Nürburgring bidding underway

 

Here's your chance to own the Nordschleife

The assets of Nürburgring GmbH have officially gone up for sale and the company is currently accepting offers.
Among the items up for bid are the Nordschleife, the Grand Prix track, the Eifeldorf hotel and a four-star hotel which is likely the Congress or the Dorint. The properties can be bought individually or as a package deal.
While it's sad to think that the Nürburgring might be changing, restructuring director Prof. Dr. Thomas B. Schmidt said "This will benefit not only the employees, but also the people and businesses throughout the region."
Despite having a rough few years, the Nürburgring is reportedly profitable as the press release indicates positive cash flows and revenues of up to €60 ($77.3) million per year.
Bids will be accepted through June 12th and the assets are expected to fetch more than €120 ($154.7) million.

Source: Nürburgring GmbH and Auto Motor und Sport

Bridges (A Honda CB250n Story)

Sometimes the best way to get from A to B is to cross a bridge, while riding your own custom Honda CB250n motorcycle.

Sure, it’s a fairly simple bike, but knowing its fairly unshapely origins, Stephen has really turned this machine into something very charming and humble.

For more info on this story visit http://http://www.storiesofbike.com

5TH PEKING TO PARIS RALLY CHALLENGES THE BRAVE & DETERMINED

by Alan Franklin / 13 May 2013

The fifth-ever Peking to Paris rally will be held this year from May 28th to June 29th,  stretching an epic 9,300 miles across two continents and eight countries, through  some of the harshest and most remote terrain on Earth. Funny how such an  infrequently-run race rates in the mind with such legendary and long-running  endurance events as the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the Isle of Man TT, and Dakar—such  is the incredibly heroic nature of what is possibly the most difficult of all long-distance races. First organized in 1907, the story goes that the inaugural running was inspired  by a challenge published in the January 31st edition of that year’s Le Matin,  a Paris newspaper of the time. It stated: "What needs to be proven today is  that as long as a man has a car, he can do anything and go anywhere.  Is there anyone who will undertake to travel this summer from Peking to Paris  by automobile?" Forty teams accepted this challenge, but ultimately only 5 entrants actually  shipped cars to the Peking starting point, right in front of the French embassy.  There were no rules aside from the promise of a magnum of Mumm champagne  to the rally’s winner.

Held along a similar route as the upcoming event, the dawn of the automobile was barely  two decades beforehand—if the thought of nearly 10,000 miles across rough  terrain sounds like an adventure in 2013, it was absolute insanity, bordering on suicidal,  106 years ago. Acetylene headlights, hand-cranked motors, rear-only brakes of woeful  inadequacy for anything but parking, exposed valve-gear and even constant- loss lubrication systems were all still pretty much state-of-the-art for the time,  and I can’t even imagine driving one of those wooden-wheeled death machines  to 7-11 down the block let alone across vast expanses of mostly uninhabited desert,  tundra, mountain passes and wooded plains and valleys—brave and adventurous  aren’t strong enough words to describe the men who undertook the challenge. Fuel and supplies were sent ahead by foot and by camel, with stations setup  infrequently along a route which roughly followed a telegraph line—each car  had a journalist as a passenger, who would send nightly reports to their publishers,  as the race was quite a big deal during days when the horse was still the  predominant means of civil and commercial transportation. Cars were towed by animals and by foot over mountain passes, and several teams  ran out of fuel on more than one occasion—one team abandoned their powered  tricycle in the Gobi after its fuel tank went dry, and they nearly died from heat  exhaustion and thirst until rescued by a passing camel caravan. Eventually, exactly 60 days from the beginning of the event, the massive and sophisticated  7-liter Itala piloted by Prince Scipione Borghese and Ettore Guizzardi drove into  Paris to a hero’s welcome. Aside from the abandonded tricycle, all entrants  ultimately joined them as the finish—an incredible feat. This year the event is host to 100 entrants run in four classes—“Vintage”  for machines made from 1920-1931,  “Vintageant” for 1932-1941 cars, and two separate “Classic” designations, one for cars up to two liters  and one for more than that displacement. Even though the oldest car in  the event has a full 13 years of development between it and the newest  machines that originally competed, it’s still a massive challenge,  and we salute anyone with the courage to attempt it—cheers.

Click the arrow below to see more photos of past Peking to Paris races. Photo Sources: wikipedia.org, hautehorlogerie.org, benchandloom.com,  itala-davidkarenayre.blogspot.com, oil-spy.com, facebook.com/PekingToParis2013LittleRed,endurorally.com  classicporscheblog.com

1937 SS JAGUAR 100 2½-LITRE ROADSTER

The SS Jaguar 100 2½-Litre Roadster was the first car to wear the name “Jaguar” and set the trend for the company post-WW2, up until 1945 the company had been called SS Cars Ltd but in the post-Nazi-SS climate of 1945 it was universally agreed that the company should be named after its most famous model.

SS Cars Ltd unveiled the SS Jaguar 100 in 1936, it was a ground-breaking car for the era and it’s 2663cc overhead-valve 6-cylinder engine produced 105 bhp, it was fitted as standard with a 4-speed manual transmission, a beam front axle, a live rear axle and 4-wheel finned drum brakes.

The original brochure for the SS 100 described it as a car “designed primarily for competition work… but equally suitable for ordinary road use, for despite the virility of its performance, it is sufficiently tractable for use as a fast touring car without modification”.

Professional and amateur racers quickly recognised that it was capable of performance far in excess of most cars available to the public – the SS Jaguar 100 was a regular winner in hill climbs, rallies and road races, it ran at all the top racing events of the day including Donington Park, Brooklands, Shelsley Walsh and the RAC Rally.

The 2½-Litre engine was an evolution of the older 2500cc Standard pushrod unit converted from side-valve to overhead-valve with an all-new cylinder head designed by Harry Weslake and William Heynes. The power output was boosted from 70hp to 100hp and twin SU carburettors were bolted directly to the newly designed cylinder head.

The SS 100 pictured here has been recently restored and is now one of the nicer examples of the 198 original cars, it’s due to roll across the auction block with RM Auctions on the 25th May 2013 and has an estimated gavel price of €250,000 to €300,000. I have a sneaking suspicion that it’ll go for a little more than that these cars are incredibly rare and have been fetching higher and higher bids at auctions (when they come up for sale).

Click here to visit the official listing.

Photo Credits: James Mann ©2013 Courtesy of RM Auctions

via Silodrome