dimanche 23 juin 2013
1960s WAG-Wear: Stopwatch, clipboard, mini-skirt
It wouldn’t happen today. Yet 40 or 50 years ago, it wasn’t unusual to see gorgeous young women – the WAGs (wives and girlfriends) of top-class racing drivers – taking a serious role on raceday, armed with a stopwatch, a clipboard and, in the 1960s at least, a very short skirt.
Among the most famous of the timekeeping ‘WAGs’ was Nina Rindt, wife of the legendary Jochen and herself the daughter of a Finnish racing driver. A model before her marriage to Rindt in 1967 (two years after he won Le Mans), Nina was a stylish addition to the paddock, but also a dab hand with the stopwatch. Keeping an accurate lap-chart is no mean feat, requiring a sharp mind and total concentration. Plus, ideally, high cheekbones, perfect skin and very long legs.
Text: Charis Whitcombe (Classic Driver)
Photos: Rainer Schlegelmilch / Getty Images
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1960s WAG-Wear: Stopwatch,
clipboard,
mini-skirt
XS 650 STREET TRACKER
I’ll be sending pictures of this brilliant, minimalist Yamaha XS 650 Street Tracker over to Rex at Garage Project Motorcycles, he’s been advising me on a project I have planned to build an XS650 Tracker and this bike has a lot of the elements I want to incorporate into the design.
The engine in the Yamaha XS 650 is a twin cylinder power plant that can trace it’s roots all the way back to 1955 and a company called Hosk, Hosk had a twin cylinder 500cc engine and the Hosk engineers decided to increase it’s capacity, so they developed a 650cc version right before the company was sold to the Showa Corporation, then shortly after in 1960 Showa was sold to Yamaha. In the mid-1960s Yamaha was looking to develop a mid-range twin and someone stumbled across the blueprints of the Hosk 650, the Yamaha engineers fell in love with the design and after tweaking it just a little, they approved it for mass production.
The XS 650 is perhaps most famous as the engine that powered Kenny Roberts in the early 1970s, possibly making it the coolest engine choice possible for any retro, flat-tracker style bike.
This bike was built by a friend of the Wrenchmonkees in Copenhagen, he’s done a fantastic job on the build and created what many including myself would consider to be the classic, daily rider motorcycle. Flat-tracker tires have been fitted front and back with Brembos and inverted, high performance forks. The blue, black and gold colour scheme works a treat and if you’re in the market for a new daily rider it just happens to be for sale – Contact the seller via The Wrenchmonkees here.
from SILODROME
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