This weekend sees the running of the most famous car race of them all, the Le Mans 24hrs, and to be a driver of one of the front-running cars has got to be fairly high on the list of jobs that will make ladies swoon.Speed, danger, noise, fame

that is encouraging, it's the first time in a long while that Rossi has looked more like his old self on the Desmosedici."I’m happy because we went pretty well today, and in particular, the gap to the front makes us fairly optimistic," Rossi said after free practice

’m not sure I can be as fast as Lorenzo with the Yamaha. I think we will have less problems than in the past. Lorenzo was very fair with my comeback. The important thing is to have fun riding the bike, and have the chance to fight for the good positions."

aren't as extensive as some had hoped, with visual changes limited to a reworked fairing and new clocks. With only rear shots available (unsurprising, since they're supposed to be showing the Akra pipes, not the bike) we don't know if there are new

-yet-unreleased motorcycle.From the drawing it's clear that the engine, suspension, wheels and frame are the same as the Ninja 250/300's, but the styling is more different than might be expected. Far from just replacing the front fairing, there's a new tank, new seat unit

.  It looked exactly like an NSR250 MC21 headlight but because it was so small it was lost in the fairing. Amazing how a small change like that can affect a bike's looks. You can see what the square-headed RC30 looked like here.Anyway, on with the rest

to be seen.What earlier spy pictures didn't show was the additional silver stripes either side of the headlights, which are, it seems, intended to give the appearance of new lights without the actual investment into new lenses.The fairing sides are redesigned

clean and play fair.'

to appear on a street near you than a Generic or Qianjiang-branded version.To be fair, the BN600 has gained a revised tank and side panels compared to its siblings, and while the motor's 82bhp output is on a par with Honda's first-gen CBR600 (circa 1987), it

four-vave-per-cylinder Guzzi motor but a longer, 104mm stroke. The firm says it's the largest V-twin made in Europe; a fairly pointless claim since it's dwarfed by some Japanese and American V-twins and also the parallel twin in Triumph's rival