I’m a big fan of keeping it simple when it comes to color schemes. Orange for a Laverda, black for a Vincent, yellow for a Yamaha. But this funky Ducati 900 SS from Walt Siegl is an absolute treat.
Siegl is quite rightly getting noticed by some big names, and this machine was commissioned by the German multinational Puma—which has a strong connection with motorsport, and sponsors the Ducati MotoGP team. But it’s no trailer queen. “In my search for a good donor, I came across a BCM Ducati that I’d seen on a racetrack,” Walt reports. “It’d been through the hands of Bruce Meyers, so I snatched it up instantly.”
Meyers is a legend in Ducati circles, and his dealership BCM was home to one of the best racebike preparation workshops in the States. “The bike started its life as a 1993 SS,” Walt says, “and it was turned into a racer three years before I bought it. Race bikes have it hard, and only the engine turned out to be salvageable. Even so, it just needed new pistons, valves and belts.”
The motor is a 989 cc big-bore “fully blue-printed torque monster,” with 41mm flat slide Keihins on custom manifolds. Walt built a lightweight chrome moly frame around it, and installed Showa suspension. The brakes are operated by high-end Magura controls, acting on Brembo Serie Oro calipers and lightweight rotors.
Walt crafted the bodywork in his New Hampshire workshop, using structural urethane that he also painted “to get a better visual.” Once he was happy with the mockup, he had the bodywork scanned and molds machined. The parts were then recreated in kevlar-carbon—an expensive, labor-intensive process that guarantees a perfect fit and finish. “You can hide lots of shortcomings by filling in imperfections with Bondo, but that won’t get you a lightweight, high-end, high-performance result.”
The exhaust is a custom stainless steel unit with an Italian Mivv muffler. The electrical system is minimal, as usual on Walt’s bikes, and built around a Motogadget m-Unit to get rid of all the relays.
For now, this 900 SS has pride of place at the Puma International office in Boston. But probably not for long: “I hope that one day someone will be willing to use it to its full potential,” says Walt. “Believe me, that thing goes like snot. And makes your hair stand up, it sounds so good.”
Retrouvez les pilotes de la Monsters Race 2013, un championnat de gros cubes qui mixe différentes disciplines telles que la vitesse, les départs arrêtés et l'endurance...
Bonhams has announced a significant early entry to its 2014 Scottsdale sale, in the form of a rare racing Ferrari. One of four 212 Export Touring Berlinettas, the 1951 model is better known as ‘The Tailor’s Car’, having been delivered new to fashion designer Augusto Caraceni…
Augusto – son of Domenico Caraceni, who founded the eponymous fashion house – was a keen racing driver. When he needed a car in which to compete in the 1951 Stella Alpina, the sartorial sage selected this sports-racing Ferrari. As well as being clothed in svelte Touring coachwork (it was the coachbuilder’s first closed Ferrari), the 212 Export Touring Berlinetta was powered by a tuned version of the Colombo engine, and had Plexiglass windows and a sparse interior to save weight.
This was not the first time Caraceni dealt with the automotive elite: Enzo Ferrari and Gianni Agnelli were both known to wear tailored Caraceni suits, as were Gary Cooper, Aristotle Onassis, Prince Rainier of Monaco and Yves St. Laurent.
Photos: Bonhams
Further information about Bonhams' Scottsdale auction can be found at bonhams.com.
Bisimoto Engineering Genesis Coupe features 1000 bhp (745 kW)
Hyundai has released a new promotional video that teases four cars headed to SEMA.
The Bisimoto Engineering Genesis Coupe is billed as an "no-holds-barred racer" and features a 3.8-liter Lambda V6 engine which has been equipped with twin Turbonetics turbochargers, steel connecting rods, Arias forged pistons, upgraded fuel injectors and a Magnafuel 750 fuel pump. These changes enable the engine to produce an impressive 1000 bhp (745 kW).
The ARK Performance Genesis Coupe is less extreme but has a 3.8-liter Lambda V6 engine which has been bored out to displace 4.0-liters. The engine has also been equipped with a 4.0-liter Stroker Kit, a lightweight pulley kit, new headers and an ARK air intake. This allows the mill to produce 400 bhp (298 kW) and 425 lb-ft (575 Nm) of torque.
John Pangilinan's Genesis Coupe is more "cost-effective" as it has modest upgrades including an AEM cold air intake, an ARK Performance exhaust and a turbo downpipe. The car also has a KW coilover suspension, Brembo brakes, Whiteline sway bars and an ARK Performance strut bar.
Last but not least, the Yellowcake Veloster Turbo was jointly developed with the EGR Group. It has a turbocharged 1.6-liter four-cylinder engine which been outfitted with an AEM intake, a MagnaFlow exhaust and "tuning" from Bisimoto Engineering. Thanks to these modifications, the engine develops 250 bhp (186 kW).
Although the Australian was pleased that rain did not affect proceedings as had been the case with previous test sessions at Motegi earlier this year, Stoner was unable to test the Honda Production Racer which instead was run by Takumi Takahashi.
“It’s been quite a good three days and we got a lot of track time, considering it gets dark and cold here quite quickly!” Stoner reported.
“We had a busy test schedule based on the current 2013 bike and an updated version of the 2014 bike. Both have some very positive aspects and we’re just trying to get a better understanding of them. It was a little tricky to get a true feeling here at Sugo as we had no comparison - with it being the first time we’ve ridden here. All in all, it was a good test and the first time we’ve not been interrupted by rain!”
The Sugo venue is located in the Shibata District of Japan’s Miyagi Prefecture, measuring 3.737 kilometres (2.323 miles) in length.
L’Australien a cette fois-ci profité de bonnes conditions météo et la pluie n’a fait son apparition que le troisième jour, après midi, une fois que les essais étaient terminés.
Long de 3.737 km, le circuit de Sugo a permis à Casey Stoner de travailler sur les versions 2013 et 2014 de la RC213V ainsi que sur un nouveau cadre et un nouveau moteur. L’ancien Champion du Monde MotoGP™ n’a pas contre pas eu le temps d’essayer la Honda Production Racer, qui avait donc été confiée à Takumi Takahashi.
Casey Stoner :
« Ce furent trois bonnes journées et nous avons eu beaucoup de temps en piste alors que ça devient vite sombre et froid ici ! Nous avions un programme chargé pour la moto de 2013 et une nouvelle version de celle de 2014. Les deux ont des aspects positifs et nous essayons simplement de mieux les cerner. C’était difficile de vraiment trouver le feeling ici à Sugo parce que nous n’avions rien pour comparer, c’était la première fois que nous roulions ici. Globalement le test a été positif et c’était la première fois que nous n’avons pas été interrompus par la pluie. »
Drogo Michie wanted a bike for the streets of London, and chose a stock 1978 YamahaXS650 as his starting point. “There’s no reinventing the wheel here, nor a huge amount of bespoke fabrication,” he says. “My three lovely children’s habit of eating most of my money ensured that!”
He took the bike to the Redmax Speed Shop, and got a chopped and rebuilt rear end, a Champion seat, a Trackmaster tank and an inverted Sparto rear light—plus a fork brace, powder coating, and Koni rear shocks. The lovely pipes are from Co-built, and have removable baffles. “My left thigh is currently in delicate negotiation with the rest of my body about whether the pipes need a heat shield,” says Drogo.
The paint is inspired by a mid 70s BSA flat tracker, and was done by Kevin Hooper—who normally specializes in vintage Jaguars and Aston Martins. Despite the bike being designed for urban side streets, Drogo will be flat track racing in the UK novice class this year, under the wing of Redmax, Sideburn and Skootafarm Racing. “I have two clear goals,” he says. “One: not to crash; and two: not to come last every race!”
Numbers can say a lot, so here are some. 1,400 horsepower. 1,160Nm of torque. Zero to 100kph in 3.1 seconds. Zero to 200kph in 6.8 seconds. Zero to 300kph in 13 seconds. A top speed of 437kph – that’s a breathtaking 271.54mph. It’s the 24th fastest car in the world to 60mph, has the fourth best performance to weight ratio and is currently the fourth fastest car ever. The 9ff GT9 Vmax presents a veritable table of numbers and raw data, a physics-defying equation of how to bend time and space. I could stop the feature here: is there actually much more to say?
Well, as ever, it’s the way that you achieve those numbers that makes the difference. The how is one question. The why is quite another. 9ff have the answers to both.
This video says a lot about the GT9 Vmax. It’s the ideal visual representation of what those numbers mean when applied in extremis to a brutal road car. It’s not that the car in the video is particularly powerful itself, more that it’s doing over 100mph – a not inconsiderable speed in most legal circumstances – and the 9ff breezes past like it was going backwards, at well over twice that speed. Pretty much on tick over. With a metaphorical arm out of the window. Whistling nonchalantly.
Last month we took a tour around the 9ff factory, courtesy of company founder Jan Fatthauer – here’s a man for whom the word ‘fast’ is a moving target. Going fast one day just means wanting to go even faster the next. It seems like he’s provoking players who should outgun 9ff in every sense – the Bugattis, Paganis, Koenigseggs and so on – and taunting them to do better. And when they do, he just raises the bar again.
The GT9 Vmax was the most recent taunt, the two fingers stuck up to the competition for 2012.
All the cars in the 9ff workshop were special creations, but the two complete GT9s on show were particularly spectacular. We’ve already taken a look at the GT9 Club Sport, seen here in the background, but that’s a pussycat compared to the Vmax. After all, it only has 750hp!
The GT9 Vmax was unveiled at the 2012 Essen Motor Show, where it made everything else look silly. Building on the previous GT9s – a limited edition, bespoke programme of individually tailored, turbocharged monsters – the Vmax was the ultimate iteration of the line. Jan’s dream was to make the fastest production car in the world – and he’s one of the very few people who can legitimately say they’ve laid claim to that title at one stage or another.
The menu available to choose from when you decide to purchase a GT9 allows a number of routes to be taken depending on what you want to do with your toy. Country roads, city commutes, occasional track days, all-out time attack weapon – or the quickest car on the planet?
In context, all GT9Rs are powerful, but there was a singular concept behind the Vmax: take all the highest spec, speed-orientated options and refine them to build the quickest ever machine in a straight line. Buy this, and people will be ripping down their shots of sluggish Veyrons and putting up a picture of your car on the wall – your car.
Corners aren’t an issue. Of course, yes, it steers and goes round bends, but the Club Sport would likely run rings around the Vmax if they were ever pitted against each other on a track. But that’s a spurious argument: it’s like asking why a puma isn’t very good at flying.
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Starting on the outside, everything has been done to lighten, smooth and streamline. All the panels except for the bonnet are carbon fibre, with the weave visible on certain panels – after all, paint has weight. Overall it has a retro stealth-fighter style.
Showing that the GT9 platform was a fine starting point, the main body difference with the Vmax is the redesigned rear section.
The open rear of earlier GT9 cars was replaced with this sculptural, curving tail with lip spoiler, with the body’s aero refined in the Audi wind tunnel to bring the drag coefficient down to 0.265.
The unfussy body shape is balanced but the underfloor aero: a flat bottom with integrated rear diffuser. Drag is the enemy, so any extraneous wings are not just unnecessary but unwanted.
Combined with the wheel covers, I think it gives the Vmax rather a retro look, almost like the speed record cars of the ’30s.
The wheels are all-important. Their weight is a big factor of course, being unsprung mass, but at the speeds the Vmax travels at, strength is critical. They’ve been specially designed and constructed for the Vmax for maximum aero efficiency; the rims are a solid-looking 9″×19″ at the front.
At the rear, 12.5″×20″. I do like that the rear wheel fairings sport an illustrated version of the physical design used up front. Kind of Death Star style, which seems appropriate. This is, after all, the Dark Father of the GT9 lineage.
The rubber is a bespoke high-speed compound from Continental: 255/35 ZR19 at the front and 335/30 ZR20 at the rear.
The cockpit interior is spartan, but perhaps less so than you’d expect: the flocked dash gives it a racing car feel, but it’s not all bare metal and roll cage. It could almost be described as comfortable! The back and side windows are made from makrolon, which is a lightweight, high tech polycarbonate, and the windscreen from double safety glass with E-homologation.
Like the exterior, the driving controls are minimal, with just what’s necessary presented in clear line of sight. The Vmax’s sequential six-speed gearbox is controlled from the steering wheel-mounted shift paddles, and the dash readout is a MOTEC unit. A pure sequential is unusual for 9ff, with frequent rebuilds expected: though of course the Vmax is not expected to play the part of daily driver.
The GT9 Vmax has a curb weight of 1,340kg: not the smallest number in the world, but this is a car that needs to be solid. Cooling is a major issue, with air to air intercoolers and big gearbox coolers in use.
Everything on the outside is there to manage what’s on the inside, and that’s a flat six 4.2-litre Porsche boxer engine fed by twin turbos. Engineered and hand-built by Jan, it’s an impressive piece of kit, with titanium connecting rods, heavyweight forged pistons and many bespoke parts fabricated in-house to maximise the unit’s potential. It uses large double injectors, which required a lot of specialist welding work on the intake manifolds.
This being 9ff, it’s the Garrett turbos that sit on either side of the engine that do the heavy lifting, with ballbearing internals minimising internal friction, cast housings and bespoke size billet wheels. The turbos themselves are big but not enormous, with a boost pressure of 2 bar. This means they deliver maximum power at 7,950rpm and maximum torque at 5,600 rpm.
Looking at the rear compartment, there’s little difference between this and a pure-bred race car. With the engine mid-mounted, all the ancillaries are tucked down low for optimal centre of gravity, and the structural cross-brace providing maximum torsional stiffness.
The rear suspension uses inboard coilovers to keep the car planted in the face of the buffeting air flow at high speeds.
Bilstein dampers were specially fabricated for the build. Jan has experimented with JRZ and H&R on previous projects, but settled on Bilstein’s solution as the optimal route for this speed king.
The Vmax was originally advertised for a bargain €540,000 at the Essen show: the neat equivalent of about one thousand pounds sterling for each kilometre per hour. Compared to a Veyron, that’s pretty much a bargain, and with a 9ff you get considerably less bling and rather more bang for your buck. The car recently sold for far more than that; just after my visit, the Vmax was due to be shipped off to its new owner in the Low Countries. Jan was pleased to report that the car would very much be active: he was never going to sell to someone who would reduce this numbers-busting icon to display status.
So, with the Vmax gone, is that the end of 9ff’s hypercar provocation? The twinkle in Jan’s eye says that’s very, very unlikely…
This Yamaha Virago 750 is not your average looking custom build, with a whole host of unique ideas and parts from interesting sources, all showing a great imagination as well as solid building skills.
The bike’s creator and owner, Wojtek, spends mots of his time in the garage and since this build he’s had enough inquiries about various components and parts for him to seriously thinking about setting up shop, but either way, building more bikes is definitely on the agenda.
The build started over a year ago when Wojtek sold his previous bike, and SV1000, as he wanted something completely unique. He went through all the usual magazines, blogs and websites looking for inspiration but he was already forming an idea of what he wanted.
The plan was to mix a few styles, using a lot of raw metals, like copper, brass, aluminium and stainless steel, to give an old motorcycle feel, but there was clearly a post-modern influence too.
Most of the bike was built by hand, from the exhaust and silencers to the front and rear lights, as well as modifications to the frame to accommodate the front end from a TL, swingarm from an NTV and rear shock from an R6. There’s also been a healthy weight loss of around 40kg, about the same weight as a petite girlfriend.
The fuel tank was modified, as were the footrests, plus a new airbox and the brake and clutch levers were reversed (we don’t know why either). There is also a single-sided plate holder and plenty of other details apparent from these photos, but this bike isn’t about a parts list, it’s really all about that silhouette with those extended headlamps and the clean rear end.
It took five months to build and Wojtek is very happy with the bike, which he has named Cyclops, (which doesn’t really need any explanation). It was built to ride around town but he’s found himself on much longer trips, a few at over 400km, so we can assume it’s comfy too. Thanks for sharing Wojtek.
Suzuki has revealed three concepts which will be showcased next month at the 2013 Tokyo Motor Show in Japan.
First up is the red Crosshiker compact crossover which is described as an alternative to the 2011 Regina conceptshown at the same venue. It has the size of a compact car in a body that weighs just 810 kg (1,785 lbs) with power coming from a new three-cylinder, 1.0-liter engine.
The silver X-LANDER concept rides on the Jimny platform and has a four-wheel drive system while under the hood it gets a 1.3-liter engine linked to a newly developed automatically-controlled manual gearbox. The concept is actually a hybrid as it features an electric motor built onto the four-wheel drive system.
Lastly, the orange HUSTLER concept is a crossover which fits in the minicar segment and was designed for those who love sports and the outdoors. Suzuki plans on showcasing the concept also as a more stylish coupe but with the same "roomy, comfortable, and useful interior."
Full details about other Suzuki products to be shown at Tokyo Motor Show can be found in the attached press release.
I know a lot of people will hate on this as always happens with electric bikes, but besides from the price and the range I see mainly positives in the development of battery powered bikes. They are super fun to ride, and if they can sort out the battery technology, the charging infrastructure and where all the energy will come from to charge them I see a place for them in the future. Either that or it’s all out mad max!:
As compared to their gasoline counterparts, electric motors have near-instant torque and linear power delivery, both important qualities when pushing a motorcycle to the limits of grip. Motherboard recently got to see just how effective the electric RS could be when we were given a demo by a former pro racer around a private race track in upstate New York.
Given the slow growth of the electric vehicle market and resultant charging infrastructure—it’s about as straightforward a chicken-egg scenario as one can get—can high-end electric vehicles break the stalemate? That’s been Tesla’s plan, with a goal of not just building electric cars, but better cars. Mission’s plan is similar—build the best electric bike possible, and those that can afford it won’t have to worry about compromises. For EV builders, it’s important to prove to the market that electric vehicles can compete, something the RS does well. But the huge question is when the technology will trickle down to cheaper models and more potential buyers.
