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Kawasaki Z1100 ST Shaft by Maccomotors

September 13, 2013, 9:00 am
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Picked up for cheap from a neighbour because it wouldn’t run, the big Kwaka’s motor was stripped down and found to have valve issues. At this point it was decided to completely rebuild the engine, and adapt the exhaust to run a set of pipes from a Kawasaki Zephyr 1100, ending in MIVV exhaust silencers. The factory aircleaner has been ditched for a set of Meiwa pod filters, giving the inframe a nice clean look.

For looks, Maccomotors has gone for mix of street tracker and café racer styling. The brothers decided to run with the lines of the fuel tank, a Maccomotors leather seat following the tank’s curves beautifully but kicking up towards the rear of the bike. The rear frame has been cut down to accommodate the custom seat, a Texas tail light fitted, and a set of SHIN-YO cateye indicators flanking the rearend. Inhouse fabrication is one of Maccomotors’ specialties, the front and rear guards being manufactured in the tiny workshop in the south of Spain, as well as additional steel and aluminium touches peppering the bike.

From the Bates headlight back, the bike has many touches that talk more of quality of thought put into the build, without being too flashy. A set of Renthal ultralow handlebars have been fitted, ending in Beston style grips, a single speedo fitted for simplicity. For quality of ride, a Marzocchi E81 has been fitted to the rear suspension, with Metzeler tyres giving grip to match the power put out by the 1100, 19” at the front, 16”at the back.

Built with the idea of possessing functionality, retro styling, yet have an aggressive persona, Big Z definitely fits the bill. According to Jose, one of the Macco brothers, the bike is a "real rocket" to ride, adding "we have big ideas we just want to share with people as bike crazy as we are". And with more bikes in the process of being built, keep on eye on this small family outfit, because if they can do this on their first build, it’s only a sign of more good things to come.

More information:http://www.maccomotors.com


(Via: http://www.pipeburn.com)
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Keith Heckles, IOM TT 1967

September 13, 2013, 11:00 am
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I think I coulda landed on a dime. I really do.

September 14, 2013, 9:00 am
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Angel Nieto yamaha Calafat 1977 pic by J.Segura

September 14, 2013, 11:00 am
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Maserati 300S Sports-Racing Spider

September 15, 2013, 9:00 am
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"No less a racing driver than Sir Stirling Moss has described the 3-litre 6-cylinder engined Maserati 300S as having been: “…one of my favourite front-engined sports Maseratis – one of the easiest, nicest, best-balanced sports-racing cars ever made…”.
Here we offer a particularly well-known, well-presented and fine-quality example of this intensely well-respected and much-coveted model. Maserati 300S chassis serial ’3053′ was the third sports-racing car of its type to be ordered by the great American entrant Briggs Swift Cunningham for the use of his old friend and team driver Bill Spear.

Upon delivery in the USA, Maserati ’3053′ now offered here was co-driven by Bill Spear and Sherwood Johnston in the 1955 Sebring 12-Hours race, American road racing’s round of the FIA Sports Car World Championship."
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Wayne Rainey 1988 Suzuka 8hrs

September 15, 2013, 11:00 am
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Piero Taruffi's Record-Breaking Italcorsa-Tarf II

September 17, 2013, 9:00 am
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"As a works driver for Mercedes-Benz, Ferrari, Maserati and Alfa Romeo, Piero Taruffi recorded a number of significant wins from 1930 to 1957, including the 1951 La Carrera Panamericana and the 1957 Mille Miglia, which is why many regard him as one of the great race drivers of his era. Yet he also used racing as a springboard for his many other achievements: He wrote a couple books about racing, he pursued a doctorate in industrial engineering, and he also designed his own record-breaking race cars, one of which will cross the block at RM’s Monaco auction next month.

In fact, the car in question, his Italcorsa/Tarf II bisiluro appears to have been the ultimate incarnation of Taruffi’s dream of reinventing the race car. Taruffi’s first attempt at a twin-boom car, the aluminum-bodied 1948 Italcorsa/Tarf I, which used a 50hp 500cc Guzzi V-twin engine mounted in the right-hand pod, set six 500cc records in November that year at speeds of up to 130 MPH. Its success led him to envision an even more radical race car – one with three booms – that he patented (U.S. Patent 2,608,264), claiming better aerodynamics and visibility than existing race cars.

While it appears he never built that “trisiluro,” over the next couple of years he did design a successor bisiluro that reversed driver and engine positions and used a 1,720cc Maserati four-cylinder engine with a dual-stage supercharger system that developed 290hp. The Tarf II, as it is now known, again transmitted power to the rear wheel via chain and used independently sprung wheels at all four corners along with adjustable tail fins to compensate for wind direction.

Its first outing, in March 1951, resulted in a pair of records: one for the flying mile at 185.49 MPH and one for the flying kilometer at 180.55 MPH. He would later set more records with it: in January 1952, averaging 144.00 MPH in the 50 mile; and in April 1952, averaging 140.87 MPH in the 50 kilometer, 139.66 MPH in the 100 kilometer, 136.60 MPH in the 200 kilometer, and 135.10 MPH in the one-hour.

Reportedly, he continued to set records in the Tarf II with different engines through 1957, when he retired from racing, but he also stated that he had planned a larger version – powered by a 4.5-liter Ferrari engine – to enter into the Indianapolis 500. “The importance of my car is that it embodies many new principles that will become standard in automobiles ten years from now,” he told Mechanix Illustrated for its January 1952 issue.

Despite the records and the publicity that Taruffi’s cars received, the bisiluro design never caught on with race car designers. Carlo Mollino most famously tried out the design on Nardi’s entry into the 1955 24 Hours of Le Mans, and in 1967 OSI built the Silver Fox concept car as a tribute to Taruffi, but neither was successful. Over here in the States, hot rodders occasionally built cars using the twin-boom design for dry lakes and Bonneville land-speed racing, most notably Howard Johansen’s car, which made the cover of Hot Rod‘s December 1949 issue.

According to RM’s auction description, Taruffi held on to the Tarf II for some time afterward, but by 1986 it had made its way to Australia, where it was fitted with the Ferrari Dino V-6 engine currently in it for demonstration runs at the Vintage Sports Car Club’s Speed Classic Event in Fremantle. It was even later recommissioned for racing and scheduled to run at the 2007 Lake Gardiner Speed Week."


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#17

September 17, 2013, 11:00 am
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"To hell with safety. All I want to do is race."

September 18, 2013, 2:51 am
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Gloster Javelin

September 18, 2013, 9:00 am
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"The Javelin's story begins similarly to that of many RAF aircraft - a succession of requirements accompanied by a succession of ever-changing designs to match. In 1947 the Air Ministry had seen the need for a high performance interceptor to challenge the increasingly modern bomber designs being produced. Two separate aircraft were envisaged; one for day and for night fighting. While the day fighter eventually led to the Hunter, the night/all-weather fighter requirement was down to a fight between Gloster and de Havilland (the latter submitting their DH.110, later to become the Sea Vixen). The specification was numbered F.44/46, and three each of the de Havilland DH.110 and the Gloster GA.5 were ordered. The F.44/46 specification matured to become F.4/48, covered by operational requirement OR.227, which called for a fighter capable of 525 knots at 40,000, armed with 4 30mm cannon and 4 AAMs with a powerful radar.

Gloster settled on a design (based on proposal P280) for a huge delta-winged aircraft with two RR Avon engines before rising weight forced them into selecting higher-thrust Sapphire engines instead. In the meantime a further two DH.110s were ordered, but the order for Gloster's submission was cut to two, the thinking being that the DH.110 was more likely to succeed. Gloster were not overjoyed at this; two prototypes were going to make slow going if the aircraft was chosen for service, and in 1951 a change of thinking at the Air Ministry finally persuaded them to order three more GA.5s. Later in the year the first prototype flew, on 26th November. WD804 was the aircraft in question and was a bare shell - no radar, no weapons.

Serious vibration problems linked to the exhaust and airflow over the rear fuselage meant several redesigns of this area were called for. In June 1952 WD804 lost both elevators on a high speed run and the pilot, Sqn Ldr Bill Waterton (Gloster's chief test pilot) managed to land at Boscombe Down using the electrically-operated tailplane trimmer for pitch control - an very tricky bit of flying, for which he received the George Medal. The first production order had arrived, and with it the name of Javelin. The second prototype, WD808, flew in August but then stayed on the ground until January 1953 while research went on to determine the cause of the aileron loss. Tests throughout the first half of the year resulted in a number of changes to the design, including a cranked wing and beefed-up fuselage, fin and control surfaces.

However it was at this point the Javelin's high T-tail cost the life of pilot Peter Lawrence - such designs are susceptible to a condition known as a deep stall, where the wing blankets airflow over the tail assembly at high angles of attack, rendering the aircraft uncontrollable. At some point in the flight the nose had been pulled past 45 degrees and as the stall came on forward airspeed reduced to zero - the aircraft simply fell out of the sky. In March 1953 a third prototype (WT827) flew, being the first one to carry guns and radar. A number of differing radome designs were tried before they settled on the familiar pointed design. Large belly tanks were also fitted, as it was recognised the Javelin was lacking on fuel.

A fourth prototype (WT830) flew in January 1954 and though lacking guns and radar, it did incorporate all the improvements made to the ill-fated second prototype, including powered ailerons. It soon passed to the A&AEE at Boscombe Down to be assessed by RAF pilots. The fifth and final prototype, WT836, joined the flying programme in July, the same month in which one of the earlier prototypes was flown at through the sound barrier over London, the ensuing sonic boom causing a hell of a lot of fuss. Gloster's official position was that this was an accident, but it was widely believed to be a demonstration that the aircraft could go supersonic - much press criticism, including from Bill Waterton (who had quit Gloster and was now a newspaper correspondent), had said it could not.The FAW.4 was similar to the FAW.1 but had the T.3's all-moving tailplane and vortex generators on the wings and entered service with 141 Squadron at RAF Horsham St. Faith, and later with 3, 11, 23, 41, 72 and 87 Squadrons (though not all simultaneously). The FAW.5 was externally similar to the FAW.4 but had a redesigned wing interior in order to make room for more fuel, and provision for the full total of four Firestreak AAMs - though in the end the mark never carried them. The wing improvement of the FAW.5 was soon applied to the FAW.2, thus producing the FAW.6.

It was not until June 1960 that an RAF Javelin - an FAW.7 - finally fired a Firestreak missile, successfully downing a Meteor drone. The reheat-capable FAW.8 was limited to using reheat only at a minimum altitude; below that point engaging the reheat actually caused a loss of thrust (to the point where take-off could not be safely accomplished with reheat engaged). This was down to the engine's fuel pump - it fed fuel at a constant rate and only at high altitude was there sufficient excess capacity to allow fuel to be burned directly without causing a loss of cold thrust at the same time. However the FAW.8 did have an improved, drooped, wing leading edge and autostabiliser to improve handling. The FAW.9 was basically an FAW.7 incorporating the FAW.8 improvements, and lastly there was the FAW.9R, equipped with a fantastically ugly and massive refuelling probe, obviously designed by somebody who took the name of the aircraft a little too literally.

The Javelin's protracted development period and lack of opportunity to prove itself in combat have led to it being described in scathing terms by many people, and its reputation was not helped by logistical and servicing mishaps in deployments overseas, but it was well liked by its pilots who appreciated the amount of weaponry available to them (far exceeding other types of the day), its stability (within the proscribed guidelines) and its roomy cockpit. Any shortcomings it had in dogfighting ability were more than outweighed by its ability to stop the fight before the proverbial 'knife fight' began, and its airbrakes were incredibly effective - enough to force an attacker to overshoot before they realised what was happening, and often used to permit impressively steep descents to landing.

A single Javelin continued to fly with the RAE until 1976, when it was delivered to the Imperial War Museum's care at Duxford airfield, where it remains to this day. Lacking in any real popularity with the public, the large production run has sadly not been reflected in numbers of preserved examples, and a mere 10 complete Javelins now remain in various states of preservation, none of which will ever fly again."
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Ron Haslam and Wayne Gardner, Swedish GP500 1987

September 18, 2013, 11:00 am
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Mike & Ago at Sachsenring,East German GP

September 19, 2013, 3:46 am
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Rockstars' Garage: Sonny and Cher Mustangs

September 19, 2013, 9:00 am
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"Both cars were originally taken straight off Ford’s San Jose assembly line and the Motor Company commissioned the legendary George Barris to personalize these cars to reflect the couple’s flamboyant onstage personas.

Sonny’s Mustang was finished in Murano Gold Pearl, adorned by dark brown side panel and with an orange and gold fade-away treatment over the wheel wells and grille openings. The interior was upholstered with Bobcat fur and antique buffed leather trimmed with rustic suede.

Cher’s Mustang featured a hot pink pearl finish, blended with candy red, deep red side panels and a matching fade-away treatment. It also had white Ermine fur and black antique Scottish leather upholstery, trimmed in hot pink suede. Both cars were fitted with opulent three-inch long Mouton fur carpeting, Sonny’s in gold and Cher’s in hot pink.

Upon completion, the cars were used for publicity purposes before going on to appear in Sonny and Cher’s only feature-length movie, Good Times. Following the movie’s wrap, they toured the car show circuit before they were returned for the use of Sonny and Cher and later reverted back to George Barris."
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Flat Track Stuff

September 19, 2013, 11:00 am
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I can see clearly now

September 20, 2013, 4:55 am
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The Portland 550 by Knott Motorcycles

September 20, 2013, 9:00 am
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The bike hearkens its name from the hometown where it now resides. This also being part of the charcoal series was given distinguishing marks to set it apart from the others. A couple of these marks include an inline black center stripe from the custom front fender "new in 2012" into the fuel tank and an a uniquely designed custom seat. The uniqueness of the seat design incorporated 3 centered lightening holes to reveal ambient tail-lighting as well as orange stitching on the seat upholstery which introduced a trifecta of color.

See more fantastic builds on: http://www.kottmotorcycles.com
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Old School

September 20, 2013, 11:00 am
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"I always go extreme ways"

September 21, 2013, 3:47 am
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Il Paso at TT

September 21, 2013, 9:00 am
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Life is hard; it's harder if you're stupid

September 21, 2013, 11:00 am
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