Puch enlisted the talents of Belgium’s Harry Everts to race their unproven machine in 1974. From bicycles, the brand transitioned to mopeds, motorcycles, and eventually automobiles in the early twentieth century. Based in Graz, Austria, Puch quickly earned a reputation for innovative designs and quality workmanship. Founded in 1899 by industrialist Johann Puch, the company that bore his name began like so many other early motorcycle manufacturers, as a bicycle company. Today, the name Puch is not well known here in the US but the company has a long and storied history. At a production run of only 97 units, a pristine example like this one that was in the Primm MX collection can command upwards of $30,000 today. The 1976 Puch MC250 Everts Replica is one of very few true works bikes ever offered for sale to the general public.
Fight Club: Pastrana, Langston, Brown and a Titleįor this edition of Classic Steel, we are going to take a look back at one of the most exotic production machines ever offered for sale, the 1976 Puch MC250 Everts Replica.The Oral History of Two Two Motorsports.Shifting Gears: The Zach Osborne Podcast.
This is an important machine and one of the rarest MX racers ever built. It was a very effective engine in a chassis that could only be described as a factory special, and only 97 were built.įinding any example of this remarkable, ultra-rare 1976 Puch MC250 is difficult enough, but this machine is in excellent original and unrestored condition. The rear suspension also featured state of the art Marzocchi units, and the split single engine used two big-bore Bing carburetors: one for the usual piston-port intake, the second using a rotary disc for a carefully timed boost charge. Puch kindly obliged with a racing replica of Everts’ machine, the MC250, which featured not only magnesium engine cases, but magnesium hubs and even magnesium Marzocchi fork sliders, too. Puch reached a pinnacle of motocross racing success in 1975 with its Belgian rider Harry Everts taking the Motocross World Championship, taking four Championships in a row. Their moped business was very successful with the ultimate model 1974 Puch Grand Prix proving the fastest production moped in the world, albeit with the rules stretched considerably, having a 3-speed gearbox and vestigial bicycle pedals. Thus, supercharged versions of the split single design were soon seen on Europe’s race tracks under inventor Garelli’s banner, Puch or, most successfully, by DKW.Īfter World War II, Puch produced lightweight split-single two-strokes for the road and eventually for motocross racing. The twin-piston design cured some problems of the piston-ported two-stroke engine by separating the incoming fuel charge from the exhaust exit, as highly tuned or supercharged two-strokes tended to push too much fuel straight through the motor and out the exhaust without being properly burned. Instead, as the principal administrator of the company, he brought the split-single two-stroke engine design from Garelli to Puch’s engineers, beginning a very long association of Puch with this peculiar “twin piston single” engine design. After the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire after World War I, production was greatly curtailed, and an Italian engineer Giovanni Marcellino was brought in by creditor banks to close Puch. The Puch factory founded in 1899 Johann Puch began building engines in 1901 and whole motorcycles and cars by 1904. All 97 of the MC250s ever built were assembled in 1975 for the 1976 season, and every trick material and component available to the Puch factory was designed into the machine. This ultra-rare 1976 Puch MC250 Twin Carb MX racer has to be one of the most exotic and desirable off-road machines ever built.