History
Dr Joseph Ehrlich was a wealthy Austrian and keen motorcycle enthusiast who became the acknowledged authority on two-stroke single racing bikes. Ehrlich moved to the UK and set up EMC after the Second World War with a factory at Isleworth. Production focussed on a 350 cc split single motorcycle based on German engineering using two cylinders and pistons with a common combustion chamber. One cylinder housed the exhaust ports and the other the transfer ports. EMC also imported Puch 125 cc split single, four-speed engines from Austria as there was nothing to compete in the UK market at the time.
Dr Ehrlich worked throughout his life to improve engine performance. In 1948 he built a three-cylinder motorcycle engine that was banned from racing circuits as "too powerful". EMC racing motorcycles (and cars) were used by some of the leading riders, including Mike Hailwood who rode an EMC to fifth place in the 1962 125 cc world championship and won the 1962 Saar Grand Prix. From 1981, 250 cc EMC motorcycles won 4 Junior TTs at the Isle of Man and an EMC was the first 250 cc motorcycle to break the 110 miles per hour (180 km/h) lap record. Ehrlich went on to develop Formula 3 racing cars and although he retired from EMC in 1967 his interest in racing motorcycles continued and he produced one-off 250 cc Rotax-engined bikes in the 1980s and his last competitive motorcycle in 1995 – when he was in his 80s.
Ehrlich's experience with early two-stroke designs led to work on the 'Environmental Engine' that had variable compression and variable capacity to improve emission and fuel consumption. Potentially the future of engine technology, Josef Ehrlich died in September 2003 aged 89 without seeing his engine designs developed commercially.
Read more about this topic: EMC Motorcycles
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Jesus Christ belonged to the true race of the prophets. He saw with an open eye the mystery of the soul. Drawn by its severe harmony, ravished with its beauty, he lived in it, and had his being there. Alone in all history he estimated the greatness of man.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“There is no example in history of a revolutionary movement involving such gigantic masses being so bloodless.”
—Leon Trotsky (1879–1940)
“It may be well to remember that the highest level of moral aspiration recorded in history was reached by a few ancient Jews—Micah, Isaiah, and the rest—who took no count whatever of what might not happen to them after death. It is not obvious to me why the same point should not by and by be reached by the Gentiles.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)