WRC Rallye Deutschland : Ein Triumph pour VW et Ogier ! / German glory for VW and Ogier!

Après deux échecs, Volkswagen Motorsport a enfin remporté son rallye national, l’ADAC Rallye Deutschland. Et de quelle manière ! L’équipe allemande a réalisé un triplé avec Sébastien Ogier, Jari-Matti Latvala et Andreas Mikkelsen. C’est un véritable triomphe pour le groupe Volkswagen avec la victoire de Jan Kopecky (Skoda) en WRC-2.

Depuis deux ans, Sébastien Ogier terminait le Rallye d’Allemagne dans les vignes ou la forêt. Cette année, le Français a totalement dominé l’épreuve, remportant 14 des 20 spéciales chronométrées (dont sept des huit le premier jour).

Au palmarès du WRC, Sébastien Ogier rejoint Marcus Grönholm à la 2^e place avec 30 victoires mondiales, et dépasse Colin McRae avec un 43^e podium. Malgré ce triomphe, Ogier devra patienter encore avant de décrocher un 3^e titre mondial.

De son côté, Volkswagen se souviendra longtemps de son 31^e succès et de son 3^e triplé 2015, décrochés ici, au Rallye d’Allemagne, dont la marque avait fait un objectif prioritaire cette année.

Sur la première épreuve asphalte de la saison 2015, les Volkswagen Polo R WRC n’ont laissé qu’un seul meilleur temps à la concurrence. Comme les Citroën DS3 WRC, Hyundai i20 WRC et Ford Fiesta RS WRC officielles, elles étaient chaussés des tout nouveaux pneumatiques Michelin Pilot Sport H5/S5 qui ont prouvé leur performance et leur longévité, notamment dans la terrible spéciale de Panzerplatte (45,61 km).

Fort de sa victoire en Finlande début août, Jari-Matti Latvala est parvenu à lutter avec Ogier en début de rallye, allant même jusqu’à prendre la tête pour 1/10^e de seconde après l’ES4. Mais il n’a pu suivre le rythme du double Champion du monde lors du 2^e jour, dans le camp militaire de Baumholder.

Andreas Mikkelsen a réalisé une course régulière et fut pratiquement assuré du podium après la petite faute de Kris Meeke (Citroën) dans l’ES5. Le Norvégien a remis un coup d’accélérateur en fin d’épreuve, car Dani Sordo (Hyundai) était revenu à 13s5.

Les deux derniers vainqueurs du Rallye d’Allemagne, Dani Sordo et Thierry Neuville (Hyundai), se sont livrés à un superbe duel pour la 4^e place. L’Espagnol a peu à peu pris l’avantage samedi.

Elfyn Evans (6^e, Ford) s’était mêlé à cette bagarre jusqu’à un problème de frein à main vendredi. Dimanche, le Gallois a remporté la seule spéciale laissée par les Volkswagen, pour prendre l’avantage sur Mads Ostbertg (7^e, Citroën). Son équipier Ott Tanak (8^e, Ford) a perdu 15 secondes (tout-droit) dans l’ES1 et n’a jamais trouvé les bons réglages sur sa Fiesta RS WRC.

Rallye difficile aussi pour le Néo-Zélandais Hayden Paddon (9^e, Hyundai) après de belles performances sur terre, et pour le Néerlandais Kevin Abbring (11^e, Hyundai). Pour ses débuts en World Rally Car, Stéphane Lefebvre conclut à une encourageante 10^e place. Robert Kubica (Ford) est sorti de la route et avait écopé de 5 minutes de pénalité avant le départ (changement de moteur).

En WRC-2, Skoda/Michelin a signé un 5^e succès mondial consécutif, le premier avec le Tchèque Jan Kopecky. Le Français Eric Camilli (2^e, Ford) a signé sa meilleure performance de la saison. Son compatriote Quentin Giordano (Citroën) complète le podium après une belle bagarre avec Nasser Al-Attiyah (Skoda) remonté de la 16^e à la 4^e place après une sortie dans l’ES1.

Esapekka Lappi (Skoda) est sorti dans l’ES2 et Craig Breen (5^e, Peugeot) a perdu sa 2^e place dans Panzerplatte (jante cassée, changement de roue). Dans cette catégorie, les partenaires de Michelin disposaient de nouveaux pneumatiques hard RH2.

After blanks in 2013 and 2014, Volkswagen Motorsport has won its home round of the WRC at last! The German team even monopolised the ADAC Rallye Deutschland’s podium celebrations with Sébastien Ogier, Jari-Matti Latvala and Andreas Mikkelsen, while Skoda’s Jan Kopecky added to the group’s success with victory in WRC2.

In 2013 and 2014, Ogier’s Rally Deutschland challenges ended up in the vines or forest. This time, though, he dominated the week with 14 stage wins from 20, including seven from eight on Day 1.

The win takes the Frenchman level with Marcus Grönholm’s score of 30 world class victories and also beats Colin McRae’s podium tally (43). He will have to wait a little longer to celebrate his third world crown, however.

Meanwhile, Volkswagen will be delighted with its 31^st WRC success and its third one-two-three finish of the season after making Rallye Deutschland a priority objective this season.

The first pure asphalt clash of 2015 saw the three Volkswagen Polo R WRC drivers relinquish just one fastest time to its rivals. Like the factory Citroën DS3 WRCs, Hyundai i20 WRCs and Ford Fiesta RS WRCs, the German machines were equipped with Michelin’s brand new Pilot Sport H5 and S5 tyres which provided eloquent evidence of their competitivity and longevity on the long Panzerplatte stage (45.61km).

Buoyed by his Rally Finland success at the beginning of the month, Latvala was a match for Ogier on Day 1. He even led – by a tenth of a second – after SS4. He failed to equal the two-time world champion’s pace, though, on Saturday which took crews to the Baumholder military ranges.

Mikkelsen’s consistency bagged third place but the Norwegian was helped in his fight for the podium when Kris Meeke (Citroën) made a small error on SS5. He was then forced to push a little harder on the final day when Hyundai’s Dani Sordo closed to within 13.5s.

The Spaniard and his team-mate Thierry Neuville entertained spectators with their exciting fight for fourth which finally tipped in favour of the former on Saturday afternoon.

Elfyn Evans (6^th, Ford) challenged the Hyundai pair until he was slowed by a handbrake problem on Friday. He fought back, however, and was the only non-VW driver to claim a stage victory in his bid to beat Mads Ostberg (7^th, Citroën). Fellow Ford driver Ott Tanak (8^th, Ford) lost 15 seconds with a straight-on on SS1 and was never happy with the set-up of his Fiesta RS WRC.

It was a hard three days for New Zealander Hayden Paddon (9^th, Hyundai) after his recent strong showings on dirt, as well as for his Dutch team-mate Kevin Abbring (11^th). World Rally Car rookie Stéphane Lefebvre steered his Citroën to a commendable 10^th spot but Robert Kubica (Ford) suffered a crash in addition to taking a five-minute penalty for an engine change before the start.

Skoda/Michelin picked up its fifth straight success in WRC2, this time with the Czech Republic’s Jan Kopecky. Frenchman Eric Camilli (2^nd, Ford) collected his best result of the year and compatriot Quentin Giordano (Citroën) reached the podium after an interesting battle with Nasser Al-Attiyah (Skoda) who fought back from 16^th following an ‘off’ on SS1 to fourth in the class.

Esapekka Lappi (Skoda) crashed on SS2 and Craig Breen (5^th, Peugeot) lost second spot after a wheel change (damaged rim) on Panzerplatte. Michelin’s WRC2 partners had the new hard-compound RH2 tyre in Germany.

RM Sotheby’s enjoys World-Record results at $172m Monterey auction

RM kicked off the multi-million-dollar auction proceedings in Monterey on Thursday, with some strong results (and a few World Records) in the Pinnacle Portfolio sale…

‘RON 54’ returns home

Ultimately, the headline results were the $17.6m paid for the Ferrari 250 LM, and the $13.75m for the ‘LM-spec’ McLaren F1 – the latter all the more desirable with its ‘Brilliant Orange’ metallic paintwork illuminated by the saleroom lights (it looked a little flat in the press shots). The 250 LM is supposedly heading back ‘home’ to England, where it will wear its familiar ‘RON 54’  UK registration plates, as it did when it was raced and driven home in period by its first owner, Ronald Fry.

SWB slightly short of reserve

Bidding on the open-headlamp LWB California Spider and the 250 SWB Competizione failed to reach the respective reserves (perhaps RM will wait a while before trying to sell another yellow comp-spec SWB?), but the internal disappointment will no doubt have been cured by World-Record prices for a Ferrari Enzo and F40 LM – the former garnering a whopping $6.05m thanks to its Papal provenance and last-example-built status, and the latter achieving $3.3m against a $2m - 2.5m estimate that we previously suggested might be a little conservative. Other lots that sailed past their high estimates included the $462,000 Jaguar XJ220, the $550,000 Porsche 993 RS 3.8, the $412,500 Dino 246 GTS, and the $495,000 McMerc SLR.

That Friday feeling

Friday’s sale saw RM clinch another World Record, this time with the $13.2m paid for the ex-Works/Ecurie Ecosse Jaguar C-type Lightweight (now the most expensive Jaguar ever sold at auction). Other strong results included $2.06m for Ghia’s stunning jet-age Jaguar, the XK120 Supersonic, almost $700,000 for the 2013 Aston Martin Centennial DB9 Spyder, and $242,000 for the ‘matching pair’ of Fiat 600s. The characterfully patinated Ferrari 275S/340 America Barchetta made $7.97m.

Saturday success

The conclusion of the three-part sale on Saturday saw the Ferrari 250 GT ‘Tour de France’ sell for a staggering $13.2m – a new World Record for the model, and almost treble the price of a similar example (albeit without the inspiratory TdF win under its bonnet-belts) at RM’s London auction less than a year ago. The impressive sum, along with the $8.5m private post-auction sale of the aforementioned Cal’ Spider, brought RM’s 2015 Monterey sale total up to $172.7m – doing things the ‘the RM way’ has paid off once again...

Please note, all results are inclusive of buyer’s premium, and do not account for all post-auction sales.

Photos: Rémi Dargegen for Classic Driver © 2015

All the news from this year's Monterey and Pebble Beach events can be found in our regularly updated overview.

Wheels & Waves 2015 by PIPEBURN

Words and images by Christian Gallagher.

I’ve wanted to go to Wheels and Waves since I first heard of it. I’ve spent half of my life around bikes but never really got into any of the scenes in the north of England – sportsbikes, full-dress Harleys, classics or streetfighters. The new custom scene hasn’t taken root here yet, so for a shed monkey like me with a preference for hands-on over wallet-out, this seemed the place to go. Aboard my rebuilt W650 tracker, I rode the 1600-mile round trip from Leeds to Biarritz with my camera gear on my back, accompanied by a mate on his much-admired Honda 400/4 café racer. Here’s the highlights.

In Biarritz there’s ostentatious wealth – personal bodyguards, limousines, neo-Gothic architecture – packed into steep, twisting streets that make navigation confusing. On this weekend, however, I need only follow the unforgiving bark of old bikes running open pipes as they echo between the close-set buildings, up and out of town toward the south and the Cité de l’Océan: the noisy, atmospheric, bike-clogged epicentre of this whole thing.

“Siga las motos, abajo, abajo”, a Spanish guy motions me up the road to a left turn from his 1940s Harley. So I take the left and follow the bikes – down, down to the beach, and there it is: the mini-Glastonbury of motorbikes. Arrival is breathtaking. Every single bike is worth checking out and they’re everywhere. They fill every pavement, verge and road around the site, as well as the main drag – lined with military tents housing specials builders, beers, burgers and bike paraphernalia.

You never forget your first

It’d be easy to consider the people here poseurs – given how cool everything is – but a closer look gives a different impression. There are dirty, well-ridden bikes featuring all kinds of homemade ingenuity (one cylindrical stainless steel headlamp casing looks suspiciously like the tin I keep teabags in) and scruffy boiler suits seem the long distance riding gear of choice. Most of these people built their bikes and rode them here. To undertake a long trip on bikes like these you’ve got to mean business and the elation felt on making it is noticeable in everyone I talk to. They’re too friendly to act cool. You can walk right up to your favourite specials builders – they’re all here – and talk design, bikes, life, whatever.

I stop at Matt Black Custom Designs, who are based near Marbella where I used to work, and get chatting to Toby, the boss: “Next time you’re down there come and see us – we can go for a ride.” By the end of the first day I’ve got a pocketful of business cards and a dozen such invitations.

This isn’t another variety of the weekend dress-up I see at home: these people are real, full-time bikers of all ages. There are faces in the crowd that have clearly seen a life of bikes, which at Wheels and Waves is exactly the point.

Rust never sleeps

Less hipster, more Hegré

See more of Christian’s work here. via PIPEBURN

Friday fancies (and not just Ferraris) at Bonhams’ 2015 Quail Lodge sale

Following up on last year’s consignment of a Ferrari 250 GTO to its Quail Lodge sale can’t have been easy – but Bonhams has made a good job of it, taking on several other collector-grade Ferraris, alongside a host of other ultra-desirable rarities…

Leading the 111-car lotlist for Bonhams’ all-day Friday auction at Quail Lodge this year is an alloy-bodied ‘Interim’ Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta Competizione, whose TdF underpinnings were graced with an elongated version of the coachwork worn by SWBs – with a debatable level of success. Regardless of whether you believe the stretch ruins what many consider to be the perfect proportionality (we actually rather like it), the car’s competition history is unquestionable. In itsCompetizione specification, it clinched third place at the 1959 Tour de France. Other notable Ferraris include a recently restored 212 Inter Cabriolet by Vignale – which finished Best-in-Class at the 2014 Pebble Beach Concours, only losing out to the eventual Best-in-Show-winning 375MM – and a GTS/4 Spider, made even rarer than most drop-top Daytonas by its European specification. Only 25 were made in this guise.

Non-Maranello millionaires

It’s not only a handful of Ferraris from the lotlist that are set to fetch seven-figure sums: there’s a1953 Fiat 8V Supersonic (estimate: $1.8m - $2.4m) that was shown at the Pebble Beach Concours when it was just four years old; a Lancia Aurelia B24S Spider America (estimate: $1.8m - $2.4m); and a Siata 208S. Others whose estimates bracket the magical million-dollar mark include a Bugatti Type 29/30 – claimed to be one of two remaining, effectively making it the oldest surviving 8-cylinder two-seater sports Bugatti – along with one of the four C4R Continuations blessed by the Cunningham family, and Lamborghini Miura P400. There’s also a sub-5,000-mile Porsche 959 Komfort up for $1m - $1.3m, but the car is only likely to appeal to U.S-residing enthusiasts: the five-year ‘Federalisation’ project undertaken by Canepa Designs saw it lose its pioneering adjustable-height suspension system, and some of its originality (and character?) in the process.

More air miles than road miles?

The relatively untravelled 959 is joined by several other contemporaries, whose odometer readings are perhaps a little closer to the sweet spot of ‘low, but not too low’. These include a trio of collectable BMWs – a 10,700-mile E30 M3, an 11,200-mile M1, and a 13,000-mile Z8 – as well as a9,250-mile Mercedes 560SL from 1987, and a 1979 Ferrari 308 GTB showing a shade over 23,000 miles. Notable ‘millennials’ include the one-off 2004 Aston Martin Vanquish bodied by Zagato, and a Ferrari 575M Superamerica (both showing around 13,000 miles if you were wondering). However, it’s a much earlier rarity that’s our collective favourite from the catalogue: the 1949 Veritas Scorpion Cabriolet, which was based on BMW 328 underpinnings, but updated with post-War mechanicals and stunning coachwork by Spohn. We’re not alone, either; it was entered in the 1992 Pebble Beach Concours, where it placed third in class.

Last but by no means least, there’s the 1948 2-litre Aston Martin that we rediscovered in 2013, ahead of its appearance at Villa d’Este later that year. It was the very car that clinched the win for the Works team at the 1948 24 Hours of Spa and, despite David Brown’s intentions of creating a production run in its honour, it ultimately remained a one-off.

Photos: Bonhams

You can find the full lotlist for Bonhams’ 2015 Quail Lodge auction in the Classic Driver Market.