Shelby American Cobra CSX7078

As it’s now 50 years since the first Shelby Cobra turned a wheel, 2012 has seen a raft of events to celebrate the immortal Anglo-American hybrid. Shame the price of 1960s cars has gone through the roof. But wait, Classic Driver dealer ‘Gentleman Car’, from Belgium, is offering ‘CSX7078’ for 180,000 euros...

The black car, with its characteristic ‘Shelby’ yellow stripe, carries a genuine CSX chassis number as it is one of a series of cars produced by Shelby American Inc., a division of Carroll Shelby International, Inc., the company founded by Carroll Shelby. 



This version has a glassfibre bodyshell faithful to the lines of the ‘FIA’ Shelby Cobra racing cars and comes complete with a Ford Racing Boss 302, ‘Stroker 347’ V8. 


Options fitted include door map pockets and a full leather interior, just like the earlier cars. It also has original-style pedals, catches, fittings, gear- and hand-brake levers. And, for that authentic ‘Targa Florio 1964’ look, it also comes with a single rollover hoop, diagonally braced to the passenger footwell. 

Text: Classic Driver

Photos: Gentleman Car

Video of Schumacher, Espargaro, Mamola, McGuinness and Flint having fun

Last week we had a post and a small photo gallery on Michael Schumacher, Pol Espargaro, Randy Mamola, John McGuinness and Keith Flint at the Paul Ricard circuit in France and now we have a behind the scenes video with some great action footage from that specially arranged track day that was organized by Monster Energy and the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team.

Enjoy the video.

Anvil Motociclette’s '85 Moto Guzzi SP 1000 - “Mille ELR”

It's been quite a while between drinks for Milan's rather talented Marco and Phonz and their shop, Anvil MotocicletteCostruttori. We featured them in an interview in April of 2011 and they teased us with some whispered, golden words concerning the next few projects they were undertaking. One of those was a slight departure from their Nihon-centric portfolio, a nice big Moto Guzzi. Excited, we made them promise to give us first dibs on the bike once it was finished, and low and behold, here she is. Meet the creama de la creama (see what I did there?) of Italian custom bikes, the "Mille ELR".

Flat front tire or photoshop faux par? You be the judge

The boys came across the stock donor bike while on a Corscian road trip. They got talking to the owner on the Ferry back home and eventually he revealed that he was looking to sell it. “It was obviously an overweight touring bike but those engines pull like nothing else and their road holding is up to modern naked standards.” By a stroke of luck they had a customer from Parma that had been talking to them about an Anvil-made Guzzi, so fate took over, the bike was purchased, and the project begun.

The bike has been handled in the signature Anvil style, with a strong attention to the removal of the superfluous and a focus on the minimal with an abundance of black and silver tones. The bike was completely rebuilt from the ground up with new shocks, seat and a tank - in this case a Norton Aluminium number. They also worked their magic on the frame, bars, pegs and the headlight, too.

The engine remains standard with the exception of the epic pipes and intake trumpets and mesh. Hey - why try and gild a lily? As with all the other mods, these were hand built by Marco and Phonz in-house. The end result is a very clean look with a few small-but-beautifully-conceived details that really make the bike sing.

As with previous Anvil bikes, the Guzzi was lowered dramatically to achieve the desired stance by cutting the forks and raising a good chunk of the remaining tubage above the top triple. Call me quaint, but I've always loved that look - simultaneously sleek, low, and a little dangerous. God help anyone (and their gonads) who takes a trip over those bars...

In our previous Anvil post, the guys were adamant that Anvil wasn't a shop focused on shows. “Our philosophy is not to build bikes for the shows. First of all we build them for passion, for us and for our clients. But if, in the future, there will be the opportunity to enter some bike in a show, we think we are competitive enough to do it. The ANVILS would be quite different from the other bikes competing.”

And it seems as if that particular thought has paid off for them. They entered the Guzzi in the 2012 Italian KustomKulture show at Cesena “for fun” and managed to pick up a first place in the “Metric” (or, as we like to call it, the “Bikes that aren't Metallic Lime Green Harley Choppers”) class. Nice work!

All up, we're more than a little excited to see what these long-haired Italian country boys come up with next. Word on the street is that they are currently working on a Honda CBX 1000. Sweet lord, can you just imagine?

The guys soak up the lime light after winning “Best Metric” at 2012 Kustom Kulture Show in Cesena

(Hat/helmet tip to Motociclismo)

from PIPEBURN

KREIDLER RMC

There’s a beauty in the stripped-down aesthetics of a pure racing motorcycle. Especially one hewn from metal, and unadorned with dayglo sponsor logos. This circa-1980 Kreidler RMC belongs to Dutchman Edwin Sweers, who bought it when he turned 16 years old in 1985. It now puts out an extraordinary 19 hp at 13,500 rpm: the equivalent of a liter-bike putting out almost 400 hp.

Sweers used his German-made Kreidler on the road for a couple of years before preparing it for the Dutch 50cc road racing class. By 2010, the bike was scoring class wins.

“Two stroke tuning turned out to be an endless occupation for me,” he says. “But the chassis was never able to match the modern bikes in its class—it fails on stiffness.” On this highly tuned machine, now retired, the wheels and front suspension are from a Honda RS125 and the rear suspension is from Öhlins.

Kreidler did not change their crankcases or the steel-plate frame after 1972, and those are now the only unmolested parts still in use on the bike. The crankcases have been welded up and machined to take a 6-speed gearbox, and the water-cooled cylinder is from a modern Derbi. A programmable ignition system also controls the speed shifter. Sweers has built a custom exhaust system from five separate sections, which he can modify to test for maximum performance.

The dents and scratches? “Leftovers from a hard life on the circuit,” says Sweers. And yes, there’s pipewrap too …

“The rpm limiter comes in at 15,000,” he reports. “I do the testing on a dyno bench that I built at the back of my house. The sound is mostly indoors, and I shield my neighbors from the blue smoke that comes out of the exhaust …”