Founded in 1873, the Mars company (not the one that makes chocolate) got their start building tools and bicycles. They expanded to motorcycle manufacturing in 1903 but their most famous machine came in 1921. Called the “White Mars” by some, it featured a 986cc Maybach boxer twin engine good for 7 horsepower. They were built to a high standard and priced to reflect that, which is why very few were sold. But there’s a well-done replica at the Solvang Motorcycle Museum – let’s check it out!
Unlike what’d you’d find on say, a BMW R1300GS, the boxer motor in the Mars was laid out longitudinally and fed by a Pallas carb.
The external flywheel doubled as a fan for cooling purposes.
Interestingly, there are two final drives. Both are chain and they have different size sprockets – you operate a clutch via a lever to switch drives for low speed or high speed. Unfortunately, it’s hard to the operation of this under the bodywork.
There’s also a spare wheel on the rear left but I wasn’t able to get a photo from that angle to show it clearly, apologies for that. The front and rear wheels were the same so the spare could be used on either end.
This designed (created by Claus Franzenburger) was also available in red and green but it was the white variant that became famous. It was so popular that Germany even used it for a postage stamp in 1983! By the end of the run, just over 1,000 units were built.
Photo from Motos of War