CAFÉ RACER 76

WRC Italie : Dix ans de WRC en Sardaigne

Comme le Rallye du Mexique, le Rally Italia-Sardegna a intégré le calendrier WRC en 2004, succédant à 29 éditions mondiales consécutives du Rallye Sanremo depuis 1973. En dix éditions, on compte pas moins de sept vainqueurs différents.

En 2004, la Fédération italienne de sport automobile (CSAI) et l’Automobile Club Italia (ACI) ont définitivement tourné la page du Rallye Sanremo en WRC et choisi l’île de Sardaigne pour organiser la manche italienne du Mondial.

En 2004, le calendrier WRC se composait donc de trois rallyes organisés sur des îles méditerranéennes (Chypre, Corse, Sardaigne) et de sept épreuves tracées autour ou en Méditerranée (Monte-Carlo, Chypre, Acropole, Turquie, Sardaigne, Corse, Catalunya).

Inspiré par le Rally Costa Smeralda, le parcours du nouveau Rally Italia-Sardegna proposait des spéciales sur terre très techniques au nord de l’île, dans la région d’Olbia, sur des sols à la fois sablonneux en surface et durs en profondeur.

Organisée en octobre 2004, la 1^ère édition du Supermag Rally Italia-Sardegna fut remportée par Petter Solberg qui avait largement dominé les pilotes Citroën Sébastien Loeb et Carlos Sainz au volant de sa Subaru Impreza WRC. Ce fut d’ailleurs la dernière « vraie » victoire du Norvégien en WRC.

Quelques mois plus tard (mai 2005), Sébastien Loeb prit sa revanche sur Solberg au volant de sa Citroën Xsara WRC chaussée de nouveaux pneumatiques terre Michelin « BTO ». En 2007, après la sortie de route de Loeb le dernier jour, Marcus Grönholm et Mikko Hirvonen ont offert un doublé à la Finlande et à Ford. Les Finlandais ont de nouveau brillé à 2009 (Latvala), en 2010 (Hänninen, IRC) et en 2012 (Hirvonen), avant la victoire de Sébastien Ogier l’an passé.

En 2011, Volkswagen avait choisi la Sardaigne pour annoncer son arrivée en WRC. Cette année-là, c’est aussi au Rally Italia-Sardegna que la nouvelle Mini John Cooper Works WRC avait débuté en Mondial (Sordo, 6^e). L’an passé, c’est pendant le Rally Italia-Sardegna que Hyundai Motorsport avait officiellement inauguré ses nouveaux locaux à Alzenau.

Pour la 1^ère fois depuis dix ans, le Rally Italia-Sardegna change de base, quittant Olbia et la très huppée station balnéaire de Porto Cervo pour Alghero, la « petite Barcelone », au nord-ouest de l’île. Le départ s’effectuera pour la 1^ère fois en WRC à Cagliari, capitale sarde, à l’extrémité sud.

TJ MOTOS 883

Raw. Vintage. Mechanical. These are the three words Tushar Jaitly uses to describe his 883 Harley. We’d like to add two more – unique and awesome.

After completing three years of automotive design in Turin, Italy, 23 year old Tushar returned home to New Delhi last year and started up his own custom bike shop, TJ-MOTO. This is the first bike he built, and as it was his own he had complete freedom to do exactly what he wanted. Tushar believes that the motorcycle in itself is an art form, and as such he doesn’t believe that parts should be hidden, or that a bike needs a pimped up paint job to look nice. In fact, the word ‘nice’ should never be said within earshot of this bike, as it looks like it would turn and lamp you.

Everything on this 883 is hand built. The chassis has been cut to give it a bone crushing rigid rear, the front uses stock iron suspension. Clearly one of the main things that really earns this bike the ‘unique’ tag, is the way the top frame tube runs above the tank, giving the illusion that the tank itself is floating. On first viewing we weren’t convinced, but then all new ideas take a little getting used to. Now we love it.

The tank (and the oil tank) were hand fabricated and painted in British Racing Green with cream and gold pin striping. Not an obvious choice for a Harley bobber designed and built in India, but Tushar doesn’t believe in obvious. The free flowing exhaust system was also made in house and set up with a K&N air filter.

16″ wheels are graced with the obligatory Firestone 500-16 tires. The other striking feature, the seat, has a linkage mechanism instead of the usual spring set up, and each link has been CNC cut and made to measure. You can really see the blood, sweat and tears in those linkages. The leather used on the seat and the belts is pure suede.

TJ’s 883 just looks like trouble, pure mechanical menace with shed loads of attitude. If it had been at Tobacco Dock last weekend, then it would definitely have been in the Bad Boys Lounge. If you’re about to commission a bike from Tushar, please give him as much freedom as he gave himself. The world needs more bad ass bikes like this. And when you do, send some pics our way.

via the Bike Shed

CAFE RACER CUSTOMS CRC SPORTSTER C&J

London’s Cafe Racer Customs continue to impress with the CRC Sportster C&J unveiled at the BSMC III event last week. Harleys are very much like Marmite, but few failed to be impressed by this stunning reworking on the flat tracker theme. Simon and Will are quickly acquiring a reputation for premium craftsmanship combining bold design with robust engineering.

The Sportster is built on an oil-in frame chro-moly chassis built by the American firm C&J, designed for use in the Supertracker class of the FlatTrack race series. The rear swinging arm has been modified with a removable section to enable belt changing. It employs a narrow belt drive.

The engine is a Buell S1W1203cc engine fueled by a Mikuni HSR 42mm slide carb and aspirated via a Forcewinder intake. It uses Screaming Eagle cams and ignition and carbon pushrod tubes. It has Vance and Hines headers and link pipe with a Remus system.

It has an aluminium RaceTech tank, and a CRC custom ally seat base that doubles up as an oil catch tank, and a CRC custom ally seat hump. The front master cylinder is from a Honda Fireblade, and it uses CRG levers mounted on carbon fibre tubes secured with aluminium clip-on clamps from HPS. It has an Accossato throttle and Fireblade switchgear.

Will and Simon used titanium wheel and swinging arm spindles and magnesium Dymag TT3s wheels. The forks are Buell X1 Showas powder coated black with titanium-nitride stanchions, with Buell S1 yokes. An alloy hanger secures the single Buell X1 caliper, that’s twined with a 340mm disc. The ally front mudguard is custom CRC fabricated.

On the left side is a Storz gear lever and footrest hanger, and on the right a one-off custom fabricated rear brake lever and hanger. The rear brake is a Buell X1 rear disc with a Brembo Monster S4 caliper on a custom hanger. The rear shock is a side mounted Penske.

The electrics are governed via a custom loom using Deutch connectors. The instruments are Vapor and the headlight a cafe racer style H4. The indicators are Oxford.

CRC have been typically uncompromising in their choice of components, and the sum of the parts equals an exquisitely designed machine whose devastating good looks are matched by its blistering performance. A build that is enough to silence the most ardent of Harley doubters, and to give many exhilarating hours of tracker-inspired joy to it’s future lucky owner.

Thanks to Simon and Will for sharing this lovely Harley (I never thought I’d hear myself say that!).

via THE BIKE SHED

Our favourite motorcycles from the Banbury Run Sale by Bonhams

On 7 June 2014, the British motorcycle community will flock to Oxford for the Banbury Run Sale, held by Bonhams in association with the famous rally, which will take place the following day. Of the many pioneer, veteran and vintage bikes on offer, we’ve chosen 10 that gave us itchy fingers...

As usual, every lot from the Banbury Run Sale can be found in the Classic Driver Market.