Colin-on-Cars - Showdown in the desert

Dakar 2023 continued to deliver epic action as competitors fought on through the Arabian Desert on Thursday. 9-time World Rally Champion Sebastien Loeb continued to pile on the pressure through Day 11 as he took his fourth stage win on the trot. Car leader Nasser Al Attiyah however held strong up front as South African cars dominate. It was a game of cat and mouse in a tight bike race.

Thursday’s 274 km run into the literal middle of nowhere across the Empty Quarter’s dunes and dried up pans served as the first part of Dakar 2023’s two-day no service marathon stage. Which meant that crews took it relatively easy as they headed to their secret, isolated overnight desert bivouac.

It's Loeb (top) versus Al-Attiyah in the desert duel

CARS: NASSER SOAKS UP LOEB’S PRESSURE

In the hope of pressurising the leading Toyotas into a problem, Loeb and Fabian Lurquin continued to push flat out up front in their Prodrive Factory Hunter. Shadowed by Guerlain Chicherit’s similar Prodrive machine, and Mattias Ekstrom’s surviving Audi RS Q e-Tron quattro, their pace was relentless.

Fourth home, Brazilian rookie sensation Lucas Moraes and Timo Gottschalk did enough to keep ahead of the flying Loeb in second overall. Their dice for second should prove epic as the race winds down towards Sunday’s finish. Loeb took six minutes out of Moraes on the day, to cut his overall deficit to second overall to under ten minutes. 

Behind Moraes, overall leaders Al-Attiyah and Mathieu Baumel consolidated their handy hour and 21-minute overall lead with fifth on the day in their Toyota Gazoo Racing Hilux DKR T1+. They came home ahead of two more GR Toyota Hiluxes, SA teammates Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings and Yazeed Al Rajhi, and best of the 4x2s, Mathieu Serradori’s SA-built Century CR6-T.

Henk Lategan

There’s no change in the top five cars overall as Al Attiyah continues to lead Moraes, Loeb, Lategan and SA legend Giniel De Villiers. Martin Prokop is up to sixth in his Ford Raptor, from former Le Mans winner Romain Dumas in another GR Hilux. SA duo Brian Baragwanath and Leonard Cremer still lead T1.2 4x2’s in their Century CR6-T.

Runaway amateur T1.1 overall leaders, Daniel Schröder and SA notes man Ryan Bland’s PS Laser Red-Lined VK50 held a strong advantage class on the road with Thomas Bell and SA navigator Gerhard Schutte’s similar machine in hot pursuit. This means that South African designed, built and developed machinery continues to lead three of Dakar’s four car classes.

BIKES: CAT & MOUSE UP FRONT

It was another day of cat and mouse in the bikes. Overall leaders, Skyler Howes’ Husqvarna and KTM duo Toby Price and Kevin Benavides are duking it out for the Dakar 2023 win. Price was fourth on the day from Howes in fifth, with Benavides five minutes behind in 11th. That was enough to see Howes back into a 28 second lead from Price with overnight leader Benavides third, two minutes and 44 seconds adrift.

Luciano Benavides (top) and Toby Price

Sixth overall, brother Luciano Benavides took his third stage win of the year on his Husqvarna from seventh man Daniel Sanders’ GasGas, Price, Howes; fourth overall Pablo Quintanilla’s Honda and Sebastian Bühler’s Hero. Fifth overall, Adrien van Beveren languished in 17th after being the second bike to open the road. Wednesday’s winner, Botswana’s Ross Branch also struggled to 19th.

Third to set off, rookie bike leader, SA hero Michael Docherty rode home 16th overall and second in amateur R2 on his FK Husqvarna. Compatriot and teammate Charan Moore had a tough day to 48th as he slipped to second in no service Malle Moto overall. SA trio, Stuart Gregory was 68th to move up to 8th in Malle Moto, Rookie Stevan Wilken was 81st and Iron Lady Kirsten Landman 86th.

Joao Ferreira led the T3 side-by-side prototypes from Mitch Guthrie, after leader Guilaume de Mevius hit trouble. That allowed Red Bull duo Austin Jones to move ahead of Seth Quintero overall. SA duo Geoff Minnitt and Gerhard Snyman’s HBE Can Am sat 14th while rookie leaders Eben Basson and Abertus Pienaar were 22nd in their GR Rally.

Local hero Yasir Seaidan led South Can Am teammate Cristiano Batista and overall leader Rokas Baciuska in the T4 side by sides. Marcelo Medeiros took quad honours from overall top two Alexandre Giroud and Moreno Flores. And Dutch Iveco trio, Martin and Mitchel van den Brink sandwiched overall truck leader Janus van Kasteren on the road. 

Friday’s 185 km second half of the marathon stage is another sandy, pan and dune filled day back to service at Shaybah. Before two more days to the finish on Sunday. 

Words: Motorsport Media

https://bit.ly/3iyRJFD

Colin-on-Cars - Disaster day for Audi

South African Toyota Hiluxes are in complete control of Dakar 2023 after a catastrophic Day 6 for the petrol-electric Audi team. Nasser Al-Attiyah and Mathieu Baumel’s Gazoo Racing Hilux DKR T1+ steamed to their third stage win of the race and their second on the trot from Sebastien Loeb’s BRX Hunter. Attiyah opened up an hour’s advantage at the head of a Toyota overall 1-2-3-4 on Friday.

Al Attiyah is in complete control

AL ATTIYAH, TOYOTA IN COMPLETE CONTROL

The race was turned on its head when both Stéphane Peterhansel and Carlos Sainz crashed their second and third placed Audis heavily at the same point 212 km into the day’s stage. Peterhansel’s navigator Edouard Boulanger hurt his back, eliminating them from the race. Sainz and Lucas Cruz were left stranded in the desert as they waited for back-up to arrive.

The thrilling Dakar 2023 bike race delivered its seventh different winner in seven days when Luciano Benavides led Skyler Howes home in a Husqvarna 1-2. South African amateurs, second among the rookies Michael Docherty and new Malle Moto Original leader Charan Moore continued to star. The drama started before the day even commenced in icy 6C temperatures, when the overnight bivouac was relocated to Riyadh and the stage shortened by approximately 100 km to 358 km after extreme storms in the area.

Baragwanath back in top 6

BARAGWANATH BACK IN TOP SIX ON DAY 6

Peterhansel, Sainz, Al Attiyah, Loeb and Saudi home hero Yazeed Al Rajhi fought it out early on, before third overall, Al Rajhi hit trouble and stopped. Then the Audis went out dramatically, leaving Al Attiyah to take an easy three-and-a-half-minute victory over 9-time World Rally Champion Loeb in his Prodrive Hunter alongside co-driver Fabian Lurquin. South African crew Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings (top) placed third to make it two South African built Gazoo Racing Hiluxes on the podium.

Loeb’s BRX teammates, Guerlain Chicherit and Vaidotas Zala followed ahead of Mattias Ekstrom’s surviving Audi in sixth. SA Century Factory Racing CR6-T crews, Frenchmen Mathieu Serradori and Loic Minaudier, and Brian Baragwanath and Leonard Cremer were 8th and 10th with the delayed SA Hilux crew Giniel De Villiers and Dennis Murphy 24th.

Skyler Howes leads the bikes

HOWES LEADS BIKES AFTER DAY 6

That leaves Al Attiyah in a commanding lead from teammate Lategan, rookie Hilux privateer Lukas Moraes, and de Villiers. Ekstrom is a close fifth from Loeb and former Le Mans winner Romain Dumas in another Hilux. Back in the top ten, T1.2 4×2 class leader Baragwanath sits 9th overall with teammate Serradori 16th. SA navigators, Ryan Bland lies 35th alongside Daniel Schröder, and Gerhard Schutte 43rd with Tom Bell. All four of their SA Red-Lined team bakkies are still running strong , with Schroder and Bland leading the T1.1 class.

Friday’s bike race was far less complicated. Argentine Luciano Benavides became the seventh different bike winner in seven days when he led a Factory Husqvarna 1-2 over Skyler Howes and Toby Price’s KTM. Joan Barreda’s Honda was fourth from Kevin Benavides’ KTM, Pablo Quintanilla’s Honda, Daniel Sanders’ GasGas and Jose Florimo’s Honda. Flormino led Howes early on before Howes took over, only to be pipped at the post by teammate Benavides.

Man Alone. Malle Moto leader Moore

MOORE LEADS MALLE MOTO AFTER DAY 6

Botswana’s Ross branch ended 18th on his Hero. South African Michael Docherty was 28th to stay second among the rookies. His FK Husqvarna teammate and countryman Charan Moore rode in 32nd and was the second Malle Moto bike home, to move himself into an 11 minute Original class overall lead. Their compatriots were still racing, Stuart Gregory in 67th, Stevan Wilken 78th and lady heroine Kirsten Landman 87th.

Howes leads the bikes overall by three minutes. Price is third from Kevin Benavides, Barreda, van Beveren and Quintanilla. Docherty is 23rd overall, Moore 32nd and Branch 38th. Gregory sat 71st, Landman 80th and Wilken 84th. Dominant Alexandre Giroud was finally beaten by Manuel Andujar in the quads. Giroud followed ahead of Moreno Flores and Pablo Copetti.

Ross Branch hanging in there

In limbo

Still racing on Friday, Janus van Kasteren, Darek Rodewald and Marcel Snijders’s Iveco led Mitchel van den Brink’s and Martin Macik’s similar machines in the trucks. Martin van den Brink, Rijk Mouw Erik Kofman’s Iveco led overall from Thursday winner Ales Loprais’ Praga and van Kasteren. Michal led Marek Goczal and overall leader Rodrigo Luppi De Oliveira in the T4s from Rokas Baciuska.

Overall leaders and Friday winners Guilaume de Mevius and Francois Casalet’s GR led the T3prototypes from Ignacio Casale’s Yamaha and Austin Jones’s Can Am after Seth Quintero and Dennis Zenz won on Friday. SA crew Eben Basson and Abertus Pienaar’s GR Rally ran 12th on the road and 10th overall, while Geoff Minnitt and Gerhard Snyman were lying 31st on the stage and 18th overall.

The length and status of Saturday’s stage 7 originally slated to be the longest of Dakar 2023 remains in limbo as organisers scramble to reorganise after today’s shift to Riyadh.

Words: Motorsport Media

https://bit.ly/3QjaARs

 New designs for greener future from BMW

Designed by BMW but to be manufactured by an independent third party, the quest for an electric future has taken the Munich, Germany company back to the two and three-wheel drawing board. 

With the unveiling of the electrified bicycle Concept Dynamic Cargo and the e-scooter Concept Clever Commute, the BMW Group engineers are transferring know-how from the automotive sector to concepts for micromobility vehicles.

Bicycles offer great flexibility of use, produce zero emissions and are one of the fastest and most efficient means of transport in urban areas. However, rainy, cold or slippery conditions are usually all it takes for the majority of cyclists to switch to public transport or their car instead. 

The same applies when they need to carry loads that are too large for a standard luggage rack to handle, such as a larger food shop, or to transport children. A wide range of cargo bikes are now available that offer an additional alternative to using the car for urban trips. 

However, many cargo bike concepts are wider and, above all, longer than normal bicycles due to the requirements for transporting loads and/or children. In conjunction with the resulting additional weight and the possible payload, this leads to restrictions of varying degrees compared to normal bicycles, particularly with regard to driving agility and handling.

"Our goal was to develop a concept that retains the agility and driving feel of a normal bicycle while adding innovative, safe transport options," says Jochen Karg, Head of Vehicle Concepts in the BMW Group's New Technologies and China division. "The ‘Concept Dynamic Cargo’ is the first dynamic 'pick-up' cargo bike that combines driving pleasure with flexible use and increased year-round suitability."

The key component of the three-wheeled Concept Dynamic Cargo is the front main frame, which is connected to the rear section via a pivot axle and tilts in corners. The rear section remains stable through all corners without tilting towards the road.

 

This combines with the electrified powertrain – which is activated as soon as the rider starts to pedal and drives the two rear wheels – to make the cargo bike just as easy to ride as a standard bicycle. As well as producing far greater riding stability in all weather conditions compared to two-wheeler designs, the rear wheels with their rigid, non-pivoting axle mounting also provide the basis for a versatile, pick-up-style transport platform. 

This can be fitted with a selection of modular attachments for carrying luggage and/or children. The modular design principle paves the way for many more use cases, too. The non-pivoting design of the transport platform has the additional benefit that the rider is barely aware of any extra weight being carried, enabling safe, stable transportation of all loads while also ensuring a pleasurable riding experience.

The concept is rounded off by a facility for adding a modular system of weather protection. Together with the superior riding safety, which proves especially useful in adverse weather, this makes the Concept Dynamic Cargo an attractive means of transport all year round.

Although the BMW Group will not manufacture the Concept Dynamic Cargo itself, it is already in discussions with potential licensees.

E-scooters offer flexible usability, zero local emissions and the ability to get city dwellers to their destination extremely quickly over short ‘last-mile’ urban journeys. The uptake of e-scooters for private ownership has been relatively slow to date. Robust models that can be ridden safely are difficult to take onto public transport or carry by car due to their size, while small, more portable models suffer from poor riding stability.

With its Concept Clever Commute, the BMW Group is now presenting an e-scooter that folds easily for carrying on public transport and/or by car without compromising on riding stability in any way. 

In public transport mode, the footboard folds up at the sides and the rear wheel pivots into the resulting aperture from below. This mechanism shortens the wheelbase of the Clever Commute substantially so that it can even be carried on an escalator without difficulty. 

This is an important requirement if the journey includes underground transport routes. It can also be rolled along on both wheels in this mode, rather like a trolley case. And the front wheel’s integral hub motor provides an electric impulse that makes it easier to push the Clever Commute up ramps. The e-scooter’s compact dimensions when folded up means it should be possible to take it on all forms of public transport free of charge.

The Clever Commute can be folded up to a size that fits easily into small vehicle boots, with larger boots able to accommodate several of them for family outings. In the BMW Group range, this means that the Clever Commute fits into luggage compartments lengthways from the 3 Series upwards, for example, without any need to fold down the rear backrest, and it can be carried crossways in MINI boots.

With its unique product characteristics, the Clever Commute is a versatile companion in the city and allows any journey to be completed quickly, safely and easily. Its transformability makes it a truly ideal solution for multimodal travel.

Although the BMW Group will not manufacture the Concept Clever Commute itself, it is already in discussions with potential licensees.

Both micromobility concepts have been designed to offer a range of over 20 kilometres. One final very important feature for city use is the battery pack, which can be removed and charged at home.

 Honda 'evolutionises the NC750X

Gaining 2 kW more power and throttle-by-wire with three riding modes, the Honda NC750X takes a grand evolutionary step from the initial variant launched back in 2012 (and updated in 2016 and 2018).

The storage compartment (where the fuel tank would normally be), capable of holding a full-face helmet and Honda’s Dual Clutch Transmission (DCT) are features that set the NC750X apart. 

More peak power for the NC750X’s EURO5-spec engine plus an extra 600 r/min to the redline are the headline changes, thanks to work on valve timing and intake/exhaust efficiency. Shorter ratios for first, second and third gears smarten response while a slipper clutch reduces lever load and keeps the ride smooth on rapid downshifts. 

Throttle-by-wire (TBW) brings with it adjustable engine character through three default rider modes - Rain, Standard and Sport plus a customisable User mode. Honda Selectable Torque Control (HSTC) now has a finer level of input over three levels, while the Dual Clutch Transmission (DCT) option features Automatic shifting schedules that integrate with the riding modes, as well as User control. 

It is also 6 kg lighter, thanks to a new frame and detail improvements around the engine and bodywork. There’s also a sharper, more minimalist edge to the bodywork, with fresh style for both LED headlight, taillight and rear indicators, while the redesigned storage space grows in volume and usability. 

Seat height is reduced 30 mm, the screen offers more wind protection and a new LCD dash is an attractive addition.   

The design of the NC750X’s liquid-cooled, SOHC 8-valve parallel twin-cylinder engine ensures punchy performance in the low-to-mid range. Its relatively long-stroke architecture and specially shaped combustion chamber combine with the high-inertial mass crankshaft to produce large amounts of effortless torque from very low revs. 

The addition of a slipper clutch for 2021 reduces lever load by 20% and manages rear-wheel lock up under fast down changes of the manual 6-speed gearbox while decelerating. 

The NC750X engine sips fuel ­– with a measured consumption of 28,3 km/l (WMTC mode) providing a near 400 km range from the 14,1-litre underseat fuel tank. 

With TBW now managing engine performance and character there are three modes for the rider to choose from for various riding conditions. Mode selection is managed between the left-hand switchgear and the LCD display. 

SPORT gives more aggressive delivery of engine power and braking, with low HSTC intervention and DCT mode 4. 

RAIN delivers engine power and braking least aggressively, has high HSTC intervention and Level 1 for the DCT shift pattern. 

STANDARD delivers a balanced middle point for engine power delivery, engine braking and HSTC intervention, plus mode 2 for the DCT. 

USER offers custom options of low/medium/high for delivery of engine power and engine braking, low/medium/high/off for HSTC, and four different shift patterns for DCT. 

Honda Selectable Torque Control (HSTC) is fitted as standard on both the manual and DCT NC750X. It now offers much softer, finer control as it manages rear wheel torque thanks to TBW, over 3 levels as opposed to 2: 

Level 1 allows the minimum intervention for some rear wheel spin – on gravel or dirt for instance, and its level of control is reduced from the previous design. 

Level 2 is the default setting and provides traction for general riding conditions. 

Level 3 provides maximum control for slippery roads. 

HSTC can also be switched OFF. 

The ‘easy and direct’ DCT technology delivers consistent gear changes up or down and very quickly becomes second nature in use. It uses two clutches: one for start-up and 1^st, 3^rd and 5^th gears: the other for 2^nd, 4^th and 6^th, with the mainshaft for each clutch located inside the other for compact packaging. 

Each clutch is independently controlled by its own electro-hydraulic circuit. When a gear change occurs, the system pre-selects the target gear using the clutch not currently in use. The first clutch is then electronically disengaged as, simultaneously, the second clutch engages. 

With the DCT gearbox, the rider may choose Manual mode, using paddle-style triggers on the left handlebar to change gear, or Automatic mode. In Automatic mode for the NC750X,  four different shifting schedules operate, with three defaults: Level 1 is the most relaxed, and is used within Rain mode; Levels 2 and 4 shift up at higher revs and are linked with Standard and Sport riding modes.   

The NC750X has a sharpened identity thanks to redrawn, smaller upper and lower fairings accentuated by the fuel tank. A new LED headlight and running lights form a strong frontal signature. 

Improving wind and weather protection, the screen is also new. The side panels and side covers are slimmer and, along with the seat unit, are underlined by the exhaust muffler, further emphasising the mass-forward stance. 

Honda’s development engineers started with the tubular steel diamond frame and, through a careful redesign (using varying tube thicknesses and weight) not only saved 1,8 kg over the previous model but also freed up more useful space for the storage compartment by relocating the battery and redesigning the airbox.

Technical Specifications

ENGINE
Type	Liquid-cooled 4-stroke 8-valve, SOHC parallel 2-cylinder. EURO5 compliant.
Displacement	745cc
Bore & Stroke	77mm x 80mm
Compression Ratio	10.7: 1
Max. Power Output	43.1kW @6,750rpm
Max. Torque	69Nm @ 4,750rpm
Oil Capacity	4L
FUEL SYSTEM
Carburation	PGM-FI electronic fuel injection
Fuel Tank Capacity	14.1 litres
Fuel Consumption	MT: 28.3km/l (WMTC mode) DCT: 28.3km/l (WMTC mode-Tested in D-Mode)

Pricing

NC50XA 21YM: R126 000 including VAT

NC750X DCT: R135 500 including VAT