Did you ever know, there was a motorcycle manufacturer that produced the first VR6 engine for a motorbike? That manufacturer was Horex, a company that began in 1923 in Bad Homburg, Germany. Brief history. In 1920 motorcycle and car racer Fritz Kleemann persuaded his father Friedrich Kleemann, a financial manager at the Rex Konservenglas Gesellschaft, a glass jar manufacturing company in Bad Homburg, to buy the nearby Columbus motorenbau AG, a small motor factory in Oberursel by Taunus. The factory made the later Horex models and the name remained the same for almost 30 years. Fritz Kleemann built the first motorcycles with an outsourced GNOM 4 stroke 250cc engine, delivered from the Columbus Engine factory. In 1923 Fritz Kleemann who was 22, founded Horex-Fahrzeugbau AG, the name being derived the name from his town HOmburg and his father's glass jar company REX. He was also a motorcycle racer and was riding his own Horex machine with a 248cc OHV engine. In 1925 he had financial problems with his business and partnered with Columbus. The new firm's first motorcycle was a 600cc side valve, followed by a 4 valve 600cc OHV model, the S64. In 1938 their SB35 350cc machine appeared, and the engine was also supplied to Victoria for their KR35 model. During World War 2, Horex production was suspended but resumed in 1948 with the SB35 being the first post-war model available. In 1950 the modern SB35 Regina began production and by 1953 the range included Regina 250, 350 and 400cc models, with aluminium heads. Production peaked to 18600 units. Sadly just 4 years later sales started to collapse. Despite new models models, the "Imperator" and the "Resident", which succeeded the Regina, sales plummeted. Strong sales of automobiles in post war Germany affected motorcycle firms such as Horex. In addition insurance premiums for motorcycles over 200 CC increased drastically. In 1956, motorcycle production was abandoned. HOREX still produced children's toys, metal shears, and also produces car parts for Daimler-Benz. Eventually, Daimler Benz took over the Horex factory and continued to use it to manufacture components before closing it in 1960. The Horex brand name changed hands to Freidl Munch in 1977 who built car engine based roadsters, one of them being the Horex 1400TI that can be seen in the Autostadt in Wolfsburg. Hormann-Rawema then purchased the name in 1980 and set about building a series of motorcycles with Rotax and Honda 4 strike 1 cylinder engines. None of those attempts to revive the brand worked and the brand lay dormant until 2009. In 2009, the HOREX brand name is bought by mechanical engineer and IT specialist Clemens Neese along with partners. With his team assembled, in 2010, Clemens announced he will construct an innovative HOREX-type engine to create the world's first VR6 in a motorcycle called the Horex VR6 Roadster. While folk believed the firm shared technology with Volkswagen, Horex was adamant their VR6 was ground up. Prof. Dr.-Ing. Werner Bauer, head of the Institute for Internal Combustion Engines and Vehicle Drive Systems at the Munich University of Applied Sciences, was behind the engineering team developing the Horex VR6 motorcycle engine. On a side note the first VR motorbike was a Matchless hawk made in the UK. It was a 'VR'4. Horex prototypes, which was to become the Horex VR6 Roadster, drew lots interest with the cost was just over 22000 Euro and a projected job 1 of under 2 years. However the transition to job 1 fell behind schedule compounded by significant technical logistical drawbacks. This meant Roadsters had a limited run. Sadly in August 2014, HOREX GmbH in Augsburg files for bankruptcy. in 2015, Motorcycle racing team 3C-Carbon Group AG from Landsberg wins the bidding to save HOREX GmbH in Augsburg. Once it is acquired, it took just six months, to produce the the "Silver Edition" and then introduced at the 2015 IAA (Internationale Automobil-Ausstellung). The "Black Edition" follows a short time later. The Horex brand is back some 92 years after being first conceived by Fritz Kleemann and the 3C reestablishes Landsberg as the home of the Motorcycle ( german "Motorrad", some 122 years after Alois Wolfmller and Hans Geisenhof built the very first series motorbike with a combustion engine. To celebrate that milestone a one off "Snowdance Edition" was created. Technical details of the Triple OHC 1.2 litre VR6 engine. Whether the engine was inspired by Volkswagen's VR6 series or not, it is very different to the car engine as can be demonstrated. The base engine was a typical motorcycle modular design consisting of a crankcase/6 speed gearbox, 15 degree staggered cylinder bore segment and a unique single cylinder head with 3 valves per cylinder sporting 3 overhead cams. The Horex VR6 engine is the only serial production engine with TOHC ( triple over head valve). I should note early prototype VW VR6 engines or the 80s were tested with that cam arrangement. HOREX's concept made it to serial production. Throttles and intake passages were feed vertically into the cylinder head, another unique feature reducing the need for staggered length intake ports. Original Roadster VR6 concept included a supercharger. The Rotrex centrifugal blower unit, driven by the crankshaft allowed the 1218cc VR6 to develop 200bhp@8500rpm and also 111lbft of torque near 7000rpm. Aircharge was routed to the throttle bodies and cooled by a water to air charge cooler. Compression was 9:1 The bore and stroke was an oversquare design at 68 x 55mm. Sadly the supercharger was dropped and the engine became NA with an increase in compression ratio to 11.5:1. Power was 161bhp@8800rpm with 101lbft ending at 7000rpm. After the 3C takeover in 2015, engines remained NA with 170bhp and 101lbft of torque. Video demos. This video demonstrates what the original motorcycles sounded like. [video=youtube_share;ZuVh0KQsKK0]http://youtu.be/ZuVh0KQsKK0[/video] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuVh0KQsKK0 Dyno test of the original 1.2 litre VR6 supercharged engine with the then CEO Clemens Neese in 2010 [video=youtube_share;zb1OpJpRvcs]http://youtu.be/zb1OpJpRvcs[/video] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zb1OpJpRvcs I hope you appreciate this little brief on the Horex VR6. Horex's website is http://www.horex.com.
