via bubblevisor I don't think the work of Dutch CAD designer Mark "Duckman" van der Kwaak needs an introduction on this blog. Most people will know his Cadbike 33 Beemer and he did the Cad work and developed the frame with adjustable trail, rake and seat height for Veon. The bike that was built by Krugger and winner of the 2010 AMD World Championship of Custombikebuilding. But here are some more of his Cad designs.
I really like his latest creation, inspired by Roth's Megacycle, but this version will have BMW power. Check his site for much more z
BIG MUSCLE investigates a 1927 Road Race-T built for the 24 Hours of LeMons endurance race.
What happens if you take a lemon and add a little sugar? That is the question posed by Mike Musto from BIG MUSCLEwho each week “travels the country with the goal of showcasing the best and baddest muscle cars and hot rods around”. We think Big Mike needs to start adding ‘bizarre’ and ‘surreal’ into that description as well. Especially when you check out the focus of this latest episode…
Taking a 1927 Ford Model T, dropping in a 1986 Mustang drivetrain and adding the front end off a Pinto is an extreme case of ‘only in America’. How is this thing even road legal? And how come it still weighs 2400lbs (1088kg) even though it has, well, nothing? And is it possible that Dennis “Fish” Newman and Dave Schaible – who built it – might be stretching the rules of the 24 Hours of LeMons endurance race? Is it cool? Is it a deathtrap? Actually, just WTF is it?
Don’t look at us for answers, we have no idea. This is BIG MUSCLE.
I’m sure I speak for my fellow Speedhunters when I say I can appreciate any car that’s had blood, sweat and tears poured into it, but every now and then, a build comes along that really piques my interest. Something that I really wish was parked in my garage.
Today, that car is a Ford Escort. But not any Ford Escort…
It’s hard to believe it looking at it now, but when the two-door Mk2 rolled off Ford’s production line in the mid-’70s, it did so in rudimentary 1300L guise.
The transformation from sensible grocery-getter into the tough-as-nails circuit race car that tips its hat to the Zakspeed’s Castrol-sponsored Group 2 machine didn’t happen overnight, but rather through a number of evolutionary phases that began when its current owner, Tony Paxman, purchased the car in 2007.
Like so many of the stories we get to tell, there were no grand plans to begin with – just an idea to go oval short track racing with a car largely built up from parts that Tony amassed through 20 years of involvement in motorsport. Working on and off, that original build consumed around a year, setting in place the majority of custom fabrication work that you’ll still find in the car today.
Initially the Escort was powered by a relatively tame 2.0L SOHC Pinto motor, but like so many aspects of this car, it’s so much more than that now. The more extensive modifications were spurred by a focus change and switch to longer distance, semi-endurance events at the end of the ’08 season, and it was then that Andy Pyke – a driver Tony met when both were competing in the V6 Eurocar series – came aboard with the project.
Sharing the drive divvied up the running costs, allowing the team to expand its racing programme, from local UK events to classic race meetings in Belgium, Portugal and as far afield as Daytona International Speedway in Florida, USA. The SR Rolex Endurance Series, Heritage Racing, and JD Classics Motor Racing Legends – this Escort has seen a lot of action over the past few years.
It’s a high competitive package among the pre-1978 classic and sports car ranks too, which has a lot to do with the dedication of the dedicated team behind the car. It’s a year-round thing – racing in the summer followed cold UK winters spent in the garage fine-tuning the set-up to extract every last ounce of potential from it.
Of all those upgrades, it’s the one that came at the end of of the 2010 season that has had the biggest impact. I’m not talking about the wild Zakspeed Castrol bodywork either – another important facet of this build that I’ll get to shortly – but what’s sitting beneath the bonnet.
Yes, it’s still a Pinto, but as you can see it’s far from stock now. Feast your eyes on 300hp of 2.3L four-cylinder Warrior by Connaught Competition Engines.
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The idea to get Connaught in on the act was a no-brainer as far as Tony was concerned. Not only had the team worked with CCE’s Tim Swadkin in the past, but a Warrior DOHC conversion would stroke a nice balance between delivering loads of power and maintaining a nostalgic feel in the engine. If you know anything about CCE’s Warrior packages though, you’ll know they’re a lot more than a simple cylinder head conversion. The block for example, has been fitted out with Connaught-spec pistons, rods and an Arrows crankshaft to lift displacement to 2.3L.
There are a couple of options you’ve got when it comes to building a Pinto-based engine with a twin cam head – the Warrior way, or the Cosworth route. Each have their strengths, but the Warrior benefits from being designed especially for natural aspiration, as opposed to the Cosworth component which was tooled with the turbocharged Sierra in mind. To take full advantage of its huge flow characteristics, there’s a quartet of Jenvey 48mm throttle bodies on the side, fitted on a Warrior-spec inlet manifold.
As awesome as the quads are, the custom fabricated Simpson Race Exhausts stainless steel header is the highlight of the engine bay for me. I mean, look at it! Simpson also knocked up the full stainless exhaust system running a straight path beneath the car to single stainless race muffler at the rear, and it’s equally impressive too.
There are many more performance-adders in the mix as well: a Sytec high-flow pump and adjustable regulator feeding from a 60L tank in the boot, a Mocal oil cooler and Radtec radiator, plus an MBE ignition mode and MBE engine management system wired in through a custom harness. A tad over 300hp is the result, and that’s plenty of wick for a chassis that weighs as little as the Escort does.
Ensuring that the MkII can put all that energy to the ground in a reliable fashion is a driveline that’s been on the receiving end of some serious modification. There’s the gearbox for starters – a Quaife Engineering QBE89G seven-speed, sequential-shifted and ultra close-ratio number that’s perfectly suited to the engine’s narrow power band and set up for flat shifting. Further down the line you’ll find a Tran-x Atlas LSD rear end with SHP Engineering axles and Quaife floating half shafts. Suffice to say, I don’t think there are any chances of breakage in this area of the car.
Things are very well sorted in the suspension department as well: an adjustable custom four-link in the rear married to Ohlins coilovers wearing Eibach springs and SHP Engineering top mounts.
The front end features SHP Engineering adjustable links, rose joints and sway bar, plus an uprated Gartrac steering rack. No detail has been spared in the quest for ultimate Escort performance.
That’s something which definitely extends to the stopping system too. Wilwood six-pot front and four-pot rear calipers, plus SHP Engineering rotors and Ferodo competitions pads at all four corners, equip the Escort with a brake package befitting its extensive mechanical modifications. Furthermore, an in-cabin Wilwood proportioning valve lets Tony or Andy fine-tune the split on the fly.
As unremarkable as the original road car might have been, the initial motorsport transformation and subsequent upgrades have turned it into one of the toughest old school Escort race cars out there. But there’s still more to talk about – starting with the oh-so-cool Zakspeed replica bodywork and Castrol-inspired colourway.
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As muscular as the Group 2 spec kit makes the Mk2 look, the idea to outwardly extend the car’s proportions wasn’t because of a need or want to radically change its appearance, but rather improve airflow over and around the car – for speed’s sake.
Of course, the giant over fenders allowed for easy fitting of big feet too, and under the front and rear guards you’ll find 15×9-inch Compomotive ML wheels where thirteens once resided.
The rear wing is an SHP Engineering item, and beautiful crafted too. Not so obvious is a Kevlar bonnet and boot lid, polycarbonate windows and a custom undertray. Andy tells me that the aero is one area the team isn’t quite finished with, and without taking too much away from the Zakspeed look, there are some subtle tweaks still to come.
Given what I’ve shown you so far, I’m pretty sure you’ll be banking on a quality fit-out inside. To that end, the Escort’s interior space definitely lives up to expectation. There’s a full roll cage of course, plus a Corbeau seat flanked by a Luke six-point harness, and a Mountney wheel. You can see how much work has gone into fitting the sequential transmission too – not only a custom tunnel, but also a fabricated mount which positions the lever and SPD shift knob at the optimum height.
I love the meticulous tin work in the back too. At the very bottom of the image you can see some of the box-work for the custom multi-link.
But more than that, I love the way that the cabin perfectly combines modern and vintage elements. Take the classic-style toggle switches for instance – pure period stuff.
And then you get a digital gear position meter for the Quaife box. It’s the perfect balance.
‘Balanced’ is actually a pretty good way to describe the entire build, because this is a car that stays faithful to the Escort’s past yet still manages to embrace the future – not an easy task. Right now though, Tony and Andy have their sights set on a successful European summer season and a return to Daytona in November. There’s still unfinished business at the iconic North American circuit, and with a third more power now than when the Escort gave some of the big guns a run for their money on its first trans-Atlantic excursion, it’s time to show everyone what this awesome little machine can really do.
Most creativity is born out of necessity and these creations are designed to bring about a practical improvement in an aspect or quality of our everyday life. The owner and builder of our featured motorcycle, Tim, is an Industrial Designer, who earns a living expressing this form of creative ability. His bobber does not fall under this form of creativity. It falls under that wonderfully impractical form of creativity which is purely a physical manifestation of the creator’s personal need for artistic expression. Tim also restores and has vast knowledge of the early 1960′s Hondas and so in his own words…
“I’ve been collecting Hondas for several years now and one particular model that I’ve developed a special affection for is the CB77 305cc Super Hawk, which I consider to be one of the best looking bikes Honda ever made. When it was launched in the early sixties it knocked the European manufacturers offerings into a cocked hat. Here was a little 305cc machine from the Axis Powers that gave the mid-size Brit-bikes a hiding; and the 650’s a good run for their money. Heavily over-engineered with roller bearing cranks and cams, twin carbs, twin leading shoe brakes front and rear and exceptional build quality; they became very popular and have developed a bit of a cult following during recent times. Fortunately, or unfortunately, they’ve also become quite rare and as a result have become quite valuable; but parts are also becoming incredibly hard to come by. So much so that I’ve taken to buying parts for them whenever I can. Which leads me on to the raison d’etre of the Brakpan Bobber.”
“Several months ago I was informed about a batch of CB77s that had become available. Having three in my stable already, I took a friend with to share the treasure and the expenses. The result was that he got a fairly complete bike and I got a 50% complete high-bar model which had the rare-as-hen’s-teeth Denso hooter that I had been desperately searching for to complete my restoration project. A while later a good friend of mine, Tony, asked if he could compare some of my engines to sort out a timing issue on his restoration project. He checked out the 50 percenter and announced that it had good compression and that the timing was bang on. I didn’t think much more about it for a few weeks. Then one night, as I went to sleep, an idea popped into my head and the following morning I had the insatiable desire to swing some spanners on the beast. I started by taking off the back shocks and dropping the bike as low as it would go. Then I hunted for a fuel tank in amongst all my spares. I went through a few and eventually settled on a monkey bike tank that I had lying around. It looked a bit odd, but the main idea was there. Then I messed around with the bars, trying a few different sets and finally decided the best lines came about when I flipped the original high bars. Yank the fenders off, fit the front one to the rear and suddenly things started to look pretty funky, although the tank wasn’t quite right. Then I remembered that I had seen a funky 70’s style CB100 tank at the CMC which I had hidden away for another day when I had some loot to pay for it. I eventually grabbed that tank hoping like mad that I could make it fit the CB77’s strange frame. It was like euphoria when I plonked it onto the bike; suddenly everything lined up and I knew I had a good thing going.”
“The rest of the bike kinda built itself, with bits and pieces pulled from my stash of cool stuff and hard to get stock parts. The bike took up residence in my lounge and I’d fiddle with it now and then when I had a chance. A bit of wiring here, carb rebuilding there. For the first time in ages I was having fun again building a motorcycle.”
“ I decided to keep everything raw and as found, being inspired by the raw creations of Slim’s Fabrications. This guy’s got skills, but sadly a lot of people don’t get it because they can’t see past the raw metal and bare welds. That’s why I left the bike the way it is, why I used rare stock parts and novel details: I want it to piss off the finger pointers and the tyre kickers. What I really get a kick out of is the suicide shifter and clutch set up. This has people baffled, partly because it’s made of re-bar and partly because they can’t comprehend how it works. Well, it does, it just needs a little bit more brain power; sorta like patting your head and rubbing your tummy. While riding a motorcycle.”
“The finishing touches were done the night before February’s Piston Ring meeting, which included fitting some new stainless steel struts to replace the rectangular tubing that I had initially fitted; a saddle made from a piece of steel, some foam and a dish towel and fitting the tail light and license plate mount (stock CB77 parts made from unobtanium). Annoyingly, I never got to ride it to the Piston Ring as the battery had gone flat. The next time I wanted to ride it was to the CMC, but unfortunately the clutch decided it would not disengage. I finally managed to get it all together and running just in time to take it to the CRoSA Meet Up at Harvard Cafe; and man was the agony worth it. The bike handles like a dream (helped in part by the genuine vintage Dunlop Racing tyre) and puts a serious smile on your dial. The carbs just need a little more fettling to make her run a bit better.”
“As for the name? The Brakpan Bobber. Courtesy of my good mate, while we were enjoying a few Peronis one night. He reckoned it looked like it had been found in the back of a garage somewhere in Brakpan; and the name stuck. Somehow it just fits with the bike’s persona.”
Whether you're getting ready for a summer spent hitting the beaches and dunes, or just dealing with a commute as the last bits of snow continue to stubbornly fall, theRungu Juggernaut Bike can handle it all. This isn't just any fat tire bike — it's a trike, with dual forks in the front mounted with one 26-inch wheel and a 4.7-inch tire each. An aluminum frame keeps the weight down in spite of the extra metal needed to support that additional wheel, while low gearing helps you conquer some of the most difficult terrain. Hydraulic rear brakes and dual front disk brakes give you incredible stopping power, letting you bomb down snowy hills without fear. And if (even with all its features) you're still worried about powering this beast, it includes e-bike kit mounts for transforming it into an electric vehicle.
Five FIM X Trial rounds and five wins, Toni Bou (Montesa Michelin) did another perfect season and even if he secured the title two weeks ago he produced another great show in Oviedo.
Race after race, indoor or outdoor, Toni Bou never stopped to fix new records and he just won this weekend his twenty sixth consecutive indoor trial! Unbeaten since four years now the Spaniard clinched another win in Oviedo, where the stadium was sold out with many fans cheering their national heroes.
Toni didn’t score any mark during the 5th final of the season, and proved that his motivation is always there, unfortunately for his rivals. Fighting for the second position in the series, Adam Raga (Gas Gas) and Albert Cabestany (Sherco Michelin) finished both with ten marks but with a better qualification Cabestany finished runner up in this event kept his second place in the championship.
Toni Bou: “Winning is addictive and the more you win the more you like it, the more you enjoy it and the more you want. I'm fortunate enough to be able to enjoy these very special moments. Four consecutive years winning all the events in this championship, with 26 consecutive victories. There's no doubt that we've worked a lot and done it well, and the best reward is this, to be able to fully enjoy these moments. Now we have to concentrate on the outdoor trial season with the same enthusiasm for winning more titles”.
Cinq épreuves et cinq succès, la domination de Toni Bou (Montesa Michelin) sur le trial Indoor s’est confirmée ce weekend à Oviedo où l’espagnol déjà titré n’a laissé aucune chance à ses rivaux.
Course après course, indoor comme outdoor, Toni Bou continue d’affoler les statistiques et vient de porter son record personnel à vingt-six succès de rang en indoor ! Invaincu depuis quatre ans l’Espagnol l’est resté à Oviedo où le public était venu en masse saluer les pilotes Espagnols qui continuent de dominer la discipline.
En ne marquant aucune pénalité dans la phase finale de cette 5ème et dernière épreuve de la saison, Bou assène un rude coup à ses rivaux qui se sont battus pour le gain de la seconde place avec comme enjeu la place de vice champion qui se jouait entre Adam Raga (Gas Gas) et Albert Cabestany (Sherco Michelin). Les deux hommes ont terminé l’épreuve à égalité de points, mais au bénéfice d’une meilleure qualification c’est Cabestany qui termine second, conservant du même coup sa seconde place au championnat.
Toni Bou : « Gagner est comme une drogue, plus tu gagnes et plus tu as envie de gagner, plus tu apprécies ces moments et plus tu veux encore gagner. J’ai la chance de continuer à apprécier ces moments là, et pour la quatrième année consécutive je gagne toutes les épreuves, avec vingt six succès consécutifs. On a beaucoup travaillé pour obtenir de tels résultats, et c’est une belle récompense qu’on apprécie tous à sa juste valeur. Maintenant on doit se concentrer sur l’outdoor avec le même enthousiasme, pour continuer à gagner d’autres titres. »
