Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Acura Integra with BMW 5-Series

Acura Integra GSR modified with a BMW 5 series headlight an taillight conversion.

Acura Integra BMW 5-Series
Acura Integra BMW 5-Series

Acura Integra GSR
Acura Integra GSR

Acura Integra wheels
Acura Integra wheels

BMW Acura Integra rear
BMW Acura Integra rear

Acura Integra interior
Acura Integra interior

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“Super Hybrid Sports” model that would be powered by a 450-hp 3.5L V6 engine mated to a hybrid system.

New Acura NSX
New Acura NSX

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

HP motor racing, Türnitz, A

What a spectacle! HP2 Enduro rider Simo Kirssi enthralled the Austrian offroad world last Sunday. At the fourth race of the BABOONS Austrian Cross Country Championship in Türnitz/Lower Austria, the Finn simply set new standards.

HP2 Enduro rider Simo Kirssi

Offroad only: the track consisted of 5% cross and 95% country. What a scenario. The approx. 5 km long Enduro world cup level course is probably the most demanding track to ride in the cross country series in Germany, Austria and Italy. Steep and narrow forest uphills, bristling with damp and moss-covered stones which simply beg riders for a fall. Similar style downhills loaded with winding tree roots are a nightmare for every front wheel.

HP motor racing, Türnitz

Kirssi said after having walked the course: "This is almost unrideable on the HP2. We´ve got two wide cylinders and about 60 kg more weight onboard than the single cylinder competition. In some places grooves will be dug out which almost reach up to the seat bench."

Kirssi Türnitz, A

Nevertheless "Coolman" Kirssi launched his attack on the leading group starting from 10. place as if the race would only last one round. Kirssi wove his way through tightly winding forest paths as if doing a slalom race. And it was truly thrilling what the crowd witnessed on this day. In 3. gear Kirssi milled a 100 m long strip into a steep forest incline which would have done any lumberjack proud. The spectators were absolutely stunned. Kirssi: "It´s amazing when you´re able to call up enough power in practically all riding situations at any time and that this power is transferred to the rear wheel in just the right amount. The new Conti damping is simply unbeatable in this respect."

Simo Kirssi HP2

The crowd caught its breath in the 12. round when Kirssi´s rear wheel drifted out of control when crossing a loamy hill and Kirssi and his bike slid down 10 m into a brook-bed. Once at the bottom though the Finn picked his bike up again and rode along the bed of the brook for about 100 m until he got back on the track.

his artistic contribution was also one of the reasons why Kirssi was awarded a special prize by the organiser for the most spectacular stunt. After 2 hours and a total of 15 rounds Simo Kirssi and the HP2 ended up in a fantastic ninth place. What a show by man and machine! Nobody would have thought it possible that they would even have managed one round.

More information and result lists at: www.austrian-cross-country-championship.com.

HP motor racing, Hillclimbing. Obersaxen

European Hillclimbing Championship, Obersaxen (CH)

Hillclimbing - the steeper the better! The aim is ride up an extremely steep, almost invincible hill on a motorbike. Whoever "climbs" highest wins.

Christian Pfeiffer European Hillclimbing Championship, Obersaxen

To everyone´s surprise Christian Pfeiffer rode to a place on the podium on the BMW HP2 Enduro in Obersaxen (CH) at the European Hillclimbing Championship. It was probably the first BMW which ever took part in a hillclimbing event where normally light and powerful single cylinder bikes with about 500 cc are ridden in the cross enduro class.

motor racing, Hillclimbing. Obersaxen

After Pfeiffer had successfully completed more "normal" Enduro races over the past weeks, the extremist rider thought up the extraordinary plan of taking part in the European Hillclimbing Championship. His reasoning: "The bike´s tremendous traction had always impressed me. Output is of course also very important and there´s proabably been nothing more powerful than the HP2 with 105 bhp in the offroad sector!" So he said to himself: just do it. And the HP2 really showed what an outstanding hillclimber it is.

The sceptical frowns on some of the spectators´ and participants´ faces turned to great interest as Pfeiffer climbed up to 203.4 meters in the qualification and then to 208.6 meters in the ensuing semi-final. The record from the previous years at the so-called "Sax Mountain" was 206.2 which was beaten by Pfeiffer! Only the hillclimbing specialist Lars Nonn (D) on his 450 cc all-wheel-drive Yamaha rode up higher. With his second place in the semi-final and third place in the final, where once again Lars Nonn got further, Chris Pfeiffer and his HP2 Enduro once again exceeded all expectations and demonstrated what outstanding performances this bike can deliver.

More information and results at: www.hillclimbing.ch.

HP motor racing, Cervarese, I

The tremendous Erzberg victory a week before encouraged the BMW Motorrad Enduro Team Feil and its rider Simo Kirssi.

Erzberg MW Motorrad Enduro Team Feil Simo Kirssi

This high-speed success has now been followed in Italy by a top ranking which is at least as important from a racing point of view.

Italian Cross Championship Cervarese Padua

Kirssi in fact "only" finished second in the Italian Cross Country Championship race in Cervarese near Padua. However, it was actually a real victory for the HP2 Enduro and its talented rider.

HP2 motor racing

The track in Cervarese was everything but ideal for the HP2. The young local club had made every effort to set out a perfect and demanding trail through its new motocross facility: it was extremely tight, angular and including the entire motocross track with murderous table and double jumps.

flying Finn Italian motocross elite

And then the "flying Finn" conjured up a real fireworks of a performance which left spectators speechless. First of all he won the start, though he was overtaken by three riders of the Italian motocross elite who pitted all their skills against him.

BMW man Kirssi

The BMW man maintained fourth position for a while, sizing up his opponents. After about an hour`s racing time, Kirssi then launched his attack and put two of his rivals in the bag.

Matteo Rubin, Enduro World Champion 2000

The last one - Matteo Rubin, Enduro World Champion in 2000 - had already moved too far ahead by this time. In the last few laps, Kirssi?s amazing stamina took him up close to Rubin and he finished just 35 seconds behind him.

HP motor racing, Baja California 500, USA

At the start for the Baja 500: Jimmy Lewis, Jonah Street, Tim Morton.

Jimmy Lewis Baja
Jimmy Lewis 1

Jimmy Lewis HP motor racing
Jimmy Lewis 2

Jonah Street Baja California
Jonah Street 1

Jonah Street HP motor racing
Jonah Street 2

Tim Morton HP motor racing
Tim Morton 3

Tim Morton California 500
Tim Morton 4

Race report and results at: www.score-international.com.

HP motor racing, Mernes, Simo Kirssi

For Simo Kirssi, the winner of the Siemens/Telering Iron Road Prologue of last weekend, it´s all go at the moment. The 25-year-old Finn was already back in the saddle again only a few hours after his glorious success at the Erzberg race in Austria. Overnight Simo knocked off the 800 kilometres to Mernes near Frankfurt to arrive at 10.00 am and be on the starting grid at 2.00 pm for the 3. race of the German Cross Country series.

Simo Kirssi Erzberg race Austria

Here he pulled out all the stops again right from the start on his HP2 Enduro and rode among the first six in the first five rounds. A defective fork, however, brought the Finn´s spectacular race to a halt after only 25 minutes and he had to quit the race at an early stage. The BMW Motorrad Enduro Team Feil hit the road right away to return home quickly and get the racing bike back into shape again after the successful but deadly races at the Erzberg.

Mernes, Simo Kirssi

Simo and his HP2 will already be racing again next weekend at the 3. race of the BABOONS Italian Cross Country Championship. Near Padua the team will be on location again in full force to beat the 4. place achieved in the last ICC race and to thrill the Tifosi fans once again.

Simo Kirssi BABOONS Italian Championship

Further information and result lists at: www.german-cross-country.de.

Monday, July 27, 2009

HP motor racing, Iron Road Prolog, 2

The 1,500 contestants of the previous day turned the track into a nightmare. Toughest conditions for the riders as well as for the bikes - not to mention the dust that got even worse.

HP motor racing,  Iron Road Prolog, 2

Would the King´s Class winner Giovanni Sala be able to strike back and defeat the young Fin Simo Kirssi in today´s 2nd run? Or would the young generation take over? All three HP2 Endurists had splendid runs - skillfully powerdrifting the bikes through the hairpins and up the hill.

Giovanni Sala vs Simo Kirssi
Giovanni Sala (ITA) vs. Simo Kirssi (FIN)

Everybody waited excitedly for the official results. In the meantime the top-riders of the event showed their best tricks to the gathered crowd.

Jimmy Lewis HP motor racing
Jimmy Lewis

For Stunt-Champion Chris Pfeiffer the laws of gravity didn´t even seem to apply any longer, performing breathtaking wheelies during an extremely steep hillclimb.

Simo Kirssi HP motor racing
Simo Kirssi

No wonder that there were numerous requests for autographs afterwards! Again, the BMW Motorrad Instructor Team took part in the event as well - with a lot of fun - and also highly successful: In the Desert Bomber category for 2-cylinder-bikes 2 instructors made the Top-Ten. On their 100 % production R 1200 GS Enduros!

R 1200 GS Enduros BMW Motorrad

Responsible for the best news of the day was again the young Fin Simo Kirssi. Despite the tough conditions he reached a fabulous 9:02,67 min. - even two seconds faster than his time in the first run.

young Fin Simo Kirssi
A time noone else was able to beat. So Congratulations to Simo Kirssi, the overall winner of the Iron Road Prologue 2005!

Simo Kirssi winner Iron Road Prologue
Jimmy Lewis also improved his time - by unbelievable 20 seconds, which put him on third overall, right behind the Erzberg-Legend Werner Müller (KTM).

Erzberg-Legend Werner Müller HP
Chris Pfeiffer´s fifth place overall and places 1, 2 and 3 in the Desert Bomber class turned BMW Motorrad´s first official appearance at the Erzberg into a complete success.

Chris Pfeiffer HP motor racing
Sometimes one cylinder simply isn´t enough!

BMW HP motor racing champion
The complete result lists overall and of all single classes can be found at www.erzberg.at.

HP motor racing, Iron Road Prologue

Where else can you watch the world´s top motorcyclists starting next to ambitious amateurs and fun-riders? No place else but here at the Erzberg Rodeo. No matter if Enduro-Champion, Dakar-Expert, Freestyle-Superstar or just anyone else of the up to 1,500 starters - they all have the same sand between their teeth and the same goal before their eyes: to conquer the hill. Fast. Very fast. Last year the Sunday event had been stopped due to a cruel snowstorm, this year the curse of perfect weather conditions was the dust, reducing visibility down to zero.

HP2 Enduro riders Simo Kirssi, Jimmy Lewis, Chris Pfeiffer
Eat my dust

"Eat my dust" quickly became the motto of the day on the 13.3 km long and approximately 13 m wide track. Among the first group of starters - sent on the prologue one after each other with a few seconds delay - were also the HP2 Enduro riders Simo Kirssi, Jimmy Lewis und Chris Pfeiffer.

Kurt Nicoll, Chris Pfeiffer, Jimmy Lewis
Power-Pack

After an impressive demonstration of their skills on the track they commented their runs with cool understatement: "It felt rather unspectacular," Pfeiffer explained. "But sometimes, unspectacular is quite fast." "No special occurrences," let Kirssi know. Nice to receive such relaxed reports right after flat-out runs up the hill, spiced up with some nasty gravel chicanes.

BMW Motorrad Enduro Team Feil
BMW Motorrad Enduro Team Feil

Later on the official results brought the sensation. At first, nobody was willing to believe it - so the announcer waited for another confirmation. Then it became official: Simo Kirssi (9:05,65 min) defeats Kurt Nicoll on his 1-cylinder KTM by breathtaking 6 seconds. With Chris Pfeiffer on 3rd and Jimmy Lewis on 5th (9:29,38 min) the BMW Motorrad Enduro Team Feil was highly pleased that evening.

HP motor racing,  Iron Road Prologue
What 13.3 km of Iron Road do to the tassels...

"Best time counts" say the regulations for the Iron Road Prologue. Which simply means that the personal best - no matter if reached on Friday or Saturday - determines the final result. So for the next day everything is still possible - therefore, on Friday night, preparations are taken seriously.

HP motor racing, Erzberg Rodeo, A

Insiders are not fooled by the heavenly beauty of the Austrian "Steiermark" - cause once a year, the "mountain of iron" calls for the ultimate offroad-spectacle.

HP motor racing Austrian Steiermark

For the 11th time the erzbergrodeo takes place - with a new challenge, for big, strong twin-cylinder-bikes only: the so called King´s class.

B. Hauser, S. Kirssi, J. Lewis, C. Pfeiffer
B. Hauser, S. Kirssi, J. Lewis, C. Pfeiffer

The BMW Motorrad Enduro Team Feil sends its top-riders Simo Kirssi, Jimmy Lewis and last year´s winner of the Hare Scramble Chris Pfeiffer on HP2 Enduro in the race. 13,3 kilometers up the hill of rough gravel will be a tough test for the riders and bikes.

Erzberg Rodeo mountains

Chris Pfeiffers strategy for the two runs of the challenge was simple: "Always at full speed." If the times of a rider´s two runs are more than 60 seconds apart, a 30 second penalty is added to his personal best for the final result.

HP motor racing equipment
the equipment should be ready to go

Before a cheering crowd in downtown Eisenerz Berti Hauser, General Manager Motorsport BMW Motorrad, started - as the first contestant - the chase up the hill.

Jimmy Lewis BMW Motorrad
Jimmy Lewis: pushin´ the limits

With Dr. Herbert Diess, General Manager BMW Motorrad, sending him as well the the officially supported Feil-Team on the track.

Chris Pfeiffer HP motor racing
Chris Pfeiffer: Flat out

Then the big twins demonstrated why it´s called the King´s class: with a wild roar the bikes were thundering up the hill, sliding through the turns, accelerating hard up the long straights, reaching top-speeds of 180 kph!

Simo Kirssi HP motor racing
Simo Kirssi

Rallye Dakar-experienced Jimmy Lewis were pushin´ the limits.

Flying Fin Simo Kirssi
The Flying Fin

Afterwards stating: "I´m quite sure that in some corners nobody went faster than me". The "Flying Fin" Simo Kirssi, who some insiders already had on the list for the title, impressed everyone with the fastet run of the day: 9:11,91 min.

trial expert Pfeiffe HP motor racing

Unfortunately a technical problem stopped him 300 m short of the finish line which caused a 30 sec. penalty.

HP2 Enduro motorcycles

At the press-conference - after a most exciting day of offroad-fun - stunt and trial expert Pfeiffer commented: "It´s amazing that someone like me, who spends 90% of his time on motorcycles in first and second gear and who lacks offroad-experience, obviously can be that fast on the HP2 Enduro.

Kirssi BMW Motorrad Rider Training

The controllability and grip of the bike is amazing." With two excellent runs he finished second, only 1,2 sec. behind the winner Giovanni Sala. With Kirssi on fourth and Lewis on fifth the conclusion of this hardcore-test for the HP2 Enduro can only be: Mission completed. And there´s more to come.

Enduro Park Hechlingen, Germany

The Instructor Team of the BMW Motorrad Rider Training also had lots of fun, while presenting their travel and training program to the offroad crowd. With Andi Rothballer on eighth, Robert Schweiger (11.) and Tomm Wolf (24.) they showed the audience where to go in order to train your offroad skills: to the Enduro Park Hechlingen, Germany.
Vipzonet Automotive Network