WRC, Suède, étape 2 : Un Belge en tête en Suède ! / Belgium rules in Sweden!

A la surprise générale, le Belge Thierry Neuville (Hyundai/Michelin) est leader du Rallye de Suède. Après une bonne stratégie de pneumatiques, le pilote Hyundai a pris le commandement dans l’ultime spéciale du jour, mais les Volkswagen de Mikkelsen (2e, +1s5) et d’Ogier (3e, +9s6) ne sont pas loin !

La deuxième étape du Rallye de Suède 2015 se terminait par le second passage dans Vargasen (ES18). Nous voulions être à l’arrivée assez tôt pour pouvoir trouver une place près du point stop situé le long d’une piste forestière étroite.

Si la route principale 62 est complètement dégagée, les petites voies d’accès sont encore gelées et glacées. Les pneus cloutés de notre voiture de loc’ nous donnent un bon grip, mais nous avons préféré rouler prudemment car les voitures du rallye historique venaient en sens opposé. Et certains pilotes voulaient visiblement en avoir pour leur argent en faisant de longues glissades sur la liaison. Ce rallye historique s’est d’ailleurs conclu ce soir sur la victoire, la 3^e d’affilée, du couple Solberg (Ford Escort).

Une fois garé, nous avons attendu les temps des spéciales précédentes. Thierry Neuville a remporté l’ES15 et réduit l’écart avec Mikkelsen, toujours leader, à 8s7, alors qu’Ogier a perdu 15 secondes parce qu’il était très pénalisé par sa première position sur la route. Le Français était donc 3^e.

Dans l’ES16, Neuville s’est encore rapproché de 2 secondes du leader, alors que Mikkelsen a avoué avoir commis une autre petite erreur : « Chaque année, j’en fais une à la fin de Rammen. »

Mikkelsen a réagi dans l’ES17 pour 6/10^e, mais est-ce que ce sera suffisant pour maintenir Neuville derrière lui à l’issue de Vargasen ? Le Belge avait gardé deux pneus neufs Michelin X-Ice North 3 pour cette dernière longue spéciale.

Cette tactique fut payante. La Hyundai i20 WRC n°7 a bouclé les 24,76 km en 13min24s4, battu le record de saut à Colin’s Crest (44 mètres) et pris les rênes du rallye ! « C’était la très grosse attaque. Une des plus belles spéciales de ma carrière. Mais il reste encore trois ES difficiles demain. Est-ce que je peux le faire ? Oui, je pense pouvoir gagner… »

Mikkelsen (VW), 2^e à 1s5, a lui aussi promis vouloir essayer, alors que son équipier Ogier (3^e, +9s6) a juré qu’il pouvait s’imposer demain.

Mads Ostberg (Citroën, +53s4), Ott Tanak (Ford, +1min29s2) et Hayden Paddon (Hyundai, +2min35s7) complètent le top-6 provisoire. En WRC-2, l’avance de Jari Ketomaa a fondu comme la neige autour d’Hagfors en raison de perte de clous cet après-midi. Brynildsen est revenu à 30s6.

Amazingly, Belgium’s Thierry Neuville has grabbed the lead in Sweden’s Värmland with one leg remaining. A smart tyre strategy gave the Hyundai/Michelin team-leader the edge on Saturday’s last stage, but Volkswagen’s Mikkelsen (2nd, +1.5s) and Sébastien Ogier (3rd, +9.6s) have vowed to continue the fight!

The 2015 Rally Sweden’s second full day of competition concluded with the second visit to ‘Vargasen’ (SS18). We wanted to be there as early as possible to find a safe parking spot near the Stop Control which was located along a narrow forest road.

With the thermometer standing at +1°C, the Route 62 north of the service park was completely clear. However, as soon as you left the main network, the local lanes were still coated in snow and ice.

The studded tyres on our hire car gave good grip but we preferred to leave a big gap for the Historic Rally’s backmarkers coming in the opposite direction. Some of them clearly wanted to make the most of their entry fee by treating the long road section as a stage!

At least that gave us a chance to admire ‘sideways’ views of some classic machinery, ranging from ageing Volvos and Saabs, to Minis, Escorts, Beetles, Cortinas, Porsches and even a huge Ford Falcon!

Once parked, we caught up with the news from the afternoon’s previous stages…

We learned that Neuville (Hyundai) had won SS15 to close to within 8.7s of Mikkelsen who was still in front after VW team-mate Ogier dropped 15 seconds.

The Frenchman, now back to third overall, but running first on the road, explained his ‘poor’ time by the loose snow dragged onto the road during the morning’s pass.

On SS16, Neuville closed the gap to the leader by a two further seconds, although Mikkelsen admitted to another mistake: “Every year I get the last part of ‘Rammen’ wrong…”

Mikkelsen was glad to earn himself six-tenths of extra breathing space on SS17, but would that be enough to keep Neuville (+8.3s) at bay on SS18, especially since the Belgian had kept two fresh studded Michelins to wrap up the day? He suspected it would give him a useful advantage.

Indeed, the tactic paid off, since the i20 WRC driver completed the 25km test at the top of the leaderboard and Neuville couldn’t conceal a quietly contented smile on the stop-line: “It was a big, big push. One of the best stages I have ever done! There are some hard stages to come on Sunday. Can I do it? Yes, I think I can…”

Mikkelsen, now trailing by 1.5s, promised to keep trying, while VW colleague Ogier – who is only 8.1s short of the Norwegian this evening - swore he couldn’t have driven any faster!

Ostberg (Citroën, +53.4s), Tanak (Ford, +1m29.2s) and Paddon (Hyundai, 2m35.7s) complete this evening’s top six, but Ketomaa’s cushion over Brynildsen in WRC2 has been cut to

30.6s after the Finn struggled with stud retention during the afternoon.

BARELY LEGAL: MARIA’S STRIPPED-BACK BONNEVILLE

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By Wesley Reyneke | Rather Be Riding

Most custom shops would relish the opportunity to take a second crack at a build—especially if it was one of their early efforts. So the crew at Lisbon’s Maria Motorcyclesmust have been smiling when this Triumph Bonneville found its way back onto their bench.

The bike in question is “Silly Kid”: a 2006 Bonnie that belongs to a good friend of the workshop. “It was one of our first projects,” says Maria’s Luis Correia. “A trial bike for many things we wanted to experiment with.”

“Our client is very much into the custom culture, and wanted his Bonnie to be something totally different from everything else. Ideally, when people look at it, they won’t know what bike it is.”

Last time the Bonnie left Maria’s workshop, it had a fiberglass tank, a shortened subframe and custom-made seat. Maria had also fitted new handlebars and controls, and trimmed the switchgear down—moving the ignition and start button to the left side of the bike in the process.

The clocks and turn signals were ditched along the way too. But this time, the owner was after an even more minimalist vibe—even if that meant it wouldn’t strictly be street legal.

“He wanted it to be as simple as possible in terms of equipment,” explains Luis, “with a front end similar to a competition dirt bike.” So Maria traded the headlight for a discreet LED strip and cleaned up the front end still further.

Under the seat (where number boards had previously been fitted) the airbox was removed and the battery relocated to a custom-made box. The Bonnie was already kitted with a two-into-one exhaust system from Zard, so Maria installed a pair of K&N filters and tuned the carbs to tweak its performance.

To improve handling the front suspension was shortened and stiffened—matched up to an existing set of Bitubo rear shocks. The tires are Metzeler Tourances: dual-sport items with a road bias.

Luis and his crew opted to keep the seat that they’d previously made, but wanted to improve the fuel tank. Taking design cues from the fiberglass unit they were replacing, they hand made a new steel tank with slightly more capacity.

It was treated to a unique color scheme, with accents picked up by new Posh grips and a bright red front sprocket cover. The rims and engine were repainted too.

With a bunch of stock parts shed—and selective performance upgrades—the Bonnie’s now lighter, lower and more agile. Luis reckons it’s more fun to ride than any Bonnie they’ve built to date.

We believe him.

Maria Motorcycles website | Facebook | Instagram

PS: The Bike EXIF calendar is on sale. For a limited time, you can get 13 months of great photography (up to January 2016) for just ten dollars. And we’ll also include a $10 Revzilla Gift Card. Order now with code ‘599’ at checkout—it’s strictly first come, first served.

via BIKEexif

"Fuck the factory" Blackskin Imbarcadero14 Venice

Honda CB400N BlackSkin "Fuck the Factory " by Imbarcadero14 Venice

 

via http://rocket-garage.blogspot.fr

THE GOLDEN AGE OF THE BRITISH SPORTS CAR

The Golden Age of the British Sports Car is a BBC documentary about the post-WWII success of the small, light and nimble two-seaters rolling out of England. These cars were characterised by their affordability and off-the-charts fun factor, and they went on to inspire multiple generations of car guys (and girls) across the world.

This hour-long film does a great job of capturing the unexpected success of the British roadster, following it from the 1940s through to the advent of the E-Type and beyond. Whether you like the early MGs, the Austin-Healeys, the Jaguar XK120s or the venerable E-Type, this documentary covers all the bases and will leave you trolling through eBay for project cars near you.

via SILODROME