Horex of Germany have a V6-engined motorcycle concept on their drawing board. Alastair Walker separates the dreams from reality…

Horex of Germany were once one of the most innovative German companies making motorbikes, but like many small outfits, a costly foray into the world of scooters during the 1950s effectively finished the brand off.

A revived Munch-Horex made a 1400cc turbo-charged, four-cylinder model in the 1970s, but it flopped. Game over, or so it seemed.

But like Norton, Indian, Brough-Superior and many other names from motorcycling’s past, the Horex brand is being revived by a German consortium with some ¤12m of investment.

Clemens Neese is the MD of the new Horex concern and, with technical assistance from VW-Audi group during the development of the Horex 1200cc V6 supercharged engine, the prospects for the new bike look good on paper.

“We realised early on that Horex would be a perfect brand name for our project.” Neese said to the bike press last week.

“The name and the company’s history complemented our vision. If the Horex visionaries of the past were still building motorcycles, these machines would be just like the six-cylinder bike we are introducing today.”

So, when can we expect to see some other new Horex models?

When Munch revived the Horex name in the 1970s, they used an NSU car engine with a turbo attached.

Likewise, the new Horex V6 is estimated to retail at ¤20,000, make ridiculous power and will be launched at Intermot this autumn, with sales in Germany and Switzerland pencilled in for 2011. Horex say that they are expecting to sell about 1,000 units in total.

My feeling is that there’s always room for expensive oddities in biking, but the gorgeous Bimota DB5/6 sportbikes, Norton’s classy Commando, or the technically interesting Vyrus from Italy prove to me that the Germans nearly always mess up when it comes to bike styling.

The Horex V6 looks horribly similar to a Yamaha XV920 from the 1980s and I for one never want to revisit that motorcycling hell.

For more information, go to www.horex.com.

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