The Monotrace

Sir,

Cyril Posthumus is correct in writing that the French Monotrace had nothing to do with Morgans from Malvern. The French single-track car was built under licence from the German “Mauser”-Einspurauto, which when Mauser ceased production was built until 1932 by Gustav Winkler at Oberndorf/Neckar in Germany. As far as I know it was Winkler who designed this unique vehicle, which never gained much popularity, as it was extremely unstable. Monotrace failed to gain commercial successes and dropped manufacture after a short time. The only British vehicle slightly comparable with the German design was the Wood-designed and OEC-built Whitwood monocar of the mid-thirties.

The Mauser had a 580 c.c. s.v. single-cylinder engine. It was watercooled and horizontally mounted in front of the rear wheel. This was driven by chain and had leaf springs for suspension. The engine gave 10 b.h.p. at 3,400 r.p.m.; top-speed was 50 m.p.h. When Winkler took over production in 1927 he supplied also a version with a 510 c.c. motor, of similar design to the bigger one.

My friends in English-speaking countries will be surely interested to see another unorthodox design? The photo shows a 1910-built three-wheeler, designed by Josef Walter and built by the once so famous Walter motorcycle, car and aero-engine factory at Prague. The aircooled 1,060 c.c. V-twin engine gave 50 m.p.h. top speed, too. I was astonished to read about (in the VSCC Pomeroy Trophy Competition) the historic Ecce Homo hill-climb “held outside Salzburg”. This is incorrect. This race (now a circuit) was held just outside the town of Sternberg in Moravia (Czechoslovakia) i.e. several hundreds of km. away from Salzburg.

Germany, ERWIN TRAGATSCH