SPEED JEWEL
The motorcycle arm of the Austrian company Steyr-Daimler-Puch began with Puch, which introduced its first motorcycle in the early 1900s, and then amalgamated with Daimler in 1928 and Steyr in 1934. While Puch also built cars, commercial vehicles and railway locomotives in its early years, these days the firm is best remembered for its pioneering ‘split-single’ two-stroke motorcycles, the first of which was developed in the 1920s. It was this design that positioned Puch as innovative and, at times, evangelistic with respect to the potential power and glory of the two-stroke configuration.

The other component to this story is a man named Joseph Ehrlich, a gifted engineer who migrated to Britain from Vienna to escape the Nazis in 1937 and founded EMC – Ehrlich Motorcycle Company – in 1946. He, too, was a dedicated two-stroke believer who quickly gained a reputation for putting together unlikely and well-fettled two-stroke machines. Launched in 1947 and utilising the somewhat exotic split-single layout, EMC’s first machine was not accepted by the conservatively inclined motorcycling public. Nevertheless, Ehrlich was soon involved in racing, with an EMC winning the 250 race at the 1947 Hutchinson 100 in Les Archer’s hands.

For another six years, EMC continued to produce a small but extremely interesting range of small-capacity highly refined race bikes which attracted the interest of some of the world’s best riders of the day, including John Surtees, Sammy Millar and Mike Hailwood.

This particular example was manufactured in 1953, the final year that Joseph Ehrlich and EMC were solely dedicated to the production of ultra-fast lightweight motorcycles. It was acquired in 1954 by a Christchurch-based speedway engineering company called Uniworld. The bike was first raced around the Bromley cemetery circuit (Christchurch) and then, in 1954, it attained the New Zealand land speed record in its class. Legend has it that the record was achieved with a slipped clutch!

To hear this machine is something else – winding out to 12,000rpm, the yowl is like no other. It would be remiss also not to comment of the overall look of the machine: it is, without doubt, one of the most unlikely and successful designs to be offered in recent years. The ambition of the bike is without question – minimal weight and maximum velocity . However, everything else about the bike in some way challenged the norm of the day – the aesthetics are at once loose and highly spacious from one angle, then pinned and viciously refined from another. The philosophy of ensuring maximum power within the lightest configuration is achieved at the same time as delivering all that is required from a well-fettled race breed. There are few if any reference points for Ehrlich’s highly refined and unique machine. Joseph Ehrlich went on to work and consult for a range of race factories for another 25 years, achieving significant success. From 1981, his 250cc EMC motorcycles won four Junior TTs at the Isle of Man, and one of them was the first 250cc machine to break the 110mph lap record. This particular Ehrlich built machine is a rare jewel indeed.