Brief History of the Marque
The marque was established in Barcelona by Jacinto Moriana, a businessman in the automotive trade, and named for their chief engineer, Antonio Cobas.
They built a considerable variety of machines for MotoGP, endurance racing, trials and other off-road sports, achieving laurels in all. The jewel in the crown was the 125cc GP World Championship which Alex Crivillé claimed in 1989.
A. Cobas is credited with the development of an aluminium frame which became the basis for the majority of GP bikes of the future. He later partnered with Sito Pons as his chief engineer, and the duo went on to dominate the 250 GP class.
Cobas previously developed the Siroko marque, and his name is also associated with that of Kobas.
Highlights of production: BMW K100 Endurance racer, JC-2 KTM 250 motocross, Autisa 80cc GP, MBA 125cc GP, TB6 Rotax 125 (winner '89 GP series). He worked with Mototrans to develop the Ducati NCR.
There was also an expensive, limited production road machine exported to Japan, the JY4. Others of note are a Bultaco-based trials machine and in the bicycle world the JJ Cobas mountain bike, a thing of beauty.
Antonio Cobas died in 2004 at the age of 54.
"He was always two or three steps ahead of the others." ~ Sito Pons
Sources: wikipedia.es, wikipedia.org
