Café Racer - what would that look like for the cars?
05/10/2017
When it comes to motorcycles, there is a type of modified machine known as a "café racer". These are lightweight motorcycles with comparatively small engines that have been optimized for covering short distances quickly and are visually reminiscent of Grand Prix racing bikes from the early 1960s. One example can be seen in the picture above, an Egli-Vincent 1130 by Godet from 1968, which is being offered by RM/Sotheby's at the Villa Erba auction .
Incidentally, the name came from the fact that the youngsters usually gathered with their motorcycles at a café (Ace Café, for example) and occasionally organized a race against the clock to the next traffic circle and back. Whoever got back faster than the record in the jukebox could finish had won a "record race"
Our question - after all, we are more focused on cars - is what the four-wheeled equivalent of the motorcycle café racer would look like. We think it would be the specials of the fifties and sixties, which were based on a popular chassis and given new pizzazz and sportiness with plastic bodywork.
This could look like this Microplas Toledo from 1954 ...
... or this Devin-Triumph from 1957.
Similar to the motorcycle, the shapes of large racing cars of the fifties were imitated and the focus was on looks and low weight. And as with the motorcycle café racer, comfort and weather protection were not the main focus of the plastic specials.
We hope that we will be able to welcome some of these specials again at this year's "Fantastic Plastic" plastic car meeting !
