MOTOR-CAR SPORT

A sports car at first sight. Extremely low and wide when viewed from the front, a flat silhouette, powerfully shaped surfaces and precise contours. When viewed more closely, an ingenious new vehicle concept. With a design devoted to one function. Sustainably and efficiency meet dynamics and athleticism. On the road, the BMW i8 demonstrates the interplay of these ideals: hugging the ground and in the in the unrivalled form you expect of a BMW Long wheelbase, short overhangs, a solid stance as it crouches on the street: the BMW i8 has all the characteristics of a full-blooded sports car. The front appears extremely low and wide. Everything is arranged to be optimally aerodynamic. At the same time, the flat, but prominent double kidney grille reveals the BMW genes. A V-shaped ‘black belt’ starts on the bonnet and dynamically wraps around the bodyshell to the rear. Viewed from the side, the exaggerated wedge shape, the long drawn-out lines and the flat silhouette under...

Daytona Bike Week is a great place to be reminded that less can be more. Just an hour spent watching the tackily embellished hardware roll down Main Street makes you realize how many people confuse beauty with bedazzlement. So, what a delight to spend a day riding one of the most aesthetically elegant, quietly sexy cruisers on the market today: Victory’s 2015 Gunner. Yes, it’s basically a  Judge  wearing new 24-spoke cast aluminum shoes, and a tiny skirt instead of a robe, but for a parts-bin bike, it looks very much like its own animal. A dark, muscular one that turns heads and prompts questions. Victory  is calling the new model a “bobber,” in salute to the resurfacing trend of chopping without lengthening, something made big in the ’40s and ’50s when simplicity was in style. But the claimed 649-pound Gunner, with its huge Freedom 106 V-Twin, is one big-ass bike to be called a “bobber,” a designation typically reserved for agile, lightweight bikes with inner-cit...

Yamaha  has revamped its latest YZF-R125 to look and feel more like a scaled down MotoGP racer. The company, a leader in the sports 125cc market for a number of years, constantly hones its tiny zappers, but always within the power limits established by national authorities around the world. In Europe, for example, 125cc bikes of any kind are not allowed to have more than 15 horsepower. But within this power limit, Yamaha has created a lovely little screamer that’s dressed in a radically redesigned fairing inspired by that of the celebrated  YZF-R6  Supersport racer. Double headlights flank the air scoop, which is now located on the nose of the fairing for maximum efficiency. The engine has been upgraded, too. Given the power limits, the lively, liquid-cooled sohc four valver has been designed with undersquare measurements (52mm bore x 58.6mm stroke) to obtain the fattest possible torque curve at mid rpm. Additionally, the undersquare measurements allow a very...