José Artés de Arcos founded the company in 1921 for the manufacture of accessories for automobiles and motorcycles, and on several occasions he built complete light vehicles with 2, 4 and 6 wheels in a number of road-going and competition versions.
At the Barcelona Motor Show of 1966 the Guepardo was presented, a single-seater designed by the young engineer Jaume Xifré, built in the Selex suspension workshops of Miguel Molons and financed entirely by the Artés firm.
Known as Artés Selex Guepardo, this Formula IV racer was built during second half of the sixties, normally equipped with the OSSA 250 two-stroke engine, replacing the less powerful Ducati Mototrans four-stroke. It was also fitted with a four-cylinder SEAT 850cc powerplant.
In 1970 the Artes firm presented an "Anywhere" type motorcycle which was built in collaboration with the American company Borg-Warner. The Spanish firm was to be in charge of manufacturing the metal parts, which would be sent outside of Spain for assembly with the rest of the components. Named the "Beach-Bike", it was deemed suitable for any type of terrain including sand, mud and snow. It incorporated Uniroyal balloon tyres and it was planned to be manufactured in two versions: one for beginners, with medium displacement and a torque converter, and the other for experienced drivers, with a 10 HP engine and 5-speed transmission.
The prototype of this motorcycle, presented at the Barcelona Motor Show in April 1973, was the Gato Montés all-terrain motorcycle equipped with a 250cc Sachs Wankel rotary engine with automatic transmission, disc brake in the transmission and fiberglass bodywork.
The vehicle did not achieve mass production due in part to stability problems due to the width of the tyres.
In 1917, while working with San Juan de las Minas in Melilla, José Artés de Arcos developed his first patent - the rotary engine - registered with number 61714, preceding the rotary engine patented by Wankel by 12 years.
Sources: OTTW, elecodealhama.es.
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