Vintage Motorcycles aka Café Racer

The term café racer developed among British motorcycle enthusiasts of the early 1960s, specifically the Rocker (or ton-up boy) subculture. The term describes a style of motorcycle for quick rides from one “transport café”or coffee bar to another. Cafe Racers were also common in Italy, France and other European countries.

In 1973, US freelance writer Wallace Wyss, contributing to Popular Mechanics magazine, asserted the term café racer was originally used in Europe as a “put-down” toward riders who pretended to be road racers but instead only parked outside cafés.

IMG_6706.JPGIMG_6704.JPG

IMG_6588.JPG

IMG_6707.JPG

The café racer is a light and lightly powered motorcycle that has been modified for speed and handling rather than comfort. The bodywork and control layout of a café racer typically mimicked the style of a contemporary Grand Prix roadracer, featuring an elongated fuel tank, often with dents to allow the rider’s knees to grip the tank, low slung racing handlebars, and a single-person, elongated, humped seat.

IMG_6727.JPG

IMG_6962.JPG

IMG_6585.JPG

IMG_6587.JPG
A signature trait was the use of low, narrow handlebars that allowed the rider to “tuck in” — a posture with reduced wind resistance and better control. These handlebars, known as “clip-ons” (two-piece bars that bolt directly to each fork tube), “clubmans” or “ace bars” (one piece bars that attach to the standard mounting location but drop down and forward). The ergonomics resulting from low bars and the rearward seat often required “rearsets”, or rear-set footrests and foot controls, again typical of racing motorcycles of the era. Distinctive half or full race-style fairings were sometimes mounted to the forks or frame.

The bikes had a utilitarian, stripped-down appearance, engines tuned for maximum speed and lean, light road handling. The well-known example was “The Triton”, a homemade combination of Norton Featherbed frame and Triumph Bonneville engine. It used a common and fast racing engine combined with a well-handling frame, the Featherbed frame by Norton Motorcycles. Those with less money could opt for a “Tribsa”—the Triumph engine in a BSA frame. Other combinations such as the “Norvin” (a Vincent V-Twin engine in a Featherbed frame) and racing frames by Rickman or Seeley were also adopted for road use.

IMG_6586.JPG

IMG_6583.JPG

Café racer styling evolved throughout the time of their popularity. By the mid-1970s, Japanese bikes had overtaken British bikes in the marketplace, and the look of real Grand Prix racing bikes had changed. The hand-made, frequently unpainted aluminium racing fuel tanks of the 1960s had evolved into square, narrow, fibreglass tanks. Increasingly, three-cylinder Kawasaki two-strokes, four-cylinder four-stroke Kawasaki Z1, and four-cylinder Hondas were the basis for café racer conversions. By 1977, a number of manufacturers had taken notice of the café racer boom and were producing factory café racers, most notably the Harley-Davidson XLCR.

In the mid-1970s, riders continued to modify standard production motorcycles into so-called “café racers” by simply equipping them with clubman bars and a small fairing around the headlight. A number of European manufacturers, including Benelli, BMW, Bultaco and Derbi produced factory “café” variants of their standard motorcycles in this manner, without any modifications made to make them faster or more powerful.

IMG_6971.JPG

IMG_6973-0.JPG

IMG_6967.JPG

IMG_6966.JPG

IMG_6964.JPG

IMG_6963.JPG

MERCEDES 190 VS BMW M3

Classic this one. Sometimes the slickness of contemporary TV car shows forget the gonzo-like beauty of a good old fashioned burn up. And this is a classic old fashioned burn up.
IMG_6694.JPG
Mercedes-Benz 190E

We’re not sure where or when this was shot, but there’s something pure and honest about the ragged tearup between this Mercedes 190 (don’t think it’s a Cosworth, version) and a BMW M3 E30. We reckon it dates from some time in the early to mid nineties and yes, it’s definitely in France.
IMG_6695.JPG
BMW E30 M3

Any other infos greatly appreciated. Otherwise, sit back and enjoy.

http://youtu.be/ANv83OJk–4

FORD GT40: THE BEAUTY

Words: Neil Siner

I didn’t have the Scalextric Le Mans 24 hour set, but my mate did. It was on that plastic blacktop in the early 80s that I first fell in love with the Ford GT40.
IMG_6689-0.JPG
I guess it would have been a scaled down version of the Mark II that we fought over on those wet Saturday afternoons, the car’s strange mix of macho bulk and curvaceous lines already appealing to our burgeoning maleness.

IMG_6690.PNG
It can be difficult to pin down the quality that draws us to an object but it’s fair to say that often that quality is a fleeting thing. Not so with the Ford GT40. It is a car that stands outside of time. From the 60’s racetrack to the contemporary road it has an enduring beauty the essence of which, I think, lies in its inception. Being the offspring of transatlantic progenitors the GT40 has that special beauty that is a by product of what geneticists refer to as ‘hybrid vigour’. American power and technology combined with British mechanical design has produced here something truly outstanding.
I’m still in love!

IMG_6691.PNG
40 inches from tarmac to roof. Nothing looks anything like the Ford GT40
40 inches from tarmac to roof. Nothing looks anything like the Ford GT40

IMG_6692.PNG
This was after all a car built from scratch, with the specific job of seeing off Ferraris. It is in its perfect utility and the fulfilment of its function that it finds such an iconic and timeless appeal. So what are these qualities teased out of its hybrid functionality that endow this machine with such beauty? To me they are manifested in the car’s visual contrasts. It is chunky, with super wide sills and deep wheel arches over 15 inch wheels. Yet it is also sleek and low slung, petite almost in its minimal height (the famous 40 inches of its nomenclature).

15 Inch wheels – small by today’s standards.
15 Inch wheels – small by today’s standards.

To my mind, it is in this incongruity of manly power and bulk combined with sensual curves, that the GT40 finds its true and lasting appeal. Like some beautiful automotive dominatrix, it looks like it wants to rough you up and seduce you at the same time.

So maybe it’s just the submissive in me but thirty years or so after we first met on those adolescent afternoons,

JAMES GARNER: RACER

A few of weeks ago James Garner, her co star in Grand Prix, John Frankenheimer’s flawed motorsport classic from 1966, died peacefully at the impressive age of 86.

Here’s a flavour of the film.

Plaudits were universal on the man’s down-home straight forwardness. We loved his straight ahead, understated macho style. He was a petrol head too, and a self-avowed fan of race cars – driving the pace car at Indianapolis 500 on a number of occasions. He famously commissioned a 4 seater, road-going Indy car too. Here are some pics of that.

Rest In Power Mr Garner!

You rocked that racing suit better than most.

IMG_6672.JPGIMG_6674.JPG

IMG_6673.JPG

GROUP 5 HERO: BMW 320 TURBO

Of all the racing formulas that produced stunning race cars, Group 5 is one of our favourites.

And this BMW 320 Turbo is a fave among faves.

The formula, which was in its deregulated niceness, was almost the precursor of Group B rally in that there were super fat versions of the road cars. The regulation required only the bonnet, roof, doors and rail panel were left unmodified. What resulted were spectacular racing cars.

We particularly love this guy’s casual stance. And his beard. if anyone can identify the man, we’d like to send him our sincere congratulations on his pure stylish ease…

Look out for a mini series of group 5 wonders!

IMG_1403.JPG

IMG_1404.JPG

KILLER COBRA: SHELBY AND THE SNAKE

IMG_1398.JPG
Words: Charles Bamber
If you had been an American MG owner in the early to mid sixties, you would have been pretty smug and self satisfied with your exotic, excitingly nippy little English runabout.

But imagine the day you first heard about the advert of the 427 Cobra. The English built frame now had 427 cubic inch engine (that’s 7 litres) and Road and Track magazine reckoned it could accelerate from zero to sixty in less than four seconds and from zero to 100MPH and back to zero again in less than 14.

The word humiliation wouldn’t even have nearly covered it.

IMG_1402.JPG

Flared arches – the toughest ’65er on the streets

Thing was, that platonic ideal of an MG owner had been punching above its weight on the twisties and rutted orange grove roads of Southern California. The underpowered 356 Porsches were no match for the MG’s handling and the other competitor – the 286 Cobra was regularly outrun. The archaic leaf suspension on the early Cobras, you see, meant that the 300 horses it was able to transmit to the rear tyres were hardly ever translated into manageable power. But with the 427, not only had the small block 286 been replaced by a bloodcurdling, NASCAR-developed engine that produced close to 500HP – it also came with an all-new all-round independent suspension system with anti dive and anti-squat characteristics. Your little English sports car is, in short, instantly outmoded.

NASCAR developed behemoth

In 1965 the violent sort of changes in velocity pioneered by the third iteration of the Cobra would have been hard to come by on the race track. But this was street legal. Things in the world of American sports cars would never be the same again.

But despite its half century old reputation as a killer beast — at low speeds the Cobra 427 could still be a pussycat. Read the road tests of the day and you’ll be surprised to be told that the 11.5 inch Ford clutch was found to be no more challenging than a normal domestic unit. The production 427’s transmission was a standard Ford four-speed synchro box – so it was smooth and relatively easy to handle too.

That vulnerable rear end…

But it was when you buried the throttle and let the snake free that the 427 Cobra earned its reparation as a widow maker. The MK3 Cobra featured the flared arches that first appeared on the earlier racing versions of the 289. It also came with a genius aesthetic touch in the form of those black painted knock­-off magnesium wheels from Halibrand. The 427 would notoriously break traction in the up-shift and even in fourth gear lead foots over 100 MPH. That power-to-weight ratio was so astronomic, slewing of the rear end under heavy throttle was standard. You needed phat rims and serious rubber to take the battering. So though even a learner driver could have toddled round in the beast safely enough, you wouldn’t have let your 17 year old push it over 2000 revs.

Five point harnesses might be more desirable

The imperatives of success at the 24 Hours of Le Mans can be blamed for the factory Cobra’s premature demise. By 1966 the Ford establishment had been determined to challenge Ferrari’s dominance in endurance racing – and they famously set Carroll Shelby and his team the challenge to produce an endurance racer that could become that Ferrari slayer. Even with its beautiful power and a stretched drive ratio, the format of the Cobra meant that it would only be good for around 170 MPH – and success at La Sarthe meant the ability to crack 200. Enter, of course the GT40.

IMG_1397.JPG
Long, low -427 logo proud

But it’s the simple, purposeful format of the Cobra that accounts for its enduring appeal. Look at it. It’s squat, to the point. Front and rear over hangs are short, and the roadster setup and the long accommodating bonnet meant that the driving experience is classic as well as adrenalin-inducing. It’s low slung and rather wide, too – and it’s no surprise that the only things that come close to the sort of power induced rattle and hum experienced by the man in the cockpit are the more brutally appointed TVRs.

The straightforward format of the Cobra – and the fact that only a couple of hundred original 427s were ever built – mean that throughout the subsequent decades a large cottage industry has developed in producing continuation cars, replicas and assimilations of the car’s stripped down simplicity.

Original versions of these cars are now regularly fetching 7 figures at auction. Incredible when you consider the rather crude componentry of which they are composed. Never mind.

There’s always that Outlaw MGB.

Five point harnesses might be more desirable

IMG_1401.JPG
Long, low -427 logo proud

IMG_1402.JPG
NASCAR developed behemoth

IMG_1397.JPG

Flared arches – the toughest ’65er on the streets

IMG_1399.JPG
That vulnerable rear end…

IMG_1400.JPG
Brit-American collab in extremis…

IMG_1398.JPG

Proudly powered by WordPress | Theme: Baskerville 2 by Anders Noren.

Up ↑