Enduro Tour - Albania Off-Road

An Amazing Weekend across the Albanian Mountains. The best enduro trails around Tirana. 
Next departure Sep-10th-2015 http://www.macedoniaadventures.com/in...

Taste of Dakar - The Ride of My Life

"Taste of Dakar" is the third installment of “The Ride Of My Life” series and was chosen as one of the "Best of the Web" and featured on the nationally syndicated TV show, Right This Minute. This 50-minute video explores the world of adventure motorcycle riding featuring Jimmy Lewis’s off-road riding school and the Altrider “Taste of Dakar 2014”. 

FIA WEC 6 Heures du Nurburgring 2015 ; Vingt voitures en tests sur le « Ring » / 20 cars for Nürburgring test

A un mois de la reprise du championnat FIA WEC, 20 voitures sont attendues sur le circuit du Nürburgring (Allemagne) lundi et mardi prochains pour une séance d’essais organisée par Toyota Racing.

L’équipe Championne du monde d’Endurance en titre étant basée à Cologne, elle jouera quasiment à domicile pour la 4^e manche du championnat FIA WEC (30 août), les 6 Heures du Nürburgring. Pour préparer ce rendez-vous, Toyota Racing a organisé deux jours de roulage sur le circuit de l’Eifel les 27 et 28 juillet. La seconde journée sera ouverte au public.

Outre une Toyota TS040 Hybrid confiée à Anthony Davidson et Sébastien Buemi, Porsche Team sera présent avec une 919 Hybrid pour Timo Bernhard, Romain Dumas, Brendon Hartley et Marc Lieb. Audi Sport Team Joest a prévu de faire rouler une R18 e-tron quattro pour André Lotterer, Benoît Tréluyer, Lucas di Grassi et Loïc Duval.

Pas de Nissan Motorsports ni de Rebellion Racing, mais le Team ByKolles devrait en être avec une CLM P1/01. Six prototypes LM P2 sont également attendus : Strakka Racing étrennera sa Gibson-Nissan. G-Drive Racing, KCMG, Team Sard-Morand et Extreme Speed Motorsports seront de la partie.

Porsche Team Manthey, AF Corse et Aston Martin Racing participeront à ces essais en catégorie LM GTE Pro, alors que 5 véhicules sont attendus en LM GTE Am, dont la Porsche de Patrick Dempsey.

33 voitures figurent sur la listes des engagés des 6 Heures du Nürburgring après le retrait du prototype LM P2 N°35 OAK Racing. Le départ sera donné dimanche 30 août à 13h00.

With a month to go before FIA WEC action resumes at the Nürburgring at the end of August, 20 cars are expected to attend the test organised by Toyota Racing at the German circuit next Monday and Tuesday.

The FIA World Endurance Championship’s reigning champion is based in Cologne, so the 6 Hours of the Nürburgring on August 30 will practically be home soil for Toyota Racing which has booked the track for two days of testing on July 27-28. Tuesday’s run will be open to the public.

In addition to a single Toyota TS040 Hybrid in the hands of Anthony Davidson and Sébastien Buemi, Porsche Team will also be present with a 919 Hybrid for Timo Bernhard, Brendon Hartley, Romain Dumas and Marc Lieb, while Audi Sport Team Joest has planned to take an R18 e-tron quattro for André Lotterer, Benoît Tréluyer, Lucas di Grassi and Loïc Duval.

Neither Nissan Motorsports nor Rebellion Racing will be at the ‘Green Hell’, but Team ByKolles is expected to bring a CLM P1/01.

Six LM P2 teams are also listed: Strakka Racing (which will have its new Gibson-Nissan prototype, G-Drive Racing, KCMG, Team Sard-Morand and Extreme Speed Motorsports.

Porsche Team Manthey, AF Corse and Aston Martin Racing will all put their respective LM GTE Pro challengers through their paces, and five LM GTE Am teams – including Patrick Dempsey’s Porsche – will attend.

The entry list for the 6 Hours of the Nürburgring features 33 cars following the withdrawal of OAK Racing’s N°35 LM P2 prototype. The race will start at 1pm on Sunday, August 30.

Rockefeller - The rise of an American dynasty

As a young man, John D. Rockefeller, born 1839, decided on two goals: to live to be 100, and to earn $100,000. The first, he didn’t quite make – he was a mere 97 when he died. But as for the second… well, on his death in 1937, John D. had amassed the equivalent of $336 billion in today’s money...

A name synonymous with vast wealth 

Bentleys have never been cheap to run – but when you’re called John D. Rockefeller, the cost of fuel is unlikely to cause a problem. It was actually John D. Junior who originally owned the 1958 S1 Drophead featured elsewhere in this issue, but it was his father, John D. Senior, who largely established the family fortunes that still make the name ‘Rockefeller’ synonymous with vast wealth almost 80 years after his death.

Black gold

John D. Senior was born in 1839 to Bill Rockefeller – appropriately enough in a town called Richford, New York. Bill was essentially a ne’er do well who lived a vagabond existence, abandoning his wife, Eliza, and John’s five siblings for extended periods, in order to roam the country conning people out of money, often in the role of quack doctor.

Despite his father’s long absences, John D. enjoyed a relatively steady upbringing and proved a studious child with an interest in numbers and a degree of ambition that led him to establish two particular goals: to live to 100, and to earn $100,000. Little could he have known that when he co-founded the Standard Oil Company of Cleveland, Ohio, in 1868 along with his younger brother William, he was setting himself on the road to becoming the wealthiest man in history, bar none. As demand for the ‘black gold’ soared, so did the Rockefeller wealth – and, by the time he died in 1937, John D. had long surpassed that $100,000 target and amassed the equivalent of a staggering $336 billion in today’s money.

To put that into perspective, Bill Gates is currently the world’s richest man – but his worth amounts to a mere $79 billion.

Not a bad life, really...

John D. Senior’s life was not, however, all work and no play. He retired in his late 50s and spent the final 40 years of his life enjoying the trappings of success, notably through a string of remarkable properties such as Kykuit, the six-storey home he built on the vast Westchester County estate; the 100-room holiday home called The Eyrie on Maine’s Mount Desert Island; and a large mansion on West 54th Street, which was razed soon after his death. (The site is now occupied by the Museum of Modern Art which, incidentally, was co-founded by his granddaughter, Abby Rockefeller.)

But the tycoon’s true legacy is best reflected in his remarkable philanthropy that saw him give away more than $1 billion to worthy causes, ranging from medical research to education (he formed, for example, the University of Chicago and tirelessly supported all eight colleges of the Ivy League).

One can only wonder whether or not he regarded his ‘premature’ death as a failure. He checked out at 97, three years earlier than he had hoped – but it wasn’t really a bad life, was it?

Family business

And neither was the legacy he left behind, since the extended Rockefeller family (that runs to around 200 members) is now said to be worth around $10 billion. And many have made their mark on the world, too.

John D. Junior, the original owner of the aforementioned Bentley S1, built a rather well-known New York landmark called the Rockefeller Center comprising 19 commercial skyscrapers in Manhattan. Then there is David Rockefeller who, on his own merits (with perhaps a little leg-up from the family connections), became the CEO of Chase National Bank and built himself a fortune said to be in the realm of $3 billion.

'Rockefeller' takes some beating

Meanwhile, David’s brother, the late Nelson Rockefeller, served as America’s Vice President during the tenure of Gerald Ford, while another brother, Winthrop, became the Governor of Arkansas. His son, Withrop Paul, served as the state’s Lieutenant Governor until his death as the result of a blood disorder in 2006, aged 57.

Nowadays the family is no longer in even the ‘top 20’ on the respected Forbes list of wealthiest Americans – yet when it comes to having a name that carries serious currency, ‘Rockefeller’ still takes some beating.

 

Photos: Getty Images / Rex Features / Bonhams / Mick Hales - Historic Hudson Valley / The Rockefeller Archive Center