Manufactured by Frantisek Trojan & Alois Nagl, Kolin (Bohemia).
Torpedo motorcycles, which may also have been built after the Great War, came in single cylinder and v-twin configurations, along with one remarkable four-cylinder model. They also produced a three-cylinder engine used in a helicopter around 1912.
Engines were 3½ and 4 hp singles, and 6 and 8 hp v-twins. Some of these were possibly from Benz. Their motorcycles were sold as far afield as Spain and Brazil.
In 1909 they presented the Torpedo V4 - technically a radial engine, it had four connecting rods on a common crankpin and was composed of a pair of V-twins joined at the hip. Each cylinder has a bore and stroke of 73 mm x 100 mm giving a total displacement of 1640 cc. Claimed top speed was 120 km/h.
A replica of the "V" four has been built by Pavel Malanik, who spent some 2,500 hours on the construct. The result is a genuine work of art.
Sources: GTU Oldtimerservice, theoldmotor.com, amcn.com.au
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N.B. Several other firms used variations of the brand name Torpedo.
