have been quietly producing high quality builds out of Bristol in the west of England for the past twenty years, producing custom Guzzis that have set the benchmark for the UK’s Guzzi aficionados, but without the kind of fanfare we’ve come to expect in the modern custom scene. You’ve probably seen John’s bikes without knowing who built them, and if that’s the case we hope to start putting things to rights.

John’s early interest in bikes started with his older brother and his ‘greaser’ mates, with his first bike a 250cc Triumph Trailblazer bought in ’74. Since then, John has built a number of notable Guzzis, but this 2007 all-black build, originally inspired by a photo in a German specialist parts catalogue, is what spawned the ‘Motonero’ moniker for all of John’s subsequent builds and blog.

John has been creating cafe racers with alloy tank upgrades, shortened seats, and forks swaps since the ’90s “I haven’t had a Guzzi in standard form for decades” but this was the first build that involved significant frame modifications and custom-machined components.

The frame is from a 1975 Guzzi (John’s unsure of the model but the frames from that era were all essentially the same) with a custom aluminium seat base made to John’s design by “an employee at Airbus” and upholstered in black marine vinyl.

The 850cc engine has been swapped out for an early ’90s LeMans 1000S with big valves and 40mm carbs, “…a good combination with a great handling frame with my preferred choice of short headstock and shorter swingarm”. Although not as pretty as the earlier round-finned engines the later LeMans 1000 motor (actually a 950cc) does offer an extra 10-15bhp at the rear wheel and a top speed of about 130mph: “I’m not really into top end figures though it’s nice to know it’s there and that at normal 70-90mph speeds you’re not straining the engine.”

The exhaust is a free-flowing stainless system made by Mistral in Italy: “The silencers are quite heavy but they do have a lovely deep tone”.

At the front end, John has replaced the original ’70s forks with USD Paioli forks from a mid ’90s Laverda ‘Zane’ 650 Kevlar, using the standard yokes with a shortened steering stem. Stopping power is provided by 4-pot Brembo calipers and wavy disks with specially-machined carriers to accept the modern setup. “I’ve always liked the mixture of modern parts with older styling, and you can’t get much more readily-available ‘classic style’ in the bike world than a Moto Guzzi.”

The wheel hubs are standard ’70s Guzzi T3 items with non-standard 17″ (2.50) front and 18″ (3.00) rear rims powder-coated black. The tyres, a ‘part worn, little used’ eBay purchase, are 130/80 Bridgestone BT45 rear and 110/80 Aero Speed front (no, we’d never heard of them before either!)

“I always intended for it to handle reasonably well and be relatively comfortable for a 200-300 mile ride. The handling’s good but the Paioli yokes have created very little steering lock with the standard LeMans I petrol tank”. Small price to pay, we’d say, …just be careful where you park-up; back-wheel to the curb.
We’ll be posting more from John and Motonero in the future, meanwhile check the Motonero Blog. Photos are courtesy of Italian Motor Magazine

YAMAHA XS750 CUSTOM

The Yamaha XS750 was produced from 1977 to 1979 before being replaced by the larger XS850, the model never saw the same production numbers as the wildly popular parallel-twin Yamaha XS650 but we’ve been seeing more and more custom XS750s coming to light in recent months – like the one you see here.

It isn’t often that we come across a custom bike builder based in Montana, I imagine it’s because the residents of Big Sky Country have better things to do (like running away from bears) – so when New Zealander Colin Cornberg moved to Missoula 2 years ago he set about finding himself a motorcycle and getting to work on it.

He found a 1977 Yamaha XS750 being sold nearby in Bitterroot Valley and went to have a look, the bike was in terrible condition and had clearly suffered a great deal in the last few years of its life. The original engine’s  electronic timing unit had been barbecued in an engine fire and had one bent valve and one that had broken off completely – fortunately the sale included a spare engine that was in far better condition and so Colin’s first major task was to rebuild this spare engine, remove the original unit and bolt the newly refurbished powerplant into place.

Once this was done, Colin set to work stripped the bike back to the frame and rebuilding it as his own interpretation of a minimalist, survivalist motorcycle – the sort of thing MadMax would ride if he happened to live in Montana when the world ended.

A new, much simplified wiring loom was first on the to do list, anyone who’s ever attempted to make a wiring loom from scratch will immediately understand how much fun this isn’t. The stock air box was removed and new high-flow pod filters were added, a new seat pan and seat were bolted on above and a pair of clip-ons replaced the stock handlebars. Both the carburettors and brakes needed a full rebuild before they were able to be trusted and the forks needed to be disassembled and tidied up before compression was reliable.

The completed bike with its blacked-out engine, clear coated steel fuel tank and seat pan, wrapped exhaust and minimalist gauge cluster is a fantastic example of what a cafe racer should look like – a stripped back bike that’s quicker than the original and an order of magnitude more fun.

Colin is currently working on establishing Number 8 Wire Motorcycles in Montana, possibly the only cafe racer garage in the state. He’s hard at work on more customs in the vein of the Yamaha XS750 you see here, so if you’d like one for yourself hit that link above and pay him a visit.

If you’d like to stay in the loop on new builds you can click to Like the Number 8 Wire Motorcycles Facebook Page.

via SILODROME

Celebrate Retro at the 2014 Phillip Island Classic

Image: Derek Hanbidge

The Southern Hemisphere’s biggest and most action-packed historic motorsport event, the Phillip Island Classic, is just a week away, set for the 7th to the 9th of March, and this year they’re going retro to celebrate their 25th anniversary.

25th anniversary celebrations kick off where it matters – 25% more racing. The event will feature a record 44 events over the Saturday and Sunday alone, which will keep the entry list of around 500 racing, sports and touring cars from the past 100 years of motorsport history pretty busy.

Among that racing will be feature races for combined Group C & A Touring Cars spanning the ’70s and ’80s, including seven-time Bathurst winner Jim Richards in his 1990 Australian Touring Car Championship-winning Nissan HR31 Turbo.

Wings and slicks will have a commanding presence at the event, with a capacity grid of Formula 1, Formula 5000 and Indy cars, headlined by John Bowe driving Joe Calleja’s ’74 March 741 Formula 1.

“Let’s just say we’re planning to put on a good show. No one will be queuing for a hamburger while we’re on!” - Craig Miles

Looking forward to a time when Australian 5.0 Litre Touring Cars are accepted by CAMS in historic motorsport, Australian V8 Supercar racing will be represented by a special demonstration event for Ford and Holden V8 Supercars which competed between 1993 and 2002, some steered by their original drivers.

Celebrating the 40th anniversary of Peter Brock’s back-to-back victories in the ’73 and ’74 Australian Touring Car Championship will be his ’73 XU-1, ’74 SL/R 5000 and 2003 Bathurst 24-Hour-winning 7-Litre Holden Monaro 427C.

Other famous cars include Mark Donohue’s 1974 IROC 911 RSR 3.0 Litre Coupe, which he drove to his final race win and clinched the 1974 International Race of Champions series in the final round at Daytona, before his death in 1975. These cars were specially-built monsters, created by Porsche for a ‘who’s who’ of racers to contest the 1974 International Race of Champions series.

Sir Jack Brabham will be feted at the event in celebration of his amazing life and achievements, including a lap of honor joined by many of the drivers against whom he competed, and will be joined by his 1966 World Championship Repco Brabham BT19 and up to a dozen Brabham racing cars from the ’60s.

The 2014 Phillip Island Classic Festival of Motorsport, presented by the VHRR, will be held from the 7th to the 10th of March at the classic Phillip Island Classic Circuit. Head to the official websiteand Facebook page here for more information.

Admission:
Friday, March 7: $30.00
Saturday, March 8: $35.00
Sunday, March 9: $45.00
Two-day (Sat-Sun) pass: $70.00
Three-day weekend pass: $90.00
Children Under 16: Free
Pensioner concession: $5.00
Paddock entry: Free

The 2014 Phillip Island Classic Festival of Motor Sport presented by the VHRR is again being supported by Shannons, CoolDrive and Penrite, with additional support this year from Dutton Garage, Repco, Zagame, RDA Brakes and Trico.