SQUADRA SUTGE, a group of enthusiasts of classic racing motorcycles, on Jarama circuit during the CLASSIC MOTO 2011 event (classicmoto.eu).
This is a tribute for all the people who love this kind of motorcycles.
lundi 23 février 2015
Snapshot, 1963: Look mum – one hand!
It’s 11 September 1963 and Steve McQueen, casually dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, burbles through the streets of London on his Triumph TR6. What do you suppose the insurance is costing him?
Less than three months have passed since John Sturges' film ‘The Great Escape’ celebrated its world premiere at London's Odeon Leicester Square – in which Steve McQueen’s character had catapulted his motorcycle over a barbed-wire fence in his attempts to escape the German soldiers. However, although McQueen often performed his own stunts, he admitted on Johnny Carson’s The Tonight Show that the daring leap had – for the sake of insurance – been performed instead by stuntman Bud Ekins. What the insurance agent would have said about his client’s negligence in this photograph, without a helmet and with only one hand on the handlebars, can only be imagined.
Photo: Michel Descamps/Paris Match via Getty Images
Plusieurs pilotes testent la Renault R.S. 01 à Valencia
Plusieurs pilotes sont allés tester la Renault R.S. 01 à Valencia il y a quelques jours. Alors que la présentation de l’auto se fera le mois prochain, Renault Sport fait tester sa “GT” à un maximum de pilotes venant de diverses disciplines. La nouvelle formule mise sur pied par Renault est incluse aux World Series by Renault dont le championnat débutera fin avril à Motorland Aragon.
Depuis ses premiers tours de roues, la Renault R.S. 01 a bouclé 17 journées d’essais, soit près de 8000 km. Alexandre Prémat, Nick Catsburg, Dimitri Enjalbert, Renaud Kuppens, Mirko Bortolotti, Albert Costa, Anthony Beltoise, Andy Soucek et Laurent Hurgon ont fait partie des pilotes de développement.
Pour les tests réalisés à Valencia, Andrea Pizzitola, Pieter et Steijn Schothorst, Oscar Nogues, Bruce Lorgeré-Roux, Federico Leo, Michela Cerruti, Andrea Rizzoli, Riccardo Agostini, Pal Varhaug, Arno Santamato, Miguel Ramos et Patrick Rocha ont été vus en piste.
En plus, V de V Sports et Renault Sport ont le plaisir d'annoncer l’arrivée de la nouvelle Renault Sport R.S. 01 sur le plateau GT / Tourisme des V de V Endurance Series dès la saison prochaine.
L’ADN de la compétition
Renault Sport R.S 01 affiche style spectaculaire et performances exceptionnelles se situant entre celles des meilleures GT3 et des DTM ! Elle est en outre capable d’atteindre une vitesse de 300 km/h, notamment grâce à son moteur Nismo V6 3,8 litres Bi-turbo délivrant plus de 500 chevaux, mais pas uniquement…
Renault Sport s’est employé à rendre cette voiture aussi légère que robuste avec une cellule en carbone et bénéficiant d’un maximum d’appui aérodynamique.
Afin d’optimiser l’efficacité du fond plat, les équipes de Renault Sport se sont penchées sur ses qualités aérodynamiques : une voiture très basse, un capot avant agressif doté d’un large spoiler, un énorme aileron réglable en carbone, surplombant une face arrière d’où sortent deux échappements procurant une sonorité envoutante.
Dans le cadre des V de V Endurance Series, des aménagements techniques ont été pensés dans un souci d’équité avec les GTV1.
Ainsi, les disques de carbone PFC utilisés sur R .S 01 pour le Renault Sport Trophy au sein des World Series by Renault seront remplacés par des freins PFC en acier et l’aérodynamique sera également modifiée. Par ailleurs, la capacité du réservoir sera ramenée à 100 litres au lieu de sa contenance initiale de 150 litres.
Dernière spécificité : cette voiture sera exclusivement réservée aux Gentlemen drivers dans le cadre des V de V Endurance Series.
Des tests pour les Gentlemen sont prévus le jour précédent ou suivant les séances d’essais V de V du 6-7 mars à Magny-Cours.
V de V Endurance Series se font un grand honneur d’accueillir Renault Sport et sa nouvelle R.S. 01 dans son championnat !
Original Man - how to be a less ordinary gentleman
Will you go down as one of the most exceptional men in history? If not, it’s unlikely that a book will be able to change that – but it can still make for an interesting read, as Simon de Burton discovers…
I walked into the kitchen the other day and caught the tail end of a radio programme about the difference between the 'stars' of today and the stars of yesterday. Who was speaking I don't know, but the presenter's sign-off words seemed to sum up the situation beautifully... "What the world needs now," he said, "is not celebrities, but heroes."
Outstandingly special
It's a thought that chimes with the thinking behind a book just out from publishing house Gestalten, called 'Original Man'. It's not, as the title implies, about the origin of Homo sapiens but editor Patrick Grant's selection of 81, 20th Century men who, by anyone's standards, were (or are) truly, outstandingly special.
Heroes with faults
As journalist and style pundit Nick Sullivan observes in the introduction, they are all 'extraordinary gentleman'. Brilliant human beings, but heroes with faults. And all the better for being imperfect and, in some cases, fatally flawed.
Mixed bag
Indeed, one of the most appealing aspects of this book is that, while there are plenty of names on the list that anyone would recognise, many are more than a little obscure and none is there simply for being handsome, or a great actor, or a great singer. Some, indeed, have such 'characterful' faces that they must have presented a downright challenge for those who photographed them, while the names of others will be unrecognised by many readers who will, undoubtedly, set out to learn more once they have absorbed Grant's summaries of their lives.
Lock up your wives (and daughters)
Alex Higgins, John Cooper Clarke and Alan Clark, for example, might be on the radar of plenty of middle-aged Englishmen - but few 'abroad' will know them for their respective talents of snooker-playing, lewd poetry and, in Clarke's case, for the Lothario's talent that enabled him to bed both the wife and daughter of a High Court Judge in between driving his selection of well-used classic cars through London at illegal speeds.
Artists, heroes, libertines and stylists
In any event, Grant has done a brilliant job of selecting the subjects for this book, which is divided into four easy-to-dip-into sections: 'Artist' (ranging from Andy Warhol to Le Corbusier and Miles Davis); 'Hero' (Adrian Carton de Wiart, Spike Milligan, James Hunt and Rudolf Nureyev, among others);' Libertine' (James Brown, the aforementioned Alan Clark, Keith Floyd and the famously well-endowed Porfirio Rubirosa) and finally 'Stylist' - including Noel Fielding, Little Richard, Quentin Crisp and Boy George.
Thinking men's heroes
These, you see, are thinking men's heroes and this is certainly a book that deserves to be in your library - not least because I doubt you'll ever again find a publication containing the same 81 people simultaneously.
Photos from the book ‘Original Man’ © Gestalten 2015
The book ‘Original Man’ is published by Gestalten; further information can be found at gestalten.com.
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