Coral anniversary celebrations in Australia / Noces de corail en Australie

This month’s Rally Australia (September 12-15) will mark the 145th WRC start of Mikko Hirvonen with co-driver Jarmo Lehtinen sitting alongside. They take over from Marcus Grönholm and Timo Rautiainen as Finland’s most devoted world championship couple.

A l’occasion du Rallye d’Australie (12-15 septembre 2013), Mikko Hirvonen et Jarmo Lehtinen vont prendre leur 145e départ commun en WRC et dépasser leurs compatriotes Marcus Grönholm et Timo Rautiainen au palmarès des équipages les plus actifs du WRC.

It is symbolic that the crew of the N°2 Citroën DS3 WRC, which formed in 2002, is poised to become Finland’s longest-standing pairing (ahead of Grönholm/Rautiainen and Alen/Kivimaki) in Australia. It is there, in 2006, that Mikko and Jarmo picked up their first world class victory, ahead of team-mates Grönholm/Rautiainen who were delayed by a crash and only had to finish to claim that year’s title.

Mikko and Jarmo were also winners of the championship’s last visit to Australia, in 2011, ahead of their team-mates of the day, Latvala/Anttila.

With 145 WRC starts together to their name, they form the fourth longest-standing crew in the championship’s history – behind Loeb/Elena (167), Sainz/Moya (161) and Solberg/Mills (152) – and have notched up 15 wins (the same as Mikkola/Hertz) plus 64 podium finishes (more than Grönholm/Rautiainen). The only honour that has escaped them so far is a world title, but that won’t happen this season since their record in 2013 includes just three podium finishes from nine events.

Meanwhile, Jarmo Lehtinen, 44, celebrated his 150^th WRC appearance in Germany. He actually started his career as a driver in the 1988 Finnish Championship and even participated in his home WRC round in 1997 behind the wheel of a Honda Civic. He then did gravel notes for Toni Gardemeister in 2002 before his first outing alongside Mikko Hirvonen at the end of the season, namely Wales RallyGB…

Le hasard veut que ce soit au Rallye d’Australie que l’équipage de la Citroën DS3 WRC n°2 formé en 2002 devienne le couple finlandais le plus capé du WRC, devant Grönholm-Rautiainen ou encore Alèn-Kivimaki.

Car c’est en Australie, en 2006, que Mikko Hirvonen et Jarmo Lehtinen avaient remporté leur première victoire mondiale… aux dépens de leurs équipiers Grönholm et Rautiainen, sortis de la route alors qu’ils n’avaient plus qu’à rallier l’arrivée pour être champions du monde ! Ce sont également eux qui ont remporté la dernière édition en 2011, grâce cette fois à leurs équipiers Latvala-Anttila…

Avec 145 départs en WRC, Mikko et Jarmo deviennent le quatrième équipage le plus capé du Mondial derrière Loeb-Elena (167), Sainz-Moya (161) et Solberg-Mills (152). Ensemble, ils ont remporté 15 victoires (autant que Mikkola-Hertz) et sont montés sur 64 podiums (plus que Grönholm-Rautiainen). Seul un titre mondial manque à leur palmarès et ce ne devrait pas être pour cette année où, en neuf rallyes, ils n’ont signé que trois podiums…

De son côté, Jarmo Lehtinen (44 ans) a fêté son 150^e rallye WRC à l’occasion du dernier Rallye Deutschland. Le grand blond a débuté dans un baquet de droite en championnat de Finlande 1988 avant de débuter en Mondial au Neste Rally Finland 1997 sur une Honda Civic. « Ouvreur » de Toni Gardemeister en 2002, il a rejoint Mikko Hirvonen cette même année à l’occasion du dernier rallye, en Grande-Bretagne.

Depuis ce bain de boue galloise, ils ne sont plus quittés et fêtent donc leur onze ans de « mariage » en 2013 : des noces de corail en Australie, pas mal non !

Smart FourJoy: New Official Images

Having built the Smart Fortwo and the Smart Forfour the small car maker ran out of nameplates pretty quickly but with their concept cars they’ve always adopted a different naming strategy. This latest concept machine, the Smart Fourjoy follows on from the Forstars and ForUs concepts which were shown in 2012.

You’ve probably noticed that this is an extreme Smart car which does away with doors, windows and a roof. Smart say that “the Fourjoy dispenses with unnecessary ballast” but we think that there’s every need for windows and doors especially when there’s no major performance gains to be taken from their removal. Smart are trying to grab attention with this creation rather than develop the latest line of intelligent city cars but the concept does come with an electric motor, which drives the rear wheels and develops 74bhp, and they’ve designed the car to be chargeable in an hour.

This may be a small car but Smart hasn’t skimped on safety as the firm’s tridion safety cell has been used. As there are no doors or windows, the cabin’s open to the elements and to unwanted visitors so it’s pretty sparse. Rather than providing the integrated infotainment system found in other Smart cars, Smart has included a smartphone docking port.

Smart FourJoy: New Official Images

Smart has said a lot of things about this new concept, not much of which makes sense, for example “Transparent petroleum-coloured moulded parts emphasise the upbeat character of the study.” They add that “The function and colour are reminiscent of 1990s tennis caps” which might well be true but we’re not sure what Tennis has to do with Smart’s new concept. Maybe visitors to the 2013 Frankfurt Motor Show will have more luck understanding the point of this machine when it gets its public debut later this month.

via EUROCARBLOG

Trees - An Epic Motocross Clip

Why? Because it's fun to ride dirt bikes in odd locations!

DEFMoto’s GSX550 Cafe Racer

We came across DEFMoto because the Dutchess was looking to buy a scrambler and we saw a funky green Honda Dominator based tracker on eBayUK which we thought looked epic. Digging a little deeper into where it came from – and why it had pro photos on an ebay ad – we discovered this UK-based workshop had been beavering away under our radar for a while. This 1984 GXS550 EF was DEF’s first build, so we thought we’d start with this bike and continue cataloging their work from here onwards. Here is the story in Paul’s own words.

“My background is in Motorsport as a fabricator. I worked in the industry for over 12 years before moving on and working in the fabrication industry eventually working my way up to managerial level. I’ve always loved to modify cars and bikes I’ve owned, applying Motorsport ideologies to enhance both the aesthetics and performance. I’d recently sold an old, heavily modified v8 Land Rover I’d owned forever, and needed something else to give me shed time excuses! My good friend Trev donated his old Suzuki gsx 550 ef to the cause and I set about it in my little workshop determined to build a really cool bobber… It didn’t turn out as I’d planned.”

“The build took a long time! About 5 months in total, as it was a terrible bike to start with and I was still working full time but toying with the idea of setting up DEFMoto. At work I had a full fabrication shop at my disposal  and I thought that one of the best uses for all the very expensive cnc presses would be to fold up prototype monocoque test pieces up for the gsx rear end to test for stiffness and distortion  If I could pull-off this structural seat unit idea, kind of a blend of race car or aero type of construction, I could cut away everything on the bike that didn’t work and start again.  Create a super clean tank and frameless tailpiece line ( surely the essence of every good café! ) and hide all the electrics in there and a half decent bike may emerge.”

“At this point I quit my well paid day job and set up DEFMoto otherwise the bike was never getting finished and some things are more important… Right?… The build steamrollered from here , workshop refit, monocoque finished, frame done, powder coat done, controversial Firestones ordered, a million and one odds and sods sorted, new contacts made, and the bike was finished put up for sale and sold!”

“My favourite aspect of this build was the seat unit and CB200 tank combo, there’s actually more fabrication in the frame to allow the tank and seat to work. The rear seat stays were a particular drain on my life! But it came out quite good, you can pick the bike up from the tail piece or jump up and down on it, super strong and stiff. I also like the way the Firestones and stock Enkei alloys look too. It was a low-budget, time-expensive build and overall I’m fairly happy with it. It now lives Birmingham with new owner, Andy.”

Photos by Lisa, at Lisa Howard photography

from Bike Shed