jeudi 7 novembre 2013
mercredi 6 novembre 2013
ERC : Swiss trip to close the year / Le Valais pour clore 2013
The 2013 FIA European Rally Championship will conclude with this weekend’s Rallye International du Valais which is being organised for the 54th time. With Bryan Bouffier absent from the Swiss round, Craig Breen (Peugeot/Michelin) will attempt to secure runner-up honours.
Le Championnat d’Europe des Rallyes FIA 2013 s’achève par le Rallye International du Valais (Suisse) qui fête sa 54e édition. En l’absence de Bryan Bouffier, Craig Breen (Peugeot/Michelin) tentera de décrocher le titre de Vice-champion d’Europe.
Irishman Craig Breen is the only one of the championship’s top three to travel to the ERC’s final clash. Victory in Switzerland will earn him second place behind this year’s champ Jan Kopecky. Second spot is currently held by Bryan Bouffier who has entered the following weekend’s Wales Rally GB in a Citroën DS3 R3 instead.
With four ERC podium finishes to his name to date, Breen (Peugeot 207 S2000/Michelin) has a real chance of winning in the Swiss Alps. His biggest threats will no doubt be his Peugeot Rally Academy team-mate Jérémi Ancian, the recently-crowned Asia-Pacific Champion Esapekka Lappi (Skoda/Michelin) and local Peugeot 207 S2000 runners like the Swiss champion Grégoire Hotz and Nicolas Althaus (2012 champion).
A dozen S2000 drivers are expected, including the indefatigable Olivier Burri (Fiesta RRC) and Antonin Tlustak (Skoda). The latter’s team-mate Jaroslav Orsak has traded his Mitsubishi Lancer for a Skoda Fabia S2000, while the 2013 Production champion Andreas Aigner will face opposition from Renault Mégane RS runners Robert Consani and Romain Salinas. Laurent Reuche, the two-wheel drive winner here in 2011 and 2012, is the class’s favourite once again in his Renault Clio R3.
The 71-strong field might come across wintry conditions on the stages which climb to altitudes of more than 1,500 metres. Studded tyres are not permitted, but Michelin’s partners will be able to run the French firm’s NA0 snow tyre if necessary. For the moment, though, the long-range forecast predicts rain and mild temperatures, in which case Michelin will provide a choice of three asphalt tyres, namely the R00 (extra-soft compound), R10 (soft) and R20 (medium).
All three legs include a certain amount of gravel, especially the final day which incorporates 35.48km of loose surfaces, although gravel tyres are not permitted.
The rally starts in Sion on Thursday, November 7, and ends on Saturday afternoon in Martigny.
Parmi les trois leaders du championnat, seul l’Irlandais Craig Breen est du déplacement en Suisse pour la dernière manche ERC de la saison. Une victoire lui permettrait de terminer vice-champion derrière Jan Kopecky. Cette 2e place est actuellement occupée par Bryan Bouffier qui, faute de Valais, sera au départ du Wales Rally GB sur une Citroën DS3 R3.
Après quatre podiums en ERC cette saison, Craig Breen a donc une belle opportunité de s’imposer sur les pentes alpestres au volant de sa Peugeot 207 S2000/Michelin. Il aura pour principaux adversaires son propre équipier de la Peugeot Rally Academy Jérémi Ancian, le tout récent Champion Asie-Pacifique 2013 Esapekka Lappi (Skoda/Michelin), et de nombreux pilotes helvètes comme le septuple Champion de Suisse Grégoire Hotz ou son compatriote Nicolas Althaus (Champion 2012), tous deux sur Peugeot 207 S2000.
Douze voitures sont attendues en S2000 avec l’infatigable Olivier Burri (Fiesta RRC) ou encore Antonin Tlustak (Skoda). Son équipier Jaroslav Orsak délaisse sa Mitsubishi Lancer pour une Skoda Fabia S2000. Andreas Aigner, déjà sacré en catégorie Production, retrouvera les Renault Mégane RS de Robert Consani et Romain Salinas. En 2-roues motrices, le double vainqueur sortant du Valais, Laurent Reuche, fait figure de favori sur sa Renault Clio R3.
Quelles conditions attendent les 71 concurrents engagés ? Début novembre, à plus de 1500 mètres d’altitude dans les Alpes suisses, on pourrait s’attendre à des conditions hivernales. Le règlement interdit l’usage des pneus cloutés. Michelin proposera tout de même à ses partenaires le pneu neige NA0. Pour l’heure, la météo prévoit de la pluie et des températures assez douces. Les pilotes Michelin auront le choix entre trois types de pneus asphalte : R00 (extra soft), R10 (soft) et R20 (medium).
Le Rallye International du Valais est une épreuve asphalte, mais chacune des trois étapes comportent des portions sur terre, et notamment la dernière journée qui compte 35,48 km sur cette surface (pneus terre interdits). Départ jeudi 7 novembre de Sion, arrivée samedi après-midi à Martigny.
The Bespoke Touch: Brill Steel Carbon S14
If you’re going to do something, you might as well do it properly. A simple enough bit of advice to follow, but in practice, one that is not so easy to stick to, especially when it comes to building a car up from a bare chassis. But Enrico Sartori and his crew at Brill Steel Motorsports right outside Treviso in Northern Italy attempted to do just that, grabbing inspiration from a variety of styles and forms of motorsport and combining them to sculpt their very own bespoke creation: their vision of what the perfect drift car should be.
This S14 is the culmination of years of work; the sum of an impressive amount of carefully selected and custom-made parts. As it sat during the time of our visit last month, the car was close to completion only waiting for a set of specially cut Lexan windows and custom driveshafts to connect the driveline up.
That wasn’t certainly going to stop me attacking it with my camera. I just felt compelled to share this one of a kind build with you guys, so to make things look a little more complete, we thought we’d add a new grey Speedhunters sticker on the rear bumper, which by coincidence Enrico told us was the same type of grey their graphics will be done in.
However before we headed out to the agreed upon location, there was one thing I first wanted to do. After having been blown away by the meticulous way in which the car had been put together, I just had to get a glimpse underneath and shoot away at some of the details that make this S-chassis so impressive. Before embarking on the build Enrico was adamant on running a V8. Brill Steel is actually one of a very few hot rod and custom shops in Italy and their love for Americana runs at the core of what they do. They built Graziano Rossi’s (Valentino Rossi’s old man) turbocharged Ford Mustang which he drifts in various championships in Italy, so there was never any real doubt what sort of engine their S-chassis project would be powered by. So a few phone calls later and a 480hp LS3 crate motor was delivered from the UK, ready to be fitted onto the heavily stiffened and caged shell.
Except they had no intention of keeping the motor stock; far from it in fact. Along with the engine, a bunch of nice parts were delivered from the US: stuff that included a new bottom end, a dry sump conversion and whole new valvetrain. So the engine was opened up and its innards gutted, first off replaced by a Lunati stroker crankshaft, Compstar H-section connecting rods and high compression Wiseco pistons. This whole lot would bump capacity to 427 ci (6,997 cc) and compression to 14.3:1.
Precision Race Components L92 280 cfm heads followed, along with Jesel valvetrain and topped off with custom carbon fiber head covers.
A F.A.S.T LSXR intake manifold has the job of apportioning an equal amount of air to each of the eight cylinders and is throttled by a massive 102 mm PTM body. Enrico explains that he will eventually want to develop an eight-throttle set-up with velocity stacks to maximize response, not to mention the induction sound! The engine is also set up to use a Nitrous Express nitrous oxide system for a big boost in power.
900cc/min injectors have the job of efficiently delivering the race gas necessary to develop the 717hp and 124kg-m (896lb/ft) the engine has been dynoed at. With the gas turned on it can churn out 945hp. A MecTronik ECU MKE6 is at the heart of the engine management and has great components like the MSD individual coils to rely on to get the best possible performance out of the motor.
Here you can see the crossed bars that link the front section of the roll cage across and through the firewall, onto the strut towers. This is a detail you often see on WRC cars and one that helps boost rigidity and resistance to twist.
One area that Brill Steel took a lot of time to develop was the thick gauge custom rear subframe that they designed and fabricated…
… to hold the Winters quick change rear end in place. The rear subframe is actually something they are selling as a kit for easy bolt-on applications on S-chassis and to be used with Track Day Performance adjustable rear arms.
Up front they got rid of the stock S14 arms and fitted a Track Day Performance Angle kit which includes all the necessary components to boost steering lock…
… and get the right sort of suspension geometry. All of this is mated to custom-built and valved Bilstein adjustable dampers.
While we had the car in the workshop we even threw it on some scales to see what she weighed in at. While corner weights still need to be fine-tuned, the 1002kg curb weight (no fluids and no driver) is mighty impressive. But there is still a lot more to see…
… so we loaded up the car on the Brill transporter and threw all the carbon body panels on there…
… and reassembled the car at their warehouse a short drive away. Now you may have noticed I have kept on referring to this car as an S14, despite it obviously looking like an S15 but then as they say, looks can be deceiving. The base car is indeed an ichi-yon, but Enrico wanted to convert it to an ichi-go, going so far as sourcing all stock original Nissan body panels (including roof, rear fenders and pillars) to then have recreated in dry carbon.
It’s one imposing car that’s for sure, not really standing out as a drift car per se, but that was never really the goal. Enrico wanted to create something wild, and he took some inspiration from Nakai-san’s RWB 911s…
… which is why the carbon exterior wears screwed-on fender flares front and back. The obvious amount of front…
… and rear aero isn’t really something you would see on a drift car that’s for sure, especially that high-set rear wing and the extended rear diffuser. Enrico plans to enter a variety of drift competitions and championships around Europe in the next year and is probably also going to have a go at the odd time attack attempt. After seeing our coverage of the Gatebil events he is also seriously thinking about taking the car up to Norway.
Open the ridiculously light doors and you find yourself marveling at a beautifully appointed interior, from the intricate piping and gusseting of the cage…
… to the nicely laid out components like the ATL tank and surge tank in the passenger side…
… as well as the oil tank for the dry sump system.
The AIM dash unit and data logger is the sole bit of instrumentation sitting in the almost minimalistic cockpit. You’ve got to love simplicity and a clutter-free layout!
An OBP adjustable pedal box replaces the S14′s factory set-up and sits in the stiffened and heat-insulated footwell where Enrico’s feet will be doing much dancing when taking the car out on track.
Once engaged, the nitrous oxide bottle will deliver a 200+hp hit of power for those squirts of acceleration that might be required down a straight or to help keep the rear tires lit up while sideways through a tough corner.
Without the rear Lexan glass fitted there was a great view onto the rear section of the cage. In case you need lessons on how to fabricate a proper cage…
… these images will be of some assistance! As you can see the rear trunk area has been clean cut off: in its place pipe frame, some of which is holding the rear mounted AP Racing air jack (there are two more up front), making lifting the whole car as simple as twisting the tap on a high-pressured gas canister.
As you can see with the hood removed, the stroked LS3 breathes through a large carbon fiber intake scoop, which at speed can generate quite a big ram air effect.
No matter which angle you look at the car from, there’s so much attention to detail.
The Brill Steel carbon Silvia runs some locally made racing wheels created by a small motorsports wheel company called NTM. These Racing PISTA measure 10.5×18″ at the front and a massive 12.5×18″ at the rear where the rim has been reversed to get the correct offset. Enrico has sourced some Yokohama Advan Neova AD08s, 255/35R18 for the front and the same 295/30R18 I run on my car for the rear. Now that’s a hell of a lot of rubber!
Behind the wheels Enrico has taken a little inspiration out of Daigo Saito’s book, running a Wilwood braking set-up with 11-inch scalloped rotors all round. The rear runs a twin four-pot caliper set-up, one pair used solely for the e-brake to make initiations as easy as a flick of the big WRC-lever inside the car. If the car is to participate in time attack events the braking will have to be upgraded to a larger and more grip-oriented system.
Matching the evil red headlights are some pretty cool custom LED taillights, all meticulously soldered by hand tracing the edges of the S15 taillight housings. On such a mean-looking car, the Brill Steel guys certainly couldn’t have chosen a better way to finish off this particular area.
With so much attention to detail having gone into this project, not to mention the astonishing numbers that it boasts, this is one car we would love to see shredding tires around Rudskogen with that big V8 bouncing off the limiter. With 945hp per ton, it would certainly fit in to the Scandinavian way of doing things…
Honda CT110 by Post Modern Motorcycles
Tank Moto issue 2 recently hit the shelves (and promptly sold out!) and one of my favourite stories from the issue was the one about my visit to Champion Motorcycles workshop in Abbotsford, Melbourne. Champion owner Jim Clark has been customising ex-Australia Post Honda CT110's for several years now under his Post Modern Motorcycles brand and I finally got the chance to meet the man behind the bikes that make grin from ear to ear. Here's an excerpt from the feature...
Back in the early nineties Jim was customising Yamaha SR’s and British bikes under the influence of the Japanese custom scene. After a friend suggested he try Postie Bikes as a platform Jim started sketching a few ideas. He stripped away the stock seat, added some fat rubber and was happy with the result. Soon afterwards he purchased his first Postie and it was transformed into the ‘Blackmail’. When Jim started showing people the bike the feedback was unanimously positive and Post Modern Motorcycles was born.
All of the Post Modern builds are ex-Australian Postal Service vehicles. These versions of the CT110 were designed and built especially for Auspost by Honda and feature a series of special modifications to cope with the day-to-day wear and tear of postal delivery. Postie Bikes feature a heavy duty gearbox, rock solid heavy duty gauge rims, 3 stands (center, left and right) so they can be quickly parked on any surface and a locking front brake. Starting with this platform Jim performs a set of standard upgrades to all of the bikes he builds. The engines are rebuilt by removing the side cases, barrel and head. Jim then replaces the piston, ring, cam chain, seals and gaskets and the heads are blasted clean. The barrel is also given a thorough clean before being resprayed in engine black and pieced back together. While there’s no huge power improvements to be easily gained from the CT110’s engine, Jim unlocks a smidge more grunt by dropping around 5 to 10 kilos of excess weight and by opening up it’s airways. He starts by pulling out the stock air box and fitting a K&N filter to the carb. The exhaust is debaffled or completely replaced with a hi-flowing system and the carb gets a new set of jets. With modifications like these a Post Modern Motorcycle will haul along at around 90-100kmh at full tilt.
The black bike is Jim’s most recent build. The customer wanted another Blackmail so it’s almost a carbon copy of the original. After the tear down it was treated to a full respray in gloss black. The stock seat was replaced with a Nitro Heads unit and the bars swapped for Café Racer style, low hanging Clubmans. The red bike (“Pinko Bastard”) is Jim’s personal ride, which he refers to as a kind of Street Tracker. He prefers a more comfortable upright riding position so this bike has a wider set of handlebars, giving it the look and handling characteristics of a BMX. The rear end has been made rigid by swapping out the springs for solid struts, lowering it by around an inch and tucking the rear wheel up into the fender. Jim says the bike will easily get air over speed humps but recommends standing up on the pegs before landing. Post Modern builds also regularly feature a mix of custom components from Japanese parts manufacturer Easy Riders, for which Jim is the Australian distributor. Individual design/style changes come in the form of custom paint and decals, the occasional fuel tank add-on and Brooks leather saddlebags, grips and mudflaps to compliment the 40’s/50’s aesthetic of his builds.
Honda first released the CT110 in 1980. Powered by a 105cc, 4 stroke, air cooled engine it was the predecessor to the CT90 and offered commuters exceptional economy and reliability. Like the CT90 the CT110 had an automatic centrifugal clutch for ease of operation and a robust, steel pressed frame. Certain models also featured a “dual range subtransmission” that could be activated by flicking a switch under the transmission. With the subtransmission engaged the CT110 could tackle the steepest of slopes under full load, despite it’s low powered engine...
If you want to grab yourself a copy of issue 2 to see the rest of this story you will need to be quick. It's now only available through a handful of distributors including our friends at 100MPH.
Want to grab some cool custom motorcycle gear and accessories?
Head over to 100mph.com.au
Head over to 100mph.com.au
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