Ace of Hearts, Miloslav Souček

The author has compiled the history of the development and production of four-cylinder engines for motorcycles from the first preserved types. After a three-page introduction to the subject, there is the first of the structurally interesting motorcycles with a four-cylinder engine, where we also have a proud world first: the Laurin & Klement with an in-line four-cylinder engine made in Austria-Hungary. From a chronological perspective, various design directions are interesting, often avant-garde, but also some less fortunate ones, which were often limited by the possibilities of workshop processing. The theoretical idea of the designer was timeless, but the appropriate technology had not yet been produced. Detailed technical descriptions of another twenty-five structurally interesting motorcycles of often no longer existing production brands will certainly interest readers of all age groups.

A wide period from the establishment of an independent republic through the years of economic crisis, the protectorate and up to 1953, when a classless society was fully built with the help of obligations - these are the years that the author chose for the next presentation of some motorcycle manufacturers. The author filled the clearly arranged pages of the next part of his extensive publication with the production marks or surnames of workshop owners that begin with one of the three letters M, N, O. Period print, brochures, drawings, dimensional sketches, photographs, official documents replacing technical certificates and other archive materials were suitably used to bring the history of motorcycle production in Czechoslovakia closer. The author has been a guarantee of extremely interesting discoveries with a specialization in two-wheeled vehicles for many years.