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Monday, March 10, 2014

Matchless G 50

Here are some images Protar's 1/9 scale Matchless G 50 Racing Motorcycle.

From Wikipedia"
The Matchless G50 is a racing British motorcycle made by Associated Motorcycles (AMC) at the former Matchless works in Plumstead, London. Developed in 1958 from the 350cc AJS 7R, but with the engine capacity increased to 500 cc, 180 G50s (for 50 bhp) were built in the next four years. Although less powerful than its main competitor the Norton Manx the G50 proved highly competitive at three hundred pounds and was faster round bends. If success is measured by longevity then this is the most successful Matchless motorcycles as high specification replicas are still being produced to this day although financial problems at AMC ended production in 1963.
In 1963, the AMA decided that the G50 should not be allowed to race in the USA as it was not based on a production street bike. Matchless solved the problem by creating the street-legal G50 CSR, fitting the G50 engine into the G80CS Scrambler frame.
The designation CSR stood for Competition, Sprung and Roadster but quickly got called the Coffee Shop racer. It later became known as the Golden Eagle after the name was used in advertising (due to the gold finish of the engine casings).
By the time the G50 was reinstated, however, it was no longer in production.
There were just two colour options - bright blue with a tan seat or bright red and black with a black seat.
  Financial problems at AMC ended production in 1963 and all the tooling and spares were sold to sidecar Grand Prix racer Colin Seeley in 1966. Seeley went on to develop the engine and made his own custom frames to produce a number of G50 'specials' some of which were known as the called the Seeley Condor. These exclusive motorcycles continue to be hand built to this day to individual customer specifications by TGA Ltd, now based in northern France. As well as building motorcycles from new parts, TGA also convert secondhand racing motorcycles for road use.

2 comments:

Motorsport Modeller said...

I gave to be honest I had never heard of Matchless motorbikes till seeing this post. It is a cool looking bike and a great model.

-Warren Zoell said...

Thanks Shayne. I don't think they exist anymore.