Lors de la présentation animée par Dato’ Kamarudin Bin Meranun, co-directeur du Groupe Caterham, Caterham a confirmé son arrivée imminente dans le Championnat du Monde ainsi que son intention de développer son propre châssis en partenariat avec Suter sur les deux prochaines années, le premier projet moto de la marque britannique, connue pour ses activités en compétition automobile et notamment en Formule 1.
« Nous sommes fiers que le Caterham Moto Racing Team ait pris la décision de collaborer avec nous pour son nouveau projet en Moto2™, » a déclaré Eskil Suter, patron de Suter Racing Technology. « Le team aura un soutien total de l’organisation F1 et cela ouvre des possibilités de développement très intéressantes pour les technologies moto. »
« Créer un lien entre les deux mondes de la F1 et du Moto2™ peut nous offrir des opportunités de développer certains éléments, dont l’aérodynamique, d’une manière différente et de viser de meilleures performances. Cette collaboration apportera quelque chose de plus au sport ainsi qu’à nous en tant que constructeur. »
Tout aussi ravi d’être engagé dans ce nouveau projet, Josh Herrin, Champion en titre de l’AMA Superbike (Etats-Unis), a déclaré :
« Je ne pourrais pas être plus excité par cette opportunité. Courir dans le Championnat du Monde a été mon objectif depuis tout petit et ça me semble surréaliste maintenant que je sais que je vais courir ici. Je me suis entraîné très dur et je suis prêt à me battre pour d’excellents résultats dans l’ultra-compétitive catégorie Moto2™. »
« Je ne pourrai jamais suffisamment remercier mon manager, Bob Moore, pour avoir travaillé aussi dur pour me placer dans le meilleur team pour l’an prochain et je tiens à remercier le Caterham Moto Racing Team pour avoir fait de mon rêve une réalité. »
Expliquant la décision de Caterham d’étendre son programme sportif à la compétition moto, Dato’ Kamarudin a affirmé :
« Je suis ravi de confirmer que notre candidature pour rejoindre la grille Moto2™ a été acceptée et nous sommes fiers de pouvoir l’annoncer ici chez nous à Sepang. A travers d’AirAsia, Tony Fernandes et moi-même nous sommes passionnés pour les courses moto depuis des années et le lancement de notre propre team en Moto2™ était une étape naturelle pour le Groupe Caterham. »
« Je suis aussi très heureux de confirmer notre premier pilote, Josh Herrin, un pilote talentueux, très enthousiasmant et Champion en titre de l’AMA Superbike. Il partage nos ambitions et notre foi en ce projet qui se développera bien au-delà de 2014. Nous continuerons aussi à soutenir la carrière bourgeonnante de Fahmi (Zulfahmi Khairuddin) en Moto3™, un jeune pilote malaisien dont le potentiel se développe au fil des saisons. »
« Nous pouvons d’autre part confirmer que nous avons signé un partenariat technique avec Suter Racing Technology pour le châssis. C’était une démarche pragmatique qui nous assure un matériel dont la qualité a été prouvée ainsi qu’un savoir-faire qui nous permettra de monter notre team avec les meilleurs partenaires possibles dès le début. »
Le deuxième pilote du team Caterham sera annoncé « en temps voulu » tandis que le Suédois Johan Stigefelt, ancien coureur en Grand Prix, a été nommé au poste de team manager.
When does style start to hinder functionality? Everyone probably has a different answer to this – we all have varying ways of looking at cars and of course that’s a very good thing. Satomi-san, the builder… scratch that… the creator of the Volklinger S14 probably has a totally different outlook on stuff compared to me and you. However, like most things that are born out of passion, it has been a step by step process that has lead his Silvia to look like something out of a war movie.
Satomi truly let his imagination run wild, bringing together a few of his hobbies: cars, drifting and plastic military models…
… and spicing it all up with tons of curious details. It almost looks like the car was put together in a post-apocalyptic world, where devastation led to people scavenging for whatever was left from a previous civilization. It could well be the perfect car for a remake of Mad Max – where the protagonist is into drifting!
I can already hear the negativity: it’s undrivable, it sits too low, it has stupid camber, it has metal in place of side glass, you can’t see out of the windscreen cover. Strangely enough, there’s a very good chance that Satomi didn’t really build this car for outright practicality. While some may assume it’s just a way to raise the middle finger to society or to make a point, the truth couldn’t actually be more humble – he just wanted to do it for a bit of fun, for himself, to see just how far he could take the whole military theme.
And while doing so he never sacrificed the car’s true purpose, and that was to be his weekend drift car.
So with temporary plates in hand, Satomi was able to meet me right outside Ikkyu Temple…
… in the outskirts of Kyoto, a rather fitting background given the sheer contrast of the subject at hand. A passing hoard of elementary school kids instantly swarmed around the S14 to get a closer look and ask what it was.
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You may have spotted that the base aero kit that Satomi chose for the conversion is TRA Kyoto’s 6666 Customs wide body kit, setting the feel for the rest of the mods that were planned.
There’s so much to see as you walk around the car. Like the iron bars that are used to armour cement – here cut, bent and tacked on to one of the front fenders. The other fender as you’ve already seen has been covered in American license plates, bent and welded in place as a sort of armour.
The car runs Trust adjustable coilovers that have allowed the car to sit as low as possible on the custom painted set of Mickey Thompson Classic II rims, fitted in the same 10Jx16″ size all round and running Pinso rubber, a Japanese drifter’s top choice for remarkably affordable tires to smoke. Some trick suspension arms up front are there to give the wheels plenty of negative camber, the either you understand it or hate it onikyan – or demon camber.
Satomi carries a few accessories in his trunk, props that he uses when displaying the car at track events or at shows, items that on top of the cut bomb shell…
… include a slammed jack of his own design!
The engine room has been finished off in what can only be described as a Stealth Bomber look, each and every single component, pipe, hose, cable…
… and even filter sprayed in flat black. Underneath all that hides a slightly massaged engine, set up for a bit of extra power for those especially challenging and potentially fast tracks. The SR20 head cover has been removed and a set of Tomei 256-deg cams dropped in, a good match to the Trust TD06 turbo that is low-mounted on a GReddy exhaust manifold. Custom piping connects everything up and thanks to a well programmed Apex Power FC, Nissan’s four-banger is able to churn out a healthy 400hp. So there goes the ‘all show and no go’ comments out the window.
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What really cracked me up is that Satomi carries a few cans of flat black in his trunk, just so that every once in a while he can freshen up areas of the engine bay that may have started to look a little dull. He just sprays it everywhere!
One of the main reasons the car is unable to be registered for street use is due to the simple fact that the side glass has been replaced with something not quite so transparent: metal sheets. The door’s glass has been swapped out for appropriately curved and cut diamond-pattern sheets that go up and down just as smoothly, actuated by the electric motors.
Covers on the side match the removable tank-like armour plate that Satomi made for the windscreen…
… with a louvered cover at the back.
Satomi has done everything himself on the Volklinger S14, things that include the flat green paint and the extensive air brushing needed to give the exterior a look resembling a rusted out battle tank, with rust and dirt lines running down from the exposed rivets.
Ducktail? On an S-chassis? Yes please!
Another example of how extensive the detailing stretches is the assortment of model missiles and bombs, glued in place to the side of the car!
Remove the rear bumper and both the exposed chassis below and the inside of the bumper have been painted…
… much like the underside of the trunk lid, a slightly more eighties take on the whole camo thing.
To finish it all off, a custom center exit exhaust system, capped off like some bike mufflers to make a raspier and ultimately louder sound.
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One of the latest modifications at the time of the shoot was the extended hood which wraps down over the headlights for quite the evil look when those main beams are flicked on.
The cockpit, which may be the darkest interior of any car in history period when the side glass is up and the windscreen is covered, sports yet more unique decorations. Usual additions that you would expect to find in a drift car are there like the second or third hand Recaro bucket, equally well-used racing harness and of course a chunky and deeply cupped steering wheel…
… mounted on… four bosses! We assume Satomi favours a more WRC-style seating/driving position then!
The nine yellow auxiliary gauges and main instrument cluster are there to make it all look like a tank’s command post, a cool addition against the colorful dashboard. Those notes that you see are reproduction German wartime currency bills that Satomi managed to find on Yahoo Auctions.
Satomi knows very well his car might be hard to digest to some, but at the same time he really doesn’t care. He set out to achieve something different, letting his imagination take decisions and has managed to make his car look like some sort of full-sized scale war machine, one built for drift rather than killing people.
With four races to go in 2013, Sepang marked the first event of a triple-header which next weekend takes the MotoGP™ fraternity to Australia, before racing in Japan on the final weekend of the month. Saturday saw Marquez storm to a fourth consecutive pole position as the newcomer attempted to edge ever closer to an historic title win.
Pedrosa’s victory came as his first for almost five months, having not stood atop the podium since Le Mans in mid-May. He narrowly missed out on taking the lead as Lorenzo swept through at the start, but overhauled the Mallorcan at the end of the first lap. As Lorenzo became involved in an intense battle with Marquez, who finally made the move stick at Turn 14 with just over 11 laps to go, Pedrosa extended his advantage to pick up a second successive victory on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur.
The result means all three of the rostrum finishers retain mathematical possibilities of clinching the World Championship, although Marquez is the only rider who could claim the title at Phillip Island next weekend. Should he do so, the 20-year-old Catalan would become the first rookie premier class title winner for 35 years.
Outside of the top three at Sepang, multiple winner Valentino Rossi (Yamaha Factory Racing) experienced a somewhat lonely ride to fourth spot as Alvaro Bautista (GO&FUN Honda Gresini) came out on top in a battle with Cal Crutchlow (Monster Yamaha Tech3); the Spaniard now moves up to sixth place in the Riders’ Championship, ahead of LCR Honda MotoGP’s Stefan Bradl who was forced to miss the race because of a broken ankle. Tech3’s Bradley Smith and Ducati Team’s Andrea Dovizioso were seventh and eighth, ahead of lead CRT runner Aleix Espargaro (Power Electronics Aspar) and Yonny Hernandez (Ignite Pramac Racing).
In 15th spot, NGM Mobile Forward Racing’s Colin Edwards clinched the final point after he, Avintia Blusens’ Hector Barbera and PBM’s Michael Laverty were handed ride-through penalties for jumping the start. A total of five riders failed to finish, including 2006 World Champion Nicky Hayden who parked his Ducati Team machine on the start/finish straight after suffering technical problems.
Round 16 of 18, the Tissot Australian Grand Prix, will take place next weekend as Marc Marquez attempts to become the youngest ever MotoGP™ World Champion.
Bien malchanceux en Aragón, où sa chute et son abandon avaient sonné le glas de ses espoirs de remporter le titre mondial cette année, et encore gêné par une hanche douloureuse, Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda) a fait preuve ce week-end au Grand Prix Shell Advance de Malaisie d’autant de talent que de caractère et remportait l’épreuve de Sepang pour la seconde année consécutive. Malgré sa victoire, le Catalan demeure toute de même à cinquante-quatre points de son coéquipier Marc Márquez (Repsol Honda) avant les trois dernières manches de la saison 2013.
Qualifiés en seconde ligne, le vice-Champion du Monde MotoGP™ 2012 et Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha Factory Racing), le tenant du titre, étaient côte à côte dans le premier virage, suite auquel Lorenzo passait en tête devant Pedrosa, Márquez, Valentino Rossi (Yamaha Factory) et Álvaro Bautista (GO&FUN Honda Gresini).
En formation serrée, les cinq pilotes n’ont pas tardé à distancer le reste du peloton et Pedrosa s’est emparé de la première position dès le cinquième tour pour ensuite filer vers la victoire alors que Lorenzo se retrouvait en tête à tête avec Márquez.
Auparavant critique des avis des pilotes qui n’hésitent pas à aller au contact, Lorenzo, dont les dernières déclarations à ce sujet avaient été on ne peut plus ambigües, s’est montré particulièrement agressif pour défendre sa seconde place face au rookie catalan. Les deux rivaux ont offert un superbe spectacle du cinquième au neuvième tour, dans lequel Márquez est, après de nombreuses tentatives, passé pour de bon devant le Champion du Monde en titre.
Suite à un festival de manoeuvres toutes plus osées les unes que les autres, le reste de la course a été beaucoup moins animé. Impérial, Pedrosa est resté hors de portée de Márquez, qui a vite creusé l’écart sur Lorenzo une fois passé devant le Majorquin. Les trois Espagnols et Rossi ont tous fini avec près de trois secondes d’écart entre chacun d’entre eux tandis qu’Álvaro Bautista (GO&FUN Honda Gresini) et Cal Crutchlow (Monster Yamaha Tech3) finissaient cinquième et sixième à l’issue d’une belle bagarre pour la place de premier pilote satellite, en l’absence de Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda), opéré de sa fracture de la cheville la veille au soir à Kuala Lumpur.
Complétaient le Top 10 à l’arrivée Bradley Smith (Monster Yamaha Tech3), Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati), Aleix Espargaró (Power Electronics Aspar) et Yonny Hernández (Ignite Pramac Racing) tandis que Randy de Puniet (Power Electronics Aspar) a fini douzième, derrière Hiroshi Aoyama (Avintia Blusens).
Nicky Hayden (Ducati) a dû abandonner sa Desmosedici contre le pit-wall suite à une casse moteur survenue avant la mi-course tandis que Colin Edwards (NGM Mobile Forward Racing), Héctor Barberá (Avintia Blusens) et Michael Laverty (PBM) ont tous les trois été pénalisés par un ride-through pour départ anticipé.
Grâce à sa seconde place, son quatorzième podium en quinze courses depuis son arrivée en MotoGP™, Márquez pourrait remporter le titre de Champion du Monde le week-end prochain à Phillip Island, au Grand Prix Tissot d’Australie, en marquant sept points de plus que Lorenzo et en ne concédant pas plus de quatre points à Pedrosa.
It's funny how certain things in life seem to hang low then present themselves at the most opportune moments. For instance, this Rudge-Whitworth custom build by Jean-Claude Barrois surfaced back in 2008. I completely missed it. But, looking back at myself during that time I know I would have never been able to truly appreciate it the way I do now. 5 years ago I had never even sat on a 2-wheeled machine and these days every spare moment outside the design studio is consumed by them. I've rebuilt motorcycle engines with discontinued parts that were only 40 years old so I can appreciate the countless hours and one-off pieces that must have gone into this 87 year old power plant. I've taken classes in welding, machining and fabrication so I can appreciate the Rudge-Whitworth's ground-up frame construction and perfectly arched backbone. I've been to the Harley Davidson museum multiple times, spending hours pouring over the board track racers of the 1920's so I can appreciate the history behind Jean-Claude's aesthetic nod. And I've been to the Bonneville Salt Flats during Speed Week so that I know how un-fucking-believably gorgeous this thing must have looked out there back in 2011 when Barrois chased the line. ...and how ballsy he was to even bring such a beauty to the most corrosive place on earth.
Suicide knee shifter. Are you serious?
Enjoy this bike. Take in every detail. Most of these shots are desktop sized thanks to the equally elaborate photography of Guerry & Pratt.
What's the kicker is I found this bike by flipping through the 2011 BikeEXIF calendar that's been hanging in front of my desk, untouched since November of that year. The Rudge-Whitworth was December's bike, hanging one page turn away from sight all this time. Hrrmm, yes, quite opportune indeed.
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