VOL. 51 ISSUE 4 JANUARY 28, 2014
P83
(Left) The craftsman himself Pere Tarragó. Tarragó's models
involve upwards of 600 hours of
careful, painstaking work apiece.
begun to think about doing this
as a business – until then, all
this was just a spare-time hobby.
Then in 2005 I finished building
a Montesa Impala, which I again
displayed at Auto Retro, and had
many requests to make copies. I
thought – well, I enjoy doing this,
and it means I can work at home
without having to commute to the
center of Barcelona each day, or
paying a heavy rent to run the
store, with all the worry of employing people. So I sold the hi-fi
business – just at the right time,
as it happened – and all I've
done since then is to make models. Every time I do a new one I
learn something more. You nevTarrago started by making only
Spanish single-cylinder models,
but he's since started working on
Italian multis – like this MV Agusta
750S. Yes, that's a Euro in the
foreground.
er stop devising new techniques
to get greater authenticity."
And that's the key word for Tarragó's creations, because his
models are acclaimed for their
attention to detail. As well as their
functionality. While the engines
won't actually fire up and run,
that's about the only thing you can
see on any of his bikes that doesn't
work just like the five times larger
component it replicates.
So, yes – the drive shaft on
the vintage BMW R32 he made
in 2009 does actually rotate,
though it's the rear wheel that
drives it, not the engine. The
same goes for the chains on
other bikes, while the kickstarters on all his streetbike models
kick down and then spring back
up again, same as the gearlevers, and the forks and shocks
all compress and rebound just
like the originals - there's no oil
inside for damping, though.
The rear shocks are all threeway adjustable for spring preload, while the brake shoes of
his intricately replicated drum
brakes expand and contract
when you pull the lever, and the
