Casal

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Metalurgia Casal was the largest Portuguese motorcycle manufacturer, based in Aveiro. It was founded in 1964 with João Casal as the managing director and Robert Zipprich and other ex-Zundapp engineers as the technical managers. Its first products included agricultural machinery and two strokes' moped engines based on Zundapp ones. By 1967 it was producing complete motorcycles, the first one being a scooter, the S170 Carina - a copy of the Zundapp R50 - with a 50cc and 4 speed engine. Shortly after it rolled out its first mopeds, the K160, K161, K162 and K163 with two speeds, and the K181 with four speeds. Although most of its production were mopeds, it also produced 125cc bikes, namely the K260, K270 and K276 all, and it had an advanced plan for a 250cc, the K280. Its range included some 30 or more models, with automatic engines, 2 speed, 4 speed, 5 speed and 6 speed engines Even though its main market was, by far, the domestic market, it also exported some 10% of its production, mostly to the UK, Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden. It also had a promising joint venture with Solo of Germany under which some models were sold in the German market under the Solo brand. Car production was also planned, but not realised. As the increased purchasing power in their home country Portugal, their most important market, slowed the sales of mopeds, bankruptcy was a fact in February 2000. In connection with this, unfortunately, parts of the company's archives were destroyed. Especially in the 1970s and 1980s, Casal set up various partnerships whose aim was to improve its racing capabilities. The first one was set up in 1971–72 with a Dutch company prior to Huvo and involved the development of Casal's M154 engine (50cc, 5 speed) for its use...