KEVILS BOMBER

If you were down in the smoke a few days ago for Bike Shed London 2015 you will have seen the Kevils quartet of customs in Quayside 1, just a few metres away from the bar. Handy. In the ‘Shed we refer to bobbers as the perfect hangover bike, something you can just swing a leg over, sit back and let the breeze blow away the fugg. For the concept to work you need a laid-back riding position and some proper clout between your legs. This is one of Kevils Speed Shop’s few goes at building a bobber as Kev has previously shied away from them and stuck to scramblers and café racers.

For this build Kevils teamed up with Clive Cook of Crobba Customs, famous for his BSA Bantam powered Butchers Bike (click the link and take a look, well worth it). Clive is a talented welder and fabricator and had been subcontracting at the Kevils Devonshire HQ before taking the plunge, sacking in a 10 year career as a commercial generator engineer to go it alone and follow his passion. Yup, the familiar story of the heart winning over the head and thankfully another person doing what they were born to do, in this case hand-making custom handlebars amongst other things moto-related.

Bobbers need to be clean, lean and low. One of the best ways to achieve this is to bin the springy bits and go hardtail, so that’s what Kev and Clive did, chopping the central spine out of the Beemer’s frame and running 2 tubes down to pick-up the rear axle. With the shaft-drive set level the rear frame was triangulated and welded in place. Nice and wide though to accept the 5.00 x 16 rear Avon Safety Mileage, after all, it’s that fat sidewall that’ll be soaking up the bumps.

To make a hangover bike work there’s no alternative for cubes, and the ’77 R100/7 motor is the full fat model sporting a set of Mikunis on pod filters and a free flowing exhaust. As per usual with a Kevils build the engine is completely stripped, refurbished and rebuilt using proper parts.

Obviously an RD350 tank wasn’t going to work here so Kev shaped a block of foam before fibreglassing it and handing it over to Paul the aluminium expert who rolled out and mirror polished this great shape. A bobber with a decent fuel capacity, who knew?

As anyone with an R-series knows, the forks are limited by the top clamp. To slam the front end of the Bomber a Kevils billet yoke with pinch bolts was utilised, which also allows a set of one-off Crobba Customs bars to be clamped to the remaining fork stanchion.

Clean and lean comes from perfecting the game of electrical hide and seek. Motogadget currently sell the best range of space saving gauges, so there’s one nestling in the headlight bucket along with the rest of the new, slimmed down wiring harness.

An off-the-shelf bobber seat was trialled but the curved shape just didn’t look right, so a café-style unit was fabricated, and upholstered in black leather. The kick-up at the rear should be enough to keep one’s bum planted once the throttle is cracked and five inches of rubber bite down hard, uninterrupted by suspension.

As with all his builds, Kev needed a name so chose Bomber, as play on words between a Beemer and a bobber. Lucky the donor wasn’t a Buell!

To keep an eye on new builds, order your dream custom BMW or buy parts of the shelf for a project head to the Kevils Speed Shop Facebook page or website.

Photos by Ashley Kent, via The Bike Shed

The Museum by MARTIN SQUIRES

A Short Film by Tom Rochester, documenting Martin Squires as he sketches a large scale ink painting for the 30th Anniversary of the National Motorcycle Museum, Birmingham UK.

The Museum from MARTIN SQUIRES on Vimeo.

ZAGATO’S EXTREME MOSTRO WAS BORN AT THE TRACK

Photography by Federico Bajetti Pulling the covers off of a brand new car is the most traditional way to present one—maybe with women standing next to the car. But can you do better than just eye candy? Absolutely, yes. To present the first "Mostro" (aka Monster), Carrozzeria Zagato didn't use any fabric or women. It choose the newly-restored internal test track of Alfa Romeo in Arese, gathered 30 cars from the past and present, and introduced the new car by letting it roar from the circuit past the waiting crowd. It wasn't presented to the general public, however: it was being delivered to its new owner! Before its public debut in Villa d'Este, the Mostro Zagato was presented a few days beforehand in an exclusive event where Zagato organized a group of its great cars: where else do you see a two TZs, a TZ2, the TZ3 Corsa, and other road-going racers lined up in a row? Plus: the only Aston Martin Centennial Shooting Brake, an O.M. Superba, an Alfa 6C 1750 SS, 2300, JZ, two SZs, one OSCA 1600, three 1900 SSZ, a Fiat 8V, and a Lancia Appia Zagato…our jaws dropped and stayed there for quite a while! We were told that it was just a friends' meeting via official Zagato invitation to Arese. During the event, all cars lapped the track in separate 15 minute sessions for each class: first were the pre war cars, then the post war ones, and lastly, the contemporary ones. First, we were offered a ride in a wonderful blue Giulia TZ, a rare model with a blue paint job and a Conrero-tuned engine. The owner revved it to 8,000 rpm and the sound it made was mind-blowing. The car was light, stable, and by the end of the main straight was doing almost 100 mph. We were told that it used to be an official car for the Alfa Romeo team in France (hence the blue color), and that it has been in the hands of the same owner for many years. After the first three track sessions, it was time for the moment were waiting for: the Mostro.

All of the guests and participants gathered close to Andrea Zagato, who after a brief speech turned our attention to the Mostro, roaring from the track. It was a scenic view, and the sight of an all-new race car was quite spectacular as it seemed to appear from nowhere. This particular model was inspired by the classic Costin-Zagato Maserati 450S "Mostro", an aggressive-looking berlinetta that was built for Stirling Moss to compete in the 1957 24 Hours of Le Mans. Based on the chassis #6 (4506) of the nine 450S built, the original Mostro used to be a 1956 car, redesigned and built in just two weeks. It was a conversion from the traditional barchetta body to a streamlined berlinetta, in order to have superior aerodynamics. Despite the incredible effort, the car never scored a victory, and it was sold in 1958 to an American customer. It was later repainted in black (apparently the original color was red) and converted to road use. After spending several years in a museum, it was sold and it is now in private hands. To celebrate this unique car, Zagato wanted to make a limited series inspired by the original design, but produced in 5 copies. While the original was moved by a 4.5 liter V8, the new one has a 4.2-litre V8 engine. The reason for this is because it is the only forced lubrication engine Maserati is currently producing. The new Mostro is made completely in carbon fiber. The chassis is a composite central tub made by Gillet Automotive of Belgium, and it has two additional steel structures in the front and back to support the engine, suspension and gas tank. Total weight is under 2000 lbs and the engine is good for about 450 horsepower. This is not bad in my opinion. What's cool is that this car is built for the street—and has a full exhaust bypass. This means you can have it "race car loud" when you want it and quiet-ish when cruising. Its simple design may not please everyone, but I think the car is quite interesting. It's a modern reinterpretation of a classic, and the only thing left to do is wish Zagato that would build a few more than just 5 of these cars: reportedly, they're all sold.

GT Tour ; IMSA Performance Matmut à la conquête de Spa-Francorchamps

Pour sa 3e manche de la saison, le Championnat de France GT FFSA 2015 franchit les frontières et s’attaque au mythique tracé de Spa, habituellement consacré « plus beau circuit du monde ». Un rendez-vous que le team IMSA Performace Matmut aborde avec humilité même si l’équipe normande compte déjà plusieurs trophées conquis dans les Ardennes Belges*. Une approche qui n’enlève rien, bien loin s’en faut, à sa détermination et à ses objectifs : rester dans le trio de tête au classement provisoire du Championnat.

 

* : 24 heures de Spa, 6 Heures en Championnat du Monde d’Endurance pour n’en citer que quelques uns.

” Vivement Spa ! J’attends ce rendez-vous avec une certaine impatience ! »… s’enthousiasme Olivier Pernaut « Je suis venu y courir aussi souvent que possible en Fun Cup, puis en RaceCar. Mais cette année je vais m’attaquer à ce monstre sacré au volant de la Porsche 911 GT3-R de 550 chevaux… Les vitesses de passage en courbe par exemple seront bien plus élevées ! Au cœur de la forêt ce sera magnifique ! »

Un avis largement partagé par Sébastien Dumez pour qui la piste spadoise est « le plus beau rendez-vous de la saison ! “C’est un tracé naturel rythmé par deux monuments le raidillon et Blanchimont. A chaque tour, on se concentre pour les aborder le mieux possible : c’est en partie là que l’on peut faire la différence… à condition de les passer à fond avec les GT actuelles».

C’est à dire avec des autos impeccablement réglées comme l’était la Porsche 911 GT3 R d’Imsa Performance Matmut l’an dernier. En raflant les 25 points de la victoire de la course 2 de l’épreuve 2014, le team rouennais avait pris la tête du classement provisoire du Championnat. Des points essentiels dans sa conquête du Titre 2014 !

Une des clés pour l’équipe aux couleurs de la Matmut sera de maîtriser l’usure des pneumatiques comme le souligne Sébastien. « La Porsche est un peu gourmande en pneus arrières comparativement à d’autres voitures. Malgré tout, le revêtement de Spa n’est pas très abrasif mais il y a beaucoup de virages rapides et de relances pendant lesquelles toute la puissance moteur est sollicitée. Il est donc nécessaire d’avoir une bonne traction. C’est un point sur lequel nous porterons une attention particulière d’autant que les prévisions météos prévoient soleil et chaleur !».

Pour tout dire, le plan de marche est déjà établi. Dès jeudi en fin de journée, les 3 coéquipiers (Olivier Pernaut, Raymond Narac et Sébastien Dumez) accompagnés de leur ingénieur Félix Barre ont reconnu à pied les 7 km du circuit. « Nous nous sommes donnés tous rendez-vous dès jeudi soir pour cette reconnaissance. C’est un moment d’échange important pour tout le groupe et pour sa cohésion. Il permet de préparer les qualifications et plus encore les deux courses » explique Olivier Pernaut avant que Sébastien Dumez n’ajoute « Nous ne partirons pas à la conquête des poles coûte que coûte mais nous travaillerons plus dans l’optique des courses: étant donné le format d’épreuve d’une heure et demie, la position sur la grille n’est pas réellement déterminante pour le résultat final. Les stratégies sont plus importantes et puis à Spa il y a de toutes façon plein d’endroits pour dépasser !…».