Matchless

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Matchless

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legal form Limited
founding 1899 as Herbert Matchless Road
Seat Plumstead , London, UK
Branch Motorcycle manufacturer

Matchless was a London-based motorcycle and automobile manufacturer with numerous racing successes, dating back to before the First World War .

Company history

The company emerged from the Herbert Matchless Road company , founded by Henry Herbert Collier in Plumstead in 1878 , which manufactured bicycles. Motorcycles were developed under the company name Collier & Sons from 1899 and sold from 1901. In 1907, 1909 and 1910, sons Charlie and Harry won the Isle of Man TT with their machines , which helped the brand gain public attention. Starting in 1912, the company produced its own engines, which were also supplied to fabricators, motorcycle manufacturers without their own engine production. In later years Matchless worked closely with AJS. In 1938, these two manufacturers became part of Associated Motor Cycles , which went bankrupt in 1966 and was taken over by Norton-Villiers . This stopped the production of Matchless motorcycles in Plumstead in 1969.

Revival from 2006

On April 23, 2006, at an auction by the northern English auction house Bonhams with lot number 554, the trademark rights and the Matchless name were sold to the Italian entrepreneurial family Malenotti for 45,500 British pounds. Franco Malenotti is known as a former motorcycle designer and owner of the Belstaff fashion company , which he sold to the Swiss group Labelux in 2011 .

At the EICMA motorcycle fair in Milan in 2014, the Model X was presented with an S&S engine with a displacement of 1916 cubic centimeters. The start and location of production are not yet known.

Products

motorcycles

Initially, mainly JAP built -in motors were used. After the cooperation with AJS, their motorcycles only differed in details.

  • Alldays Matchless (557 cm³) from 1914

  • Matchless Type H (1000 cm³) from 1921

  • Matchless T3 (500 cm³) from 1927

  • Matchless Model X from 1938

  • Matchless G11 (600 cm³) from 1958

  • Matchless G15 CSR (750 cm³) from 1968

  • Matchless G50 racing machine

Automobiles

From 1904 motor tricycles were produced. In 1906 the runabout was presented at an automobile exhibition. The vehicle had a two-cylinder engine from the Fafnir works with 6 hp. This model did not go into series production.

The 8/10 hp model offered from 1913 to 1915 was a three-wheeled cycle car that was equipped with a V2 engine . The engine power was transmitted to each rear wheel via a cardan shaft . Between 1923 and 1924 a four-wheeled small car with an air-cooled two - cylinder boxer engine with a displacement of 1250 cm³ was built . The original price was initially 225 pounds sterling , later only 185 pounds. The independent front suspension and the front brakes were considered special features at the time. 50 copies were made.

model Construction period cylinder Displacement wheelbase
Motor tricycle 1904–?
Runabout 1906 2
8/10 hp 1913-1915 V 2 1075 cc
10 hp 1923-1924 2 boxers 1250 cc 2591 mm

Built-in motors

Morgan Super Sports from 1934 with a Matchless engine

To various motorcycle and automobile manufacturers such as Morgan and Alvechurch were built-in motors supplied.

Motorcycle racing

Isle of Man TT victories

List of winners on Matchless motorcycles

year class driver total time Average speed
1907 Single cylinder United KingdomUnited Kingdom Charlie Collier 4: 08.08.2 h 38.21  mph (61.49  km / h )
1909 500 cc single &
750 cc twin 		United KingdomUnited Kingdom Harry Collier 3: 13.37.0 h 49.01 mph (78.87 km / h)
1910 500 cc single &
750 cc twin		 United KingdomUnited Kingdom Charlie Collier 3: 07.24.0 h 50.63 mph (81.48 km / h)

literature

Web links

Commons : Matchless  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Classic Driver: Is Matchless getting back on the road with the Model X? dated December 9, 2014 , accessed May 8, 2015.
  2. ↑ Motorcycle: New presentation of the Matchless Model X Reloaded at EICMA 2014 , accessed on May 8, 2015.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g Harald H. Linz, Halwart Schrader : The International Automobile Encyclopedia . United Soft Media Verlag, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-8032-9876-8 .
  4. ↑ a b c d e f Georgano: The Beaulieu Encyclopedia of the Automobile.
  5. ↑ IOMTT - Race Results, accessed on May 8, 2015