1954 Victoria Motorcycle Program

Victoria of Nuremburg went into receivership in 1956 when the motorcycle market went into a precipitous decline. They began scrambling for a merger partner to prop up the business, but all other motorcycle businesses were in similar straights. Express, also in Nuremburg entered into negotiations, but Victoria discovered that they were in an even worse financial situation and were counting on Victoria bailing them out. In the end, the board of Express simply voted to hand all shares in the company to Victoria. It was also at this time that Mercedes-Benz became the majority of shareholder of Auto-Union GmbH and put the DKW Motorcycle Division up for sale. The following year DKW Motorrad, Victoria and Express were merged together as Zweirad Union.

Victoria's 1951 FM38 World Speed Record

Victoria of Nuremburg was not part of Auto-Union so possibly it can be argued it doesn't belong in this history. However, Victoria was part of the Zweirad Union, that would incorporate DKW's motorcycle division when Auto-Union's principal stockholder, Daimler-Benz, sold that loss making business in 1957. Merging with Express, the three companies came up the banner, Zweirad Union.

Victoria had a long history as a bicycle and motorcycle manufacturer dating back to the turn of the 19th century. After the war they became famous as a manufacturer of auxilliary bicycle engines and lightweight motorcycles and mopeds. In 1951, as a publicity stunt, they fitted a streamlined bicycle with a tuned 38cc auxillary engine and broke the world speed record for a auxillary bicycle. The top speed obtained was 90kph on a single run. Unfortunately, the rider, William Dotterweich, fell off his bike when hit by a crosswind on the return run and the tuned engine was damaged. As two timed runs were required for an official speed record, a new engine was fitted which unfortunately was not as well tuned. In the two successful timed runs an average speed of 76kph was achieved, which was sufficient to win the world record. Victoria held the world speed record for only a year before it was beaten by an Argentinan rider with a speed of 92.5kph. Nevertheless, it was an extremely impressive result for an engine that only generated a single horsepower!