Platform As Canvas

Somehow, the cars of mid-20th-century Germany lend themselves more than the products of any other nation, to become platforms for Art. Why? I do not […]

Bitter SC

The Bitter SC was the successor to the Bitter CD chronicled here before (see Sweet Bitter). It entered the market in 1979, even as CDs […]

BMW 700RS

If this seems like a good model name for a motorcycle, you are partially right. The BMW 700 was a very important vehicle for the […]

January Janus

The late 1940s and the early 1950s represent one of those periods where the automobile and the motorcycle world were experimenting with hybrids. In this […]

Puch 250 SGS

If a particular model lives for 16 years, it is pretty remarkable. It is particularly remarkable if it was launched in 1953, at a time […]

Tornax Motorrader

Tornax was a motorcycle manufacturer from Wuppertal, Germany that was founded in 1922 by Ernst Wewer, but began motorcycle production in 1926. Wewer was a […]

Cuban Cars

Friend of the blog Ed Solomon snapped a bunch of great pictures while on a tour of Cuba. A few of the German ones are […]

Konig Racer

We covered the Konig marque previously in these pages (see Konig Watercraft to Motorcraft and A Cancelled Combination), but Iron and Air just published a […]

Rabeneick Rules Rebranding

August Rabeneick started a manufacturing company near Bielefeld (which was the origin for multiple bicycles and motorcycling manufacturers) in 1930. Initially, he produced grinding machines, […]

The Cult Turns 50

In the course of the average human life, you don’t get to celebrate too many 50 year anniversaries that happened entirely on your watch. Even […]

Cross Continental MZ

For those of us that believe we need to have a well-equipped electronically-assisted modern touring machine in order to contemplate a cross country trip, Kim […]

Framo 2-3-4 Wheels

Innovation in frames and platforms was the norm in the early days of the internal combustion engine, and many companies were simply trying to find […]

Goliath GP700 Sport

Goliath was founded by Carl Borgward in Bremen, and has been mentioned in these pages before (see The Many Faces of Borgward and Maintaining Tempo). […]

NSU Supermax

Neckarsulm Strickmaschinen Union (NSU) emerged from producing knitting machines and bicycles to motorcycles and cars. By the  mid 1950s, NSU had grown to become one […]

The Variant

As covered here before, (see the rise of the type 3), Volkswagen was among the first automakers to really leverage a single chassis for multiple […]

First Wankel

In 1963 at the Frankfurt International Motor Show, NSU introduced the world’s first production car with a Wankel engine. The Wankel Spider was designed by […]