CAFÉ RACER 76

L'historique du WorldSBK au Portugal / Portugal in WorldSBK history

Retour sur les débuts du WorldSBK à Portimao.

Le WorldSBK disputera ses 19e et 20e courses au Portugal ce week-end après avoir eu quatre épreuves à Estoril, en 1988 puis en 1993, et avoir pris la direction de l'Algarve pour la première fois en 2008, date depuis laquelle Portimao est un rendez-vous fixe du calendrier.

Bien que le Portugal ait déjà accueilli un total de 18 courses, aucun pilote n'a réussi à s'y imposer plus de deux fois. Les doubles vainqueurs sont Troy Bayliss (2008), Max Biaggi (2010), Marco Melandri (2011/Course 2, 2013/Course 1), Eugene Laverty (2012/Course 2, 2013/Course 2) et Tom Sykes (2012/1, 2014/1), qui pourrait passer à trois victoires ce week-end, à moins que son coéquipier Jonathan Rea n'y parvienne en signant un doublé.

22 pilotes portugais ont participé à au moins une séance d'essais de la catégorie WorldSBK et 14 d'entre eux ont participé à une course. Alex Vieira est celui qui a eu le plus de succès et s'était imposé à l'Osterreichring en 1989 (Course 1), avant de partir de la pole à Hockenheim en 1988.

Les faits marquants du WorldSBK à Portimao :

2008 - La première venue du WorldSBK à Portimao fut marquée par la démonstration de Troy Bayliss : l'Australien s'apprêtait à prendre sa retraite et avait démoli ses concurrents en décrochant la pole position avec près de deux secondes et demie d'avance sur Cal Crutchlow puis en survolant ensuite les deux courses. Un jeune Jonathan Rea, qui courait à l'époque en Supersport, faisait ses débuts en WorldSBK et décrochait la troisième position sur la grille ainsi qu'une quatrième place dans la première course.

2009 - Portimai accueillit l'une des dernières manches les plus passionanntes de l'histoire en 2009, lorsque Noriyuki Haga et Ben Spies jouaient le titre mondial et que le Japonais était arrivé au Portugal avec dix points d'avance sur l'Américain. Spies avait décroché la pole et s'échappa dès le départ de la première course tandis que Haga, dixième sur la grille, remonta jusqu'à la cinquième place mais finit sur une chute dans le septième tour. Dans la seconde course, Spies n'eut qu'à gérer et à finir cinquième tandis que Michel Fabrizio s'imposait devant Haga. Le Japonais avait compté jusqu'à 88 points d'avance en cours de saison et fut battu par Spies au dernier moment.

2010 - Portimao devint la seconde date du calendrier plutôt que la dernière pour accueillir le championnat au mois de mars. Max Biaggi remporta alors les deux courses en s'imposant devant Leon Haslam.

2011 - Carlos Checa, qui allait devenir Champion du Monde, s'imposa dans la première course, en battant Sylvain Guintoli à quatre tours de l'arrivée. Marco Melandri signa dans la deuxième course la dernière des 74 victoires de Yamaha en WorldSBK. Eugene Laverty contribua aux festivités qui accompagnaient le départ du constructeur japonais avec une seconde place.

2012 - Marco Melandri tomba dès le premier tour de la première course et dut être transféré à l'hôpital. Les victoires revinrent à Sykes et à Laverty. Sykes passa devant Melandri au classement général, à 30.5 points de Biaggi, qui allait remporter le titre mondial avec un demi-point d'avance le week-end suivant à Magny-Cours.

2013 - Melandri remporta la dixième victoire de BMW dans la première course et Eugene Laverty s'imposa dans la deuxième. Tombé dans le virage n°2 dès le tour de chauffe, Sykes, qualifié en pole, dut partir de la pit-lane.

2014 - Tom Sykes domina la première course avant que Sylvain Guintoli et Marco Melandri, à l'époque coéquipiers chez Aprilia, ne tombent sur piste mouillée alors qu'ils poursuivaient et rattrapaient le leader, Jonathan Rea. Ce dernier s'imposa tandis que Guiloni finit septième et que Melandri ne put repartir.

Some figures regarding the hosting country.

WorldSBK will run its 19th and 20th races in Portugal this season. In the early years of the World Championship, Estoril hosted four races, in 1988 and 1993, while the brand-new Algarve track took over in 2008 and has become a fixed venue since then.

Despite hosting 18 races so far, a rider has never won more than twice in Portugal. The two-time winners on the Algarve (which had hosted 14 races in total) are Troy Bayliss (2008), Max Biaggi (2010), Marco Melandri (2011/2, 2013/1), Eugene Laverty (2012/2, 2013/2) and Tom Sykes (2012/1, 2014/1). Sykes is thus in the best position to become the first three-times Algarve winner, but his team-mate Rea can also achieve that in case of a double.

22 Portuguese riders have entered at least a practice session in the World Superbike class and 14 of them were race starters. Among them, the most successful is Alex Vieira, the only Portuguese able to win a race, at the Osterreichring, 1989/1, and to start from pole - at Hockenheim in 1988.

Some notable moments at the Algarve track:

2008 The first weekend at the new track was a Troy Bayliss demonstration: the Australian was on his farewell weekend and shattered the opposition, taking pole by almost 2.5 seconds over Cal Crutchlow and dominating both races. On that weekend, a young Jonathan Rea switched from the World Supersport Championship to World Superbike, impressing the world with a third place on the grid and a fourth position finish in Race 1

2009 The Algarve hosted one of the most thrilling season finales in history as Noriyuki Haga and Ben Spies had the title on the line, with the Japanese leading the American by ten points. Spies took pole and rocketed away at the start of Race 1 while Haga, only tenth on the grid, had to climb through the field but eventually fell on the seventh lap while running fifth. In Race 2, Spies controlled his rivals to finish a comfortable fifth, while Michel Fabrizio won from Haga: the Japanese had squandered an 88-point advantage during the course of the season and lost the title to Spies

2010 The Algarve went from being the season finale to the second round, in March, and was a taste of things to come as Biaggi and Haslam fought closely in both races, with the Italian coming home with a double

2011 World Champion-to-be Carlos Checa got the best of his rivals in Race 1, improving the pace when needed, and taking the lead from Sylvain Guintoli four laps from the end. In Race 2 Marco Melandri gave Yamaha the last of their 74 wins to date. Eugene Laverty completed the ideal farewell race for the Japanese manufacturer by finishing second

2012 Marco Melandri's championship hopes took a serious knock in Race 1 when he fell on the opening lap and had to be taken to hospital for checks. The wins went to Sykes and Laverty; Tom took over from Melandri for second spot in the championship, 30.5 points from Biaggi who would go on to win the title by only half a point on the following weekend at Magny-Cours

2013 Melandri gave BMW their tenth win in Race 1 and Eugene Laverty dominated proceedings in Race 2, but drama unfolded on the sighting lap as pole man Sykes fell at Turn 2, thus having to start from the pits

2014 Tom Sykes dominated Race 1 before, in a wet Race 2 the two Aprilias were hunting down Jonathan Rea, race leader from the opening lap; however, just as Melandri and Guintoli were in sight of the Honda rider, the two Aprilias made contact in the shadow of the VIP tower. Only Guintoli was able to climb back on his bike, to finish seventh, while Melandri was out

1977 Honda CB550 ‘Aldo’ by Lossa Engineering

When it comes to Honda CB café racers there’s not a lot of people that have built as many as Jay Lossa and his team at Lossa Engineering in Long Beach California. Jay has lost count of the number of CB’s he has brought back to life since starting his shop back in 2007. He usually starts his builds with “rusty hunks of junk” that cost no more than $500. It doesn’t usually matter what condition they are in because he replaces every nut and bolt anyway. This time around he started with a decent donor CB550 that he picked up for $1300 – which makes it the most expensive donor he has ever bought.

When you own a motorbike shop you tend to have a lot of spare parts lying around the garage, so Jay decided to build a bike with some of these spares. The Firestones were a cancelled order from a customer who changed his mind, so Jay incorporated them into the project. “I built this as an old school looking show bike, not a cornering carving machine” he jokes. “So I feel the tires are ok for that job”. The CB550 frame, wheel’s and all the parts were already powder coated black and the motor was rebuilt and blacked out.

All the tabs were removed, frame hooped, battery relocated under the cowl, bike has been wired with a modern regulator/rectifier, dry cell battery, electronic ignition, Dyna mini coils and NGK wires. Jay also added an Acewell digital gauge and a Lossa mini key set up and starter button. It also has a H4 headlight and a Lossa LED tail light.

Tom McWeeney from Kustoms Inc had been wanting to paint one of Lossa’s bikes for a while, so Jay thought he would be perfect for this 70’s styled show bike. Tom did all the paintwork with House of Kolor paint. He started with a Orion Silver base and then did a candy apple red over with lines graphics and lace work. He finished it off with some silver leafing and hand pinstriping. Tom even striped the part under the seat where the upholstery would have covered it up. “So not wanting to hide any of his artwork, I decided to expose the center of the seat,” said Jay. “I did all the bodywork myself and decided not to do knee dents and keep the tank straight and smooth as glass to show off all the artwork.”

The motor received a big bore kit and is now a 608cc, cases were split, all new gaskets, seals, Barnett clutch and a valve job with all new valves were used. “The bike also has a Mega-cycle cam and huge Keihin CR racing carburetors so we can burn off those Firestone tire’s I love so much!” he says. One of Lossa Engineering’s Yoshi style replica 4 into 1 exhausts were used with one of their reverse cone mufflers and the whole set up was ceramic coated.

A chrome set of Lossa clubman styled bars were used to give it that classic café look, along with Biltwell grips, Tarrozzi fork brace and rearsets. Joker tappet cover, stem nut, axle adjusters and brake stay were used to dress up the standard stock pieces. The brake caliper has been “polished to perfection” and the stock rotor CNC drilled. Every nut and bolt on the CB has been re-plated with chrome or zinc plating. Jay finished off the build with some reservoir shocks, gold o-ring chain and Magura master cylinder.

This 1977 CB550 has been given the name ‘Aldo’ and has been completely rebuilt and is now better than new. Jay has fallen in love with this bike but knows he needs to let it go and move on to the next project. “I have too much stuff and can’t possibly ride all of my bikes, so if someone wants to arm wrestle me into selling this bike to them, I will” he says. So if you want a CB550 café racer in show bike condition, contact Jay for that arm wrestle – you’ll win because he does have nerve damage in his arms.

[Photos by Buckhorn studio]

via PIPEBURN

From Malibu to Saint Tropez - the best buggies for the beach

Simon de Burton longs for the days when we could drive on the beach without being apprehended by the long arm of the law. Here he sums up his best of beach transport, on the sand and… in the air. No, seriously.

Remember when... ?

There are many things you can't do in our modern, progressive world that you used to be allowed to do, 40 or 50 years ago. And a lot of them involve cars - like, for instance, driving on the beach. I've only ever done that once (legally) and it was in Australia.

But back in the day, one gets the impression that there were almost as many cars built for beach life as there were boats built for the sea. It was a trend kicked off by the Californian engineer and artist Bruce Meyers who, in 1964, produced the original 'Meyers Manx' beach buggy by bolting a glassfibre tub to the shortened chassis of a VW Beetle.

McQueen and the Manx

With fat tyres and the weight of the engine over the back wheels, the Manx positively surfed the sand and spawned a whole genre of similar machines - including, of course, the legendary 'Queen Manx' that took to the air with Steve McQueen at the wheel (and Faye Dunaway be-scarfed in the passenger seat) in one of the more memorable scenes from The Thomas Crown Affair.

But while McQueen's buggy packed a 200-horsepower, flat-six Chevrolet Corvair engine, the cars in which Europe's riviera set tended to head for the dunes were small and built more for style than speed.

A Jolly good fellow

Take, for example, the shamelessly comical 'Jolly' which was a conversion of the Fiat 500, 600 and Multipla, carried out - at considerable expense - by coachbuilder Ghia. Sold around the world, these miniscule cars with sand- and sea-repellent wicker seats, easy access, cut-down sides and absurd, fringe-laden 'Surrey' tops proved hugely popular with yacht owners (including Aristotle Onassis) for haring around ports and between beach and villa.

The darling of the jet set

Likewise the Mini Moke, with its doorless body, canopy roof and nippy Mini mechanicals, rose from its original position of failed military vehicle ('not fit for purpose', said the Army procurement board) to become the default wheels for jet-setters all the way from the Caribbean to the Cote d'Azur - not least, as our shot of Brigitte Bardot and canine friends demonstrates, because the Moke was a practical load-lugger as well as being 'très bon' fun.

French kicks 'sur la plage'

Indeed, the French have proved rather good at making beach cars themselves, notably in the form of Renault's '4'-based Rodeo and the Citroën Mehari, a Moke-like creation based on a 2CV platform which had a tendency to take off when a high wind caught its canopy - but didn't, unfortunately, fly nearly so stylishly as the Queen Manx.

Photos: Getty Images / Rex Features / Citroën / Artcurial, Bonhams, Gooding, RM Sotheby's

Is John Cooper's last car the ultimate Mini Cooper?

A rather special (and not to mention fast) Mini Cooper is now available in the Classic Driver Market. According to the vendor, this 1998 Mini Cooper S is the last car tuned by John Cooper ‘himself’…

Motor racing know-how

The late John Cooper, legendary Mini specialist and co-founder of British racing car manufacturer Cooper Car Company, first modified a Mini in 1961. His high-performance variants of the highly popular Mini later became world-famous following starring roles in the 1969 film, The Italian Job.The sale of this particular Mini Cooper S by Paris-based My Mini Revolution marks an exciting opportunity to acquire the last car owned by the legendary designer and tuner – featuring many unique performance parts. The car's odometer shows just 1,980 miles and, supposedly, more than £25,000 has been spent on the engine alone!

Photos: My Mini Revolution