Spagthorpe

Have you ever heard of Spagthorpe? :-D

awesome!

Grysse Bernhard

Waren das nicht die mit dem 3 Zylinder 1 TAkt Doppelkolben?

Dirk

...Both machines had 600cc singles, though the Weimaraner had an innovative rotating-cylindrical valve arrangement. Very few were made, as this was specifically designed for high speed, straight line use. The only confirmed race use was in a speed trial in Cairo in 1929 by Akbas Akbash. Nothing is known of Mr. Akbash or his survivors.

In a ramshackle, well, shack out back of the Cadillac Bar, covered in straw, stood what has to be the only surviving bike from the ill-fated production run of the Spagthorpe Motor Compania Mexico, N.A. This is the bike built on the lines of the old line Cocker Spaniel, but with the modified, infamous 3/1-stoke, “Hammerhead” engine. The piston is a doubleheaded affair, with a combustion chamber at each horizontally opposed end.

This was the two piston, four cylinder, 357 cc, dirt machine that was so popular with bootleggers during prohibition and later with drug runners. Dubbed the “Chihuahua,” legend has it that the vibration on this thing was so severe that it could actually shimmy over water, making Rio Grande crossings ridiculously easy. In addition, it was rumored to run on tequila, allowing ’leggers to trade profit for distance when being pursued.

Zahllose Innovationen!

According the OTL, the Chihuahua is based on an 1800cc version of the new BMW twin and has a Maserati Birdcage type space frame modified to use the drivetrain as an integral frame component. It was estimated that the frame is built up from approximately 8347 soda straw sized titanium tubelets, each being between 1" and 5" long; this results in two major frame components that together weigh in at 2.853 Kg. This bike also had a mono-post trailing arm front suspension with 100% anti-dive/anti-rise geometry built in! It was able to do this without resorting to any suspension movement snubbers or other weight adding components.

Leider blieb der Verkaufserfolg aus, da dieses Stealth Bike weder auf Video noch in Prospekte gebannt werden konnte!

Dirk

Leon Berger raced various Spagthorpe models during the 1930s.