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C LU B
THE EDITION
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A word...
L–R Zac Moseley, Phil Kavanagh and Michael Prichinello. Classics.
CAR CULTURE IS VAST, global and allencompassing. Those who identify with the deity of combustion (or electron sparking?) practice at hundreds of different automotive temples. There are those who are exclusively dedicated to the art of restoring old cars to their exact specification. Others indulge in the pursuit of shoehorning obscene numbers of cylinders and horses under the hood of something American. There are collectors, hot-rodders, cruisers, modifiers, off-roaders and drifters. All pursuits are valid, and all are indulged by Classic Car Club. However, the pagoda of our most cherished automotive doctrine at CCC is mastering the drive. It’s one thing to be in proximity to something automotively
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FROM THE DIRECTORS
awesome. It’s a completely different matter to be able to control a provocative bit of machinery with a deft hand and a full heart. The stick by which we measure a driver’s ability is speed. How quickly can a driver hustle a venomous car around a racetrack? To what level can a racing driver harness the incredible power of a Top Fuel dragster? It’s measured in milliseconds, and there’s only one winner. As such, this issue is dedicated to our favorite subculture: speed. Ultimately, if you do have dreams of getting on-grid and trying your hand at a motorsport, we hope that you find inspiration in the articles that follow. CCC Paddock Players Zac, Phil and Michael
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CONTENTS
In this issue... A word from the directors
.......................................................
1
Go-fast gear ........................................................................................... 6 Classic Car Club, 1,000 miles ............................................... 8 Gears on the piers ......................................................................... 10 Map it ........................................................................................................ 12 Twelve laps in the McLaren 600LT .............................. 14 Ein BĂśser Arsch Bimmer ........................................................ 18
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SHUTTER SPEED
Take m ad skills , p a s s i o n a nd ha rd gra ft , an d y o u get Rip Sha ub: m a s t e r tr a ckside p ho to gr a pher.
Rennsport reunion ..................................................................... 22 Mint condition ................................................................................ 46 Pocket rocket .................................................................................... 52
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Polestar 1: Speed without compromise................... 64
THE HUSTLE
Motorsports legends share their intimate relationships with speed.
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AN UPHILL B AT T L E
H i s t o r y, g r i t and eccentriticy come together in one of Brita in’s most beloved races.
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48
CRASH AND BURN
When fire breaks out on the track, Alpinestars suits keep drivers safe.
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60 GOING FA S T ON A B I CYC L E
Cycling is an art, and to crank up the pace you need the proper tools and techniques.
SPITTING UP SAND
T h i n k Wa c k y R a c e s o n t h e s e t o f M a d M a x , a n d y o u ’ l l b e c l o s e t o understanding what happens at the sand drag races in Avenal, California.
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ABOUT
C R E ATI V E & E D ITO R I A L D I R E C TO R Michael Prichinello C O LU M N I S T Zac Moseley AU TO M OTI V E D I R E C TO R Phil Kavanagh P H OTO G R A P H E R S Rip Shaub, Kyle Johnston, Kilian Hamlin, Jamey Price, Greg Moss E D ITO R Gemma Peckham gemma.peckham@executivemediaglobal.com A DV E R TI S I N G S A LE S E X E C UTI V E S Richard Kirby richard@executivemediaglobal.com Karym Miros karym@executivemediaglobal.com Justin Sirni justin@executivemediaglobal.com DESIGNER Abby Schmidt C O N TR I B UTO R S Michael Prichinello, Greg Moss, Shari Gab, Rip Shaub, Mark Voysey
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GEAR UP
Go-fast Gear. SPEED THRILLS. HERE’S SOME OF OUR FAVORITE KIT TO GET YOU MOVING AT A CLIP.
CAKE KALK& Honestly, we don’t know how to say it, but we do know we love it. CAKE’s lightweight electric motorbikes are a blast to grip, rip and let it slip. Now, the Kalk& brings street-legal hooliganism into the equation.
RAPHA PRO TEAM AERO JERSEY Rapha, cycling’s fashion and function brand, has taken the know-how from its World Tour race-winning skinsuit and made a fast jersey for the masses. Cut through the air and save watts for faster miles.
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PAUL SURF LIL’ BIRD Rockaway Beach is, of course, home of the Ramones, but it’s also where you’ll find the Lincoln Beach break and Paul Surf—a New Yorker who’s been shaping glass for a decade. Paul’s Lil’ Bird is the perfect board for fast speeds on east-coast three- to six-footers. Switch up that thruster for something new and speedy.
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ARAI GP-6RC The technocrats at Arai have woven carbon in proprietary ways to make one of the lightest and strongest helmets on the market. Go fast, take a beating, get up and do it again.
HOKA ONE ONE® CARBON X Carbon has become commonplace in everything these days—even running shoes. With its Carbon X, HOKA hooks this shoe up with a carbon plate under the sole to give a super lightweight construction and a firm flex. Run faster; feel less fatigued.
LAMBORGHINI HURACAN STERRATO CONCEPT Some manufacturers bring a bottle of champagne to the party. Lamborghini brings ray guns— this time in the form of an off-road super sports car that’s jacked up for off-road duty. A hodgepodge of electronic trickery mated with a raft of mechanical modifications makes this Lambo perfectly suited for the most exotic of getaways.
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KEEPING TIME
CLASSIC CAR CLUB,
1,000 MILES
THERE ARE COUNTLESS auto-themed watches out there, but there are only a few that truly matter. One of those is the Mille Miglia GTS Automatic by Chopard. For decades, Chopard has been the lead supporter of the Mille Miglia 1,000-mile rally through Italy, and this year the venerable Swiss timepiece builders partnered with Classic Car Club Manhattan to produce a capsule collection of 10 Mille Miglia watches. Honored by the request, Classic Car Club reimagined the timepieces with its punk-rock sensibility, and designed a collection of 10 limitededition Chopard Mille Miglia GTS Automatic Timepieces by Classic Car Club Manhattan. Each of the 10 hand-painted dials use a component from one of the 10 characters that comprise the Mille Miglia logo, to represent a bend in a road that we’d all love to navigate at speed. As with the race cars that the timepiece celebrates, overspray is welcomed, and there’s no need for too many numbers, markers or intricacy. At speed, we just want to see what’s important. Each watch is $10,000, and comes with a CCC Clubhouse membership, and the inspiration to go faster when you think it’s not possible. CCC
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GEARS ON THE PIERS
EVERY OTHER MONTH-ISH, CCC invites an automotive subculture to the club to share their wares and have a beer. JDM cars, overland stuff, sleazy van life, E30 purists—we have ’em all. GOTP Five was the Stuttgart Edition. More than 45 super-rad whips from Germany wearing the Porsche crest rolled through. It was (air) cool(ed). PHOTOS BY K Y LE JOHNSTON
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TRACK PREP
Map it ARRIVING AT A new track can be stressful. Jumping
into the deep end with 50 other cars or motorcycles that are navigating three or so miles of twisty tarmac at high speed is a dicey business when you’re trying to figure out if the next corner goes right or left. So, how do you make your first experience at a new track a successful one? Homework. Before you head to a track, try these few steps to find speed faster. 1. Print out five track maps. Every track has a map that can be easily found online, downloaded and printed. Choose a map that has the corner numbers labeled, so you can discuss corners with fellow drivers/riders as “turn five,” rather than “that tight left-hander after the hill.” If you can find one with elevation changes, that’s a bonus, but these are rare. 2. YouTube it. GoPros have made everyone a hero, so use their uploaded vanity to see what’s what. Search for the track that you’re going to, and watch. Don’t concern yourself with that particular guy or gal’s driving—in fact, assume that they don’t know what they’re doing. What you want to do is watch the track. Note elevation changes, tightness
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of corners, and landmarks like braking signs or curbing that can be used as reference points. Also note whether corners are banked in the direction you’re going (positive camber), or sloping off in the other direction (negative camber). 3. Pen to paper. Put all of those discoveries on the track map—everything you see—as Prichinello did here before unleashing a McLaren 600LT around Monticello Motor Club. Are these notes correct? Mostly. Maybe. But it’s a starting point. A bit of data that helps you prepare—but it doesn’t end there. 4. After two sessions on the track, break out a few more of those maps that you printed. Compare your inseat experience with what’s been jotted down before arriving. Did that uphill turn scrub a lot of speed, allowing you to use less braking, or later braking? Then jot it down. Is the curbing on the exit of turn five bumpy and unsettling? Mark it to avoid that. Make sure you number and date each map so you know which is the latest. If you follow these steps, what started off as a way to learn your way around a new track will quickly build a book full of well-researched track-day speed tips. CCC
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REVIEW
TWELVE LAPS IN THE
McLaren 600LT
BY M ICH A EL PR ICHINELLO
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N
inety miles north of Manhattan in Sullivan County, the sounds of summer are on full blast. Birds call out to one another in the mornings, crickets produce a wall of sound in the early evenings, rivers bubble all day, and the wail of high-performance engines bounces and echoes through the valley of Monticello. There, snaking through the hills and forests, one can find 4.1 miles of blissful, black racing circuit. This is Monticello Motor Club, a private affair where, much like members of CCC have access to a jaw-dropping fleet of autos, Monticello Motor Club’s members are granted access to its intoxicating racetrack. The circuit boasts 20 corners that unfold through the topography and present drivers with fast, sweeping turns; hard-braking areas; and moments of interplanetary speed.
So, what better place to put the newest offering from the Woking factory to the test? Enter the McLaren 600LT. Lately, it seems as though McLaren has set its business-consulting division upon the factory to cook up seasonal automotive offerings constructed from the outfit’s development parts bin that point at different drivers and divergent uses. The 600LT is no different. Built off the platform of the 570S—a car you’ll find in the CCC fleet—the 600LT departs from that sweetly tuned street car into something more aggro and track-centric. Here, the long tail section is lengthened 1.9 inches from that of the 570S template, while the front is extended by 1.1 inches. Attached to this stretched body is an entire suite of go-fast things. The front fenders are heavily vented to help reduce the high pressure in the wheel wells that’s created by wheels spinning at 200 miles an hour. The fascia is
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dominated by massive air intakes that are intended to hoover up oxygen for massive combustion, while a picnic table–sized wing on the back is wrapped in a heatprotective polymer to ensure that the top deck–mounted exhaust doesn’t melt it during supersonic flight. The 600LT might have a number tag screwed to the rear, but it’s pure track weaponry. Inside, it’s more of the speedy same. All surfaces are covered in Alcantara for a snug grip, and to ensure that the driver doesn’t get blinded by bouncing sunlight. The miniscule, Formula 1–style wheel feels straight out of openwheel racing, and the potato chip–thin carbon-fiber race seats keep inhabitants firmly in their place. This model has a radio, but for the weight weenies you can have your 600LT sans stereo system. Speaking of weight, the 600LT strips 220 pounds out of the 570S. All of this transformation is focused on creating a more agile, aerodynamic car that’s intended
for track applications rather than interstate thrashes—that’s the 570’s turf. There’s no engine cover to open on the 600LT, but if there was, it would uncover the heart of the matter—a brilliant, AMG-built, 3.8-liter, 32-valve aluminum V8 engine with two turbos strapped to the sides, which produces 592 thoroughbred horses. A seven-speed sequential gearbox keeps all those ponies on the reins. All said, the 600LT is the lightest, quickest and most powerful road-legal McLaren sports series car, and the fourth chapter in the McLaren “Longtail” story. The drive north to Monticello Motor Club is an exercise in restraint. The public road limit of 55 miles per hour can be handled in second gear, if you don’t mind the fuel bill. The 600LT buzzes along lazily, waiting to arrive in more familiar motorsport surroundings, while the firm carbon seats channel the vibrations right to your butt,
ABOVE The 600LT. Long. Lean. Mean.
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REVIEW
TECH SPE C MCLAREN 600LT
almost lulling you to sleep. Once we arrive trackside, the car seems to know. It gets angry. It bucks, sputters and pops in the paddock as we creep at slow speeds. It wants to go fast. It doesn’t like commuting, either. On track, things change immediately. After an easy lap to warm up the bespoke Pirelli P Zero Trofeo R tires, we light the fuse. Immediately, the 600LT puts the hammer down when requested. Traditionally, AMG power plants serve up the power in the form of chassis-twisting torque, but when nestled in the 600LT, the engine trades grunt for 7,500 revs that spin and spool out power more like a Radical race car or MotoGP bike. Index-finger stabs at the gear selector translate to instant upshifts that snap on hard with authority. Unlike any other street-legal car, the front end of the McLaren bites hard on corner entry and turns in comfortably at high speeds. Latestgeneration lightweight brake calipers, carbon ceramic discs and a McLaren Senna–inspired brake booster ensure precise pedal feel and phenomenal stopping power, leaving understeering supercar colleagues in the dust. Ultimately, once the anchors are thrown out, the
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ABOVE Fast in and equally fast out.
VEHICLE TYPE
Mid-engine, rear-wheel drive two-seat coupe
BASE PRICE
$242,500
ENGINE
Twin-turbo, 32-valve V8 aluminum block and heads
DISPLACEMENT
232 cubic inches
POWER
592 horsepower @ 7,500 rpm
TORQUE
457 lb-ft at 550 rpm
0-60 MPH
2.8 seconds
TOP SPEED
204 mph
600LT will go from 124 miles per hour to a standstill in just 384 measly feet. Monticello Motor Club’s turn 12 opens up to a massive back straight with an uphill right kink that really deserves a corner number of its own. Here, most cars get nervous when tipped into the bend, but not the 600LT. Despite the chilly temperatures, the Trofeo R tires work in concert with the increased downforce from the extended diffuser, splitter and spoiler to produce 220 pounds of downforce at 155 miles per hour. This car is planted. At the end of the back straight, the dash reads 172 miles per hour. The McLaren 600LT is a samurai sword in a field of hammers. The pilot is given shovels full of feedback and confidence, making it easy to go fast and knock lap times into submission. CCC
NORTH JERSEY
www.mclarennorthjersey.com 201.639.7750 Ramsey, NJ
REVIEW
Ein Böser Arsch Bimmer
W
BY M ICH A EL PR ICHINELLO
RIGHT The GTS checks out the Angus at Kinderhook Farms.
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hen I was 22, I purchased my first new car. I custom-specced a BMW 3 Series. Manual, leather seats—the stuff you want in a 3. Three years later, I moved up to a 5 Series, manual again. I was reveling in the Chris Bangle years; I loved those ugly lines from the moment they dropped. Then, with proper adulthood came an M6. The v10 monster. The interstate thrasher. I was all in—the unofficial BMW ambassador. But then my tastes changed. Or maybe it was the brand that changed. BMW started pumping out SUVs, crossovers and an assembly line chock-full of formats that made no sense to me. The ultimate driving machine became the ultimate suburban mall transport. BMW lost me. Until now. Say hello to the BMW M4 GTS. Let’s put our cards on the table for a moment. This is a car that’s had its fair share of flak. At $140,000, it’s twice the price of its base brethren, the regular M4. That doesn’t sit well with people. It’s also a bit bro-tastic, with its surfboard-sized spoiler on the rear deck, gold-laced wheels, coordinating golden roll cage, and carbon splitter jutting out front with a gold lip. It’s a car with gold fronts. For now, I’m going to assume that all of the aero is purposeful. Also, if you know me, I’m OK with a certain amount of bro culture. This car looks special; if you go by the numbers—700 total, and only 300 in North America—its rarity alone makes it so. Unless you’re at Bimmerfest, the chances of seeing another GTS in the wild are extremely rare. We’re in albino alligator territory.
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//19
REVIEW
HOP IN, RATCHET THE SUPER-LIGHTWEIGHT YET COMFORTABLE MANUAL SEATS INTO POSITION, AND PUSH THE STARTER BUTTON. SATAN’S CHAINSAW BUZZES TO LIFE. THIS IS NO TRADITIONAL M4 And I get to drive it. I really want to like this car. I want to wear those M Sport stripes on my sleeve again. The frozen dark gray paint is sublime. Matte in finish, yet silk to the touch, it has a way of absorbing and reflecting light all at once. This paint doesn’t get dirty like regular cars, either. After a thrash through the mountains, it looks merely dusty—as if it just finished a dash through Baja, Mexico, instead of the switchbacks of Columbia County in the Hudson River Valley. The details abound. The angles are hard, but not overdone like what’s in vogue these days. The pillar that holds the spoiler up is beautifully forged and architectural; the carbon gurney flap on the trunk lid is perfectly finished. The details are flawless. They’re light, too. Pop the hood to check out that gnarly twin-turbo inline-six, and you’ll quickly notice that the hood weighs about as much as a pizza box. On the underside, wide, lasagna-noodle-sized ribbons of carbon form the shape. Since the hood isn’t weight-bearing, wide carbon can be used to keep things light. The same goes for the interior. Here, you’ll find no armrests or back seats. The door handle is replaced by a black fabric loop that’s tastefully trimmed with the M Sport colors (seatbelt to match), the center console doesn’t open for storage, and there are no speakers in the dash or doors. Most shocking are the doors themselves. They’re essentially weight-saving foam—kind of like those cheap Igloo coolers you get from gas stations to keep an unplanned six-pack cold. This car, even with the scaffolding replacing the rear seats, weighs about 300 pounds less than a stock M4. I’m warming up. I’m feeling the romance. Underneath all the foam and carbon, you’ll find the punch line to it all: that glorious three-liter, inline sixcylinder M Sport motor with two turbos strapped on. It’s the same as what you would find in the stock M4; but in GTS trim, it’s punched up to 495 brake horsepower and a face-contorting 443 torques. For a bit more clever lunacy, BMW has added a water injection system to the drivetrain. Open the trunk, peel back the trunk liner and you’ll find a water bottle that needs to be filled every 1,500 miles or so. This water is injected into the plenum before air enters the
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turbos, cooling the air significantly to cram more oxygen into the turbos for brighter, punchier power. The drive? Hop in, ratchet the super-lightweight yet comfortable manual seats into position, and push the starter button. Satan’s chainsaw buzzes to life. This is no traditional M4. Take a stab at the six-speed sequential transmission paddle, and you’re off—kind of uncomfortably, but I love it. At idling speeds, the GTS barks and bucks, much like a DTM car rolling out of the pits with the limiter on. The suspension is so rock solid that parking lots can feel like a leg of The Dakar. Once you start feeding it fuel, the car comes to life, and already you can recognize that this isn’t your dentist’s M4. This is something extra. On the back roads, the steering—which is in the sportiest of settings—is heavy. I mean arm-pumpingly heavy, but in all the right ways. On Kinderhook’s Mile Hill Road, the harsh suspension smooths out, and now I can feel every camber, crest and pebble. As corners tighten, I feed more steering input into the GTS, and the mechanical grip takes it without a slip. The rock-solid suspension keeps any possible body roll or up-down pump under wraps. The car is on
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lockdown, gliding inches above the tarmac. As I feed in more throttle, we’re instantly flying—this is, after all, the fastest car that BMW has ever produced. And while that power is plentiful, the way it’s applied is even more interesting. Given the lightness of this car, you don’t feel power fighting heft. Instead, it just pulls. It just goes. Suddenly, you’re supersonic. On a back stretch of the beautifully windy Co Rd 28A heading towards Chatham, I let the revs run and pick up speed. With each click up the gearbox, the traction control light gives a flash. The rear is lively. It wants to go faster. The sound escaping the titanium race exhaust fills the farmland with the bellowing theme song of the Nürburgring. At greater speeds, the turn-in feels much more like a mid-engine car than one with the lump up front. The GTS has claws rather than Michelins, and while you can clearly feel the rear trying to overwhelm the front and possibly send you spinning, the throttle response is exotically delicate, allowing you to feed or lift a millimeter or two to keep everything in line. With each lift comes a symphony of babbles and pops from the exhaust. The tone is incredibly satisfying to the driver—and downright frightening to the livestock around, who lift
ABOVE The GTS flexing its biceps.
their heads and trot off every time I let go. At tighter turns, the lightest of touches on the brake pedal puts the massive Brembo carbon-ceramic brakes to work, instantly bringing the GTS to slower speeds in a way unlike any road car I have ever experienced. The brakes are truly sublime. BMW has let me down in recent years, but driving the GTS has changed my tune. I’m still not in favor of the hothatch-crossover-SUV-sports contraptions that the Bavarian mark is pumping out, but this car has more than pleased me—it’s reminded me why I enjoy driving so much. It’s a fantastic bit of kit. Is it worth twice as much as an M4? Hands down, yes. It’s twice the car. In every situation, it’s just that much better—better braking, better steering, better power, better looks, better handling and better exclusivity. And why should Porsche be the only brand that can give you less for more? The GTS is certainly not for everyone. Yes, a standard M4 is great, but this is for the driver who’s already had an M4, or an M2 Competition, or a 911. This is next-level. Ready for the heresy? I’d have a GTS over a 911 GT3 any day, and that’s saying something. CCC
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OUT AND ABOUT
ABOVE Evolution. The 1960 718 RS 60 Spyder and the 2007 RS Spyder.
LEFT The astonishing 935 Le Mans race car and its aerocentric tail.
RIGHT Vice liveries: Rothmans 959 and Jägermeister 934.
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RENNSPORT REUNION
A
— PA R T D E U X —
s far as finding a venue for a celebration of all things Porsche motorsports heritage goes, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better spot than the sun-kissed hills of Laguna Seca. While previous iterations of the Rennsport Reunion have been hosted at Lime Rock Park (certainly a more accessible location for your New York–based author), the destination tucked into the hills above the picturesque coastal town of Monterey makes for a far more grandiose location than the rolling hills of Connecticut. This event is unlike any other—the kind that’s not easy to find short of a long-haul Lufthansa flight. Mere minutes after touching down, you feel an electrifying presence of flat sixes in the area. Your senses kick into high gear, and a normal, “Ohh, that sounds like a Porsche,” becomes, “Ohh nice, a 3.2L.” Your brain’s synaptic wiring harness begins to adjust accordingly, shifting from traditional enthusiast mode to rear-engine setting. In Stuttgart, the boffins call this Porsche Dynamic Sound Recognition (PDSR). The marque’s motorsport credentials are—for more pedestrian manufacturers—the stuff of dreams. Marketing teams spend hours in boardrooms trying to supplement this kind of provenance into their performance machines. Words like dynamism pale in comparison when you can simply point to your fiberglass-bodied laurels. Upon arrival, your head will likely be put into a flat (six) spin. For guidance, your first stop upon arriving at the sixth Rennsport Reunion (RRVI, for those in the know) should be the Chopard tent. Inside sits a collection of some of the most storied cars of the company’s racing history—a static display that sits in contrast to the otherwise octanefueled nature of the event. Onlookers are drawn in by the likes of Gulf-liveried 917s and the unmistakable Martini stripes adorning the 936. Instagram bait, for sure, but for the motorsport crowd this is the equivalent of “free candy” hastily scribbled on the side of a panel van. But this is an event that is balanced between the machines and the people fearless enough to drive them, and what strikes you the most is the prevalence of Porsche’s most prolific drivers, both past and present. Patrick Long, Derek Bell, Jacky Ickx, Kévin Estre, and Hurley Haywood—
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OUT AND ABOUT
an all-star Porsche lineup from across the decades. The event continually blends past and present, and the crowd’s reaction to Mark Webber unveiling the new 935 (a tribute to the “Moby Dick” of old) suggests that this link is as strong as ever. The presence of these titans of motorsport shows that they’re all enjoying the show just as much as we mere mortals are—they just have much, much better stories to tell. As Le Mans legend Jochen Mass meanders around the paddock—smartphone in hand, snapping pictures of cars from years past—I ask him which car stood out to him most (a difficult question in this array). “They’re all great, but this one,” he says as he gestures toward a pair of beautifully maintained 935s, “was probably the most fun.” Not a bad choice, Mr. Mass.
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My friend attempts to spark up a conversation with the Le Mans legend and bungles a question, asking if he speaks German. Mass smirks and asks, “Do you know who I am?” My friend, caught off guard by the question, blanks on his name. The celebrated driver glances back towards the dozens of championship-winning cars around the tent, and, while sweeping a hand across the sea of horsepower, he casually states, “Just take a look around. You’ll find my name on a few of these cars.” We all laugh, as my friend and I realize that taming cars like the 956 probably teaches you a lesson or two. If you were worried about some lilac ribbon– presenting, grass-parked concours, you can rest easy. Rennsport is more of the Race-Gas and scrubbed-slicks type of affair.
PORSCHES and enthusiasts of various decades.
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I F YO U R C A R CO U L D B U I L D I T S D R E A M H O M E MADE IN USA
100451A_Baldhead I 2411.indd 1
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OUT AND ABOUT
WITH THE AMOUNT OF MOTORSPORTS HISTORY SITTING AND RACING AROUND, ATTENDING RRVI IS LIKE BEING GIVEN A VIP PASS AND HAVING SECURITY LOOK THE OTHER WAY When you’re not listening to war stories from these legends, you can bless your ears with another treat: the sound of these cars being flung around the 2.2-mile track. As you enter the course over the pit straight bridge, you’re greeted by a sonorous collection of Flying Lizard 997s coming off pit limiters to wide-open throttle, and Falken Tire machines cracking off flame-inducing downshifts as they fly into turn one. Truth be told, you never really soak it all in—no matter how many hours you stand trackside. There’s never that feeling that you get when you arrive at the end of a Cars and Coffee parking lot and think, “Oh, I guess that’s it.” Rows upon rows of race trailers line the infield section behind the pit lane. With the amount of motorsports history sitting and racing around, attending RRVI is like being given a VIP pass and having security look the other way. Surely that wasn’t an LMP1 car that just roared by me? Mechanics scramble to remove tires and replace wear items. Out rumbles another straight-piped 911 RSR toward the hot pits. There’s a near constant changing of the guards. In comes the Werks Trophy class, comprising sleek 906s, 908s, 910s and the stunning 917s, and out goes the Weissach Cup class, replete with flame-spitting 935s. In all seven different groups, there’s structured on-track action from sunup to sundown. If there’s a Porsche chassis that you love, you’ll find it hammering, kerbing and bouncing off the redline here. To get the best view of the action, you can hop aboard a Rothmans- or Pink Pig–liveried Panamera—the cladding is a forgivable sin given that they take you to the top of the track, rewarding you with gorgeous views along the way. The Corkscrew might feature a 40-foot drop, but the constant blipping of throttle and flame-spitting exhaust feels constant. Watching the suspensions dabble with gravity is a more entertaining physics lesson than anything you could learn in a classroom. Is it possible to nail down a defining moment of the event? Walking in between a dozen idling 959s staging at track entrance; witnessing the 919 Evo break the lap record at the hands of Neel Jani; watching a pair of Gulf-liveried 917s twitch under acceleration as they struggle for grip in a straight line; or seeing the Dakar-winning Safari 911 take a line through the Corkscrew that would make Zanardi blush. Maybe I’ve just drunk the kühl-aid, but it’s collectively kind of amazing. Porsche touts this event as a family reunion, and I’d be inclined to agree with that claim. The only difference is that I’ve never had so much fun with my real family for four days in a row. CCC
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SHUTTER
SPEED R AC I N G P H OTO G R A P H E R R I P S H AU B I S O N E O F THE MOST SEASONED TRACKSIDE SHOOTERS I N T H E G A M E , R O U T I N E LY C O N Q U E R I N G T H E S E E M I N G LY I M P O S S I B L E TA S K O F C A P T U R I N G S P E E D I N A S TAT I C I M A G E .
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ip Shaub can be found trackside at all major international motorsports events, snapping the blistering action on his Nikon. Rip, a West Virginia native, studied photojournalism until his college dissolved the program, when he switched his focus to art school. After a few post-college jobs, Rip’s big photography break came. In October 2016, Time Inc.’s automotive publication The Drive asked Rip to shoot some cars at Circuit of The Americas in Texas. Rip had never really tried shooting moving vehicles, but the assignment went well and The Drive was happy. Rip was hooked, and set out to find ways of shooting the racing scene more often. He shot lawn-mower racing, go-kart tracks, drifting, dirt tracks, street drag racing, demolition derbies—you name it. In early 2017, Rip got a single-race NASCAR credential through The Drive. His work was quickly recognized as supreme, and he has since shot Formula 1, MotoGP, IndyCar, IMSA, WEC, NASCAR, Blancpain GT, NHRA and AMA events, as well as countless pro-am, amateur and grassroots series. In the last two and a half years, Rip has shot around 75 races at more than 30 tracks. And he hasn’t looked back. Classic Car Club Manhattan spoke with Rip about his process, his style, and the world of moto photography. WHEN YOU GET TO A TRACK, WHAT’S YOUR GAME PLAN? DO YOU SAY, “OKAY, TURN FOUR IS WHERE THE ACTION IS, I’M GOING TO PUT MYSELF THERE,” OR DO YOU JUST WORRY ABOUT SCORING THE SHOT?
If it’s a track I’ve shot before, I’ll have a plan in place. I’ll start by hitting the spots where I know I can get simpleto-shoot but interesting enough shots relatively quickly. If I’m shooting for editorial content, like The Drive, I’ll try to knock out a good, clean shot of every car in the field right off the bat. That way, a writer can take any story line they want during race previews and I’ll have images for them to use. If I’m shooting for a team, I’ll go where I can grab a handful of different angles right away so they can fire off some posts on social media. Those locations are at the mercy of where the sun is during their first session, and where I can get to. From there, it’s about balancing good light and good action, and what the job or client dictates. For a new track, I’ll look at work by other photographers beforehand. That gives a sense of what I’m facing, and any iconic or important shots I’ll want to get. Once I get there, I can always find a photographer in the media center who I know has shot there before, which is good for finding out about access and getting around. They’ll know which section in the grandstands is best for race start, how the paddocks are organized… that sort of thing. I always go to photo meetings to find out about things like restricted areas, gate lock codes and reserved shooting positions. For a natural-terrain road course or a street circuit, I try to do an entire lap of the track from the trackside access and visualize shots. I use the Sun Surveyor app, and mark up a map with times and positions.
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AN ACTION PHOTO ISN’T NEWS WITHOUT CONTEXT, AND CONTEXT WITHOUT ACTION IS JUST LOCATION PHOTOGRAPHY. IF SOMEONE CAN LOOK AT MY SHOT AND GET A TRUE SENSE OF SPEED WHILE STILL HAVING A SENSE OF WHAT IT WAS LIKE TO BE THERE, I’M GOOD For me, getting around a track is always a big component of a weekend, and it’s never the same at any two tracks. At Road America, you just drive your cart from spot to spot. At Long Beach, it’s all on foot—no carts or scooters. I don’t usually have a cart of my own, but I have friends who shoot that generally do have them, so I can often hitch a ride. But mostly, it’s a lot of footwork. At the Rolex 24 in Daytona this year, I covered 37 miles in four days. I just got back from the SuperSebring [the FIA World Endurance Championship 1,000 miles of Sebring, followed by the International Motor Sports Association’s 12 hours of Sebring], where I walked 42 miles. I cleared 40 miles at the 500 at Indianapolis last year. Some events have photo shuttles, but they are a curse as much as a blessing. I’ve never shot a race where that was a reliable, viable solution for the whole event. And every track has its own unique nightmare to get to if you are on foot: T11 at COTA, T6-7 on driver’s left at Road Atlanta, T3 at Indy, and the Bus Stop or billboards at Daytona. T16 and T13 on driver’s left at Sebring are each a three-mile round trip on foot from the media center. I go through shoes quickly. YOU SEEM TO BE ABLE TO CONVEY THE CONCEPT OF SPEED IN AN IMAGE BETTER THAN MOST. WOULD YOU CONSIDER THE PAN (A TECHNIQUE WHERE THE PHOTOGRAPHER FOLLOWS A MOVING SUBJECT WITH THE LENS, CAPTURING A CRISP IMAGE OF THE SUBJECT ON A BLURRED BACKGROUND) A CORE COMPONENT TO YOUR STYLE?
My ideal shot is a blend of context and speed. Not enough pan, and you lose the speed; too much pan, and you lose the context. I’m always looking for a perfect balance. The basic pan is what we all start off learning; it puts motion in the wheels and softens the background a bit. But I’m looking for an extra element. That can be giving a sense of how fast a car is going in relation to the track or other cars, it can be giving a bigger sense of the racing line the car is taking, or it can be how the cars are positioned relative to
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PREVIOUS Dueling in the dark at the Rolex 24 at Daytona.
ABOVE Rip drags the shutter on race winner Fernando Alonso.
RIGHT In the wee hours, brakes are spectacular.
the environment. It all goes back to photojournalism, for me. An action photo isn’t news without context, and context without action is just location photography. If someone can look at my shot and get a true sense of speed while still having a sense of what it was like to be there, I’m good. Not everybody is out to capture the same way, and that’s where we get the wonderful variety of styles. A quarter-second pan obliterates so much of the background that it could be anywhere—everything loses appearance and relevance, and it becomes more about mood. Those that are done well are pure art; I love looking at them, and I appreciate the technical skill that goes into getting them. But they’re just not the story I want to tell. At the other end of the spectrum, visually parking a car on a track with everything showing up sharp is a different mindset, and there’s value in it. Clean, sharp logos and clear views of technical details have appeal with audiences and clients. YOUR STYLE IS WELL-DEFINED. WERE THERE PHOTOGRAPHERS YOU ADMIRED EARLY ON WHO WERE INSPIRATIONS FOR YOU? HOW DID YOU LAND IN THE AESTHETIC YOU HAVE THESE DAYS?
There are countless photographers who I admire and look up to. I wouldn’t even know where to start listing them, but I’m very fortunate to get to stand alongside them regularly. It’s a huge benefit when your idols are also your
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friends. I particularly admire the army of photographers that covers IMSA; they are talented and creative, and push me to be better. I’ve been fortunate to cover pretty much every professional series that races in the United States. Every series has a different style of photographer and a different approach, and many of the regular shooters in a series may never get the chance to branch out. There are lots of IndyCar shooters who have never shot an IMSA race, there are lots of NASCAR shooters who have never tried their hand at open-wheel cars, and there are NHRA shooters who have never shot a road course. I get to play, though. I mix it all up and try to find a different way of looking at things. ABOVE Fuzzy is more than vodka—it’s the shaky sign of speed.
LEFT Pit action tells the other half of the race story.
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WHAT KIND OF RACING DO YOU LIKE TO SHOOT BEST?
I love shooting MotoGP. It’s a whole different set of challenges than what cars present. It’s a three-dimensional problem, because the bike is also leaning over side to side. This makes slow-panning challenging, and you don’t want to be looking at the bottom of the bike, so that eliminates a lot of shooting positions that you have with cars. On the other hand, Dorna (the television rights holder for MotoGP)
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lets you get on the business side of the catch fencing at most tracks, so you have a lot more track to work with. As for cars, I like GT-class sports car racing on natural-terrain road courses—like IMSA, WEC, Blancpain GT. I really like the endurance races. Having 12 or 24 hours gives you lots of opportunities to capture different looks and different light. Every series has its pluses and minuses. Formula 1 is thrilling to shoot, but it’s so tightly regulated and buttoned up that it can lose a lot of spontaneity. NASCAR can feel a bit cookie-cutter after a while, but it’s very accessible. NHRA is a total rush, but it really takes a toll on you and your gear. IT’S NOT ALL ABOUT THE CARS. YOUR PIT CREW SHOTS ARE THE STUFF OF LEGEND. WHEN YOU SHOOT TEAMS AND PADDOCK LIFE, WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FOR BEFORE YOU CLICK THE SHUTTER?
Good team photography is tough. If I’m shooting editorial coverage, I can play around. Pit crew shots aren’t going to be in a race recap on The Drive, so I can take liberties and experiment. When shooting for a team, though, you have to remember that all of those team members are a huge part of that race weekend. There’s one car and one or two drivers, but there are at least 25 other people there as part of the team who are just as important to the success of the weekend. And that’s what the client wants to capture. A lot of work goes into understanding their schedules and knowing when they make their magic happen. If you miss that, you miss the shot. The most important thing, though, is simply being aware of what’s interesting. I spent a lot of time trying to time and align shots that were what I thought team photography was all about. It was a bad strategy. If you actually get the time and place right, at best you have a shot that has been done before. I had to learn to just look and watch as a fan—as an admirer. When something catches my eye, I need to figure out how to tell that story. It’s flipping a switch from showing viewers what they expect to see to
R I P S H AU B ’ S S T E P S FO R TA K I N G T H E P E R F E C T PA N S H O T
1. Find a good background. Colors and shapes are good. The slower your pan, the bigger the role of the background will be. 2. Watch for a bit before shooting. Get a good sense of the line that the cars are taking, and which drivers are doing it a little differently. This is very important in multi-class racing. An IMSA prototype takes a different line and brakes much later than a GT car. Be ready for it. 3. Start tracking before you start shooting, and follow through at the end. Turn your whole body. This will help keep you smooth as you pan. 4. Turn off vibration reduction! It will lock onto the background and the car will be blurry. 5. Start at a reasonable shutter speed. 1/250th of a second is enough to put some motion in the wheels. Once you are hitting those consistently, try going slower. 1/125 is usually as slow as you need to go for editorial coverage. Slower than 1/30 is artmaking territory—your hit rate will take a beating, but there are some pretty special shots that come at those speeds.
showing them what they could have seen if they were in your shoes. Those are much better photos. BEING TRACKSIDE IS NOT ALL GLAMOUR. CAN YOU TELL US A FEW OF THE DIFFICULTIES THAT COME WITH THE GIG?
BELOW Night rider. Porsche GT3 at Daytona.
It’s not glamorous, by any stretch. It’s dirty, noisy and gritty. You work weekends. Travel is endless. I’m always on rushed deadlines, and keeping myself fed is a constant challenge. Relationship management and the basics of running a small business take up more time and energy than the actual shooting and editing do. The money isn’t great, which means that you often have to juggle multiple clients at a single event, which can create some headaches. Managing credentials is a full-time job that I’d happily pay someone a salary to take care of if I could afford it. CCC
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PORTRAITS
THE HUSTLE Motorsports comes in all forms, from piloting radical Dakar race cars and Formula 1 missiles, to World Superbike motorcycles and tunnel hull race boats skipping across the water at triple-digit speeds. The racers that rise above the rest to take titles on the world stage all have one thing in common: a singular focus on themselves, and an ever-evolving and uncompromising relationship with speed. On any given week, you can find a legendary racer kicking tires or kicking back at Classic Car Club. Here is how a few of them describe their relationship with speed.
JAC K Y I C K X ////// ////// ////// //////
SI X 2 4 H O U R S O F LE M A NS VI CTO R I E S E I G HT FO RMU L A 1 WI NS CA N-A M CH A M P I O N DA KAR R AL LY WI NNE R
“SPEED IS MEANINGLESS—IT IS JUST A NUMBER. THE ONLY THING THAT MATTERS IS WINNING. EVERYTHING ELSE IS IRRELEVANT.”
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I M AGE BY M ICH A EL PR ICHINELLO
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J O R D A N TAY L O R ////// ////// ////// //////
2 4 HO U R S O F DAY TO N A WI NNER WE ATHERTE CH SPO RTSCAR C HAMPI ON R O LE X SP O RTS CAR SE RI E S CH AM PI ON 24 H O U R S O F L E MANS WI NNER
I M AGE BY JA M E Y PR IC E
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“EVERYTHING I DO IN MY LIFE IS TO TRY AND REPLICATE THE EMOTION AND SENSATION THAT YOU GET FROM BEING ON THE EDGE. MORE OFTEN THAN NOT, SPEED IS THE ANSWER. AS A RACING DRIVER, SPEED IS MY PURPOSE. IT’S WHAT BRINGS YOU CLOSER TO THE LIMIT, TO THE EDGE.” I M AGE BY JA M E Y PR IC E
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B R A N D O N PA A S C H ////// ////// ////// //////
T HE ON LY AME RI CAN RACI NG I N BRI TI SH SUPERBI KE K TM RC C UP C HAMPI ON C CS CH AM PI ON WE RA C HAMPI ON
“SPEED IS ALWAYS JUST IN FRONT OF ME. I CHASE IT EVERY SINGLE DAY. ONCE I CATCH IT, THE GOALPOSTS MOVE, AND I CHASE IT AGAIN.” I M AGE BY M ICH A EL PR ICHINELLO
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HÉLIO CASTRONEVES ////// ////// //////
23 I NDYCA R WI NS THRE E I NDI ANAP O LI S 50 0 WI NS SI X CHAM P CAR WI NS
“SPEED IS THE AIR I BREATHE. IT’S THE ONLY THING IN MY LIFE.”
I M AGE BY M ICH A EL PR ICHINELLO
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DIRT DRAG
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SPITTING UP SAND WOR D S A N D I M AGE S BY GR EG MOSS
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DIRT DRAG
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T H I N K WAC K Y R AC E S O N THE SET OF MAD MAX; T H AT ’ S A FA I R W AY T O DESCRIBE THE SIGHT OF SAND DRAG RACING IN AV E N A L , CA L I F O R N I A .
ABOVE Surf the dirt. Make your own wave.
RIGHT Gone in 0.6 seconds.
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ver the course of a long weekend in April, a sun-scorched patch of land in Avenal is home to a host of dragsters, jeeps, buggies and trucks, all souped up and tricked out to get the best time over the line. The track is 300 feet of loose, chewed-up sand and soil that’s regularly doused and ploughed to give the tractor-like tires that are fitted to every dragster’s rear axle plenty of grip. The sight of the fastest dragsters pulling away from the start line is nothing short of stunning. A queue of competitors gradually builds at the makeshift paddock and, once given the signal, two cars at a time rumble over to the start. Just on tick-over, the noise of some of these eight-liter leviathans is biblical. The Christmas tree blinks down to green, the V8s scream and, worryingly, my ribcage vibrates from the sheer noise. The tire walls flex and the shovel-sized paddles of rubber drag on the dirt, sending it forwards, backwards and every which way. The effect is like a firework display of horsepower, flames and sand. In a split second, the cars have disappeared, replaced by an explosion of dirt. And in a few seconds more, it’s all over, the shriek of engines fading into the distance. There’s a moment of eerie silence peppered with drops of still-falling dirt and stones. Taking a stroll around the dusty race park, I make my way through the maze of trailers, flatbeds and motor homes. The sickly-sweet smell of methanol stings my nostrils and waters my eyes as I watch one of the top eliminator cars being fired up and worked on. No one here does this as a profession; everyone mucks in, and it’s refreshing to
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DIRT DRAG
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see friends and families doing all they can to prep and fix the cars for each race. The rich fuel gets squirted directly into the air intake, helping to coax the 2,000-horsepower dragster into life. The car in question is a 200-inchwheelbase dragster with a 557-compression-ignition motor, named Red Warrior, driven by seasoned veteran and vice president of the track Ron d’Artenay. Now in his 70s, d’Artenay has been racing since 1974, and despite having also raced on asphalt, he’s always come back to sand drags. “I love it,” he says. “I don’t hunt, I don’t fish, I don’t play golf, I just drag race—that’s it!” I ask him what the appeal is compared with conventional drags. “The people, the atmosphere of everything—it’s more familyoriented and laid-back.” I get the impression, talking to a lot of the racers, that that’s the real draw, with asphalt drags becoming seemingly obsessed with budgets and results. Sand drag represents something with fun and ingenuity at its heart. “There’s no money in it, that’s for sure. The only money in it is what you put out!” d’Artenay continues. “That’s what I like about it. In my class, the motor is very forgiving—I can run four or five races a year for about three years before I tear into it.”
ABOVE Ron d’Artenay waits to unleash his Red Warrior with his family crew.
TOP 2-stroke engines and wheelie bars—speed concoctions.
BOTTOM LEFT Pre-combustion pleasantries.
BOTTOM RIGHT A tower of V8 power.
This particular weekend has attracted one of the biggest groups of racers seen at Avenal in years. With its popularity growing in recent years, the site is covered with a fantastically eclectic collection of vehicles, from no-expense-spared Larry Minor Jeeps to nitrous-fueled rat rod Dodge trucks. One of my favorites is an “altered” car, essentially a balls-out funny car, built by Andy Olivera. Nothing about it is subtle—a tubular cockpit cages the driver directly behind the engine, straddling the transmission, with the rear end right under their backside. I ask Olivera if there’s a skill to driving something so gnarly and intimidating, and his response is wonderfully frank. “You just want to kick it in its ass and go as fast as you can. With these cars, you want to piss it off, you wanna make it mad. When you drive ’em, you can’t like ’em, you gotta hate ’em, because if you like it you’re not gonna have your foot to the floor. Drive it like you stole it.” With such a gutsy approach to getting the holeshot, it’s impossible not to love this extreme form of drag racing. The stench of fuel, the dirt in your hair, the monster tires, the screaming V8s—it’s all so gloriously bonkers. CCC
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OFF-ROAD RACING
MINT CONDITION
F A S T A N D F I LT H Y AT M I N T 4 0 0 , T H E G R E AT A M E R I C A N O F F - R O A D R A C E BY SHARI GAB
“IN SOME CIRCLES, the Mint 400 is a far, far better thing
than the Super Bowl, the Kentucky Derby and the Lower Oakland Roller Derby Finals all rolled into one,” Hunter S Thompson wrote in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. “This race attracts a very special breed.” Nearly a half-century later, it still attracts a very special breed… of maniacs. Because speed is one beast to best on fresh, smooth track, but it’s another demon completely when you’re flying 130 miles per hour across rocks, silt, dirt and sand. Officially known as the 2019 BF Goodrich Tires Mint 400 powered by Monster Energy, what began in 1967 as a casual desert drive exploded into a weekend-long, 400-mile rally of horsepower and sandstorm-laden skullduggery. On the outskirts of Vegas, some 550 race teams (including 50 unlimited trucks, 50 6100s, 150 UTVs and—for the first time in 43 years—153 motorbikes) gunned for glory across truly unforgiving terrain. Competition was high with
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the likes of Formula 1 Champion Jenson Button, NASCAR racer Casey Mears and two-time UFC Champion Cain Velasquez on 2019’s roster. But with one singular mistake, the Mojave desert will throw even the most seasoned racer to the trenches. There is no room for error. The Mint 400 is about consistency and restraint. Drivers need to take it to the limit and beyond. But push too hard and the desert will push back. The Mint 400 is hard on equipment. Be it big-business pros in Trick Trucks flying on BF Goodrich’s most advanced rubber, or heart-of-steel racers in open-faced buggies, for 24 hours straight the track isn’t discerning. It can eat anyone. Still retaining its true outlaw heritage, the Mint 400 isn’t Baja. It isn’t King of Hammers. And it certainly isn’t Formula 1. It’s still rough-and-tumble racing for the people. Because all the money in the world can’t buy skill… and it certainly can’t buy heart. CCC
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SUIT UP
Crash and Burn
W
e all have our preferred weekend sports. Some are safer than others. Basketball, for instance— it’s a great sport, and part of the path to greatness includes a few rolled ankles and jammedup fingers, so the fun-to-fracture ratio is generally grandmother-approved. Ice hockey players are skating at speeds faster than running while wielding sticks and throwing hip checks, so the crunch quotient ratchets up. Grandma might cringe. Then there’s auto racing. In motorsport, pushing the envelope on the road to greatness cranks the mayhem metric significantly higher. For racers, sprained ankles are less of a concern than burning to death. Back in 1963, an Italian leatherworker named Sante Mazzarolo noticed the new sport of motocross emerging in northern Italy, with riders flush with speed but short on safety. So Sante put his knowledge of ski boots and leathercraft to work to create the first pair of protective motocross boots—and with those stitches, Alpinestars was born. In the early 1990s, Alpinestars took its motorcycle safety innovation to auto racing suits, equipping many of the world’s leading Formula 1 and Indy drivers with their flame-retardant ensembles. Each Alpinestars race suit is made of a multi-layer sandwich of Nomex® and aramid fibers to let the suit breathe, and to give the driver protection from thirddegree burns while engulfed in flames up to 2,100 degrees Fahrenheit for about half a minute. That’s enough time to escape a burning wreck and fight for glory once again. CCC
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SUIT UP
RUBENS BARRICHELLO Brazil Honda Racing F1 Team 2008
MARC LEIB
Germany Porsche Team, Le Mans 2015
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NICO HÃœLKENBERG Germany Sahara Force India F1 2012
JA R N O T R U L L I Italy Toyota Racing F1 2011
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MOTO
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T
here are few things in the world that return a bigger adrenalin kick than racing a motorcycle around a road track. The short list includes skimming across the ground in a wingsuit, fighting a bull or putting yourself in the jetblast of an A380 at takeoff. But for us at Classic Car Club, club-racing motorcycles is the proper mainline drug. We’ve been tapping the vein hard. This here is CCC’s weapon of choice for this season: the KTM RC390 Cup race bike. It’s a spry little killer, spawned from the genome of the road-going version, the RC390, but things get more radical quickly. KTM’s race factory equips the Cup machine with WP racing suspension, Akrapovič exhaust and 30 other KTM racing parts: adjustable rearsets, lightweight race wheels, race clutch and brake system, track-ready fairing—the works. This one here, owned by team member Michael Prichinello, is further worked with a Driven triple tree, Driven Halo clip-ons and Driven rearsets to allow for more adjustability, as well as
ABOVE A different kind of cup hung in CCC’s restaurant.
LEFT Prichinello slingshots out of turn 2 at Summit Point.
his provocative forged-aluminum Marchesini wheels with ceramic bearings, and a SpeedAngle data logger to keep track of the tenths. The RC390 Cup isn’t the fastest bike out there, but it’s damn quick—and that’s the point. While most riders on track opt for 600 and 1,000 cc motorcycles, producing 100 and 180 horses respectively, the little 390 produces 48 horses and weighs a featherweight 330 pounds. So, it’s true that those bigger bikes blitz us on the straights, but in the corners the RC390 Cup is king, and we’re around the big bikes, on the outside, by turn five. And that’s the hook. The cornerstone of motorsport. If you really want to go fast, start small. Find your own limits before the limits of the machine. Work on your weaknesses, then attack the limits of the machine with your newfound skill. Then, get on—or in—the next machine on the ladder. For CCC’s moto team, that machine is the Yamaha FZ-07 R, built by Andy Palmer of AP Moto Arts. But more on that next season. CCC
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HISTORIC RACING
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An uphi l l B AT TLE WOR D S A N D I M AGE S BY GR EG MOSS
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n the heart of the Worcestershire countryside, not far from the border of Wales, sits a grassy hill steeped in racing glory. Every Easter weekend, this 1:1.5 hill that overlooks the fields and picturesque village of Great Witley is transformed from pasture to drag strip, and becomes the site of the Red Marley Hill Climb. Sitting at the bottom of the track, staring up at the rise ahead, four riders start each race side by side on equal footing; as soon as the motocross-style gate drops, they launch themselves up the quarter-mile slope with a wristful of revs. The origins of this race are in the early 1920s, though then it was less of a drag race, with only two riders competing at a time on a one-lap course that snaked its way up the hill. The racing might seem tough now, but just imagine how grueling it must have been trying to race up a near-vertical incline on something as antiquated as a hardtail, girder-forked AJS. The Red Marley event was a regular fixture up until the 1970s, when it ceased due to low entry numbers. After a hiatus of 30 years, it returned, albeit to a different hill— literally the one opposite, on the other side of the village— and since then it has drawn every kind of bike-racing devotee you can imagine. The one race stipulation is that all bikes must be pre-1974 models, so the collection of bikes racing is eclectic to say the least. It’s a proper British affair: the perfect mix of eccentric characters, old-fashioned machinery and gung ho attitudes towards throwing oneself up a ridiculously steep hill at
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breakneck speeds. The starting line is a cacophony of twostroke and four-stroke thumpers constantly being revved up or kicked over. Riders astride BSAs, Triumphs, Greeves, Maicos—and even the odd Ducati—sit waiting, parked up between the “Tea and Cakes” stand and the starting line. Think Steve McQueen on the set of Hot Fuzz. Families sit outside their campers and transit vans, mugs of tea in hand, ready to cheer their sons, daughters, fathers, aunts, granddads and other assorted friends and family members up Red Marley—or to take up the tools and gaffer tape if things go pear-shaped. I’ve been to this hill climb-cum-tournament a number of times over the years, and I love seeing the same faces. Come rain, shine, sleet or snow, they always make it back. As intimidating as it looks, there’s something about the event that holds universal appeal to all types of bikers—it’s like anything goes. “The first time I ever went up, I was bit apprehensive, to be honest,” 27-year-old Ben Butterworth tells me, astride his granddad’s immaculate BSA Cheney 500. “But now, as soon as that gate drops, the adrenaline kicks in and I’m fine. It’s just good fun—it’s probably one of the most enjoyable events for me because it’s fast from the off, a straight line, a couple of jumps, then a big jump at the top!” In a sense, Red Marley has become a rite of passage. Take the “Widows Bobsleigh Team,” for example: a roguish group of riders, all riding WLA Harleys from the 1940s. It would be hard to think of a motorcycle less suited to the job, but these boys come back every year like they’re on a pilgrimage. Knobbly tires fitted, body armor in
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HISTORIC RACING
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place, goggles donned, they sit at the starting gates—an incongruous sight among the two-strokes and BSAs. Their sole aim of the weekend, whether first or last, is to simply reach the top, and sometimes—to the roar of the crowds— they make it. One competitor who never appears to struggle, though, is 33-year-old Ricky Pedder from Derbyshire. On his Triumph Metisse, Ricky continually storms up the strip with the best time, and ultimately goes on to be crowned “King of the Hill” by the end of the day. The toughest part of the race is just before the summit. A jump nicknamed “the pimple” looms over the riders at the steepest point—a final test of skill and courage. Hitting it in the wrong gear without a handful of throttle almost guarantees failure, and many a rider hits the dirt like a deadweight—flipping backwards, pivoting on the rear wheel, hands still locked onto the bars in a last-ditch effort to keep it going. Calling it “the pimple” seems a bit of an understatement; surely something like “the face planter” would be more apt. I ask 25-year-old regular competitor Jake Isherwood, who races on his 250cc Bultaco, how it feels to land that jump. What’s his technique for survival? “I love that jump! When I put my helmet on, I turn into this nutter. That jump is just fantastic—full throttle, lean back and just hit it, let the bike take you. That’s the secret to it. That is the best part of the race.” Surely it’s got to be scary, though, battling with three other riders, then trying not to crash while gunning it through the air? “There’s no fear there, I’ve done it that long now,” Jake says. “The fear goes; it’s just about focus and getting that drive. It’s special—I love it, mate!” And with that I slowly hike my way up to the summit just in time to see the next fleet battle their way over the dusty horizon. CCC
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CYC L I N G
GOING FAST 
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ON A BICYCLE
R O U L A’ S C H E C K L I S T FOR PURE AND SIMPLE SPEED B Y M A R K VOY S E Y
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or many cyclists, going faster is the most basic goal—whether it’s faster over certain challenging sections of a favorite route, faster over a racecourse, or simply faster than the others in your group. In fact, speeding up travel has been a human objective for tens of thousands of years , so it’s no surprise that we’re still at it. Speeding up on a bike is different from most other means of transport, of course. It’s something that we think about often, and because we get to interact with everyone from casual riders to pro coaches to fit gurus, we’ve learned some things. From the relatively basic to the more involved, here are some considerations we recommend to our customers with a need for speed.
We’re referring more to things like proper fit, gearing and equipment, rather than getting things like racing tires or aero helmets. Those upgrades help later, but you need a strong foundation before any of those things matter. What do we mean? Get a professional fit; a few hours and couple of hundred bucks might seem like a significant investment, but when you’ve already spent a few grand on your steed, this will be the best next investment you make in your sport.
1 . PACI NG It’s hard to overstate the positive impact that budgeting your energy can have, particularly on longer rides. When your legs are fresh, it’s tempting to push the pace, but over and over again we recommend staying steady. Simply put, treat long rides as two halves, and leave more gas in the tank for the second one. You’ll not only be faster than you realize later in the ride, but you’ll also enjoy yourself more overall.
5. PROPER PEDAL ING AN D P OS IT IONING Yes, there is such thing as pedaling technique and healthy positioning on the bike. A proper fit can do amazing things for a cyclist’s overall comfort, efficiency, and, of course, speed. Tweaks to things like stem length, saddle height, saddle angle and pedal cleat positioning can sometimes feel minor, but they can add up to huge gains. Even more can come from making aerodynamic considerations. Meanwhile, you owe it to yourself to get a professional fit to make sure that you’re getting the most out of your bike. The more comfortable you are on the bike, the less you move your position around, and the less you move your position around, the more you can focus on that proper pedaling technique. What’s proper pedaling technique? If you’re only pushing down on the pedals, that’s not proper. The best cyclists—including nearly all of those you see in the pro pelotons, for example—have mastered a smooth, 360-degree pedal stroke, including the press, the pull and the turnover over of each pedal. Practice makes perfect, so take the time to practice proper pedaling once you get that proper fit. Finally, remember that the human body causes about 70 per cent of the total drag (the bicycle and
2. RI DE W IT H FAST ER R IDE RS Once you’ve got your pacing sorted, work on slowly dialing it up with faster riders around you. As with so many things, pushing yourself has a lot to do with context. Who you choose to ride with can dramatically shape your fitness. With faster folks in a group around you, you’ll be pushed—sometimes deliberately, sometimes indirectly—to ride better, faster and stronger overall. Don’t aim too high, but if speed is the goal, don’t let yourself get too comfortable, either. 3 . RI DE T HE RI GHT B IKE What they say is partially true: a faster bike doesn’t make for a faster rider. The rider may not change, sure, but the right machine can make speed easier.
4. MAI NTE NAN CE Look after your bike and give it a basic check before every long ride. Lube and clean your chain, and ensure that your tires have the correct tire pressure; this simple two-step check will result in less resistance—that optimum efficiency that will, in turn, make you faster.
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wheels about 30 per cent), so improvements to your riding position and weight will be the most important factor.
PREVIOUS Stealthy speed, Roula’s Pinarello Dogma F10 with Shimano Dura-Ace electronic shifters.
ABOVE Every inch of the F10 is sculpted for windcutting speed.
RIGHT Light makes right in color and composition.
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6 . F I ND TH E RIGH T GEA R No, not great-looking apparel and gadgets, but the ratio you set your gears at. Use gears sensibly and appropriately to hit your rhythm. Finding a comfortable and proper cadence (80–100 cranks per minute) will help your muscles and legs last longer. On climbs, always shift to an easier gear (90–95 cadence), as muscles tire out faster when you’re pushing a slower 65 or 70. So, don’t get caught up in pushing up a steep hill out of the saddle because the other riders (who are 30 pounds lighter than you) are! 7. FUE L T HE E NGINE Obviously, cycling can be rigorous. It’s easy to get too in your head about it all and forget the basics like hydration and food intake, but the impact of proper fueling can be the difference between a good day on the bike and a horrible one. Everyone’s body is different, but some basics apply to nearly anyone: eat about 200–300 calories of solid
food—like bars or other carbs—every hour on any ride longer than two hours to properly maintain your energy. Soft foods like GU packets can help, but shouldn’t totally replace solid foods—at least not on longer rides. Energy drink mixes, like those from Skratch Labs, can also quench your thirst for electrolytes, which water alone can’t help with if you’re not also supplementing your ride with food. Speaking of water and hydration, keep it coming, too, especially if it’s hot out. For road riding, a rate of about 20 ounces of water every 20 miles is reasonable for average temperatures (65 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit). Listen to your body, however, and take into consideration things like humidity, sunlight exposure and other variables that may dictate consuming less or more water. 8. FIN ALLY Before you start shelling out money, remember that these improvements will be very small compared with those that could be gained by losing weight, riding more and getting fitter. If you want to spend some money in the bike shop in your bid for speed, then your best bet is to get properly bikefitted and make sure that you’re wearing slim, Lycra kit. CCC
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ROULA
Classic Car Club’s neighbor, Roula, is a global, high-end cycling concierge platform at Pier 76 in Hudson River Park. Roula’s networked team of bike shops and bike guides help busy traveling cyclists have a stress-free, healthy and enjoyable experience by advance booking their bike and, where required, delivering it to them at their hotel or office. Only superbikes are served, including the finest from Giant, Pinarello, Serotta Design Studio and others.
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ELECTRIC
POLESTAR 1
SPEED WITHOUT COMPROMISE
PURE. PROGRESSIVE. PERFORMANCE. These are
words that conjure images that any motoring enthusiast is only too happy to dream about. But in recent years, these words have also become synonymous with the breathtaking acceleration and massive torque that are produced by electric and hybrid vehicles. The next generation of vehicle propulsion is more powerful and more efficient, yet better for the planet. Case in point: when the Polestar 1—an electric performance hybrid from Volvo’s new performance electric brand—made its debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed last year, it sent shockwaves through the English countryside. The striking design of the Polestar 1 turned heads when it charged up the historic hill climb, its sleek and sophisticated lines practically exuding speed. With two electric motors powering the rear wheels and a twin-charged gasoline engine up front, the plugin hybrid pumps out 600 horses and an astonishing 737
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pound-feet of torque, all while boasting an impressive pure EV range that would let you do 20 laps each of Indy and Daytona. Additionally, the Polestar 1 comes with Öhlins suspension and a body made almost entirely of carbon fiber. If that doesn’t get your blood pumping on a cold Scandinavian morning, maybe nothing will. There’s a definite cultural shift upon us as far as what powers our vehicles and what powers our lives. With cars like the Polestar 1 making strides in innovation and technology, we’re headed in the right direction—towards a future where performance, speed and sustainability can all thrive side by side, without compromise. Find out more about this low-volume work of art at www.polestar.com, where you can even configure your own Polestar 1. For our money, it’s hard to go past the Midnight Matte exterior with Charcoal interior and Zinc seats. CCC
Crystal Caves, Grand Cayman. This is a creative representation; stepping in the water is not permitted.