Sidecar expected to fetch £70K

An historic motorcycle racing outfit which won the GP sidecar world championship twice is expected to reach more than £70,000 at auction later this year.

Helmut Fath, the designer, builder and racer of the outfit, made his own four-cylinder engine and named it URS, after Ursenbach in Germany where the project was conceived.

It had problems for the first two seasons but won the championship in 1968 with passenger Wolfgang Kalauch.

Fath was later forced to retire after serious injury but the outfit went on to win again in 1971 in the hands of Horst Owesle and Peter Rutterford.
 
The outfit will appear at Bonham’s auction of collectors’ motorcycles and memorabilia in Stafford on the 17th of October.

It comes from a private UK collection which also includes a 1977 MV Agusta 832 Monza superbike with a top speed of 147mph, making it the fastest production bike of its time.

Ben Walker, head of Bonham’s motorcycle department said: “It’s another fabulous line-up already, encompassing the whole range of collectors’ motorcycles.”

For more information go to: www.bonhams.com/eur/motorcycles