GILBERT REMPORTE LE TITRE EN WRC 3 / GILBERT TAKES WRC 3 TITLE

S'IL A MANQUÉ LA VICTOIRE, SON OBJECTIF INITIAL POUR LA FINALE, QUENTIN GILBERT S'EST ASSURÉ DU TITRE EN FIA WRC 3 AU RALLYE DE GRANDE-BRETAGNE

Déjà sacré en Junior WRC en Corse, le Français espérait finir la saison en beauté avec un nouveau succès ce week-end. Mais alors qu'il occupait la tête, la casse d'une courroie de la pompe à eau l'obligeait à s'arrêter vendredi. 

Samedi, il repartait en sixième position du WRC 3. Sa série de scratches lui permettait de remonter au troisième rang derrière Ole Christian Veiby et Fabio Andolfi, suffisant pour lui assurer la couronne.

"Lorsque notre pompe à eau nous a lâché, nous avons dû repartir en Rally 2", résumait-il. "Ce type de problème mécanique peut arriver et nous le comprenons parfaitement." 

"Dès lors, le rallye a été différent. Il était impossible de s'imposer donc nous avons essayé de prendre du plaisir. Je connaissais bien les spéciales et les conditions difficiles sont typiques du Rallye de Grande-Bretagne. Je pense que c'était une bonne expérience pour le futur. Et dans l'ensemble, cette saison a été incroyable - bien meilleure que l'an passé !"

Avec son copilote Renaud Jamoul, Gilbert retrouvera le championnat dès 2016 afin de disputer une saison en WRC 2 avec Citroën, récompense de leur titre en Junior WRC.

QUENTIN GILBERT SECURED THE FIA WRC 3 TITLE AT WALES RALLY GB DESPITE MISSING OUT ON HIS TARGET OF A CLASS WIN AT THE SEASON FINALE.

Having wrapped up the Junior WRC title in Corsica, the Frenchman hoped to round off the season in style with another win this weekend. But after taking the early lead he was forced out on Friday with a broken water pump belt. 

He restarted on Saturday sixth in WRC 3 and set a string of fastest times to climb to third, behind Ole Christian Veiby and Fabio Andolfi and guarantee the crown.

"After we lost our water pump we had to rely on Rally 2. These sort of mechanical things happen and we understand that, it's no problem," he said. 

"After that it was another rally. It was not possible to win so we just tried to enjoy it. I know the stages well and although the conditions were difficult they were what you expect on Wales Rally GB. Good experience for the future I think. Overall it has been an incredible season - and much better than last year," he added.

Gilbert and co-driver Renaud Jamoul will return to the championship in 2016 for a season in WRC 2 with Citroën, their prize for winning the Junior WRC title.

Suzuki Savage 400 cafe

SUPER GT Motegi : Victoire Lexus, Quintarelli/Matsuda (Nissan) sacrés !

par Laurent Mercier "ENDURANCE-iNFO;COM°

Les concurrents du SUPER GT ont une fois de plus régalé les nombreux fans qui ont fait le déplacement jusqu’à Motegi pour assister à la victoire de la Lexus RC F/KeePer de Andrea Caldarelli et Ryo Hirasawa. Le titre 2015 est tombé dans l’escarcelle de la Nissan GT-R/NISMO de Ronnie Quintarelli et Tsugio Matsuda, et ce pour la deuxième fois consécutive. Michelin décroche pour sa part une 4ème couronne en 5 ans. Quant à Ronnie Quintarelli, il devient le premier pilote à remporter quatre titres en GT500.

La Toyota Prius/apr de Koki Saga et Yuchi Nakayama s’est imposée en GT300, le titre étant joué avant la finale avec le sacre de André Couto sur la Nissan GT-R GT3 NISMO/Gainer. Nissan est donc titré dans les deux catégories.

Avant le départ de cette ultime manche de l’année, ils étaient mathématiquement encore six à pouvoir être sacrés même si les deux GT500 à suivre étaient les Nissan GT-R Team Impul et NISMO, l’écart entre elles de deux points. Alors que les équipes venaient se mettre sur la grille en pneus slicks, l’averse tombée à quelques minutes du départ rendait le choix de pneumatiques cornélien, la majorité optant pour les gommes “wet”. En partant de la 5ème place contre la 12ème à la Nissan/NISMO, le Team Impul s’élançait avec un peu d’air.

Le début de course a vite tourné à l’avantage de la Lexus de Caldarelli et la Honda NSX Concept-GT/Nakajima Racing de Bertrand Baguette, les deux prenant vite la poudre d’escampette. Avant la mi-course, deux des prétendants au titre perdaient toutes leurs chances. Alors qu’il avait fait le choix de partir en slicks, Daisuke Ito (Lexus/Petronas TOM’S) stoppait sa monture en bord de piste au 11ème tour. Seize boucles plus tard, c’est la Nissan GT-R/MOLA S-Road de Yanagida/Motoyama qui  devait abandonner suite à un contact avec une GT300, l’accrochage entraînant la sortie de la voiture de sécurité après que les leaders aient ravitaillé, exception faite de la Honda de Baguette.

Très prompt au restart, Tsugio Matsuda trouvait rapidement l’ouverture sur la Lexus/KeePer de Ryo Hirakawa. Le pilote Nissan est parvenu à garder les commandes durant plusieurs tours malgré une belle défense du pilote Lexus. Les deux ont dû se jouer d’un important trafic, chacun prenant des risques tout en restant très correct. Hirakawa a tout de même réussi à se hisser dans un trou de souris pour reprendre la tête avec un Matsuda qui devait contrôler le retour de la Nissan/Impul. La mission de Matsuda sur la Nissan #1 était claire : terminer devant la #12 qui se bagarrait pour la 3ème place face à la Honda NSX Concept-GT/Team Kunimitsu de Yamamoto/Izawa.

Matsuda s’est contenté de contrôler malgré le retour de Izawa et Yasuda, mais tout en mettant la pression sur le leader. A l’issue des 250 km de course (53 tours), la Lexus RC F/KeePer TOM’S de Ryo Hirakawa et Andrea Caldarelli s’est imposée pour la deuxième fois de la saison avec seulement 0.591s d’avance sur la Nissan GT-R/NISMO de Quintarelli/Matsuda et 1.3s sur la Honda NSX Concept-GT/Kunimitsu de Yamamoto/Izawa. On a donc les trois marques présentes en GT500 sur le podium. Saison à oublier pour le Nakajima Racing avec une sortie dans le bac de Daisuke Nakajima dès son entrée en piste.

Les résultats de Motegi en GT500 sont ici

Nissan a été la marque en forme de l’année avec 4 victoires contre 3 à Lexus et 1 à Honda. Vu d’Europe, le SUPER GT peut paraître comme un championnat quelconque, mais le GT japonais reste bien l’un des championnats les plus compétitifs de la planète.

En GT300, André Couto, champion 2015, n’a pris que la 6ème place au volant de la Nissan GT-R GT3 NISMO/Gainer qu’il partage avec Katsumasa Chiyo. Avec quatre victoires cette saison, la Nissan GT-R a été la GT3 la plus en vue de la saison. La Toyota Prius/apr de Saga/Nakayama a débuté l’année comme elle l’a terminé, c’est-à-dire par une victoire. Les pilotes Toyota ont subi la pression de la Mercedes SLS GT3/Goodsmile Racing & TeamUkyo de Taniguchi/Kataoka qui a pris la 2ème place à 0.976s. La Mercedes SLS AMG GT3/Gainer de Hiranaka/Wirdheim, tout de même à 1 tour de la tête, complète le tiercé de tête..

Les résultats GT300 sont là

le rideau est maintenant tiré sur la saison 2015. Le plateau 2016 devrait être assez semblable à ce que l’on a vu cette année.

How disruptive designs wrote automotive history

Where would we be without the designers and engineers who strove to push the automotive envelope? ‘Driven by Disruption’ from RM Sotheby’s endeavours to pay tribute to the spirit of these individuals. We spoke to Alain Squindo, Vice President of RM Sotheby’s, to learn more about this special sale…

As far as auctions go, the Driven by Disruption sale from RM Sotheby’s is shaping up to be rather special. After several months of quite extraordinary consignment announcements, the final list of 31 cars is now revealed, in all its disruptive glory. 

From the pioneering cars presented as a fully-fledged art exhibition, down to the specially designed hardcover catalogue (which itself delayed production by several weeks), the sale is aimed at “showcasing the extremes of motoring history and the moulds that were broken by designers pushing the automotive envelope”. Staged in the stunning gallery space on the 10th floor of the Sotheby’s headquarters in New York, it promises to be one of the finest automotive auctions of the year. This is what the Vice President of RM Sotheby’s Alain Squindo has to say...

Could you explain the general premise behind the Driven by Disruption sale?

The idea was to keep things fresh and find unusual and exciting cars for the auction. It’s always fun for clients, and for us, to have something thematic to work from, and to unite the exhibition. We’ve got beautiful gallery space on the 10th floor at Sotheby’s in which to showcase these cars, and we really wanted to have fun with this next exhibition and do something out of the box. Because of this, we looked for cars that were similarly out of the box, and that really broke the mould for their time.

That disruptiveness extends from the consignment of the cars to their presentation in the saleroom. We only have 31 cars, and we chose examples that, in their own ways, can be considered disruptive, whether for their genre, design, engineering, or whatever. Sure, we have high value cars, but it’s about more than that.

What is it that distinguishes this sale from others?

I think that the disruption is not only alluring, but it’s also attractive to buyers who want to see this exhibition. Like the catalogue, the sale breaks the mould of what has customarily become a pretty staid presentation of collectables, but it also carries intrinsic potential value. These cars that in their time were so revolutionary, and even off-putting, have had the chance to increase in desirability over the years. Consider, for example, the 1933 Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow – that car is absolutely mind-boggling. For its time, the way it was designed made it a very special car to begin with. Retrospectively, we realise that it’s turned into a very expensive, six-figure vehicle. For the consigner this sale is fun because it’s different, and for the visitor, they’re going to see something exciting.

Which era saw the most progress in automotive design?

I would argue that the greatest headway was made in the 1950s. I know that generally for car people their answer might be the classic era in the 1930s, but the reason I speak of the 1950s is because there was a lot happening in the world. It was the post-War era that, generally speaking, was thriving internationally for cars; coachbuilding was still in full effect for some very significant marques, such as Ferrari, and we were really starting to hit some high horsepower levels. There were 24-hour races with a lot of the great drivers starring, and the concours circuit in France was still active and influential. I think the 1950s were the perfect melting pot of different people’s creativity, and resulted in some pretty wild creations.

So if the classic era in France was a starter, Europe in the 1950s was the main course?

I think the really unusual creations emerged in the 1930s. In France, there were some very left-field coachbuilders on the concours circuit, producing some wild one-off creations, and even the American coachbuilders had some remarkable products. But heading into the post-War period and the 1950s, this really kick-started what would happen for the rest of the century. Take Ferrari, for example, which created one-off coachbuilt cars in the 1950s, and then turned to supercars in the 1960s and 70s. And what are we left with today? We’ve got the special series Enzos and LaFerraris – earth-shattering stuff whose genesis lies in those early days of the manufacturer.

You had the right visionaries who were leading the charge. You had the right leadership to think outside the box and break the mould in every category, be it performance, design, luxury... Whatever it might be, it takes a visionary to say let’s do it differently this time.

Who are your favourite car designers?

This gentleman’s name hadn’t even crossed my mind until this sale, but I find Luc Donckerwolke, who designed the Lamborghini Concept S, fascinating. He designed a car he wanted to drive, and the thing is completely wild. It’s a dual cockpit roadster of which only one was built, and it’s completely street-legal. I haven’t seen anything like that in years, and I think it pays great homage to history. The most amazing thing was that he designed it for himself. It was a glorious flash in the pan, and that was why we released it early, as it defined what Driven by Disruption is all about.

Which of the fabulous selection of cars in the catalogue best defines the Driven by Disruption theme?

The BMW M1 is a really great example. When you consider the history of the company, it made front-engined cars that were sometimes elegant and sometimes sporty. This was a complete break from tradition – a quintessentially 1980s Italian design with a mid-engine layout, that helped usher in the ‘M’ brand. There is something really disruptive about the M1.

The Porsche 911 Turbo is another.  Slapping a turbocharger on a rear-engined car like the 911; it was racing technology, it was borderline dangerous, and I think that kind of grit really makes it desirable. Like anything else in this category, it’s stood the test of time. It was crazy when it came out – it was the fastest car in the world  – but the engineers have been proven right, as it’s still one of the most desirable models in the world.

Are there any particular cars, designers or engineers who might be new to our readers?

From the sale, there’s the Pegaso Z-102. It’s interesting because it takes some guts to produce a car like that when you consider its timeframe. In 1950s post-War Spain, a time when microcars and public transport for European big-city living were coming into play, the fact that somebody produced the Pegaso in that cauldron is really astonishing. To build a sports car to go up against Ferrari at a time when it was financially ridiculous to do so is pretty amazing to me. It’s a great example of something that is lesser-known, but that really fits the bill.

Do you think there's room to innovate to the same extent in today’s world of automotive design?

The pessimistic answer is no. But time and again designers surprise us with really wild things, and that’s not just by design, but also by performance. Just as you think it’s not possible to sprint from 0-60mph in less than three seconds, it’s now regularly achieved in 2.5 seconds. The Bugatti Veyron is a good example to prove that, despite any pessimism we might have about how restrictive the car industry is today, there are still people out there trying to shatter those restraints.

If you could drive home from the sale in one car, which would it be?

I love the Mercedes 300 SL Gullwing, and the reason I love it is because I’m very involved in the operation side of our company, and it was a later consignment that was a real delight to hear about and work on. It’s such a neat thing. It’s been off the radar for some time, and I love how unbelievably rare it is. 

The alloy cars are frequently regarded as the Holy Grail, but the fact that there are four competition cars, of which only two survived, is absolutely mind-blowing. We’ve talked so much about Ferraris and how important they are to this industry, but this has to be one of the most important Mercedes-Benzes to come to auction in a very long time.

Photos courtesy of RM Sotheby’s © 2015.

You can find the full catalogue for the RM Sotheby’s Driven by Disruption sale, taking place on 10 December 2015 in New York, listed in the Classic Driver Market.

KEVILS K1100 ZOMBIE

Kevils Speed Shop might have become synonymous with BMW’s R Series but Kev and the team certainly aren’t one trick ponies. After an arm-twisting and a desire to work on something a bit different this Flying Brick landed in their Paignton workshop ready for a post apocalyptic, Mad Max makeover.

In for a penny, in for a pound. The donor is an early nineties 1100cc version with 4 valves per cylinder, a single sided swingarm and ABS with floating Brembos. All this weight and modernity gave Kev a nose bleed so the K Series was put on a diet, the first few pounds shed being the brake pump, control unit and associated plumbing.

The stock subframe also made it to the bin, replaced by an in-house fabricated unit welded in place rather than the bolt-on affair common to the workshop’s usual builds. Kev wasn’t content with the lines though so the rear was jacked-up courtesy of a more lanky R100GS monoshock.

To balance the single swinger a pair of Akraprovic pipes were liberated from an R nineT and fitted to the wrapped stock headers. The saddle is also thick enough to work visually and the non-slip suede should stop the rider from being splayed around that fat tank under heavy braking.

The donor was previously owned by a touring gent who’d clocked up gentle miles enjoying the winding roads of Europe so in a break from the tradition of a complete engine rebuild the KSS workshop were happy enough to let this one leave with just a inspection and thorough service. After all, just coz you polish a brick, it doesn’t suddenly become marble.

Part of the mash-up flavour was thanks to a trip to B&Q for a sheet of decorative mesh and some fake rivets. Something tells us Kev was unleashing the creative inside with this build.

In a departure from the usual detail obsessed boxer builds Kev and the guys have enjoyed themselves, putting together a bike perhaps more reminiscent of customs from the early days of the new wave scene.

Kevils Speed Shop have the largest Bike Shed Archive on the Bike Shed.

The Saietta R is a new breed of motorcycle

This peculiar and frankly quite scary-looking contraption is the Saietta R, an electric bike that tears up the rulebook of conventional motorcycle design…

Clean sheet

The Saietta R was designed on a clean sheet of paper, free of the constraints of conventional motorcycle design – hence it looks unlike any other motorcycle. That distinctive (and some would say ungainly) hump conceals the lithium-ion battery packs, which equip the bike with around 100bhp and a range of some 110 miles. Being electric, the clutchless bike has maximum torque available instantaneously, thus offering a very different (and exhilarating) riding experience. ‘Saietta’ means ‘thunderbolt’ in an Italian dialect, apparently: quite apt, given the bike’s sub-three-second 0-60mph time. 

Photos: Saietta Motorcycles

You can find many more conventional motorcycles listed for sale in the Classic Driver Market. 

Ice-cream...

DirtQuake IV - Marco, Oli and Tom.

DirtQuake IV - Marco, Oli and Tom. from Thomas Decupere on Vimeo.