ERC ; Lukyanuk remporte le Rallye d’Estonie auto24 / Lukyanuk wins auto24 Rally Estonia

Alexey Lukyanuk a remporté le Rallye d’Estonie auto24, 6e épreuve du Championnat d’Europe FIA des Rallyes.

Le pilote Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X termine avec 12,7 secondes d’avance sur son plus proche poursuivant, Kajetan Kajetanowicz (LOTOS Rally Team Ford Fiesta R5) après une excitante bagarre.

« C’est un sentiment incroyable, a déclaré Lukyanuk. Jusqu’à la dernière minute je ne voulais pas penser à la victoire. Nous avons failli partir en tonneaux dans le dernier virage – la voiture s’est retrouvée sur deux roues pendant un moment qui m’a paru très long ! Nous nous sommes bien battus face à Kajto et je suis désolé de voir Craig abandonner aussi près de l’arrivée. Je voudrais juste remercier mon team pour le travail fantastique qu’ils ont fait. »

Craig Breen pourrait perdre la tête du Championnat d’Europe FIA des Rallyes suite à son abandon dans l’avant dernière spéciale du Rallye d’Estonie auto24.

Le pilote de la Peugeot Rally Academy était installé à la 4^e place –tout près du 3^e– lorsque sa 208 T16 s’est mise à perdre de l’huile.

Si ça restait ainsi, Breen quitterait ainsi l’Estonie avec 128 points tandis que le compteur de Kajetan Kajetanowicz (LOTOS Rally Team Ford Fiesta R5) afficherait lui 133 points… sous réserve de confirmation bien sur.

« Un peu avant la fin de l’ES14, la pression de l’huile a soudainement chuté. Quelque chose a dû se passer au niveau du moteur et nous n’avons pas pu résoudre ce problème, a déclaré Breen. Nous aurions pu poursuivre encore un peu mais on aurait abîmé toute la mécanique. »

« Nous aurions pu finir 3^e derrière Kajto. Ca aurait été bien dans l’optique du championnat. Après trois victoires, je n’étais pas si inquiet avec ce retrait à Ypres mais ici, c’est différent. Nous devons nous ressaisir à Barum. »

Alexey Lukyanuk has won round six of the FIA European Rally Championship, auto24 Rally Estonia.

The Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X driver has finished 12.7 seconds ahead of second-placed Kajetan Kajetanowicz (LOTOS Rally Team Ford Fiesta R5), after an incredible close and exciting battle.

“It’s an amazing feeling,” said Lukyanuk. “Until the last moments, we didn’t want to think about winning. We almost rolled on the last corner – the car was on two wheels for a long time! We had a crazy battle with Kajto and I was very sorry to see Craig [Breen] retired so close to the finish. I just want to thank my team so much for a fantastic job.”

Craig Breen’s fight for the FIA European Rally Championship title is still very much on, despite an unlucky retirement on the penultimate stage of auto24 Rally Estonia.

The Peugeot Rally Academy driver was lying fourth, and closing in on third, when he lost oil pressure in his 208 T16.

Breen is likely to leave Estonia with 128 points, while Kajetan Kajetanowicz (LOTOS Rally Team Ford Fiesta R5) will have 133 points – subject to final points calculations after the event.

“Towards the end of SS14, we started to lose oil pressure – something’s happened inside the engine and there is nothing we can do about it,” said Breen. “We could have driven on for a bit, but it would have destroyed itself.

“We could have finished third behind Kajto, which would have been good for the championship. After three wins, I wasn’t so disheartened with our retirement in Ypres, but here is different. We have to regroup for Barum.”

Here For Your Soul - The Devil’s Own Tow Truck

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Bryn Musselwhite

Imagine you’re the Devil. Keeping all those badasses in line that have descended through the gates of hell is hard work. Now imagine how annoying it would be when occasionally one of them breaks out of purgatory and returns to walk among the living? Now that’s just plain bad for business. You’re the original sinner, right? Something has to be done. People need to know who’s the boss…

What’s needed here is a mercenary who can go and catch those errant souls and return them for an eternity of lockdown. What would he drive? Only the baddest, toughest tow truck known to man, woman or beast. A vehicle that would make Chuck Norris quake as it pulls up.

Which is exactly what I found in Finland last summer. Whilst driving back  to the UK in a Mk1 Cortina I’d bought, I stopped in for some Friday night cruising in downtown Helsinki. There I stood wide-eyed, while the amazing atmosphere of a couple of hundred like-minded gearheads was shattered as this Chevy-cabbed creation rolled into view.

I say shattered because that’s exactly what it did. There are strict laws in Finland when it comes to modifying cars, but older commercial vehicles? Well it’s almost a free rein when it comes to those, which is why you may have noticed the alloy radiator dominating the front end view of the six-wheeler. Peering inside, I catch sight of the AutoMeter gauges as the waft of methanol lingered in the slow summer evening air.

Glancing up at the row of battered and dusty sunglasses gave me the idea that this would be the perfect vehicle for collecting souls – as though they’d been left there as trophies.

I managed to convince the owner it would be a good idea to meet up over the weekend so I could take a closer look. Amazingly, the truck has been finished for nearly three years and he’s never let anybody shoot it before. I’m not sure quite what swung it for me, but I’m sure glad he agreed. The cab had sat around for ten or fifteen years – hence the weathered look – and those four rear wheels are full-size lorry items. Just check out the clearance on the front pair! The virtually non-existent rear suspension means rubbing isn’t an issue.

There are old oil cans and a box of bits on the back, but what’s obvious is that none of this is contrived. Far from it – this is the real deal. The owner has been been and done it, raced it and blown it up. This is how he’s lived his life for a long time and there’s no reason to change now because somebody came along and gave it a label.

There’s only one area I’m not allowed to show you and that’s under the bonnet. Normally this would mean a no-go for me and I wouldn’t have pursued a shoot, but really? Look at this thing. How could I walk away? The owner waited until I didn’t have a camera anywhere near me and briefly lifted the bonnet. I can assure you this thing is the real deal. A blown methanol big block? Rumours have it over 1000hp is on tap.

So instead of showing you the engine, as our driver went to leave I shot a short video.

Because there are souls out there that need collecting. Adios.

Bryn Musselwhite

Will the McLaren F1 ever be surpassed?

Conceived during an off-the-cuff conversation between Ron Dennis, Gordon Murray, Creighton Brown and Mansour Ojjeh while waiting at Milan airport in 1988, the McLaren F1 was (and quite possibly always will be) the ultimate, zero-compromise driver’s car…

Driver-centric

The McLaren F1 is special for myriad reasons, not least for the fact that it was the world’s first carbon-composite production car. From the outset, the driver was at the forefront of the design process, with almost every part rigorously thought out, and produced in-house to Dennis’s near-obsessive standards. The beautifully finished cabin, in particular, is the work of genius, with everything that you need– space, air-conditioning, satellite navigation and a CD-changer, for example – and nothing that you don’t. It was this thought process that made the F1 so versatile; as at home on a cross-continental road-trip, as pounding around a racetrack. 

Bonus brake horsepower

With this in mind, outright speed and performance were never the key factors in the early days of the project. But when Murray heard that Paul Rosche’s new, naturally aspirated BMW V12 was producing 627bhp, some 75bhp more than what had been specified, he quickly forgave the fact that it was 16kg overweight – ultimately, the speed was just a bonus. Revealed for the first time at the Sporting Club in Monaco during the 1992 Formula 1 Grand Prix weekend, its worldwide reception was said to be ‘simply ecstatic’, and perhaps inevitably, prices have been creeping up ever since. 

That personal touch

The dark tangerine-coloured car presented here – chassis 073 – was the 63rd F1 built, and is one of just two road cars fitted with the 691bhp engine from the LM, a special road-going version of the race-going GTR, built by McLaren to commemorate its 1995 Le Mans victory. Additionally, it has the GTR-inspired High-Downforce Kit (with extra louvres atop the front wheel arches and a Gurney flap at the rear), and a number of unique touches such as black dials (complete with engraved chassis number) and forged multi-spoke OZ wheels. What’s more, Gordon Murray himself has hand-signed the exposed tub in the cabin – a mastermind’s seal of approval, if you will.

Delivering the best of both race and road F1 variants, #073 will be offered by RM Sotheby’s as part of The Pinnacle Portfolio at its Monterey sale on 13 August 2015 – a rare opportunity to own what is commonly considered the holy grail of modern motoring...

Photos: Darin Schnabel courtesy of RM Sotheby's © 2015.

You can find the full catalogue for RM Sotheby's Monterey Sale listed in the Classic Driver Market. 

Make the most of your time off with Weekend Heroes

Been up to much this weekend? After watching this beautifully shot short film from Weekend Heroes, featuring two 1980s Bavarian legends, we suspect you might steal one last drive before Monday morning arrives...

Weekend Heroes - BMW M1 / ALPINA B7 from Weekend Heroes on Vimeo.