The Race of Gentlemen - Malle London

Malle London went down to the "Wildwood" for The Race of Gentleman (2014). Two days of vintage racing on the beach, with racers trying to avoid the ever increasing tide. The only rule of the race; the older the machine the better. 



Founded by the Oilers Car Club (Est. 1947), to learn more about the race: www.theraceofgentlemen.com 

Bonhams to sell James May's Porsche 911 Carrera at Goodwood

At its Goodwood Festival of Speed sale later this month, Bonhams will offer this 1984 Porsche 911 3.2 Carrera, formerly owned by the ex-Top Gear presenter James May…

This isn’t the first vehicle belonging to a Top Gear presenter we’ve seen for sale in the wake of the Clarkson fracas-gate – Richard Hammond had a similar idea, selling his ‘Big Foot’ Land Rover Defender a while back. 

Fair-weather leisure 

A well-known advocate of the Porsche 911, May is said to have bought the ‘Guards Red’ 3.2 Carreraon the spot, after borrowing it for the Radio 4 documentary ‘Speed, Greed and the M25’. Used sparingly over the last eight years, it shows 55,000 miles on the odometer and is reportedly in excellent condition. Considering he paid a mere £15,250 for the car back in 2007, we can’t imagine he’ll be too disappointed with its pre-sale estimate of £28,000-34,000. And we’re not, either – for an air-cooled 911, we don’t think that’s at all unreasonable… 

Photos: Bonhams

Bonhams' Goodwood Festival of Speed sale will take place on 26 June 2015 near Chichester. You can find the full catalogue listed in the Classic Driver Market. 

Goodwood Festival Of Speed 2015 : c’est parti!

par Claude Foubert (Endurance-Info.com)

Le Festival Of Speed 2015 a ouvert ses portes jeudi à Goodwood. C’est Lord March, le maître de céans, qui a ouvert les festivités hier jeudi avec le Moving Motor Show. Le Comte a ouvert le meeting 2015 au volant de la toute nouvelle Mazda MX-5

Le Festival Of Speed va offrir  jusqu’à dimanche soir un programme exceptionnel, avec pour point d’orgue la fameuse Hillclimb, la course de côte tracée dans les allées de Goodwood Park.

Cette année, c’est Mazda qui occupe la place centrale, devant Goodwood House, avec une structure impressionnante,  la traditionnelle Central Feature. Cette sculpture, haute de 37 mètres et représentant deux des figures emblématiques de la marque dont la légendaire Mazda 787B victorieuse des 24 Heures du Mans 1991, a été dévoilée au public jeudi soir.

Le Festival Of Speed est aussi l’occasion pour les constructeurs de révéler de nouveaux modèles, comme la Mazda MX-5. 

On peut citer :

La présentation mondiale de l’Aston Martin DB9 GT et les débuts au Royaume-Uni de la Vantage V12

La première apparition au Royaume-Uni des nouvelles Ford Focus RS et Honda Civic Type-R

La première mondiale de la nouvelle Peugeot 308 GTI. Peugeot amènera  également son concept car, la Vision Granturismo.

Les premières outre-Manche pour les Porsche 911 GTE RS, Cayman GT4 et Boxter, de la nouvelle SEAT Ibiza, de la Clio RenaultSport Trophy, de la nouvelle MINI John Cooper Works

Les débuts européens de la Lexus GS F

Goodwood est de plus en plus « the place to be » et les constructeurs s’y bousculent : Aston Martin, BMW, Citroen, Dacia, Ferrari, Ford, Honda, Infiniti, Lexus, Maserati, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, MINI, Peugeot, Porsche, Renault, Renault Sport, Toyota.

Mercedes-Benz va présenter neuf survivantes des légendaires W196, six d’entre elles participant à la Hillclimb !  

Entre autres possibilités, les visiteurs auront accès, outre la Hillclimb, au paddock de Formule 1, au Concours d’Elégance Cartier, au paddock Michelin Supercar et à toute une série d’exhibitions, sans oublier les multiples showrooms des constructeurs… 

Last, but not least, Porsche va présenter au public de Goodwood la Porsche 919 Hybrid n°19 victorieuse des dernières 24 Heures du Mans et qui sera sans conteste une des vedettes de ce meeting prestigieux.

‘01 Harley XL1200S – Rock Solid Motorcycles

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Written by Martin Hodgson.

The custom bikes builders of Portugal are on fire of late and with the stakes constantly being raised, Rock Solid Motorcycles have shown up to the gun fight with a hand crafted weapon with its heart from the mean men of Milwaukee motorcycles, Harley Davidson! It’s an XL1200S Sportster but it could all have been very different; the customer initially arrived at the shop with a Yamaha Vmax asking what could be done to it. The Vmax never returned, but 2 months later the customer did with the only XL1200S on the market in Portugal at the time. Rock Solid could have turned out a nice tracker, scrambler or custom with the usual Harley bolt ons but this is a workshop of craftsman and only a total rebuild into a custom HD Racer would do.

The most important part of the donor bike to the guys was that it came with a healthy engine as this was largely the only aspect of the bike that would remain untouched. The air-cooled, four-stroke, 45° V-Twin measuring 1199cc is not a horsepower monster and some would dismiss it by only reading the spec sheet. Around 60hp from an engine running 9.0:1 compression seems more like a commuter engine than one you’d want in a racer.

But when you consider it produces the same torque as a fellow twin of the era, the top end Ducati’s and does it at half the RPM you’ve got an engine that is like a freight train out of the turns. To boost the horsepower figure a Mikuni HSR carburettor was fitted that also improves the throttle response. While the exhaust adds even more ponies with a beautiful custom fabricated set of headers that flow into a Supertrapp muffler.

You might be looking at the frame and starting to think it’s been heavily modified as it bears little resemblance to the stock Sportster item and the swingarm appears to be Japanese. Well you’re almost right, the reason the frame and swingarm are so different is they are completely fabricated in-house and built entirely from scratch by the Rock Solid team. This further exemplifies why horsepower is not everything and quality craftsmanship should be far more highly valued.

The standard front shocks remain, although lowered, and while small in diameter for a racer they were Showa items fitted by the factory. The rear end benefits from a twin shock setup like standard but with progressive rate springs mounted inside remote reservoir shocks.

The custom frame opened up an array of options when it came to working out the right bodywork and fairings for the bike. Harley hasn’t built a faired factory racer for a long time and while dust bin fairings are cool and a great nod to the past they aren’t at all practical. So to give a racer look the guys fitted up one of the great front fairings of all time, a 1970’s Ducati SS replica item with an offset front headlight.

Both the tank and the seat started life as Yamaha items but have been heavily hand sculpted to achieve the desired look and work with the custom frame. The whole lot is then beautifully painted in the classic Harley Davidson racing colours, with orange down the right side, black on the left and white that runs down the middle. The HD racer sports the number 35 in all the right places and an homage to the famous Isle of Man TT with the “Ny tree cassyn”, the Three legs of Man, emblem cleverly laid out on the tail.

Along with the headlight there are some other touches that make this racer a practical bike to ride. Harley switch blocks remain in place to avoid the need for small switches dotted all over the place and the Sportster factory speedo not only provides info for the track but keeps away the speeding fines on the road.

The seat is beautifully covered, slim enough for the racer look without being like a plank of wood and a small tail light hangs off the rear with a smoked lens to further hide its appearance. The rolling stock is a mixture of practical and cool, the spoked wheels were custom-made by performance legends Hagon in the UK. While the rubber comes from Guy Martin’s friends at Metzeler that combine both great handling with the right look and the ability to work well in all conditions.

If one make of motorcycle suffers from being over modified by throwing an entire catalogue of aftermarket parts at their models it’s Harley Davidson. But everything on this Sportster was built for a purpose and what wasn’t needed was thrown away. The beautifully machined and handcrafted rearsets might be just a small part on the bike but they show exactly what Rock Solid Motorcycles is all about. A design rooted in authenticity and truth and a level of workmanship that refuses to compromise, this is truly a Harley Davidson you can say is one of a kind.

via PIPEBURN