MOTOR-CAR SPORT

Marketing campaigns for tires are filled with catchy buzzwords touting their performance. So much so that we as journalists have started to ignore them. And no two buzzwords are more fashionable these days than “carbon fiber,” the light yet strong material so popular when it comes to performance materials. Now Dunlop is extolling the virtues of carbon fiber in its latest sport tire, the Q3, the successor to the Q2, itself a winner of numerous magazine tire tests and the tire of choice for many riding schools in the U.S. CFT, or Carbon Fiber Technology, is the buzzword acronym now and it stems from the use of carbon fiber filaments extruded into the rubber used to form the Q3’s sidewall. Dunlop’s new Q3 tire is the successor to the popular Q2 street/track tire. Made using the same machines that make the spec tire for AMA Pro Racing, much of the lessons learned in racing have been applied to the Q3. The benefit, Dunlop says, is lighter feeling on turn-in, better sta...

The stroked 675 MV Agusta Triple our man  Bruno dePrato  heaped praise upon in his recent gallop aboard the new  Brutale 800  has now found its way into a fully faired sportbike version: the new  MV Agusta  F3 800. Bore remains 79.0mm in the MV three-cylinder, but stroke is increased from 45.9mm to 54.3mm, boosting displacement from 675cc to 798cc and compression to 13.3:1 in one fell swoop. MV says that’s good for 148 horsepower at 13,000 rpm (20 more than the F3 675), with 65 foot-pounds of torque at 10,600 rpm, in a package that weighs the same
 381 pounds. Metallic Matt Black Pearl White/Black Red-Silver MV says the 675 produced peak output at 14,500 rpm and redlined at 15,000. In the new bike, higher final-drive gearing works with a new 13,500-rpm redline to wind up at a claimed top speed of 167 mph, and less time getting there. New fuel injectors with a higher flow rate feed the bigger cylinders; otherwise, it’s the same 12 titanium va...

   The Motorcycle Powered By Screwdrivers                                  Nils Ferber is nothing if not creative. He, along with partners Sebastian Auray, Ruben Faber and Ludolf von Oldershausen have created this  three-wheel motorcycle-like contraption , from mostly bicycle parts, as an exercise in alternative transportation. The best part? It’s powered by two electric screwdrivers working in tandem. Admittedly, two electric screwdrivers won’t propel you very far or very fast (top speed is claimed to be around 18 mph), but the experience should be fun if nothing else. As you can see from the photos, the rider is placed in a head-forward position, one hand operating a throttle and the other a brake. Handling and steering are much like a motorcycle, as the rider uses his body to tilt the rear wheel in the direction he or she wants to go. The trike will then twist ...