WRC, Wales Rally GB : VW domine au Pays de Galles / Ogier and Latvala shining for VW

Sébastien Ogier et Jari-Matti Latvala sont leaders du Wales Rally GB à l’issue de la première journée après avoir remporté les huit spéciales. Après trois meilleurs temps cet après-midi et près de la moitié du parcours déjà bouclé, le Finlandais pointe à 6.6 secondes de son équipier. Mikko Hirvonen (Ford) est troisième.

Après deux meilleurs temps en fin d’étape, Sweet Lamb et Maesnant, Jari-Matti Latvala pointe à 6s6 du leader Sébastien Ogier, le plus prompt en action ce matin. Le Finlandais ne s’est imposé que pour quelques dixièmes de seconde à chaque fois. « J’ai attaqué vraiment fort », commentait Jari-Matti à l’arrivée de l’ES8. « Les pistes sont vraiment très « pommadées » et on a beaucoup de sous-virage. Parfois, il est difficile de faire tourner la voiture. »

Ce matin, on pensait bien que ce rallye serait encore un « one man show » du champion du monde Sébastien Ogier, qui a remporté les deux premières spéciales. Mais dans l’après-midi, le Français a été contraint de nettoyer les pistes de la boue mise par les concurrents au premier passage. « J’étais bien ce matin, mais là, ce n’était pas amusant. Il s’agissait avant tout de finir l’étape », résumait Seb.

Mikko Hirvonen (Ford, +1min13s8), qui arrête sa carrière mondiale dimanche, est troisième du général, mais à bonne distance des deux Volkswagen. Le Finlandais dispose de 7s7 d’avance sur Kris Meeke (Citroën, +1min21s5), qui a pris l’ascendant sur son équipier Mads Ostberg (Citroën, +1min22s2) après un 3^e meilleur temps dans l’ES8. Le Norvégien a eu du mal à retrouver le rythme du début de rallye. Le match entre les deux pilotes Citroën sera intéressant à suivre, même si le titre de vice-champion du monde Constructeurs reste la priorité pour la marque française.

Le pilote Hyundai Thierry Neuville (+1min33s9) ferme le top-6 provisoire et devance de 16 secondes le local Elfyn Evans (Ford) qui n’a pas réussi à profiter sa parfaite connaissance du terrain.

Jari Ketomaa domine la catégorie WRC-2 au volant de sa Ford Fiesta R5. Il compte près de 40 secondes d’avance sur Bernardo Sousa (Fiesta RRC) et plus d’une minute sur Bertelli (Fiesta R5). Le leader du championnat, Nasser Al-Attiyah (Ford/Michelin) est 8^e. Une telle place serait suffisante pour qu’il soit titré dimanche soir.

En Junior, le Britannique Alastair Fisher est en tête avec plus d’une minute d’avance sur le Finlandais Henri Haapamaki et Martin Koci, séparés par 1/10^e de seconde.

Sébastien Ogier (Volkswagen/Michelin) tops the Wales Rally GB leaderboard after the first day of competition. Team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala has responded to his team-mate’s earlier domination, however, by winning three of this afternoon’s four stages. The gap has stabilised at 6.6s after 145.78 kilometres, almost half the event’s total competitive distance. Mikko Hirvonen (+1m13.8s) is third for Ford.

Fastest times for Latvala on Friday’s last two stages (‘Hafren Sweet Lamb 2’ and ‘Maesnant 2’) have allowed him to claw back some of the deficit he clocked up to Ogier this morning. However, his winning margins only amounted to tenths of a second each time, so the gap between the two VW drivers still stands at 6.6 seconds in favour of the Frenchman.

“I was really, really pushing,” commented the Finn at the end of the day’s final stage (SS8). “The problem is that the roads are really polished and you have a lot of understeering. Sometimes you cannot get the car to turn…”

This morning, it seemed that this event would be another ‘one-man-show’ starring world champion Ogier who claimed three of the first four stages. But his performance was a little less incisive during the afternoon’s loop and he has been unable to pull free from the pressure of Latvala: “I enjoyed myself this morning but this afternoon wasn’t fun at all. It’s been more a question of surviving,” reported the Frenchman.

Mikko Hirvonen (Ford, +1m13.8s), who will retire from world class rallying after this rally, is still third but wasn’t a threat for the VW pair at any point today. Even so, the Finn will be pleased to have pulled out a gap of 7.7 seconds over his closest chaser who is now Kris Meeke (1m21.5s) after he leapfrogged Citroën team-mate Mads Ostberg (+1m1m22.2s) with the third-fastest time on SS8.

The Norwegian has been struggling to get back into the rhythm since the lunchtime break, while the Northern Irishman has had an afternoon of ups and downs He was effectively angry with himself after a time-consuming mistake on today’s final test. Otherwise, the Northern Irishman might have been challenging for a footing on the overnight podium.

The fight between these three drivers, who are covered by 8.4s, will be interesting to follow when action resumes on Saturday morning.

Hyundai driver Thierry Neuville (1m33.9s) rounds off the provisional top six, then there’s a surprising 16-second gap back to Elfyn Evans (7^th, Ford) who failed to capitalise on his local knowledge of the forests visited today.

Ketomaa continues to dominate the WRC-2 rankings in his Ford Fiesta R5. He is practically 40 seconds clear of second-placed Sousa (Ford Fiesta RRC) and 1m9s ahead of Bertelli (Fiesta R5). The WRC-2 championship leader Al-Attiyah (Fiesta RRC) is eighth in the class but still inside the top seven registered championship runners which is all he needs to do to clinch the title this weekend.

PURE MOTORCYCLES CB650

To the uninitiated the mention of custom motorcycles will forever conjure images of stretched Harley’s decked out in handlebar tassels and flaming paint jobs ridden by fat men in leather chaps. Whilst it is entirely certain that a pair of chaps shall never appear in the Bike Shed Gear Guide, it just might be that a revival of lairy 70’s style tank jobs could be on the horizon. This fabulous cb650 from Pure Motorcycles would most certainly suggest so.

One can always trust the French when it comes to fashion and Pure Motorcycles hail from Cannes, one of the countries trendiest and most beautiful regions. We first had our attention drawn to the work of William and David when they sent us the details of a pair of beautiful Honda CB500’s, Blue Moon and Black Beauty. For this latest build they have upped the capacity and date of the donor but stuck with their preferred manufacturer, opting for a 1980 Honda CB650.

The aim was to create from this base a bike with the spirit of a 70’s dirt tracker, “This project was so complicated because it was necessary to find the balance between the big block engine and the flat-track smoothness.” William also had to deal with the added complication of secrecy as he tried to hide this build from its eventual owner, David, the boss man at Pure Motorcycles.

To get things going William rebuilt the block and offered up a free flowing 4 into 1 exhaust along with four colour matched racing air-filters. He stripped and cleaned the frame of superfluous lugs before trimming back the rear-end and installing the ubiquitous loop, William then finished it off with a coat of black Epoxy to match the Comstar wheels which are shod with chunky 18′ Dunlop K180 tyres.

The electrical system was refined and replaced then stored in a small box under the seat which also houses a small lithium battery. The wide flat track bars host fabulous homemade switchgear units with wires that run internally for that racing look. Bar end indicators, a small speedometer and a single mirror mounted low on the forks keep the cockpit clean enough to showcase those sparkly, boiled sweet grips. The headlight formerly found employment as a car spotlight before being given a yellow tint and sole lighting responsibilities on the Honda.

The gloriously painted aforementioned tank came from an old 125 of unknown heritage, Pure describe it as “very special because she take a 70’s style with cream color, candy orange and gold leaf. All this forms Scallops style.”  Unquestionably one of this years top tanks. The seat was handmade for purpose with space for two, there is a wraparound diamond stitched mid-section and plain leather front and rear giving the seat great definition. A small side mounted light and numberplate keep the rear aspect super clean.

William describes the finished article as “Simply perfect” and I find it very hard to disagree with him. As the cold British nights begin to close in the pictures of this sparkling machine glinting in the sunshine on that glorious coast are just enough to keep the fires burning through the winter.

Bring on the summer already.

via The Bike Shed

Yard Built XV950 'Boltage' by Benders

Christian and Raphael Bender are back with their second Yard Built project, a stunning retro racer XV950 concept.

The German brothers latest collaboration with Yamaha has delivered an achingly cool café racer, inspired by one of their previous projects, the ‘Jericho’, based on a 1983 Yamaha TR1. 

DEBOLEX MK1B

If being a thoroughly nice chap paid the bills then Calum, the front man of deBolex, would be able to kick back with a Piña Colada and watch the world go by. Unfortunately hard work and an eye for detail is what keeps the bailiffs from his door, proof being the repeat orders from customers and the business now able to step up a gear.

As the customer base has grown and projects become more creative, the original deBolex MK1 build was left languishing at the back of the workshop whilst the latest flavour of the month is transformed and fettled. Like the worn out Action Man figure with his cammo rubbed off, cast aside to the bottom of the toy box. Someone should make a movie about that.

The MK1’s 1979 Cb750 base was still perfectly usable, having been rebuilt properly in the first place, but needed a new owner and a bit of love. Eduardo, an enigmatic Italian with an infectious personality had been buzzing to work on a trusty but wheezy RS125, and frequently popped over the road to see what Calum was working on. Eduardo decided he needed a commuting upgrade and the now MK1b could take on a new lease of life under his ownership.

Being a frequent visitor, Ed was able to fine tune the design organically to his taste and keep an eye on progress. With the bike back in bits, the frame given a further clean up and the rear hoop scalloped-out to accept the LED tail light. A new aluminium seat base was made with a diamond stitched saddle, this time with creating a more subtle kick-up at the rear.

The silver frame was re-stripped and powder coated in satin black to meet the darker and moodier theme, complimented by fresh Dunlops on re-powdered black mags.

deBolex bikes look good in black, and the b is no different, the tank broken up by a wide cream band and black pinstripe; with matching logo of course. Ed’s enthusiasm around the workshop was usually followed by “Sweeet!” so this was added, just ahead of the headstock.

A new Daytona speedo, some finishing touches, a tune-up and Ed was on his way down the road; shortly followed by Calum wishing he hadn’t parted with his firstborn. A good few miles later and a text message came through “Sweeet!!!!”

Sometimes you have to let the past go to make way for the future and deBolex are well on their way to achieving that. Keep an eye on their Facebook page for news and the website if you want to book a slot in their growing build queue.

via The Bike Shed