Hercules Wankel
 Date of Manufacture: 1974 Engine Size: 350CC The Hercules company opened its doors in 1903 Nuremberg with their first motorcycle being an engine hung on a heavy-duty bicycle frame as many others were doing. Drive was direct from the engine to the rear wheel via belt. Hercules outsourced engines from many other companies and never did manufacture any of their own engines. Hercules' main focus in its early years were small motorcycle/scooter design with small capacity engines. They began to increase to larger machines in the thirties and even saw some competition and long distance endurance success. World War II resulted in heavy damage to the Hercules factory and production did not resume until 1950. The company developed a number of new models and stuck with those models for many years which helped them survive a downturn in the German economy shortly after their release. Hercules became one of the largest motorcycle producing companies in Germany. In 1966 the company merged with the Zweirad Union which also included DKW, Express and Victoria. In 1974 Hercules released the Wankel powered W2000 and were the first company to produce a motorcycle with a Wankel rotary engine. 1967 Yamaha YCS1 Adler M200 Ariel Square Four Benelli Tornado BMW R27 BMW R51 BMW R51/3 BMW R75/5 BSA Gold Star Ducati 750S Ducati 851 SP1 Ducati Monza Ducati Pantah Ducati Sebring Garelli Mosquito Harley-Davidson H-D XLCR 61ci Hercules Wankel Honda 305 Dream Indian Boardtracker Indian Chief Innocenti Lambretta IZH Planeta Sport Jawa OHC Kawasaki Mach III Mars Stella Matchless G80 CS Moto Guzzi Eldorado Moto Morini MV Agusta Nimbus with Bender sidecar. Norton Dominator NSU 250 NSU Max Puch Rickman-Triumph Metisse Rudge Scott TT Suzuki T-10 Triumph Bonneville Triumph TRW Velocette Thruxton Victoria Aero Victoria Bergmeister Vincent Rapide Series C Whizzer
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