Sidecar takes centre stage at motorbike auction

A famous motorcycle and sidecar will be a star lot at a Midland auction this autumn when it is expected to reach a price of between £70,000 and £80,000.

Bonhams annual sale of collectors' motorcycles and related memorabilia will be part of the Classic Motorcycle Mechanics Show at the County Showground in Stafford on October 17.

It will include the historic racing motorcycle on which the legendary Helmut Fath won the Sidecar World Championship in 1968 and with which Horst Owesle took the title in 1971.

Fath, world Champion in 1960 riding a privately entered BMW, spent the next few years out of racing following a serious injury. Rebuffed by the German manufacturer on his return, he set about building his own four-cylinder URS racing engine, which took its name from the village of Ursenbach in Germany where the project was conceived.

The URS was plagued by teething troubles in its first two seasons but delivered Fath his revenge in 1968, when he and passenger Wolfgang Kalauch beat BMW-mounted Johann Attenberger to take the world championship.

In 1969 another serious injury enforced Fath's retirement from the sport but the URS was not done yet. Horst Owesle took over the drive and after a promising debut season which saw him finish seventh in the 1970 world championship, he and passenger Peter Rutterford secured the URS's second World title the following year.

The URS is offered from an important UK private collection together with another post-war racing motorcycle: the 500cc URS-engined Seeley prototype that John Blanchard rode to fourth place in the 1967 Ulster Grand Prix and which was raced later in 750cc form by Tony Jefferies. Its estimate is £60,000 to £70,000.

Offered from the same collection is the 1977 MV Agusta 832cc Monza superbike that was tested by The Motor Cycle'magazine at 147mph, making it the fastest production machine in the world at that time. Full details of the sale are on the website www.bonhams.com/motorcycles