Two Stroke Motocross
Two Stroke Motocross Forum => Open Forum => Topic started by: opfermanmotors on December 04, 2010, 03:30:24 PM
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(http://images.hemmings.com/wp-content/uploads//2010/07/Maico500Sport_01_1000-700x382.jpg)
Not what you expected? This is the last automobile produced by Maico and it has some sorted history behind it revealed by Peter Svilians.
Your Mystery Maico was the very last gasp of the Maisch brothersâ?? venture into automobile manufacturing. By this time they were dodging the 238 creditors who were owed some 21 million deutschmarks. But they forged ahead with a new car.
Youâ??re no doubt familiar with the Maico 500 Sport cabriolet, with the black/red two- tone divided in sweeping curves down the side. It was built in fiberglass by the Swiss coachbuilders Beutler. Five were made. It debuted at the Frankfurt show in 1957.
This was joined at the same time by a Maico 500 Sport prototype with an ugly body in steel by Wendler (with tailfins) which was never officially presented to the public.
Your mystery car, the Maico 500 Sport, was an elegant prototype coupé on an extended chassis incorporating 14 chassis improvements. It was built once again by Beutler in Switzerland out of fiberglass, with the idea of bringing down the weight of the standard steel 4-seater sedan which had evolved out of the old Champion. It was still on the same backbone chassis and still powered by the standard Heinkel 452 cc 2- stroke twin making 20 hp.
The desperate hope was to market it in America, and the coupé was shown at the New York Auto Show in the spring of 1958. A number of brochures in English were produced. These showed a photo of the coupé , and drawings and specs of both the coupe and standard sedan.
At the bottom is printed:
â??American Importer: Whizzer International, 350 S.Sandford Street, Pontiac, Michiganâ?. Yes, THAT Whizzer !
Payments from the US were not forthcoming, the banks got nervous and bankruptcy proceedings were initiated. Otto Maisch went to jail for 20 months, brother Wilhelm had a serious heart attack, several company people were jailed and/or fined. The cars were done, but the motorcycle division carried on.
(http://blog.hemmings.com/wp-content/uploads//2010/07/Maico500Sport_01_1000.jpg)
(http://blog.hemmings.com/wp-content/uploads//2010/07/Maico500Sport_02_1000.jpg)
(http://blog.hemmings.com/wp-content/uploads//2010/07/Maico500sedan_1000.jpg)
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That's actually not a bad looking car though the bottom one just looks like a beetle.
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Well, it's a ye olde German car, the all sort of looked like Beetles. Just have a go at the Porsche 356 or the 550 Spyder. That said, however, I would like to see one of these with a 490 engine in it. Would give the car a lot more get-up-and-go than the 20hp unit they were selling it with. Or hell, take four modern 700MMX engines and make them into a single four-cylinder two-stroke killer from hell. People would really be complaining about the exhaust, because everyone would have to be BEHIND the car (obviously you wouldn't stay in front of it for very long!)
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Direct Injection 120hp 600cc Rotax is the answer.