NARDI-BMW RACERS

The Nardi-Monaco 'Chichibio' of 1932, with big JAP OHV V-twin engine and front wheel drive

Enrico Nardi is probably best known today for his sporty motoring accessories (a 'Nardi' steering wheel is a big plus in a 50s Ferrari), but his career as a builder of racing cars is his real metier.  His 'Chichibio' of 1932 (built with Augusto Monaco) used a 998cc JAP V-twin with 65hp as the basis of a super-light (672lbs!) monoposto race car, with 10hp more than rival Alfa Romeo 1750 or a TT Replica Frazer Nash.  The big JAP motor sat transverse in front of the driver, and used a 5-speed gearbox to the front wheels.  Radical stuff for '32, and it set the pattern for Nardi's work to come.

Between 1936-48 Nardi worked for Scuderia Ferrari, and co-drove (as a mechanic) the first 'Ferrari' racer in the Mille Miglia of 1940. Previously he had worked at Lancia in Torino, and eventually established his small factory just down the street, on via Lancia, no doubt taking advantage of the many connections he made with the firm in building his own sports-racing cars.

Postwar, after breaking with Ferrari, he partnered with Renato Danese to create the firm 'N-D' (Nardi-Danese).  Their frirst effort was the ND 750, an ultralight monoposto racing car which used a modified BMW '75M' military 750cc OHV motor.  The engine was modified with unique cylinder heads, with their carbs facing forward, and seems to have retained the BMW gearbox and driveshaft, using conventional 'live axle' rear wheel drive.  The chassis wasn't a true space-frame, but was triangulated using short tubes between two main frame members.

The ND 750 was very successful, winning many hillclimbs and short races in the hands of future racing stars, and as late as 1953, when Ferrari and Lancia had really sorted themselves out, an ND 750 placed 8th overall in the 22km Susa-Moncenisio hillclimb in the Alps, with a speed only 2% slower than the fastest 2-liter Ferrari racer.

Apparently, Nardi himself revised the BMW R75/M engines for racing, and cast new cylinder heads etc.  The 750cc BMW engines were popular with motorcycle racers in the immediate postwar era, being fairly common and robust, and were often installed in BMW R51 motorcycle chassis to race in the 'unlimited' classes.  A few were even built with home-made OHC cylinder heads, which look like giant's fists!

WHEELS AND WAVES: THE VIDEO

From the Southsiders MC - the 'official' video compilation of their fantastic event.  I'll have more reportage on the event, but this certainly captures the uber-cool artist-outlaw vibe created by the international crowd.  Wheels and Waves touches the vital heart of a collided art/motorcycle aesthetic, with a uniquely European spin.

Southsiders present: Wheels & Waves - second edition from Douglas Guillot on Vimeo.

WHEELS AND WAVES: THE RECEPTION

The Southsiders MC have included an art gallery in the Wheels & Waves concept, to celebrate the many visual artists who enrich our motorcycling world - photographers, sculptors, bike builders, musicians, etc.  Thursday night's kickoff party took place at Gallerie 13 Avril in Biarritz, a former paint factory, the old warehouse space underneath a residence built in a charming 19th Century southern France style, complete with an elderly tenant upstairs, who, while fascinated with the commotion on his small, normally quiet street, ultimately latched his wooden storm shutters to get some peace from the happy celebrants below.

This year's roster of artists included photographer Bill Phelps (featured previously on The Vintagent), painter/musician/preacher Brian Bent, Spanish photographer Alberto Garcia Alix, and photographer Alain Duplantier. El Solitario showed their latest Ducati-based custom, looking like nothing you've ever seen, and surely their best work to date. 

Surprise guests of the evening included the prototype BMW R90S built by Roland Sands (and recently debuted at Villa d'Este), accompanied by Roland himself, and Ola Stenegard, head of BMW motorcycle design.  Also on show, thanks to the foresight of Sebastien Lorentz, was the equally spectacular BMW R7 (also much discussed on The Vintagent).  More on the BMW show-up later...

The art was all top notch, the venue quirky enough to satisfy  everyone, and the hugely international crowd was thrilled to meet up.  BikeExif's Chris Hunter arrived from New Zealand, plus Jordan Kightley from the Gentleman Racer rides and  Sydney Cafe Racers, plus lots of Americans/Brits/Dutch/German etc riders.  Next: Friday's ride and illegal sprint race!

WHEELS AND WAVES: PART 1

Hanging out, post-downpour, on the cliffs of Biarritz, under the lighthouse.  The rabble are beginning to arrive, and it's estimated 4-500 bikes will be here by tomorrow...hard to imagine, as there have been plane and train strikes, cancelled flights, and scrambles to find transport.  It was a planes trains and automobiles kind of week thus far, after my flight from London was cancelled and I was left sorting out the Eurostar to Paris, before the train strike shut down service!  

But, it's cleared up on the coast, the ride-to's are here and dirty, and we're ready for whatever comes next... to be continued.

VILLA D'ESTE 2013: THE SOVIETS ARE COMING!

The IMZ M-35K supercharged sports racer took Best In Show, its Soviet inelegance mocking the delicate trophy girls in their picnic wear.  This is perhaps the first time a major Concours d'Elegance has awarded their top prize to a Soviet-built machine. (photo courtesy Motociclismo magazine)

In a brave and unprecedented move, the jury of the third Concorso di Moto on the shores of Lake Como, Italy, have awarded Best of Show to a Soviet racing motorcycle.  I can recall no moto or auto Concours awarding a top prize to a Soviet-built machine, as industrial products from the Communist era have suffered nearly a century of scorn and derision for being inferior 'copycats' of better-developed Western originals. The celebration of the IMZ M-35K at Como is an important step towards shedding light on the shadowy history of Communist motorcycles, which are nearly invisible to students of Motorcycling.  Why did the IMZ win?  To place it within the context of the show, there were 16 NON-BMW flat twins in the Concorso, many of which used BMW or BMW-inspired/copied motors.  In that crowd, the fact that the IMZ was based on the BMW was no demerit.  The IMZ was one of only two Racers on show (the other being a Ducati 750SS), and the only supercharged bike present. It is in excellent 'as raced' condition, as rare as they come, technically interesting, with an air of mystery around its 'story' - its presence was most unusual.  We've all seen Victorias, Douglas', Indians, Harleys, Condors, etc, but when was the last time you saw a supercharged Soviet racer?  Well, probably never!

The gorgeous BMW record-breaker ridden by Ernst Henne from 1929-35, a 750cc OHV machine with supercharger above the gearbox, and a tubular chassis (the metal panels are aerodynamic, not monocoque!).  Good for 154mph by 1935...  Part of a display of '90 Years of BMW Motorcycles' in the Villa Erba rotunda

The IMZ (Irbitskij Moto-Zavod) factory was established in 1940 at Irbit, Siberia (near the Ural mountains), well out of reach of German bombers, once Stalin and Hitler were no longer on speaking terms.  The first 'Ural' M72 models were built nearby, copies of the BMW R71, starting in 1941, and 9799 were built during the War. M-35K has a 350cc pushrod engine with a supercharger, and uses a lighter version of the Ural chassis - a copy of the 1936-54 BMW chassis, which was the gold standard for motorcycling pre-war, road or race, until the advent of the McCandless 'Featherbed' frame in 1951. With plunger rear suspension and telescopic forks up front, and an all-welded oval-tube frame, IMZ wasn't the only company tearing pages from BMW's notebook; Norton had copied the fork design wholesale for their Manx Grand Prix racers pre-war, and eventually all chassis builders would abandon 'lugged' frames.  The M-35K had 45hp @6600rpm, weighed 165kilos dry (363lbs - compare that to the BMW RS255@ 137kg dry, 300lbs). Between 1947-62 IMZ built a range of road-racing 350, 500, and 750cc machines, some supercharged, for Soviet racing and record-breaking; a subject I'll certainly explore further.

The IMZ M-35K showing its BMW parentage, down to the knee pads and tank-top toolbox.  The gearbox is  R71 with the air cleaner casting removed, but the motor is unique, a 350cc pushrod engine with supercharger driven from the crankshaft nose, and fed by a Slavic TT carb.

Before gaining the big laurels, the IMZ won 'best' in a very cheeky class - 'Boxers in Competition with BMW'!  As BMW owns the Villa d'Este Concorso, it's a joke they can comfortably make, especially as 'their' boxers are still in production.  Second and third place went to a very rare Austrian 1937 Puch 800 flat-four (from the Hockenheim Museum), and a Swiss 1947 Condor C580, both elegant and sophisticated machines.  There were plenty of boxers in the wide world of motorcycling - and even a pair of Honda flat twins at Villa Erba; a Gold Wing of course, and a 1962 Honda 170cc flat-twin scooter, the Jumo M85.  I've never seen one!

Ueli Schmid's well-traveled 1932 Standard BT500 Luxus.  Note the 'Castle'/HD forks up front - the original application for this short-link design was FN's, who apparently never pursued action against Harley, or Brough, or Standard, for poaching their design of 1906! The legshields and panniers are period accessories, and this Swiss-built Standard (this German company had a facility there, probably to ease access to Motosacoche engines) uses an MAG ioe 500cc motor.

In the 'Traveling by Motorcycle' class (ie, touring bikes), the winner was a 1936 Indian Chief, and Ulrich Schmid took 2nd with his beautifully original and unrestored 1932 Standard BT500 Luxus.  Packed in a 'period manner' (no Givi top-boxes here), the Standard looked amazing with 1930s accessories (including the legshields and those groovy metal saddlebags).

Does this 1926 McEvoy look familiar?  It was at the Vintage-Revival Montlhéry the week prior.  A very rare British Superbike with Anzani OHV 1000cc V-twin motor.  Behind the McEvoy is a Czech-built Walter M750, a transverse V-twin OHV of 750cc, from 1923.  Everyone, it seems, was making big OHV V-twins by the mid-1920s...except the greatest adherents to the big V-twin; Americans!

I wasn't able to attend/judge the Concorso this year (important family matters come first!), and am grateful to Stefan Knittel for providing photographs and information about the motorcycles on show.  I'm looking forward to next years' fantastic event on the shores of Lago di Como; May 16-18, 2014...

A few of the 'other' flat twins (Boxers) at Villa Erba; in front is the test-bed Douglas used as the slave chassis for the very first BMW motorcycle engine, before they built whole motorcycles.  The Victoria KR1 behind was among the first marques to buy the new BMW engine - a practice BMW stopped shortly after they launched the R32 in 1923.

The BMW R10 prototype with 125cc two-stroke flat twin engine.  Installed in an R25 chassis, the little engine fails to adequately fill the frame...probably why only this example was built.

More flat twins!  In front, a 1926 Indian Model O with sidevalve 262cc fore-and-aft twin, a 1923 ABC/Gnome-Rhone with 398cc OHV transverse twin, and a 1922 Harley Davidson Sport with 584cc for-and-aft sidevalve twin.

The exquisite BMW R7 prototype.  Read my report on this machine here.  BMW puts on a great display in the rotunda at Villa Erba; this year they celebrated '90 Years of BMW Motorcycles', with 35 machines showing the full development of BMW two-wheelers - excellent!

Close up of the ABC/Gnome Rhone OHV cylinder head.  ABC was built from the post-WW1 remains of the British Sopwith aircraft works, and when they ran into financial trouble, the French aircraft builder Gnome et Rhone took over production.  Lots of aircraft practice in this engine, from the rocker gears to the machined-from-solid-steel cylinder barrels.

All BMW-powered, none BMW itself!   In front is the 1924 Bison, then a 1923 Helios, the Victoria KR1, and the Douglas test-bed.  All powered by BMW's first motorcycle engine, the M2B33, a sidevalve flat twin of 494cc, producing 8.6hp @3200rpm

A closeup of the 1924 Bison's BMW engine with external flywheel and radial-finned cylinder.  

We are living in Good Times for motorcycling: BMW teamed up with custom builder Roland Sands to create the 'Concept 90' custom, inspired by the original 'tangerine' R90S.  Good work, Roland!  The bike was unveiled at Villa d'Este...

The crazy simplicity of a Bugatti engine

As Lake Como is a favorite haunt of movie stars, this '54 Corvette looks right at home, with its chromium smile and carefully shielded eyes...

The unique BMW/Douglas hybrid test mule.

Shiny red boxes, stacked carefully above a flat single motor; the 1930 Moto Guzzi GT500 'Norge'

a better shot of the 1922 Harley Davidson Sport flat twin

Period gear for the original-paint 1924 Bison

The 1962 Honda Jumo M85 scooter with flat-twin motor of 169cc

1903 Humber in original paint

1917 Indian Model O, a 262cc sidevalve flat twin

Original-paint 1936 Indian Chief 1200cc, winner of the 'Touring' class.

1974 'John Player Special' Norton Commando 850, from the '1970s Heros' class

A mechanical landscape full of appeal

Lamborghini Miura on the lawn Sunday at Villa Erba, when everything is open to the public.  I've always especially loved the knock-off wheels on this model... 

A small reminder that BMW once built aircraft too...

'POR'

The 1925 BMW R37; their first OHV sports motorcycle, basically an R32 with OHV cylinder heads.  Not many of these around!

BMW R90S-based racer, with raised engine and interesting anti-dive fork brace

Steib built racing sidecars too...this one attached to a BMW RS54

1923 Victoria KR1

Jaguar XKSS reflects a lovely day to be in Como...