Lot details Registration No: Un-Reg Frame No: Unknown cc: 125 MOT Expiry Date: N/A
Founded in late 1958 by a group of disgruntled former Montessa employees including pre- and post-WW2 road-racing champion Francisco Xavier Bulto, the Spanish firm of Bultaco soon gained a reputation for high performance, small capacity machinery. Introduced in 1961, its TSS 125 racer was a direct rival to the Honda 2RC143 and EMC GP 125. While deemed inferior to both in terms of horsepower and braking, it was generally held to possess a particularly fine handling chassis.
According to information supplied to the vendor by Dr Ehrlich upon purchase, it was this latter quality that Mike Hailwood (an EMC rider at the time) sought to test when he dreamt up this intriguing Bultaco-framed / EMC-engined hybrid. Arranging for it to be built while his employer was away in America, the good doctor was apparently less than impressed upon his return. Nevertheless, he seems to have respected the research / development opportunities it represented (or so its survival to this day would argue) and even reputedly allowed Rex Avery to use it in competition. Perhaps ironically, its usage of a water-cooled engine (albeit a works EMC unit), uprated brakes and Bultaco forks made it curiously similar to the later generation TSS that won the 1968 125cc Spanish GP. However, by then Ehrlich had abandoned motorcycles in favour of a F3 car project. Please note that although this exciting racer's rev-happy single and Oldani brakes are both to EMC Works specification, the exact identity of its chassis frame has yet to be established.
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