Wednesday’s WRC notes: Mexico / Les brèves du mercredi…

The Wednesday after every WRC round, we look back at some of the anecdotes and stories thrown up by the event. Today, it’s the turn of Rally Mexico…

Before traveling to Leon, Mikko Hirvonen spent three days in Los Angeles to watch a hockey game and visit Hollywood. The Finn is known to be a big cinema fan. After Sweden, Andreas Mikkelsen took a few days off in New York.

Volkswagen’s trip back to Germany was something of an ordeal: Leon to Dallas, then on to London and Frankfurt, before taking a train to Hannover. All the obvious flights were full because of the CeBit Computer Show.

Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari, last year’s WRC-2 vice-champion and the class’s winner in Mexico in 2013, had to withdraw his entry when a sponsor pulled out. The North American event will still count as one of his seven nominated rounds for the season, says the FIA. Abdulaziz is expected to compete in Argentina.

Volkswagen Mexico had planned to organise a ‘road show’ in the streets of Mexico City ahead of the rally but the event was eventually cancelled. The team’s drivers used their visit to the capital to attend a number of interviews.

The FIA’s Rallies Commission meets in Paris today. The agenda includes the possible use of asphalt rain tyres from Rallye Deutschland onwards and ‘Rally2’ start orders…

A pace note error was the cause of Ott Tanak’s ‘off’ 500 metres into SS3: “It was a fast flowing portion and I thought I heard ‘right over crest’. It turned out to be a ‘left’.” After that misadventure, the Estonian collected all the WRC-2 fastest stage times. In Portugal, he will be back in a Ford Fiesta RS WRC/Michelin.

M-Sport (N°6 Ford) and Hyundai Motorsport (N°7 i20 WRC) were fined €2,500 and €5,000 respectively for service park infractions during fuel tank changes (no fire extinguisher, no safety cordon, etc.). Hyundai recalled that it is new to the WRC, but its defence apparently wasn’t taken on board…

Frenchman Quentin Gilbert, who was competing in a Ford Fiesta R5 for the first time, had a different co-driver in Mexico. His usual right-hand man, Renaud Jamoul, was in Belgium for the birth of his son, Robin. Congratulations to the happy family. Nicolas Klinger stepped in as replacement at the last moment. However, after an early ‘off’ and a turbo sensor problem on the Saturday, their rally ended on Sunday morning (radiator).

Mexico’s Benito Guerra hopes sixth place on his home event will lead to other things. He would like to contest Rally Argentina (although he is not yet on M-Sport’s list for the event), and two or three other rounds of the WRC in a Ford Fiesta RS WRC. All his sponsors were in Leon to follow last week’s event and a big business dinner was organised on Saturday evening. We shall see…

Le mercredi après chaque rallye WRC, Best-of-Rallylive revient sur l’épreuve écoulée au travers de petites anecdotes et autres faits croustillants. Arriba, voici les brèves rapportées du Mexique

Avant de se rendre au Mexique, Mikko Hirvonen a passé trois jours à Los Angeles où il assisté à un match de hockey et visité Hollywood. On sait que le Finlandais est un grand fan de cinéma. Après la Suède, Andreas Mikkelsen avait pris quelques jours « off » à New York.

Le retour du team Volkswagen en Allemagne n’a pas été des plus directs : Leon, Dallas, Londres, Francfort et pour finir, en train jusqu’à Hanovre. Les vols étaient tous complets en raison du Salon mondial de l’informatique.

Le vice-champion WRC-2 2013 et vainqueur de la catégorie au Mexique l’an passé Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari a déclaré forfait suite à la défection d’un sponsor. La FIA n’a pas accepté sa requête et ce rallye comptera bien dans son quota de sept manches WRC-2 nominées cette saison. Il devrait être présent en Argentine.

Volkswagen Mexique devait organiser un « road-show » dans les rue de Mexico avant le rallye, mais il a été annulé. Les pilotes ont tout de même profité de leur escale dans la capitale mexicaine pour répondre à de nombreuses interviewes.

La Commission des Rallyes se réunit aujourd’hui à Paris. Au menu des discussions, la possibilité d’utiliser des pneus pluie sur asphalte à partir du Rallye d’Allemagne, l’ordre des départs des voitures en Rally2 et diverses petites choses…

Une erreur de notes est à l’origine de la sortie de route d’Ott Tanak après 500 m dans l’ES3 : « C’était dans une partie rapide où les virages s’enchaînent. J’ai compris « droite sur crête » et c’était un « gauche ». L’Estonien a ensuite réalisé tous les meilleurs temps WRC-2. Il retrouvera la Ford Fiesta RS WRC/Michelin au Portugal.

M-Sport (Ford N°6) et Hyundai Motorsport (i20 WRC N°7) ont reçu respectivement 2500 et 5000 € d’amende pour des infractions commises au parc d’assistance lors du remplacement de réservoir d’essence (absence d’extincteur, pas de périmètre de sécurité…). Hyundai a plaidé ses débuts en WRC, mais n’a visiblement pas été entendu…

Pour son 1^er rallye sur la Ford Fiesta R5, Quentin Gilbert n’avait pas son copilote habituel, Renaud Jamoul, resté en Belgique pour assister à la naissance de son fils Robin. Félicitations aux heureux parents. Nicolas Klinger l’a remplacé au pied levé. Après une touchette, puis des ennuis de capteur de turbo samedi, le rallye s’est terminé dimanche matin (radiateur).

Le Mexicain Benito Guerra espère une suite à sa 6^e place au Mexique. Il aimerait disputer le Rallye d’Argentine (mais il n’était pas encore inscrit au planning chez M-Sport), voire deux ou trois autres manches mondiales cette saison sur la Ford Fiesta RS WRC. Tous ses sponsors étaient sur le rallye et avaient organisé un important dîner « d’affaires » samedi soir… A suivre.

THE MUSKET ROYAL ENFIELD V-TWIN

The Musket is the motorcycle that Royal Enfield should be building – or at very least the engine that they should have used in the the new Royal Enfield Continental GT cafe racer. It was designed from the outset to use as many stock Enfield parts as possible, with only the only significant new parts being the crank, exhaust and the engine case, the rest of the engine (and motorcycle) is built from original parts including the cylinders, pistons and heads.

This further convinces me that Royal Enfield need to buy the rights to this engine, then drop it into their ageing production line.

Originally designed and engineered by Aniket Vardhan, a native of India, the home turf of the Royal Enfield Motorcycles and a nation well-known for repurposing older technologies to keep them relevant and useable in the modern day. Aniket grew up like many Indian boys, love the putt-putt-putt of the antiquated single cylinder motorcycles pottering around the streets and alleyways of the subcontinent.

As he grew older he learned about the Harley-Davidson Motorcycle Company and their iconic V-Twins – a plan began to form and by the time he had moved to the USA to get his Masters in Industrial Design he had a well-formed idea in his head for a new kind of Enfield. An Enfield that would be twice as powerful, twice as loud and at least twice as much fun.

Aniket’s first attempt at the Enfield V-Twin was based on two 350cc engines, he created an entirely new crankcase and sandcast it himself. He was careful to over-engineer any new components and so with this in mind he made sure that the new crankcase was actually thicker and heavier than it really need to be – just to make sure it was the strongest link in the chain.

When he released his new 700cc Enfield to the world the motosphere lit up like a fireworks display over the Bikini Atoll, people all over the world contacted him with requests that he sell them one of his engines and the demand was such that he put the new V-Twin into limited production. Skip forward a couple of years to the present day and Aniket is well-known for building exceedingly reliable engines, as is always the case people wanted more power and so he’s been hard at work creating an entirely new engine based on two cylinders from the larger 500cc Enfield single.

The bike you see here is fitted with the new 59 degree, 998cc V-Twin and early reports indicate that it’s capable of over 70hp. Somewhat incredibly the new engine can be bolted into the frame of an original Royal Enfield Bullet 500 with only a slight bend in the top tube required to make it fit. The new engine with a slightly tighter angle between cylinders looks almost like the iconic V-Twin from the Vincent Black Shadow – perhaps not surprising when you consider that the Vincent engine was also originally constructed from two cylinders originally designed for a single cylinder motorcycle.

If you’d like to read more about the Musket or order your own, you can click here to visit the official website.

via SILODROME

HAKOFUGU cafe

2015 YAMAHA SR400 BY PALHEGYI DESIGN

Is any confirmation needed that a large sector of the motorcycle-buying public is bored with anodyne, plastic-clad offerings? This is it: The venerable Yamaha SR400 goes on sale in the USA in June, following its relaunch in Europe.

Yes, we’re talking about a simple mid-capacity roadster with a narrow frame, a kickstart, old-style switchgear and a flat bench seat. For some folks, that simplicity is reason enough to buy an SR400. But for many others, the biggest plus is getting instant access to a staggering number of custom parts from around the world—and owning a bike that is remarkably easy to work on and personalize.

Jeff Palhegyi has managed to get his hands on one of the first SR400s to land in the USA, and he’s shown what’s possible with relatively simple mods. Even better, he built this bike in eight days flat.

“An old-school TT500-style custom was the plan,” Jeff explains. “On Day One we installed the cool Heidenau tires, and measured the chassis for custom shocks from Racetech.” Next came the chassis work, but even that was easy.

“Chopping off the rear of the chassis—along with the excess tabs and mounts—was a breeze. Then we formed up a new rear frame hoop, mounted custom fenders, and mocked up new side panels.” While the side panels were being fabricated, Jeff installed a new headlight from Dime City Cycles, a Koso instrument, and bars from Observe Design Innovate. To clean up the back end, a new aluminum Omega Racer swingarm from MotoLanna was installed, and Howard McKee fashioned an ultra-simple old-style seat.

Jeff then mocked up a new exhaust system, using little more than offcuts of stainless steel tubing. That used up the rest of the week, but still left time for Benny Flores to craft the immaculate paint job.

The result is a lightweight, timeless urban scrambler that should put a smile on the dial of even the most hardened biker. We’re sold on the idea, and betting that the USA market will be too.

Images by Ryan Hagel. There’s more on the Yamaha SR400 USA model here. And take a look at this SR400, commissioned by Yamaha Europe from the Wrenchmonkees.

via BIKEEXIF