I Have Only Made One Extra Post Today,

I spent too much time on yesterdays post,

 and it is time for my daily exercises, so for today, the Bombinette, a total mix and match of BMW motorcycle parts, built for the European ‘Sultans of Sprint’ race series is open to anyone with an air-cooled European twin and a penchant for insanity, rather than just awarding points for running the quickest time down the short-range drag strip, extra marks are given for bike presentation, hair-raising moments on the track and how much the support crew drinks the night before the race meet, 

 having another crack at the title is France’s Lucky Cat Garage with their incredible Boxer-powered custom dubbed ‘The Bombinette’, the engine was breathed upon by Edelweiss Motorsport in Germany, R100GS heads are mounted to a R100RS crankcase with lightened and modified pistons, valves, rocker arms, pushrods, cams and crankshaft, best of all it runs a nitrous oxide ‘wet’ injection system, it gives the Bombinette an extra 30 horsepower for a few terrifying seconds as it hurtles down the strip, watched by scores of boozed up Frenchmen, the bike’s helped along by Dellorto carburettors and a 2-2 Hattech stainless steel exhaust, all in all, this bike puts out some 140 horses,

the mish-mash of components that make up the engine continues with the frame, it’s a modified BMW /2 model from the 1950’s that uses a shortened /5 set of forks rescued from a 1970’s model, all the tabs and brackets have been ground down in an effort to shed weight, and plenty of material has been taken from the hubs and brake assemblies, all told, the Bombinette steps into its corner at around 170 kilograms (375lbs),

now it might seem as if the bike has just been thrown together, using lots of odds and ends, but you would be wrong, the attention to detail is just stunning, take just the paint,

here is a video about the process they went through with Michel from R-M Paints to decide on the colour, the distinctive blue was created by mixing 7 different types of flakes to form ‘Bombinette Blue’, it’s all topped off with – wait for it – 23 carat gold leaf details,

who needs a speedometer, when you can have a rev counter? back to the race, piloted by Laurence C., the bike managed to reach fifth overall, it also took out the ‘Style and Engineering’ award with the ‘get your pit crew blind drunk the night before’ going to another team, the rocket by the way was for show only and is removed for the race, if you want to see more have a look at their Facebook, and Instagram page, what a neat race, and I like the bit about the pit crew!