December 12, 2013, 11:00 am
"A virtually unknown Wayne Gardner came from Australia to race in England in 1981. He raced the Moriwaki Z1000 and slept in his car. Towards the end of season he went to Olivers Mount, a public road/park circuit in Scarborough, and beat former two-time World Champion, Barry Sheene, who was on a factory Yamaha GP bike. I'm assured that's Bob Smith tucked in behind Sheene.
Gardner became a hero to a generation of British riders overnight"
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December 13, 2013, 4:42 am
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December 13, 2013, 9:00 am
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ICON and ICON 1000 customs are intrinsic to our gear. The gear we design influences the bikes we build, and the bikes we build in turn influence the gear we will make. Every ICON bike is built by us in our home office of Portland, OR. The Iron Lung was no different.
She laid in the garage for multiple years waiting for a second breath. With the Spring apparel launch approaching in February 2014, it was finally time to resurrect this Sportster. The design brief was to replicate the bikes that Harley Davidson dared to build in the 1970s – world beating endurance and circuit racers. We have big plans for the ICON 1000 line of apparel so her bombastic approach would be deemed necessary.
The heart of the Iron Lung is a 1200 big bore kit that we used to transform the original 883 motor into something with a little bit more of a left hook. Supertrapp exhausts were grafted on so she may declare her independence through two smoking barrels.
Significant fabrication work went in to giving her the unique stance she currently flaunts. The front end features wide glide forks suspended by one-off billet triple clamps -exceedingly rare, devoid of worth, and loved by only the few and the awesome.
With the front end lowered and widened, a custom subframe was fabricated, and Progressive 970 shocks were added on the rear. The fairing was then halved by the hands of our resident King Solomon and then widened and reattached. The end result is an exceedingly wide, ridiculously low bike built for the smoothest, fastest road you can find.
Finishing touches include Fat Boy wheels replicating the blue tinge of vintage magnesium racing wheels, hand painted details by Garage 31, and custom seat by New Church Moto – resident Portland artisans we call on regularly.
Once completed, we headed down to an oval in Southern Oregon and kicked ‘er in the guts to be featured along side of our Spring 2014 ICON 1000 apparel collection – coming soon. Her handling was as questionable as the grandstand snacks, but she bore the brunt of torture with aplomb. It wouldn’t be an ICON 1000 bike without a true trial by fire. In Iron Lung’s case this was literal as she burst into flame after her initial shakedown run just a few weeks prior.
We build them, we thrash them, and then we build them again, all in pursuit of inspiring and being inspired by the apparel we build.
(Via:http://www.rideicon.com)
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December 13, 2013, 11:00 am
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December 14, 2013, 9:00 am
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There was a four-speed manual gearbox with an external gear change lever; braking was on all four wheels via a cable.
The chassis was a modified Type 54 unit which had the engine positioned lower in the bay to improve upon the center of gravity. To keep the cars competitive and to reduce their overall weight, holes were drilled into the chassis. This also shortened the cars lifespan as it weakened the rigidity of the chassis. The cars rode on the signature piano wire wheels.
Four Bugatti T59 team cars, powered by a 2.8-liter engine at the time, were ready in time for the Spanish Grand Prix at San Sebastian on September 24th of 1933. The car driven by Rene Dreyfus finished in sixth position.
The 3.3-liter version made its racing debut at the French Grand Prix in 1934. The cars had little success, were expensive to maintain, and lacked the necessary reliability required to be competitive. Still, they were able to capture some important victories with drivers such as Dreyfus, Wimille, Benoist, and Lewis at the wheel. IN 1934 the T59 won the De Belgique and the d'Algiers Grand Prix. Two Grand Prix victories followed in 1935 and again in 1936. In 1937, only on GP victory was scored.
At the end of the 1934 season, Bugatti managed to sell four of the cars to the British privateers Earl Howe, Charlie Martin, Lindsey Eccles, and Brian Lewis.
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December 14, 2013, 11:00 am
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December 15, 2013, 9:00 am
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December 15, 2013, 11:00 am
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Grand Prix is a 1966 American action film with an international cast. The picture was directed by John Frankenheimer with music by Maurice Jarre and stars James Garner, Eva Marie Saint, Yves Montand, Brian Bedford, Jessica Walter and Antonio Sabàto. Toshiro Mifune has a supporting role as a race team owner, inspired by Soichiro Honda. The picture was photographed in Super Panavision 70by Lionel Lindon, and presented in 70 mm Cinerama in premiere engagements. Its unique racing cinematography – in part credited to Saul Bass is one of the main draws of the film.
The film includes real-life racing footage and cameo appearances by drivers including Formula One World Champions Phil Hill,Graham Hill, Juan Manuel Fangio, Jim Clark, Jochen Rindt and Jack Brabham. Other drivers who appeared in the film include Dan Gurney, Richie Ginther, Jo Bonnier and Bruce McLaren.
One of the ten highest grossing films of 1966, Grand Prix won three Academy Awards for its technical achievements.
The making was a race itself, as John Sturges and Steve McQueen planned to make a similar movie titled Day of the Champion. Due to their contract with the German Nürburgring, Frankenheimer had to turn over 27 reels shot there to Sturges. Frankenheimer was ahead in schedule anyway, and the McQueen/Sturges project was called off, while the German race track was only mentioned briefly in Grand Prix.
The F1 cars in the film are mostly mocked-up Formula 3 cars made to look like contemporary F1 models, although the film also used footage from actual F1 races.Some of this was captured by Phil Hill, the 1961 World Champion, who drove modified camera cars in some sessions during the 1966 Monaco and Belgian Grands Prix. This was some of the earliest experimentation with in-car cameras for Formula One.
The actual level of driving ability of the actors varied wildly – Bedford couldn't drive at all and was only ever in the car for close-up shots. Sabàto was very slow and nervous, Montand himself scared very easily early in filming and was often towed rather than driving the car, but Garner was very competent and even took up racing and entering cars as a direct result of his involvement in the film. So impressive were Garner's driving skills that some of the real Formula One drivers, including Graham Hill and Jack Brabham, reportedly told Garner that he could have been a successful Grand Prix driver if he had not gone into acting.
The helmet design that James Garner's character uses is that of then-Grand Prix race driver Chris Amon from New Zealand. The only difference was a silhouette of a Kiwi bird that was normally on the side of Amon's helmet that was left off of Garner's, as his character was an American. Brian Bedford's character used a helmet design that was the same as that of real life 1966 BRM driver Jackie Stewart. As Bedford couldn't drive, this was done so that they could shoot footage of Stewart driving the BRM (with a balaclava over his face to hide that it wasn't actually Bedford driving) and pass it off as Bedford.
Circuits featured in the film include; Circuit de Monaco (Monaco), Clermont-Ferrand (France), Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps (Belgium), Circuit Park Zandvoort (Netherlands), Brands Hatch (United Kingdom), and Autodromo Nazionale Monza (Italy). The Nürburgring (Germany), Watkins Glen International (USA), and the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez (Mexico) were all mentioned in the film but there was no footage shown.
The camera car used on the tracks was a Ford GT40 driven by Phil Hill. Cameras were mounted at the front and/or rear of the GT40 with front and rear body panels being removed as necessary. Aerial shots were filmed from an Alouette III helicopter
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December 16, 2013, 9:00 am
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December 16, 2013, 11:00 am
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December 17, 2013, 9:00 am
"Newcastle Diamonds are a motorcycle speedway team who compete in the British Premier League. The club has a reputation of importing young foreign talent and have given starts to the British careers of six times World Champion Ivan Mauger, three times World Champion Ole Olsen, 1974 World Champion Anders Michanek and three time World Champion Nicki Pedersen. Former Speedway Grand Prix rider's Kenneth Bjerre and Bjarne Pedersen also started their British careers with the Diamonds.
The Brough Park stadium is primarily used for greyhound racing with the speedway track built in the centre. In 1992 rider Wayne Garratt died in hospital after crashing at the track, the fourth person to do so since 1946, including Chris Prime in 1978"
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December 17, 2013, 11:00 am
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December 18, 2013, 2:14 am
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December 18, 2013, 9:00 am
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"The McDonnell F3H Demon was a subsonic swept-wing United States Navy carrier-based jet fighter aircraft. After severe problems with the Westinghouse J40 engine that was ultimately abandoned, the successor to the McDonnell F2H Bansheeserved, starting in 1956, redesigned with the J71 engine.Though it lacked sufficient power for supersonic performance, it complemented daylight dogfighters such as the Vought F8U Crusader and Grumman F11F Tiger as an all-weather, missile-armed interceptor until 1964. It was withdrawn before it could serve in Vietnam when it, and ultimately also the Crusader, were replaced by the extremely successful McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II. McDonnell's Phantom, which was equally capable against ground, fighter and bomber targets, bears a strong family resemblance, as it was conceived as an advanced development of the Demon. The supersonic United States Air Force McDonnell F-101 Voodoo was similar in layout, but was derived from the earlier XF-88 Voodoo, which also influenced the Demon's layout.
Development work began in 1949, using a swept wing from the start rather than adapting a straight-winged design as was done with the Grumman F9F Panther. A competing contract was also awarded for the delta wing Douglas F4D Skyray. The Skyray, with a top speed of 722 mph, would become the Navy's first fighter to fly supersonic in level flight, while the Demon would never reach that level of performance. Departing from its tradition of using two engines, the Demon would be McDonnell's only single-engined carrier-based fighter, adopting under some Navy pressure, the Westinghouse J40 engine. That engine was being promoted by the Navy for its next generation of aircraft, and was to have thrust of over 11,000 lbf (49 kN)—three times that of the engines in the F2H Banshee. It was the first swept-wing design produced by McDonnell and among the first U.S. aircraft to have missile armament.
The Navy desperately needed a high performance fighter to meet the challenge of the swept-wing MiG-15 encountered over Korea. Production of the F3H-1N was hastily ordered even before the first flight of the XF3H-1 prototype on 7 August 1951 by test pilot Robert Edholm.The first test flights of the operational design did not occur until January 1953, when the Korean War was winding down.
The F3H Demon was originally designed around Navy's ambitious new Westinghouse J40 which was to offer enough power to use just one engine in a number of new aircraft designs. But the engine would ultimately fail to produce the promised thrust or run reliably. The engine was a major disappointment, producing only half of the expected power. Worse, it was temperamental and unreliable. Of 35 F3H-1N aircraft flown with the J40 engine, eight were involved in major accidents. The first production Demons were grounded after the loss of six aircraft and four pilots. Time Magazine called the Navy's grounding of all Westinghouse-powered F3H-1 Demons a "fiasco", with 21 unflyable planes that could be used only for Navy ground training at a loss of $200 million.One high point of the J40 was the 1955 setting of an unofficial time-to-climb record, in a Demon, of 10,000 feet (3,000 m) in 71 seconds.The proposed F3H-1P reconnaissance version was never built. The J40 program was terminated sometime in 1955.
All the aircraft it was to power were either canceled or redesigned to use other engines, notably the J57 and the J71. The F4D Skyray had been designed to accept larger engines in case the J40 did not work out, and was eventually powered by the Pratt & Whitney J57. But no other engine could simply be fitted into the old Demons, as both the wings and fuselage would have to be redesigned and enlarged. The best alternative turned out to be the Allison J71 engine which was also used in the Douglas B-66 Destroyer. Subsequent F3Hs with this engine were designated the F3H-2N. In service, the J71 proved problematic, providing insufficient power for an aircraft of the Demon's size. The engine also suffered from frequent flameouts and compressor stalls. The first Demon with a J71 flew in October 1954. Another significant problem was the reliability of the ejection seats: initial versions were found to be unreliable and were eventually replaced with Martin-Baker ejection seats that were becoming the standard Navy seat of choice due to their higher performance at low altitude and better reliability.
Despite the problems, the Navy ordered 239 F3H-2s, and the first were deployed in March 1956. 519 Demons were built up to the end of production in November 1959. It was not the Navy's first all-weather interceptor with radar (the AN/APG-51 air interception set was used first on the F2H-4 Banshee). The F3H-2 Demon had the AN/APG-51A, later upgraded to the 51-B version with a tunable magnetron then on to 51-C with better counter-measures in the receiver.
The F3H-2N's standard armament was four 20 mm (.79 in) Colt Mk 12 cannons. In later years, the upper two cannons were often omitted to save weight. Later models, redesignatedF3H-2M, were equipped to fire the Raytheon AAM-N-2 Sparrow and later the Sidewinder air-to-air missiles. Deployed aircraft carried both types of missiles, the Sparrow on the inboard rails and the Sidewinder outboard. Cannons were not used in carrier air defense applications, but they were installed and armed when situations (such as the Cuban Missile Crisis) dictated, and where the aircraft might be deployed against surface targets.
A reconnaissance version, the F3H-2P, was proposed, but never built. It remained the Navy's front-line fighter until 1962, when it was succeeded by the F-4 Phantom II (which was a development of a proposed "Super Demon", a larger and much heavier version of the F3H). Developed during the Korean War to counter the MiG-15, it did not claim any aerial victories with missiles or dogfights, although it flew over Lebanon and Quemoy in 1958.
In 1962, the F3H was redesignated F-3. The F3H-2N became the F-3C, while the F3H-2M became MF-3B and the F3H-2 simply F-3B.
The last Demon-equipped squadron, VF-161 'Chargers', traded their F-3s for F-4 Phantom IIs in September 1964."
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December 18, 2013, 11:00 am
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December 19, 2013, 9:00 am
If you remember Rock and Roll, you may remember Buddy Miles as the drummer in a group called the Electric Flag. That was a pretty cool group– they carried around this little electric-powered American flag that waved and sparkled while the band played. Well, the old electric flag is long gone and Buddy Miles is now a star in his own right, but he still likes to do a little flag-waving. Except he does it these days with this starred and striped Harley-Davidson trike. The trike was designed by Miles, with the help of fellow Novato, California resident Glen Thorsen, who also did the actual construction work. The basic ’57 Harley was converted to trike form with the help of a Ford rear-end. To coax a little more power out of the engine, ’69 Sportster barrels were installed. That incredible seat was also designed by Miles and built by William Schneider.
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December 19, 2013, 11:00 am
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December 20, 2013, 9:00 am
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Some of Hailwood's earliest successes had come on small-displacement Ducatis, and when he was offered a ride on a Ducati 900 NCR V-twin for the Isle of Man F1 race in '78, he jumped at the chance. At 37, he was thought to be past his prime and hadn't raced on the daunting 37-mile circuit in a decade. Nonetheless, he won the six-lap race over ordinary two-lane country roads bordered by stone walls and buildings at an average speed over 108 mph, and set a new lap record of 110.62 mph. This victory along with Paul Smart's Imola 200 win in 1972 were the two most important events in the elevation of Ducati to true superbike status.
Hailwood's TT winner was one of a small batch of 20-25 such roundcase machines built by the legendary Bologna-based NCR race shop for Formula 1 and FIM Coupe d'Endurance racing. NCR stood for the names of its founders, ex-factory race mechanics Giorgio Nepoti, Rino Caracchi and Luigi Rizzi, although after Rizzi's early departure the "R" stood for Racing. Founded in 1967 in the small town of Borgo Panigale on the outskirts of Ducati's hometown of Bologna, NCR was situated a stone's throw from the factory, and functioned as Ducati's semi-official race team from the early 1970s, there being no direct works involvement at that time. The Nepoti/Caracchi philosophy was that everything could be improved, lightened or made more powerful, and like all truly great tuners they paid attention to the smallest detail in the knowledge that racing would inevitably expose any weaknesses. Their emblem, a speeding cartoon dog wearing a helmet, is now known the world over, but it was Hailwood's milestone IoM victory that gave NCR recognition as the leading Ducati tuning operation.
The Silverman Museum 900 NCR is from that same year, and unique in the fact that it has never been raced and is preserved in the exact condition it would have been delivered to a customer 36 years ago.
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December 20, 2013, 11:00 am
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December 21, 2013, 9:00 am
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