Off-Road in the Snow on a KTM 990 Adventure – RideApart

Jamie takes off into the Colorado Rockies armed with little more than a Butler Motorcycle Map, a KTM and a thirst for Adventure. 

Pared to the Minimum: Lightweight racing cars from Speedmaster Cars

The lower the weight of a racing car, the more rapid its acceleration and the better its response when braking and cornering. Have a look at the pair of cars offered for sale by James Hanson of Speedmaster. Both offer a ‘low weight’ – but in very different ways.

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First, there’s the 1963 Lotus 23B. On this little car, nothing is superfluous. It’s a racing car through and through. As a two-seater, it might be classified as a ‘sports car’, but in reality it’s a variation on Colin Chapman’s single-seater of the day, and was designed for one person only in the cockpit: the driver.
Behind the lucky man would sit a highly tuned, small-capacity four-cylinder engine. In the 23B this was a twin-cam Ford 1600cc unit and, with such power (perhaps 150bhp) in a small and light chassis, the car was a veritable rocket. Incredible as it might seem, variations appeared in the USA with 289 Cobra engines in them – the forerunner of the Can-Am cars.
But that was defeating the object: lightness plus compact performance and a superlative chassis equalled sensational outright speed. The Colin Chapman way.

Another method, of course, with production-based racing cars, is to take a high-performance road car and make it even better.
That’s what Jaguar did with the official Lightweight E-types in the early 60s. By replacing much of the standard car’s steel monocoque and body panels with aluminium, and casting a special alloy block, the racing version of Jaguar’s ‘E’ could hold its own against a Cobra, a Ferrari GTO or an Aston Martin DB4GT.
And outside the select club that is genuine Lightweight E-type ownership, many hundreds of road cars were converted to racing cars in period.
Today, a lightened E-type – with uprated engine, steering, suspension and brakes – represents a terrific way to go historic racing. The car you see here, for example, is ready to race in British and European events in 2013.

Related Links You can see all Speedmaster's cars for sale in the Classic Driver Marketplace.

Text: Classic Driver
Photos: Speedmaster

Lotus Elise Sport 190: The elitist Elise

Many will agree that the Lotus Elise is the embodiment of the modern lightweight sports car. But with the S2 Sport 190, the Lotus Sport and Performance division posthumously applied Chapman’s famous mantra to a handful of the spritely little gems – giving them a racing disposition and a new aura of collectability.

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In standard form, the Series 2 Elise has rightfully earned huge respect within the automotive community for its ‘back-to-basics’ dynamics, afforded by the reduced weight, supreme balance and decades of Lotus suspension expertise, stemming from the Chapman days.

For this project, however, a few cars were plucked from the production line and sent to the in-house skunkworks that is Lotus Sport and Performance (LSP).


Each series of the Elise has welcomed various special editions, and the S2 Sport 190 is arguably one of the best. The familiar 1.8-litre K-Series engine benefitted from a heavy reworking which pushed power to 190HP (187bhp), and earned it the internal name of VHPD – Very High Performance Derivative.


The result was, among other things, an 8000rpm redline, a fearsome bark from the exhaust and a ‘lively’ idle that prompts comparison with a terrier straining at the leash. But the impressive power increase (around 60 per cent over standard tune) wasn’t the only change; the LSP division also equipped a short-ratio gearbox, lowered and stiffened suspension, and upgraded brakes. When you consider the weight reduction (to below 710kg), you start to understand the sort of performance this package must offer.


Whether their owners ultimately use these cars on track or road, they’re a very rare sight. Fewer than 35 examples were produced, making the Sport 190 around ten times rarer than the pared-down 340R – and, of course, this makes them an attractive proposition for collectors.

The Quartz Silver example pictured here is currently being offered by Classic Driver dealer Hilton & Moss in the UK, and is number 9 of the 33 factory-built Sport 190s. Alongside the typical Sport 190 enhancements, it also offers additional trimmings that include a carbonfibre undertray and air box, AP racing-spec brakes, four-way adjustable Ohlin suspension, and a blueprinted engine further uprated to 210bhp by LSP. Maintenance for this single-owner car has been exclusively administered at Hethel.

Related Links You can view the full advert for this Lotus Sport 190 in the Classic Driver Marketplace Hilton & Moss' full inventory can be found here Modern and classic Lotuses can be found in the Classic Driver Marketplace

Text: Joe Breeze (ClassicDriver)
Photos: Hilton & Moss

Vintage US MOTOCROSS

Q: what identifies a Vintage MX Bike?  A: Motocross Bikes fall into two eras.
Those on the left have a shorter suspension, made up to 1974. Then the shocks began to get longer and slanted forward. We refer tp the latter half of the 70s as "Evo" becvause the suspension evolved to make rough ground easier to negotiate, and to accomodate courses with jumps. For each of these two categories there are size classes, age classes, and an assortment of additional ones like XR75s, women and four strokes. Size claasses are based on the engine capacity, e.g. 125, 250 amd Open which essentially means 360, 380. 400, 450 etc. And age classes are based on the rider's age - guys over 40, over 50, etc. Each class has two motos, and from that the day's result for that class is ca;culated using he Olympic system of low score wins. Study the chart below and not how the bikes changed as the 1970 went by.