WRC Rally de Portugal 2015 ; La réaction de Volkswagen / Volkswagen’s response

Jamais un constructeur n’avait marqué autant de points sur un rallye WRC. Avec un total de 122 points inscrits par Jari-Matti Latvala, Sébastien Ogier et Andreas Mikkelsen, Volkswagen Motorsport a dominé le Rallye du Portugal 2015.

Après la déroute argentine, on attendait une réaction de l’équipe Volkswagen Motorsport. Et elle fut cinglante : 11 meilleurs temps sur 15 spéciales, 6 triplés en spéciale dont un dans la Power Stage et un triplé final. La VW Polo R WRC 2015 a écrasé la concurrence, laissant la DS3 WRC à 0.234 s/kil, la nouvelle Ford à 0.431 s/kil et la Hyundai à 0.482 s/kil.

Le meilleur pilote du rallye a t-il gagné ? Non, selon les chiffres. Avec 6 temps scratch, Sébastien Ogier est le meilleur performer du rallye. Le Français a été lourdement pénalisé par sa position sur la route, preuve en est avec ses améliorations d’un passage à l’autre. Et malgré une crevaison lente, il échoue à 8.2 secondes du vainqueur. Ce qui a sans doute entraîné cette réaction épidermique à l’arrivée, puis cette mise au point sur FB quelques heures plus tard.

Le vainqueur mérite-t-il la victoire ? Oui. Jari-Matti a su exploiter sa 9^e position sur la route pour prendre la tête de l’épreuve à l’issue de l’ES4. Le Finlandais a aussi parfaitement géré son paquetage de pneumatiques pour se retrouver avec 4 soft neufs dimanche matin. Et c’est sans doute grâce à eux qu’il a scellé sa victoire dans l’ES15. Après trois résultats blancs, le Finlandais avait besoin de ce succès pour évacuer ce trop-plein de pression.

Chassé du podium par Mikkelsen dimanche matin, Kris Meeke poursuit sur une bonne dynamique. Il est le seul à pouvoir rivaliser avec les pilotes VW en ce moment. De son côté, Thierry Neuville est au creux de la vague avec une 3^e sortie de route consécutive et un choix de pneus surprenant vendredi matin l’ayant très vite relégué à près d’une minute. Avec un choix de 6 roues dimanche matin, il n’avait visiblement pas pour objectif de marquer des points dans la Power Stage…

Ses équipiers Dani Sordo et Hayden Paddon ont réussi leur rallye. L’Espagnol a pris un départ canon avant de rentrer dans le rang samedi. Il fut le plus véloce des pilotes Hyundai avec 8 meilleurs temps, devant le Néo-Zélandais 6 fois premier des i20 WRC.

Avec deux abandons dans la première ES du vendredi et du samedi, c’est comme si Elfyn Evans n’avait pas participé au Rallye du Portugal. Ott Tanak a profité de sa 10^e position sur la route pour monter trois fois sur le podium en spéciale. Il lui reste désormais à atteindre le podium du classement général. De retour en WRC après trois mois, Robert Kubica a adopté un rythme sage lui ayant permis de terminer sans Rally2.

Never has a manufacturer harvested so many points on a single WRC than Volkswagen Motorsport did in Portugal. The firm’s domination by Jari-Matti Latvala, Sébastien Ogier and Andreas Mikkelsen brought a total of 122 championship points.

After its disastrous visit to Argentina, Volkswagen’s response took the form of 11 fastest times from 15 in Portugal, including six one-two-threes, plus the best three efforts on the Power Stage and an all-VW final podium. The 2015-spec VW Polo R WRC was 0.234s/km faster than the DS3 WRC, and 0.431s/km and 0.482s/km quicker than the new Ford and the Hyundai respectively.

Did the best driver win? Not according to the event’s statistics. Ogier collected the highest number of stage wins (six) but was severely penalised by his running order, as suggested by his improvements on the second passes. Despite suffering a slow puncture, he ended up just 8.2s short of the winner.

Did Latvala deserve to win? Yes. He managed the fact that he was ninth on the road perfectly to appear in front after SS4. He also looked after his tyre stock wisely to find himself with four fresh ‘soft’ Michelins for Sunday’s action. That no doubt helped him to seal his victory on SS15. After three non-finishes, the Finn was certainly in need of a result like that to relieve some of the pressure that has been building on his shoulders.

Although he was demoted from the podium on Sunday morning by Mikkelsen, Kris Meeke continued on his positive momentum and is the only driver who seems able to rival VW’s trio at the moment. In contrast, Thierry Neuville is in something of a negative spiral after his third consecutive off and a surprising tyre choice for Friday which cost almost a minute. He then opted for six wheels on Sunday, so clearly had no intention of targeting Power Stage points…

The Belgian’s team-mates Dani Sordo and Hayden Paddon had a more successful time. The Spaniard hit the ground running before losing ground on Saturday, but he was the fastest Hyundai driver, claiming eight best i20 WRC times, compared with six for the New Zealander.

Elfyn Evans ‘retired’ on the first stage on Friday AND Saturday, so it was almost as though he wasn’t even in Portugal at all. However, Ott Tanak took advantage of his running order (10^th) to notch up three top-three stage times. The next step for him will be to be on the podium at the finish of an event.

Robert Kubica was making his return after a three-month absence. A sage pace allowed him to reach the end without calling on the Rally2 ruling.

IT ROCKS!BIKES GRAVEDIGGER CLASSIC

Osvaldo Coutinho and Alexandre Santos from it roCkS!bikes are currently on the road from Portugal to London for #BikeShedLondon2015 with a pair of awesome show bikes to display.

Their original CB750 based CS_01 Gravedigger proved such a hit that the guys have started to produce limited number runs of both the Classic and Modern editions, just 5 of each are available on a pre-order basis. The two you see here are already spoken for and ready for their new owners to collect.

The hand shaped, single piece tank and seat units are common across both versions and prove the breadth of the guy’s skills and craftsmanship. Both bikes here are Classics, one grey and one blue, painted in-house.

A proper cow gave the shirt from its back to provide the seat with a decadent covering. Vinyl might be more practical but it just doesn’t feel the same.

One advantage of producing small runs of the same bike is that the design of certain components can be refined, honed and replicated perfectly every time. The 70s style stainless  4-into-4 exhausts are hand made in batches and linished to a lovely satin sheen. A quartet of K&Ns keep the bugs out and the engine on song.

Front to back, anything requiring refurbishing has been renewed and upgraded where possible. Brake lines are by Hell Performance and braided, the #7 bike shown here benefits from wavy discs too.

Aluminium has been used liberally on both bikes in a bid to reduce the heft of the CB, which didn’t exactly roll of the production line particularly svelte. Clip-ons, foot pegs, mudguards and the CNC’d speedo bracket play their part in the ferrous dieting.

Bike #28 runs a set of custom 17″ spoked wheels but owner of #7 wanted to go the extra mile and requested fitment of Kieno’s lovely tubeless hoops.

Obviously the work carried out to this pair of Gravediggers extends well beyond the brief descriptions here, but with the 10,000 people about to descend on Tobacco Docks for Bike Shed London 2015 we’ll leave you with these photographs and suggest a visit to the new it roCkS!bikes website or keep an eye on their Facebook page.

Photos by Rui Bandeira Fotografia

via The Bike Shed

Twins & Fins

Twins & Fins from Manuel Portugal on Vimeo.

BMW R80 ‘Indira’ by Ton-Up Garage

Words by Martin Hodgson.

When you’re a Frenchman who desires a German BMW to carve through the streets of London England then who better to turn to than Portugal’s Ton-Up Garage. This cross-continental custom BMW R80 is both a testament to its builders and the great state in which the custom motorcycle scene finds itself. Borders disappear, there are no limits other than your imagination and the skill of your builder; the language of cool customs is universal. Ton-Up’s Daniel and Pedro have proven themselves master builders and their BMW’s are some of the best in the world.

Whereas the most recent BMW to roll out of Ton-Up, Recall, maintained many of the styling cues and authenticity of a classic Bavarian, Indira as she is known is built to meet the customer’s request of a dark in colour, low to the ground and built for daily commuting. With suggestions based on past experience Daniel and Pedro were able to convince the customer that too much black would take away from the lines and with all in agreement the final design was completed. Suspension alone won’t give a low sleek look and so the BMW fuel tank was ditched in favour of a parts bin item that would give a more flowing appearance. Finished in a mixture of gloss black and matte black paint work with metallic brown detailing it sets the theme for the entire build.

To bring the BMW closer to terra firma the front suspension was rebuilt and lowered using shorter springs that still retain a level of comfort. While the single side-mounted shock is both stunning in appearance and function, but required a reworking of the fixing points to work perfectly. The factory lower shaft drive mounted position remains while the top of the shock swings on a custom bracket mated to tabs welded directly the strongest parts of the frame. All of this was vital as this bike is no show pony; it’s expected to crisscross the mean streets of London on a daily basis.

Aiding in rider comfort is one of Ton-Ups one off seats that have become a trademark of the workshop. Two tones of sumptuous brown leather are stitched with craftsman like precision and the Garage’s logo is stamped into the tail piece. The foam itself is shaped in such a way to both neatly fit the customer and also maintain the desired flowing lines. But you can’t just fit a seat like this to a standard frame, so the rear section first had to be entirely removed. A new subframe was built just for this bike and seat combo and once welded to the main frame the entire lot was sprayed in a subtle black chip-resistant coating.

Clip-ons for a low bike would have been the easy option, but the swept back bars fitted to Indira give a Brough Superior like elegance while also creating a more comfortable riding position. New levers, grips and twin button switch blocks clean up the front end. While a small headlight, single speedo gauge and even the gators add to the minimalist look and feel of the build. With being street legal a must, small bullet indicators in black feature at both ends of the BMW while a vintage style tail light is mounted to a new rear fender finished in the same gloss black that adorns the tank.

Then there are the final details, decisions that expert builders with an eye for detail make and pull the whole project in a single, uniform direction. First are the fitment of vintage Firestone Deluxe tyres whose vertical lines match beautifully to the BMW’s air-cooled fins when you view the bike front on. Finally there are those pipes, custom created headers that snake their way through the frame, neatly dressed in brown heat wrap and finishing with two snarling black reverse cone mufflers.

And therein lies the success of Portugal’s own Ton-Up Garage, an ability to take a design brief for a daily ridden low slung BMW and turn it into a show worthy custom machine that collects gazes on the streets and trophies at the show!

via PIPEBURN