Click the above image to watch the full MonoTracer MTE-150 review by the Financial Times.
Financial Times Producer Rohit Jaggi recently visited the MonoTracer Peraves skunkworks in Switzerland and took the all electric zero emissions 200hp MonoTracer MTE-150 for a spin through the rainy Zurich countryside. Throughout his drive he stayed warm and dry thanks to the enclosed safety cabin (made of DuPont™ Kevlar®) all while enjoying and experiencing the thrill of MonoTracering. Rohit makes a very important observation regarding promising congestion reduction if commuters would take to narrow track cabin motorcycles. Thanks to the extremely low aerodynamic drag design of the MonoTracer, the all electric MTE-150 version eliminates range concerns while traction battery recharging is very quick with its onboard 20kW AC Propulsion reductive charger. It is by far the world’s most energy efficient high performance vehicle. Watch the expertly produced 4 1/2 minute MonoTracer MTE-150 video review on FT.com by clicking here or on the above image and see the solutions for a sustainable mobility future.
Peraves’ new AlexsandraMobile – A Citroën MonoTracer Transporter for delivery and service pickups.
Behold Peraves’ new Citroën MonoTracer Transporter for delivery and service pickups for European based MonoTracer customers. The transporter ensures completely enclosed protection of your MonoTracer to and from Peraves maintenance facilities with a friendly Alexsandra smile.
Peraves CEO Roger Riedener assembled another beautiful MonoTracer calendar for the 2013 model year with some of the best photos from the past few years of MonoTracering adventures. Photographers include Friedemann Lätsch, Dan Lexa, Roger Riedener, Stefano Paris, Markus Jann, Roland Briel, Michaela Moser, and Alain Brideson/Designwerk. I’ve parsed the calendar into JPEGs viewable below. Click the jump if you’re viewing this from the main blog feed to see each JPEG individually. A low resolution (3.1Mb) PDF version of the 2013 MonoTracer of Switzerland Calendar is available by clicking here.
2013 MonoTracer of Switzerland Calendar – Cover
January 2013 MonoTracer of Switzerland Calendar – Swiss customer having all the fun with his white MonoTracer. There are still 10cm of air under the retract, Reto!
February 2013 MonoTracer of Switzerland Calendar – 1320 Nm of torque at the back wheel takes some serious rubber. over 300 km of range on a single charge at 100 kph constant speed!
March 2013 MonoTracer of Switzerland Calendar – Aleksandra, italian beauty working at Museo Ferrari in Maranello, takes a break to check out rosso corsa red MTI-1200.
April 2013 MonoTracer of Switzerland Calendar – carrara white MonoTracer MTI-1200 BMW in front of Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles.
May 2013 MonoTracer of Switzerland Calendar – and from time to time, graceful creatures appear and enlighten our souls at boring car shows.
June 2013 MonoTracer of Switzerland Calendar – Attention: high voltage! the MTE-150 soars silently underneath power lines near Brno/CZ racetrack.
July 2013 MonoTracer of Switzerland Calendar – fine riding style with perfect head position demonstrated on track by Paul Blezard! pureblue MTI-1200.
August 2013 MonoTracer of Switzerland Calendar – electromagnetic tests at the VDE lab in Offenbach, Germany, for ECE-R10 certification.
September 2013 MonoTracer of Switzerland Calendar – chasing the storm: MonoTracer in viper green in front of MonoTracer HQ in Uster, Switzerland.
October 2013 MonoTracer of Switzerland Calendar – tornado red electric MTE-150 glides across Danube University Krems campus in Austria.
November 2013 MonoTracer of Switzerland Calendar – the past: Mauser Einspurauto / “La Monotrace” from 1928, seen at Technikmuseum Sinsheim, Germany.
December 2013 MonoTracer of Switzerland Calendar – the future: electric mass-produced single seater eTracer will set new benchmarks: sexy, affordable safe & sustainable personal urban mobility: we call it “iPhone on wheels!”
Many who see a MonoTracer for their first time have asked “Are you from the Future?” One instagram photo captured by lilcflo has a caption which reads: “Welcome to the future folks!!” Another instagram by popstar_mini exclaims: “I don’t mean to alarm you, but George Jetson is on the 5 Southbound Freeway.” In reality the concept of the cabin motorcycle is almost a century old. One of the first cabin motorcycles debuted in the 1920s and was called the Monotrace. The Monotrace was a cabriolet and was manufactured in France in the 1920s under licence from the original German manufacturer, EinspurAuto. ‘Einspur’ means ‘SingleTrack’ in German, and ‘Monotrace’ means the same in French.
In the 1930s a group of cabin motorcycles began to appear in eastern Europe called Dalniks – a sensible hybrid of an automobile and motorcycle. The idea was to do more with less. A half-sized car with only 2 main wheels was more affordable, used less materials to build, and was more efficient and thrifty on precious fuel. All of these traits were important before and after WWII.
The 1920s Monotrace.
Jan Anderlé’s Dalniks from the 1940s.
The recognized “father” of the Dalniks was Jan Anderlé, a brilliant Czech aeronautical engineer. He began designing and building cabin motorcycles in the 1930s. His innovative outrigger wheel system kept the vehicle upright when stopped. Below is a brief “silent video” of Jan Anderlé’s 1941 Dalnik (with soundtrack added). Jan demonstrates the controls, the outrigger stability system, starts the engine, goes for a drive showing how it cruised quickly and effortlessly, picking up his wife for a date at the end.
The Future: MonoTracer MTI-1200 at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles.
At the end of August 2012 I spent a Saturday with a film crew from the Brazilian AutoEsporte TV show piloting and shooting the MonoTracer MTI-1200 all around Southern California. I met up with the producer Tiago, host Diego, and cameraman Alcides in the morning in Anaheim. From there we traveled via freeway to the Walt Disney Concert Hall for some beauty shots. We then headed to Griffith Park for some green scenery. Finally we drove out to Santa Monica and up PCH towards Malibu for some ocean and beach shots. Here is the edited AutoEsporte MonoTracer MTI-1200 video review that aired last Sunday in Brazil.
MonoTracer mistura moto, carro e avião e é destaque do filme “O vingador do futuro”.
Translation: MonoTracer is a mixture of motorcycle, car, and plane and is featured in the 2012 movie “Total Recall”.
Anytime you’re out with a MonoTracer everyone becomes a paparazzi and photographs the vehicle with their cellphone. I ran across this very sweet Instagram photo of the MonoTracer banking left on to South Grand Avenue in front of the Walt Disney Concert Hall taken by Michelle Kim. You can watch this maneuver and her snapping the photo if you look closely in the AutoEsporte MonoTracer MTI-1200 video segment above.
2012.08.25 – MonoTracer MTI-1200 banking left on to South Grand Avenue in front of Walt Disney Concert Hall. Instagram photo by Michelle Kim.
MonoTracer MTI-1200 parked beachside along PCH close to Malibu, California.
MonoTracer = Real World TRON ENCOM 786 Light Cycle.
TRON ENCOM 786 Light Cycle
TRON ENCOM 786 Light Cycle
Mara – TRON Uprising
Mara – TRON Uprising
TRON ENCOM 786 Light Cycle
TRON ENCOM 786 Light Cycle
For those of us that grew up in the 1980s and remember watching the original 1982 movie TRON and forever dreamed about piloting our own light cycles like Kevin Flynn, the MonoTracer is surely the ultimate real world emodiment of the fantastic TRON ENCOM 786. This summer Disney XD started airing a new cartoon series entitled TRON Uprising (click here for the TRON Uprising 2011 Comic-Con Preview Trailer). It features Mara, a light cycle mechanic, voiced by the forever beautiful and talented Mandy Moore. In this short clip from the 2nd episode “The Renegade, Part 1”, the vintage Kevin Flynn designed ENCOM 786 2nd generation light cycle is revealed to a stunned yet appreciative Mara. This is the TRON light cycle of her dreams. “It is one of a kind. Every component designed for speed!”
In this interview with Mandy Moore, she discusses her voice over work on TRON Uprising as the light cycle mechanic Mara. At 1min 48sec Mandy lets us know that she would like a light cycle. If there was any way we could advance enough so that we could all scoot around on light cycles, she would be down for that. Maybe we can interest Mandy for a ride in the all electric MonoTracer MTE-150 as it truly is the ultimate TRON light cycle experience. It even sounds like a TRON light cycle at full acceleration!
In this short clip from the 4th Episode of TRON Uprising, “Blackout”, Zed unveils his 30% faster “green light cycle” with overdrive. We’ve always known that green is the fastest! To get your fill of light cycles in action watch TRON Uprising on Disney XD.
2012.08.24 – Trainees,Trainers, and Trainulators at the Third MonoTracer Training of 2012 in Tuggen, Switzerland.
Last week Peraves held the third MonoTracer training of 2012 again in Tuggen, Switzerland. 10 newbies attended along with Ruedi Steck and Michael Kutschke. Ruedi Steck of Swiss Performance is a Bonneville world speed record holder and will be piloting the X-PRIZE winning all electric X-Tracer7009 to 200mph in spring 2013 at the Nardò Ring high speed test track in Italy (recently purchased by Porsche). Michael Kutschke is chief editor of Töff Magazine and will be covering the whole Nardo story.
2012.08.24 – MonoTracer Trainulators at the Third MonoTracer Training of 2012 in Tuggen, Switzerland.
2012.08.24 – MonoTracer Trainulators at the Third MonoTracer Training of 2012 in Tuggen, Switzerland.
Swiss magazine Blick was present and took photos and video of Ruedi’s MonoTracer training which can be viewed on their website:
The fourth and final MonoTracer Training day for 2012 will be held on Friday, October 12th in Tuggen, Switzerland. Contact Peraves if you would like to attend.
Motorrad journalist Stefan Kaschel reviews the experience of piloting and living with a MonoTracer MTI-1200 in the 2012-18th issue of Motorrad magazine in this article entitled “Space Oddity”.
It’s all about David Bowie‘s song…did he know of the MonoTracer or was he drugged when he wrote the 1969 song “Space Oddity“? The truth is: whoever rides through rural parts of Germany in this capsule feels like he’s in a spaceship. Alone, far away from home, in a far away galaxy…ground control to Major Tom…
There is a nice emotional side to this story, and we’ve never had people coming into the shop the day after an article was published before. Well, yesterday, three people stumbled into Peraves Headquarters and wanted to see the MonoTracer space capsule for themselves…
Here is the original music video for David Bowie’s song Space Oddity from Bowie’s promotional film, “Love You Till Tuesday”, originally released in 1969 and re-released on DVD.
Lori Quaid (Kate Beckinsale) touching the side glazing of the Police MonoTracer in Total Recall 2012 to enable a “FaceTime” video call with her boss Cohaagen (Bryan Cranston). MonoTracer pilot and owner Justin Clarke plays a Police Officer extra with helmet in the right of this scene.
Lori Quaid (Kate Beckinsale) makes a MonoTracer MTI-1200 side glazing enabled “FaceTime” hand embedded cellular video call with her boss Cohaagen.
I had the opportunity to see the film in AMC ETX splendor last night and counted five MonoTracer sightings. Three of them are at the start of the movie with the last 2 towards the end and closing scene. MonoTracer pilot and owner Justin Clarke provided his own new MonoTracer MTI-1200 and days of support over a few weeks of shooting up in Canada last August 2011. Justin also plays an extra in the film suited up as one of the police officers (see photo above). His MonoTracer was stickered up as a futuristic Police vehicle. You can see a glimpse of the MonoTracer with Lori Quaid (Kate Beckinsale) enabling a “FaceTime” video call with her boss Cohaagen on the side glazing via the touch of her hand embedded cellular phone at minute 2:06 of in the Total Recall 2012 Trailer #2.
Below are two photos scanned from the 8th issue of Einspur-Zeitung, a “Single-Track Newspaper” published by Peraves AG back in February 1991. The photos were captioned with the following: The pictures show ECO’s No. 5007 and 5010 in action for the French Police. Actually the scene runs in 1999, it’s in the shooting of the Wim-Wenders-movie “Until the End of the World” and by looking at the pictures carefully one recognizes the “policemen” Wolfgang WALTL, ECO-importer for Austria, and Jan HIRSCH, manager of the ECOMOBILE GmbH Germany, controlling star actor William HURT.
Police EcoMobiles from the 1991 film “Until the End of the World”.
Police EcoMobiles from the 1991 film “Until the End of the World”.
The MonoTracer training classes are limited to 8 students with at least 4 available instructors and begins with 1 hour of classroom theory explaining the physics and dynamics of piloting a MonoTracer. At least 4 training MonoTracers (2 gas-powered and 2 electric-powered) are provided along with a BMW C1 which is used to verify the student understands the all important concept of countersteering prior to transitioning to the MonoTracer. The training MonoTracers are all outfitted with temporary yellow training axles to protect the vehicle from falling over beyond 20 degrees.
The goals of the MonoTracer training are:
1. Safe slow speed handling of the cabin motorcycle.
2. Safe operation of the bionic legs (aka outriggers or stabilizers).
3. Safe braking with the integral ABS system.
4. Theories of countersteering for non-believers.
5. Technical class for vehicle maintenance.
The focus is on “the Upper Half of the Motorcycle” and it is highly recommended one read/study Bernt Spiegel’s Motorcycling bible The Upper Half of the Motorcycle: On the Unity of Rider and Machine. Expect lots of turning-your-head-before-the-vehicle-turns, ride-where-you-look-and-not-look-where-you-ride, think-far-ahead-and-look-far-ahead, don’t-brake-with-your-jaws-and-your-teeth-but-with-the-brake-pedals/levers, and of course, don’t-forget-to-breath. Oh, and there may even be a little yoga and a little ZEN… 😉 At a minimum you’ll leave the training with a better appreciation and knowledge of motorcycle riding.
The one day-course costs 200 Euros per person and starts at 8:30 AM sharp, ending at 5 PM. The dates for the MonoTracer Driver Training Courses are:
April 27th, 2012
June 29th, 2012
August 24th, 2012
October 12th, 2012
If you are interested in attending any of these Driver Training events, and are from North America, please contact Jim Lorimer at Jim@21stCenturyMotoring.com or 804-513-2054. If you are from Europe, contact Roger Riedener at Sales@MonoTracer.com
Enjoy the video below by Mediafusion of the April 27th, 2012 MonoTracer Training in Tuggen, Switzerland.
Are you an experienced motorcyclist or a pilot? Are you thinking about buying a MonoTracer? Then take the chance to have a close look at our high performance cabin motorcycle. It’ll be the most awesome experience of your life. Arrive the evening before or first thing in the morning. Start at 8:30am sharp. Cost: EUR 200,– plus hotel, food & lodging. Four instructors will show you how to ride a MonoTracer. Your first lesson will be in an all-electric MTE-150. After you’ve made some progress, we’ll show you how to ride and shift the BMW powered MTI-1200. Interested? You must have a full motorcycle licence and ideally, plenty of experience of riding heavy and powerful motorcycles.
Individual driver training is available every Monday by appointment only in Winterthur, Switzerland for EUR 500 per day.