Tornax,

a motorcycle name I had never heard of before,

which is not that surprising as over the years there were literally hundreds of them that I have never heard of, 

 but what is a surprise is that it is a German company that used British engines, the company was called Tornax Fahrzeug und Apparatebau, based in Wuppertal Western Germany, the bike you see here is arguably the best that they got, the world-beating 1000cc III-30,

 the engines used were from J. A. P. who also supplied their engines to many other motorcycle and three wheeler manufactures, notably Brough Superior and Morgan,

 in 1926, wealthy hereditary jeweller, watchmaker and motorcycle racer Ernst Wewer realised a long-standing dream, to start producing motorcycles of his own, along with Chief Design Engineer Otto Karpe, they eventually created the 1000cc III-30, the ‘Tornax’ name was derived from a creative variation on the word ‘tornado’,

 the heart of the beast,

unusually for the time a binnacle of instruments could be mounted in the petrol tank, this particuklar motorcycle was equipped with a side-valve engine with a volume of 996cc, giving it a grand total of 26hp, the maximum speed promised by the company was 130 km/h, which made this motorcycle one of the fastest in the world at the time, but that wasn’t all Tornax could offer wealthy, pre-war customers, at the special request of the buyer, they could install the top-shelf JAP engine (similar in specs to the Brough Superior SS 100 engine), which was reportedly capable of outputting 72hp and propelling the bike to a very impressive 118mph, while the great depression meant that very few of these ‘III-31 SS’ models were sold, their specs would make them at the time the fastest factory motorcycle in the world, reportedly outrunning the now legendary Brough Pendine Racing Model of 1925, unfortunately in 1934 Germany’s National Socialist government banned the importation of all foreign components, so an unwelcome switch to Columbus (or Horex) engines was required, then the war came, the factory was bombed out of existence but like a phoenix rose from the ashes, but the company could never regain it’s pre-war sales and ceased motorcycle manufacturing in 1955, would I like one? of course I would!