Oekomobil

OEKOMOBIL

PAUL BLEZARD

What's part motorcycle, part sailplane and costs $42,000?

IF YOU HAVE JUST TURNED THE PAGE AND GOTTEN your very first look at the ... the thing pictured here, you probably have asked yourself that eternally profound question, "What the hell is that?" In which case, you’ve done nothing more than have a perfectly typical reaction to the sight of an Oemil.

Actually, this vehicle’s full name is the Peraves Oekomobil, but its constructors affectionately call it the Oemil for short. And it is most accurately described as an 850-pound, 12-foot-long, fully enclosed motorcycle with retractable stabilizer wheels.

The Oemil is the brainchild of Arnold Wagner, a Swiss aeronautical design engineer, who conceived it out of dissatisfaction with the way in which conventional twoand four-wheeled vehicles handled the 150-mile commute from his home in northern Switzerland to his work in Stuttgart, Germany. All he had to carry was a briefcase, so his BMW motorcycle should have been ideal for the job; but despite being a keen motorcyclist, Wagner found that nine times out of 10 he took his car because it was so much drier, warmer and more hassle-free. Still, the waste of space and energy bugged him, so he decided to design something that would combine the comfort and ease-ofuse of a car with the fun, agility and space-savings of a motorcycle.

Wagner came to the conclusion that full enclosure was essential to comfort and convenience, as was a car-style (feet-first) seating position. “A normal motorcycle is just a toy,” he says. “I have 14 of them and I like to play around with them, but in this climate, an open vehicle is of no practical value.”

Once that design decision was made, everything else followed logically. Full enclosure meant that some means of balancing the vehicle at rest had to be devised, hence the retractable stabilizers. And the desire to keep the center of gravity as low as possible made for a very long, 1 14inch wheelbase, because the engine had to go behind the passenger compartment instead of beneath it.

Wagner chose to source many of the Oemil’s components from a standard BMW K100 motorcycle. The vehicle uses not only the K-bike’s four-cylinder, liquid-cooled, fuel-injected, 90-horsepower engine, but also its wheels, front fork (which has been strengthened), rear suspension, instruments and controls. The futuristic bodywork is of monocoque construction, eliminating the need for a conventional frame. The body is a mixture of Kevlar and fiberglass bonded with epoxy resin, just like the very best gliders. According to Wagner, it is only in gliders where composite materials are currently being used to their full potential. “Formula 1 cars are archaic by comparison,” he claims.

Inside the molded bodyshell, two steel tubes form a roll cage for extra security. The engine and power train bolt to a massive plastic bulkhead that spans the width of the machine. Attached to the other side of this bulkhead, im-

mediately behind the passenger seat, is the mechanism that raises and lowers the outrigger wheels. The device is powered by an additional K100 starter motor that drives a toothed rubber belt and is monitored by microchips.

Obviously, the outrigger wheels are deployed when the machine is at rest, and they remain down as the bike moves off until the “pilot” operates a thumbswitch on the left handlebar. The machine can be ridden as fast as 50 mph with the wheels down, which is handy if the road is covered with snow and ice, but normally they can be retracted as soon as the clutch is let out. A buzzer sounds if the bike is ridden below 4 mph with the wheels up; but with practice, the Oemil can be safely ridden to a momentary, “wheels up” standstill when giving way at intersections.

Of course, even with the stabilizer wheels and considerable steering lock, the Oemil would be cumbersome to park and maneuver at low speed if it did not also have a reverse gear. So, the standard K100 gearbox is modified by a Stuttgart engineering firm from five-forward to fourforward-plus-reverse, and it is also fitted with an electric lockout to avoid embarrassing mis-selections.

Not surprisingly, the Oemil doesn’t accelerate like a superbike, what with all its added weight; but it still is no slouch, taking only about seven seconds to reach 60 mph

OEKOMOBIL

from a standing start. And above 100 mph, the aerodynamics really start to work. Here, Wagner has clearly done his homework, claiming a drag-coefficient figure of less than 0.2 for the Oemil, which makes it about four times more aerodynamic than the average car. That’s believable when you take into account the machine’s small frontal area. One of the five prototypes built so far has also been fitted with taller overall gearing, which the slippery beast will easily pull—although exactly how fast it goes is a mystery because it outruns the standard BMW speedo. All Wagner could say was that it does “at least 160,” and leaves most BMWs and Mercedes for dead on the autobahns. “They are very surprised when they can’t keep up with me,” he says with a chuckle.

The Oemil is also astonishingly quick around hairpins, despite its Greyhound-class wheelbase. It can be leaned 53

degrees from vertical before the retracted stabilizer wheels touch down. An experienced Oemil pilot will be able to embarrass quite a few riders of lighter, more powerful motorcycles. One drawback, though, is that the Oemil is sensitive to sidewinds and gets busy when overtaking trucks. But with practice, one learns not to overreact to the turbulence, which lets the machine track with surprising trueness.

How much is it? Brace yourself. The first three prototypes were sold for a paltry 40,000 Swiss francs, or about $25,000. But that was not a realistic price, since each unit represented an investment of hundreds of hours of Swiss labor at $20 per hour, plus $ 12,000 in parts alone. So, the first 10 production models are slated to be sold for 60,000 Swiss francs, which is about $42,000 (although they will come standard with air conditioning). Even at that price there is no shortage of interest. Wagner says about 2500 people have already written to him asking for details. But no matter how much money you’ve got, Wagner won’t sell you an Oemil unless: a) he likes you; b) you prove yourself competent to ride it; and c) you agree to sign a contract giving him first refusal if you decide to sell it.

Arnold Wagner likes to think of the Oemil as a twowheeled Bugatti. It’s tough to argue with that. If you want to have fast and furious fun for two, and attract more attention than Princess Di in a see-through dress, the Oekomobil is hard to beat at any price. 0