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    mardi 10 mars 2015

    Touring’s Berlinetta Lusso is a Ferrari F12 in classic clothing


    Two years after revealing the stunning Disco Volante, Touring Superleggera has unveiled a Ferrari-based follow-up in the form of the Berlinetta Lusso. It uses the same recipe as its Alfa-based antecedent: hand-beaten coachwork inspired by a design classic, clothing a modern rolling chassis…

    A homage to the Ferrari 166 MM

    For this year’s Geneva show, Louis de Fabribeckers’ design team has crafted a new interpretation of the Ferrari F12berlinetta using classic design principles, chiefly inspired by the lines of the legendary Ferrari 166 MM. While the original was designed primarily for competition (hence ‘MM’, for Mille Miglia), Touring’s latest special is intended purely for use as a Grand Tourer – although the performance it inherits is certainly not to be trifled with. The subtle restyling includes a bonnet, boot-lid, diffuser and rear apron all hand-beaten in aluminium using traditional coachbuilding techniques, yet the contemporary performance figures of the donor car remain unchanged.

    Five examples, 5,000 man-hours each

    Touring plans to build only five examples of the Berlinetta Lusso. Customers will be required to submit their own F12berlinetta for the conversion, and wait six months for the 5,000 man-hours of work to be completed. As you might expect, prices are available on request only.
    Photos: Touring Superleggera
    Interested parties can find many Ferrari F12berlinettas for sale in the Classic Driver Market.

    “Fast Flip” for the Best Steak of Your Life


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    By  
    Breaking misconceptions can be tough on the psyche. No one enjoys learning they’ve been wrong the whole time. Debunking the culinary myth that says steaks should be flipped only once ranks right up there with learning that the Brontosaurus never existed. We’ve lived the lie for so long that the truth is hard to swallow.
    next-up-best-steak-side-dishes-gear-patrolBut, there it is: multiple culinary experts in the field agree that fast flipping is the superior way to cook a steak, for several reasons. It’s actually a faster method than the single flip and produces steaks that are more evenly cooked. Understanding why this is true involves some basic culinary science.
    MORE MEAT KNOWLEDGE: How to Smoke Meat at Home | How to Make Texas Style Brisket | The Best Mail-Order Meat

    The Science Behind Fast-Flipping


    “The nice thing about using a computer to model cooking is that you could get the computer to do experiments that you would never think of doing in real life — like flipping a piece of meat on a grill every 5 seconds.” So after running a series of tests on common cooking scenarios, they decided to turn their attention to more extreme hypotheticals. “What we found really surprised us”, he said. “The more you flip, the more evenly the heat is transferred into the meat, and it’s transferred much faster — so the cooking time is much shorter.”While there’s plenty of information on the topic published today, we called author and food scientist Harold McGee to learn about fast flipping’s origins. As he explained, the advantages of the method first came to his attention in the middle of researching an article published in the journalPhysics Today. Working with a pair of computer scientists, the goal of the paper was to examine the physics of heat transfer in cooking through the lens of computer modeling. The eventual fast flip discovery came partially by accident McGee explained.
    Skeptical of the pure data, they put a thermocouple into a steak of measured thickness and tested the method in the real world. According to McGee, the practical experiments proved “the computer model was right on.”
    In his New York Times Diner’s Journal Q&A, McGee explains the thermodynamics at play in layman’s terms. Fast-flipped steaks cook faster “because neither side has time to absorb a lot of heat when facing the fire or to lose heat when facing away.”
    The same forces are responsible for fast flipping’s superior evenness, according to J. Kenji López-Alt, managing culinary director of Serious Eats. As he explains from histhorough test of the practice, “by allowing each side to cool for a few moments after being heated for a few moments, the intense temperature gradient that can build up near the surface of the steak has time to dissipate. Some of that heat energy is released back into the air, while some of it dissipates into the steak. In either case, it rescues the outer layers from cooking more than they absolutely need to.”
    Critics of the technique frequently cite a lack of grill marks — the hallmark of a perfectly cooked steak in our collective visual consciousness — as pitfall to the method. But the pattern of deep charred lines isn’t really ideal for maximizing a piece of meat’s full flavor potential. What you want is browning.
    The Maillard Reaction is the technical term for browning, named after the French scientist who discovered its power. It’s the chemistry responsible for the rich-tasting crusts of baked bread and the delicious sear in meat. Nathan Myhrvold, founder ofThe Cooking Lab, coauthor of Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking and author of The Photography of Modernist Cuisine, describes the process in his blog postas a series of reactions by amino acids and certain simple sugars to heat, which creates a chain reaction of new molecule production. These new compounds create the rich tastes and smells that “[distinguish] the flavors of boiled, poached, or steamed foods from the flavors of the same foods that have been grilled, roasted, or otherwise cooked [at high temperatures].”
    Fast flipping can brown meat just as well as traditional searing methods, granted the cooking temperatures are high and the meat is properly dried beforehand.

    The Proper Technique

    1
    Make sure your steak is dry. Moisture inhibits the Maillard Reaction by keeping surface temperatures of the meat below the boiling point of water, according to Nathan Myhrvold. Drying the surfaces of your steaks with paper towels before cooking is one easy step to take. J. Kenji López-Alt at Serious Eatsrecommends salting your meat at least 40 minutes before cooking or even letting it air dry overnight for the best possible browning results.
    2
    Crank up the heat. Don’t be timid with the temperature gauge. A high surface temperature is critical for the Maillard Reaction because it “both increases the rate of chemical reactions and accelerates the evaporation of water”, says Myhrvold. Unless you’re specifically after the smoky flavor of the grill, Meathead Goldwyn of amazingribs.com recommends cooking in a cast iron skillet with a small coating of oil. And if you are cooking on the grill, he suggests swapping the heavy aluminum grates with cheaper wire versions to minimize the potential for charring.
    3
    Flip often. What’s meant, exactly, by “fast”? The consensus from most experts is a flipping frequency of between 15 and 60 seconds, with most advocating for a minute even. In other words, maintain focus and keep your beer breaks short.
    Adam Perry Lang recommends frequently basting the steak after flips with melted butter and using an herb wand for flavor, if you’re really trying to knock it out of the park — or die faster from heart disease.
    4
    Know when to stop. McGee says using a small digital thermometer pushed to center of a steak from the side is the most reliable way to know when to stop. Medium rare is between 140 – 150 °F.
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    Cooking Trade-offs

    Harold McGee is the first to say that fast flipping has its downsides. In fact, when we asked him how he normally cooks a steak at home, he was quick to point out that it depends on the circumstances.
    “I’m not dogmatic. I’ll do whatever feels right in the moment. If you’re at a barbecue and having a beer with friends, then I think it makes more sense socially to flip it when you think of it and not worry about it too much. Because it’s still going to be tasty meat, even if it’s not done quite as quickly or evenly as it might be otherwise. Those are small differences compared to enjoying the experience as a whole.”
    The quick searing method on high heat before cooking meat through on lower heat in the oven is another great method that prioritizes “a freedom not to pay attention to what’s going on”, he says. “That’s a restaurant technique that’s used all the time for exactly that reason.”
    Whether fast-flipping is “the best” way to cook a steak ultimately depends on what you value according to McGee. “If people have different ways of cooking the same food, then that’s a pretty good argument all by itself that they’re all pretty good ways of cooking food, otherwise people wouldn’t do them.”
    What’s more important in his eyes is knowing what’s happening with a particular process before you begin. “Heat transfer can be a tricky thing in the kitchen”, McGee admits. “Unless you understand what’s going on, it can play tricks on you and you can wind up grossly over or under cooking things.”
    Newly armed with the knowledge of fast flipping, your days of poorly cooked meat should soon be behind you.

    This Lamborghini Countach stole the show


    At the 1982 Geneva Motor Show, Lamborghini presented the next evolution of the outrageously styled Countach – and comprehensively stole the show. Now, the LP500S is being rediscovered by the collector community...

    Star of the 1982 Geneva Salon

    In the spring of 1982, the ‘Salon international de l’auto de Genève’ was, for the first time, held not in the elegant old exhibition hall in the centre of Geneva, but in the newly opened Palexpo complex near Cointrin Airport. Mercedes showed its new SEC modelsPorsche returned to the world of open-topped sports cars with the 911 SC Cabriolet, and Monteverdi interpreted the S-Class as a limousine of his own design, called the Tiara. The real eye-catcher, however, was on Lamborghini’s stand, where the Italians presented a new and more powerful evolution of their outrageously styled Countach: the LP500S.

    Back to full power

    As the name of the Lamborghini Countach LP500 – the first 1971 prototype – implied, a 12-cylinder 5.0-litre engine was originally planned for the supercar. But in 1974, when the first production version was delivered, the Countach was propelled by only a four-litre unit. From 1978, the new LP400S had a fully revamped design and a dramatic rear spoiler but the engine’s power was reduced, and it was left for the LP500S to offer a larger, now 4.75-litre engine, plus a more thrilling 375HP and – more importantly still – torque of 418Nm. Those who took the horns of this latest wild bull could expect acceleration from zero to 62mph in 5.4 seconds. 

    Prices rise

    Until now, the Lamborghini Countach LP500S – or 5000S, as it is sometimes (and confusingly) called – has existed rather in the shadows, between the purist first series and the later, more powerful successors, the LP5000QV and 25th Anniversary. But as prices for early model now crack the million-dollar mark, the ‘gap’ model becomes the focus of collectors’ attention. While in 2013, RM Auctions sold an LP500S with just 11,000 miles on the clock for 198,000 US dollars, a similar example in Gooding’s Scottsdale auction early this year went for 390,500 US dollars. The Lamborghini Countach LP500S shown here, with only 10,500 recorded miles, is valued by Bonhams at 400,000 to 470,000 dollars – and is up for sale on 12 March 2015 at theAmelia Island auction. We are looking forward to seeing what it the bidding will go up to. As it happens, it looks as though we’ll see an official successor to the ‘S’ at the 2015 Geneva Show. More to be revealed soon… 
    Photos: Bonhams
    For a selection of Lamborghini Countaches for sale, see the Classic Driver Market.
    This article is part of the series 'Cars we Love', in which we bring you our favourite classics and modern classics, every Saturday morning.

    2001 KTM 520 EXC-R – Ol’ Keithy


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     Written by Martin Hodgson.
    It’s a familiar story, a motorcycle enthusiast sees a big dollar build on the internet by one of the industry legends and tries to replicate what they see. A year later, thousands of dollars wasted and a newly listed “Unfinished project” for sale on eBay and it all comes to a sad end. But Chad Edwards was always going to be too smart to fall into that trap, he adapted when he had to, learnt as he went and with the help of Brendan Forrest from Premier Exhaust & Automotive has designed and built himself a killer KTM Tracker styled Motard on a reasonable budget.
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    Bought for just $1100 due to a suspected bent valve, Chad picked up the 2001 KTM 520 EXC-R at what is a bargain price. But after a couple of nights swinging the spanners he’d diagnosed the problem to be carby related and with a rebuild kit installed it was running like a dream. The first thought was to build a Café Racer KTM just like the RSD 525 by custom bike building legend Roland Sands. But having picked up a set of KTM Behr Super Motard Rims Chad quickly decided the bike was just way to fun now to move away from a Motard setup. But wanting a look of his own the decision was made to go with Motard performance and Street Tracker style. With the Behr rims fitted the rest of the handling needed an overhaul which came in the form of 40mm shortened forks upgraded to gold valves and the rear shock being slightly shortened & stiffened using a heavier spring.
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    Making a dirt bike look like anything but is never as easy as it looks, odd shaped tanks and plastics lend themselves well to blasts in the bush but to create a different look requires a great deal of skill. To get the individual look he was after Chad decided on a replica CB100 tank with custom fabricated mounts to adapt it to the frame. But this meant the standard radiator would never go back in place so a CF-Moto 650 item was secured underneath with custom hangers. To really make the Tracker look work a custom subframe was always going to be required, in this case rose jointed to new mounts that perfectly position the HD750 replica seat. Just like the subframe the number plate holder and head light mount were fabricated by hand, the later supporting a 4 ½ inch Bates style headlight.
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    With the fabrication complete the bike was torn down, with the frame & tins sent away to powder coat & paint. With the bike in pieces in made sense to give the engine a freshen up, the heads were ported, a Hot Cam fitted and a new Wossner high comp piston installed. Chad says tuning is still a work in progress as the new cam draws far more air than they can find an air filter to handle, but with it removed the KTM pumps out a very impressive 56 rwhp. Wanting to maintain the look of the negative space between seat and tire the exhaust needed to be well thought out; leaving the only real option to go under slung with a fully handmade & shaped stainless muffler & system made to hang from the bash plate. Not only does the Motard stance give plenty of room to work underneath the bike, the final design is beautiful to look at and you can be sure barking loud when the throttle is cracked.
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    Pro-taper Carmichael Contour fat bars give Chad something to hold onto while a Trail tech Vapour dash on a custom fabricated mount gives the vital information right in the riders view. Chad initially intended for the bike to be fully wrapped in brushed matt titanium vehicle wrap, but a fuel leak on its maiden test at Sydney Motor Sport Park destroyed that design. Being a sign writer by trade meant Chad had no problem with a redesign and what he came up with is the stunning black & vintage style KTM Decals you see before you.
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    Nicknamed “Ol’ Keithy” this KTM has gone from the desire to build a RSD inspired Café Racer to a Tracker Styled Motard and the result is truly spectacular. With a bike that looks as good standing still as it does ripping up the streets just the way he likes it, Chad has taken the path in true personalized perfection. The fact that Ol’ Keithy can also show a clean pair of heals to many bigger bikes on the track would definitely get the thumbs up from Sands and Chad can be very proud of this very unique dirt bike transformation.
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    via PIPEBURN