2012 saw British motorcycle racer, John McGuiness, take his 19th win at the Isle of Man TT. His sponsor, Monster Energy, put together this tribute video for him emphasizing just how special of an accomplishment his collection of wins is. McGuiness also placed second in the TT Zero on the Mugen Shinden electric motorcycle this year.
Forget your DVR. Watch this coverage from Round 4 of the 1986 World Rally Championship, the Marlboro Safari Rally. This is was back when the 4WD Group B monsters were just taking over, but not at the super long distance car breaker Safari Rally. Toyota had won the event 2 years in a row before ’86 in the 2wd turbo Celica. Their success was largely attributed to the car’s durability and it’s the start of Toyota’s success in WRC.
Part 1 gives an introduction to the event from the team and drivers
The Nissan DeltaWing competed in this year’s 24 hours of Le Mans as the single experimental class showcase car. It took to the track after three and a half years of independent development. The DeltaWing had a universal unstoppable underdog appeal that quickly made it a fan favorite. Unfortunately it was taken out of the race by Kazuki Nakajimi in one of the Toyota TS030’s while he was challenging for the race lead. Nissan factory driver, Satoshi Mototayama, was at the helm when the DeltaWing was forced into a concrete wall. Le Mans rules allows the driver to get out of the car as long as he stays within a short distance of it. Motoyama tried for two hours to get the car back on track before giving up in tears with the fans all applauding his efforts. The damage to the drive train was too severe for him to get the car running again and back to the garage. That ends the DeltaWing’s story at Le Mans, but hopefully we’ll hear from it again.
This is an exciting older Best Motoring video that pits the crew’s favorite tuner cars from the VTEC camp against the AE86 camp. Representing the VTEC cars, they brought out the Techno Pro Spirits DC2 Integra, Spoon EG Civic and Power House Amuse S2000. The two 4AG powered AE86’s are from Arvou and Crystal Body Yokohama. Of course Keiichi Tsuchiya shows up in a car that represents both camps. He got his hands on the Hot Staff AE86 powered by an F20C engine from an S2000. At the time, they were the first tuners to complete this swap. There must have been a lot of bragging rights on the line because the boys push pretty hard in the rain.
I think if I ever get around to starting a motorcycle project, it’ll be something pretty similar to this one. I’m a big guy, so I would need a larger dual-sport bike for proper ergonomics but I would still want it to be sporty. Carlos Roscio and his brother spent two years transforming a 2003 Ducati Multistrada into the machine you see in the pictures. They did a fantastic job bringing out what makes Cafe Racers/Streetfighters so beautiful. Everything is there purely for function and what’s not needed has been removed. The bike looks better because of what’s not there. Definitely head over to Asphalt and Rubber to see the rest of the pictures of the bike.