JEAN-KARL VERNAY REJOINT IMSA PERFORMANCE MATMUT.

On connaît maintenant l'identité du dernier pilote du team IMSA Performance Matmut pour la campagne du Championnat du Monde d'Endurance (GTE-Am). Raymond Narac et Christophe Bourret seront épaulés par Jean-Karl Vernay. Le Champion en titre de la Porsche Matmut Carrera Cup reste donc dans le giron Porsche sachant qu'on le verra également en Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup.

Franck Rava, Team Manager, est ravi de ce renfort de choix : « IMSA Performance Matmut est très content d'accueillir dans ses rangs un nouveau jeune talent issu de la filière de la Porsche Matmut Carrera Cup. Tout le team est très motivé pour l'aider à s'épanouir au volant de la 997 RSR en compagnie de deux pilotes qui connaissent déjà parfaitement la voiture. »

Après avoir roulé auprès de nombreux pilotes Porsche, Raymond Narac va avoir à ses côtés une nouvelle pointure : « Jean-Karl connaît déjà très bien la 997 dans sa version cup. Il est rapide, intelligent, et commet très peu d'erreur. Il s'est très vite adapté à toutes les disciplines dans lesquelles il a couru, son palmarès le prouve. C'est une recrue de choix pour l'équipe, j'ai hâte de commencer à travailler avec lui. »

Quant à Christophe Bourret, il va découvrir un nouveau coéquipier, lui qui compte une saison de Championnat du Monde d'Endurance derrière lui : « Je ne connais pas encore Jean-Karl Vernay. Je sais cependant qu'à 25 ans, son palmarès est déjà prometteur d'une belle carrière dans l'automobile. Raymond et moi sommes de la même génération, Jean-Karl par sa jeunesse va nous booster encore plus...la proximité que nous avons avec Raymond depuis plus de 7 ans permettra à Jean-Karl de s'intégrer dans le team très rapidement. Je souhaite pour cette saison en WEC que nous allons vivre ensemble avec Raymond et Jean-Karl que nous formions un team soudé et complémentaire où chacun apportera et partagera un peu de sa propre expérience avec un objectif : gagner ce championnat du monde dans notre catégorie. Fort d'une première saison en WEC en 2012, je sais que pour gagner , il faut être rapide, régulier et ne pas faire de faute..la saison est longue, les courses sont dures et la concurrence est là. Nous serons là !! Et, nous attendons avec impatience la première course sur le circuit mythique de Silverstone »

Le team rouennais communiquera d'ici la fin du mois ses autres intentions quant à un second programme d'envergure.

by Laurent Mercier(Endurance-Info)

ATJ’s CB400

Adam & Tom Jasinski’s third contribution to the Bike Shed’s stable of featured motorcycles is this lovely CB400 in blue Gulf Racing inspired colours and styled as a practical street scrambler.

Shortie pipes, drop bars and flat seat simplify the lines of the donor bike, although airbox is retained to keep the fuelling smooth.

And the final touch of practicality to this build? A small screen to keep the flies outta the rider’s teeth.

from thebikeshed

Building the New Carrozzeria Touring Disco Volante: Part 1

Carrozzeria Touring has granted Classic Driver full access to each stage in the construction of the first production Disco Volante – the exciting limited-edition model which will debut at the 2013 Geneva Motor Show. In 2012, the prototype stunned the crowds. This year, a handful of collectors will be able to order the gorgeous coupé. 

Over the next few weeks, we will show you how craftsmen at the famous Milanese coachbuilder take an Alfa Romeo 8C coupé and clothe it in voluptuous bodywork penned by designer Louis de Fabribeckers. The new Disco Volante (‘Flying Saucer’) embraces the spirit of the famous Touring-designed, 1950s Alfa Romeo original.
The car will only be built to order. The company estimates that up to six examples will be commissioned, all to the exact personal specification of collectors worldwide.
The fully EU type-approved car takes approximately 4,000 man hours to construct, and will be completed in six months from the delivery of a donor 8C coupé.


For those eager to be the very first owner of a 2013 Disco Volante, though, the Geneva show car will be for sale.
De Fabribeckers' intention was to evoke the spirit of the futuristic 50s original, yet make the new car a practical one for ‘continental travel’. The extended tail, with a bigger luggage compartment, is an example. The car also has a panoramic glass roof that replaces the 8C’s solid one, necessitating further re-engineering but adding extra airiness and 'space'.
It’s very much ‘Carrozzeria Touring’ by name, ‘Grand Touring’ by nature.
But we are talking about the finished car – let’s start at the beginning of the process.


The sequence of photos you see here shows a donor 8C arriving in Milan. It is completely disassembled – apart from the chassis, drivetrain and all mechanical parts. All components to be used later are carefully labelled and stored, and the wiring loom partially removed.
It now enters the ‘surgery room’ where it’s subjected to a full scan after positioning on a reference platform. This ensures that everything to be removed is done so to the smallest possible tolerance. Cutting lines are traced on the bodywork and sections are then excised. The chassis will then be carefully modified, re-worked and strengthened as necessary.
In parallel, a mock-up of the new coachwork in high-density resin has been milled to millimetre-perfection. It is then manually smoothed and finished, with the glazed areas filled with contrasting plastic.


This is how the car will look, and it’s used by the panelbeaters as a reference for each hand-beaten section of aluminium.
Certain parts are moulded in carbonfibre, but the majority of the new Disco Volante is made in the long tradition of Italian metalworking: by beating to shape (although nowadays a power hammer has replaced the famous mallet and oak tree stump of yore).
It’s now time for the ‘reference cage’, a latticework structure in mild steel, to be welded up. This covers the mock-up’s contours precisely, and is then used as an exact guide for the final preparation of the chassis – ensuring all new and existing parts are ready to take the aluminium, carbonfibre and glass components that will form the svelte lines of the new Disco Volante.

For the beating and fitting of the bodywork, readers will have to wait for the next instalment…
For further information on the 2013 Carrozzeria Touring Disco Volante visitwww.touringsuperleggera.eu, or email info@touringsuperleggera.eu.

Related Links The website of Carrozzeria Touring Superleggera www.touringsuperleggera.eu 'Five questions to Louis de Fabribeckers, Head of Design Carrozzeria Touring Superleggera' in the Classic Driver Magazine 'Geneva 2012: Disco Volante 2012 by Touring Superleggera' in the Classic Driver Magazine

Text: Steve Wakefield (ClassicDriver)
Photos: Carrozzeria Touring

Rail Racers Take Electric Racing to a Higher Level

Rail Racers racing through a canyon with the electric raceway suspended above

Let's take another jump into the future, where the idea of what a motorcycle is, or could be, is expanded beyond the current concepts. Like the Aerofex ducted fan hovercraft, does a motorcycle have to be planted on the ground and rolling on wheels to be exciting? And what about racing? Why not low altitude racing with some of the the freedom of flying? Want to be clean and green? OK, toss that in, too. What do you have with all of that? Rail Racers!

One possible design configuration of a rail racer with conductive antenna above

Stefan Hermann from Germany sent me a note about the design project he created for his degree in industrial design. The whole thing just made me smile as I looked at it because he took the idea of electric racers, launched it off the ground, then gave it some of the freedom of flying and that's the key. The racers are electric but they get their power from the overhead raceway, they can fly free for a short while on capacitor power but at reduced performance until they again touch the track for full power, so the racers can jostle for position and fly free for a bit, but go too long off the raceway and you'll need to fly down for a landing and lose the race.

Rail racers can be configured with impellers, rotors or turbines, cockpits open or enclosed, in a very motorcycle like position. Exciting? Oh, yeah.

The race tracks can be set up in places where you couldn't normally build a track of any sort, you just need a structure to suspend it, maybe even temporarily, run the race and remove it. The electricity, in Stefan's design, comes from all of the usual eco-sources, like windmills, hydropower and solar panels so it keeps it ecologically friendly.

Set up a track anywhere you can suspend it, take it down later.

Is the design practical? We can debate those possibilities and problems, but until the racers themselves are proven to work, the rest of the plan is just a dream, but if they do work, whoa!

In the future, today's motorcycles might seem a bit less exciting if you can jump into something like this.

Stefan has come up with a wide range of designs for an array of different items, the rail racers are the most ambitious and I think, show a nice out of the box "fringe of possibility" thinking that may, in the future, be perfectly within the realm of accepted engineering. He's on the lookout for new projects and interesting people to work with, too, so if you need a designer with some very interesting ideas, Stefan has a portfolio you may want to look at.

Nice work, Stefan!

Link: Stefan Hermann

by PAUL CROWE via thekneeslider