SIGNATECH-ALPINE SATISFAIT DE SES ESSAIS.

La pluie redoutée n'aura fait que de très rares apparitions aujourd'hui. Mais les quelques courtes averses ont été suffisantes pour durablement mouiller la piste. Jusqu'à la toute dernière heure, les temps établis hier n'étaient pas améliorés.

Dans un dernier effort, l'ensemble des équipages a pu tenter de réaliser une performance juste avant minuit. Au volant de l'Alpine A450 numéro 36, Nelson Panciatici signait son meilleur tour en 3'41''654 pour se classer au huitième rang des LM P2.

« Nous avons beaucoup progressé sur le comportement de la voiture », explique Philippe Sinault, Team Principal de Signatech Alpine. « C'est un vrai sujet de satisfaction. Nelson Panciatici a réalisé une belle performance même si le trafic et les drapeaux jaunes ne lui ont pas permis de terminer aux avant-postes. Nous avons fini de regarder le chrono. Désormais, nous allons regarder la grosse pendule ! »

Parti pour signer un temps de référence dans les dernières minutes, Nelson Panciatici terminait au huitième rang de la catégorie : « J'ai été gêné par le trafic. Il n'était peut-être pas question de faire la pole mais une place dans le ‘top 4' était à notre portée. L'Alpine A450 marche très bien. C'est prometteur pour la course. »

Un peu plus tôt, Tristan Gommendy avait été en mesure de boucler quelques tours : « En dehors de la trajectoire, certaines portions étaient encore humides. Il y avait des pièges dans les Hunaudières, et jusqu'à Indianapolis. Nous avons progressé sur les réglages de l'Alpine A450. J'attends la course avec impatience. »

Parti en tout début de séance, Pierre Ragues avait dû composer avec une piste encore très mouillée : « Les deux tiers du circuit étaient secs et le reste était vraiment détrempé. L'équipe m'avait demandé de compléter cinq tours pour assurer ma qualification de nuit. Le contrat est rempli. »

Les voitures ne rouleront pas demain. Samedi matin, elles seront en piste pour 45 minutes lors du warm-up. Le départ de l'édition du 90e anniversaire des 24 Heures du Mans sera donné à 15h00. L'Alpine A450 numéro 36 partira depuis la huitième ligne avec Nelson Panciatici au volant.

Source : Alpine

via Endurance-Info

COMING SOON: THE RIDE from BIKEEXIF

Over the past couple of years, one of the most common requests we’ve had from readers has been for the ultimate motorcycle book—‘the book of Bike EXIF’. We’ve finally found the perfect match for this project in the Berlin-based publisher Gestalten.

Gestalten books sit on the cutting edge of design, photography and popular culture. The company is famous for its spectacular production values, and has worked with Diesel, MTV, Nokia, Red Bull and Volkswagen.

Over the past few months, I’ve been editing the book with Robert Klanten, Gestalten’s CEO—a confirmed petrolhead who rides at every opportunity he gets. To help with writing The Ride, we’ve brought on board several big names in the motorcycling world.

They include Paul d’Orléans (The Vintagent), David Edwards (former Cycle World editor, now running BikeCraft) and the leading UK journalist Gary Inman (founder of Sideburnmagazine and a regular contributor to Bike).

The Ride will feature most of the world’s top custom motorcycle builders, spanning the alphabet from An-Bu to the Wrenchmonkees. It’ll be a luxurious hardcover format with over 300 pages of the finest photography.

Last weekend, many of our featured builders from Europe travelled to France for the Wheels & Waves motorcycle festival in Biarritz. We took a film crew there, and shot footage for a documentary that will be released when the book is published. Here’s short teaser—enjoy.

The Ride — Gestalten.tv at Wheels & Waves from Gestalten on Vimeo.

To be one of the first to receive The Ride when it is published in a couple of months, pre-order your copy now.

North America and Rest Of World readers head here, readers in Europe order direct from the publisher here.

Kevils Hashtag 88

You may have noticed Kevils builds are getting more and more interesting, and having spoken with Kev Hill a few times now it’s clear that their rep for affordable quality and their growing list of happy clients is allowing them to push things a little further, build by build, as this Honda-tanked R100 demonstrates. it’s all about the refinement of a set of skills, knowing their BMW platform intimately, and being able to give their customers exactly what they want. As they did with the recent Bmonda Blitz homage.

Hashtag 88″ is a 1979 R100/7 and is a proper Brat-style build with a short flat wheel-hugging seat, old school up-swept ’70s crosser bars and of course that silhouette-changing Honda tank.

This build was commissioned by Richard, a classic car dealer from Oxford,who visited the shop and loved what he saw. His brief was to create a ‘bobber style BMW’ and his only other direction was to have black wire-spoked wheels , coffee & cream paint and to carry his lucky number 88. Kev and co took care of the rest and we think they nailed it.

The basic elements of the build are pretty clear from the pictures, including that reworked rear end, but like all Kevils builds the bike has also been stripped and rebuilt, with generous amounts of textured satin powdercoat complemented by plenty of bare metal. There’s something very right about a black frame and metal engine, especially with the outline of that BMW lump which looks like it was designed by the same guys who built Flash Gordon’s spaceships in the 1950s. (…maybe, it was the same guys?).

The paint job is really standout on the tank and headlamp, referencing the Japanese rising sun motif but played-out in toffee bronze (posh brown) and cream, with a distressed dark brown leather tuck & roll seat, and matching gum grips. The usual secretly-sourced slimline clocks sit in front of the wide Triumph scrambler style bars with minimal indies and simple tail light on a shortie fender.

The finished build looks great, a complete, thought-out package, rather than just an assortment of assembled safe parts. Nothing wrong with thoughtfully assembled parts, mind, but this step-up may be Kevils’ best build yet.

See more from Kev Hill and his crew here on The Bike Shed, or head over to their Wesbite for more designs on the Bavarian beast from the South West of England.

from BIKE SHED

F3 by Radical Ducati

This precious retro racer comes from a 1963 Ducati 125 TS donor Bike. Its frame has been converted to a cantiléver rear suspension system. The custom sub frame is new. The upside down fork is from a Derbi GPR 50. The mechanics is heavily modified and rebuilt with a Ducati 250 short stroke engine (ported heads, hi compression piston, lightened crankshaft, no alternator, straight cut gaer pinions lightened, metallic  outside oil lines, racing camshaft, big valves, dual spark) fuelled by an Amal 32 mm carburetor. The tank is from a vintage Ducati 160 Sport… But the list of changes and custom made components is endless… You can check it out on the Radical Ducati website. The final result? Espectacular! Pictures by Del Perro.

Questa preziosa retro racer deriva da una Ducati 125 TS del 1963. Il telaio è stato trasformato con una sospensione posteriore tipo cantilever. Il telaio sottosella custom è nuovo. La forcella rovesciata arriva da una Derbi GPR 50. La meccanica è stata pesantemente modificata e ricostruita con un motore Ducati 250 a corsa corta (teste abbassate, pistone ad alta compressione, albero motore alleggerito, niente alternatore, pignone cambio alleggerito, condotti metallici dell'olio esterni, albero a camme racing, valvole maggiorate e doppia accensione) alimentato da un carburatore Amal 32 millimetri. Il serbatoio è di un Ducati 160 Sport d'epoca... Ma la lista dei cambiamenti e dei componenti su misura è infinita... Potete verificarla sul sito Radical Ducati. Il risultato finale? Espectacular! Foto di Del Perro.

via INAZUMA CAFE