Vintage Michelin commercials

A close "motorcycle" shave

Indeed, the world famous brand - company that produces the shaving divice, manufactured motorcycles!

Wilkinson TMC Motorcycles

Wilkinson Sword produced some of the earliest motorcycles in 1903. These were two-cylinder machines with French engines made by Antoine, which were marketed by a garage in Chelsea in London – one of the first motorcycle dealerships in the UK. The venture was not a success however. In 1911 Wilkinson developed and manufactured the Wilkinson TMC, a luxury touring motorcycle between 1911 and 1916, when production was stopped by the First World War. The first 'Wilkinsons' were originally designed for military reconnaissance by P G Tacchi, who was granted a patent for the design in 1908. Demonstrated to the British military in the summer of 1908, the Wilkinson motorcycle failed to impress the authorities, despite optional accessories including a sidecar complete with Maxim machine gun – and a steering wheel instead of handlebars. Undaunted, the company continued development and exhibited a new version a year later at the Stanley Clyde Motorcycle Show at the Agricultural Hall, Islington, London in 1909.  Only about 250 Wilkinsons were produced before the First World War restrictions brought the line to its end in spring 1916 and the Wilkinson company had to produce thousands of bayonets for the war effort. After the war they decided to continue to develop the in-line four engine – but in a new car called the Deemster, and they never returned to motorcycle production.

Text via: wikipedia - Wilkinson Sword

Via: motorbike-search-engine.co.uk 

Via: vintagebike.co.uk 

Via: vintagebike.co.uk 

The Lamborghini Story

Sig. Ferruccio Lamborghini didn't start by building high-performance cars, he was actually born into a farmer family, so when World War II was over and Ferruccio returned to Italy, he began converting the military left-over engines into powerfull tractors, which were much needed at that time.With his studies at a technical school, and his assigned during the war in the car park of the army, he was well cabable of building just about anything from scratch, and keep it running afterwards.The tractor business, which he started in an old barn, went extremely well, and soon Ferruccio was able to move into bigger premises in 1949, he built had a completely new factory built in Cento and founded Lamborghini Trattori SpA.

At that time they built just one tractor each day with a rather small group of employees. But things only got better, and by 1958 Lamborghini Trattori SpA built 1500 tractors a year.Lamborghini tractors were considered to be among the very best, in the beginning Ferruccio even organised tractor-pulling contests between his machines and those belonging to nearby farmers, just to show that his tractor was the most powerfull one. The Lamborghini tractors were very reliable and they were built in a very high quality, mainly because over 80 percent of the parts were made inside the factory at Cento, so Ferruccio could asure himself of the best possible quality.

In 1969 production went up to 5000 units a year, which caused Ferruccio to start thinking about moving into even larger premisses again. He moved the factory in 1971, at that time the Lamborghini Trattori SpA was the third best selling tractor manufacturer on the Italian market. But in 1972, after a fatal cancellation of an important order, Ferruccio lost confidence in his tractor business and sold his company to Same Co of Treviglio, but production still continued and by 1979, the former Lamborghini factory produced some 10,000 tractors a year, from which 26 percent was exported all over the world while 8 percent remained in Italy.It should therefore be much easier to find a Lamborghini tractor than a Lamborghini car, because the total production of Automobili Lamborghini is nowhere near 10,000 units.