In the last century, the Czech Republic was a place where numerous inventive and skilful people devoted to the construction and production of automobiles and motorcycles. Brands such as JAWA and ČZ grew there and they found their way to the entire world. The names of our constructors had high reputation on all continents.
And perhaps therefore there still remains the magic of honestly built motorcycles. An example of this may be the FGR brand from Ústí nad Orlicí whose foundations were laid by Mr Miroslav Felgr as early as in 1973. He and his friend Pavel Petráček developed and manufactured the first complete road racing motorcycle under the brand of PERTI with the capacity of 125 cm3, which was a liquid-cooled single-cylinder motorcycle. The project owner Miroslav Felgr raced on this motorcycle in the 1980s. In the following years, the weaker 125 cm3 motorcycle was accompanied by a stronger 250 cm3 one. It was a two-stroke liquid-cooled two-cylinder motorcycle with cylinders in a row and a six-speed transition. This motorcycle participated in races in 1979 and 1980.
After a short break, Miroslav Felgr established his own engineering company in 1992 and started dreaming about developing and manufacturing another motorcycle that would once reach a world championship. Nine years later, he approached Oldřich Kreuz, a constructor, at motorcycle races saying that he wanted to build a complete racing motorcycle and to beat renowned brands such as Honda or Aprilia. In 2003, the FGR 125 engine was manufactured and put in a Honda chassis in the same year. A year later, a complete FGR chassis was made and the MOTO FGR team participated in the Alpe Adria Cup championship and also in the European Championship as an additional team. In the following years, FGR 125 took part in numerous different races on the Old Continent. As early as in 2007, it first appeared on the grid of the World Championship races on the occasion of receiving a wild card on the racing circuit in Brno. The same repeated in 2009 and 2010 when he managed to qualify for the race. At that time the most successful year of the brand, 2011, was slowly approaching. The team nominated two experienced racers and managed to get three titles in that season; all of them won by a current MOTO3 class racer - Karel Hanika from Brno. The MOTO FGR team brought up also other permanent participants to world championships - Jakub Kornfeil and Martin Gbelec, a participant to the Bull Rookies Cup series.
The aim of the project was met in 2012 after nine years from the first start when the team qualified for the MOTO GP World Championship in the new class of MOTO3. Even though we were a satellite team, we managed to keep pace even with long-term matadors. So after long 34 years, a new Czech motorcycle appeared on the World Championship stage. It was the only motorcycle in the Czech history which took part in a complete World Championship season. Not even the brands such as JAWA or ČZ ever managed that. At that time, due to short time for the preparation of the motorcycle, the FGR chassis was adjusted to have a four-stroke Honda 250 cm3 engine. During the races, the motorcycle usually placed around the middle of the start list and did not have a single defect for the whole season. The team participated in all 17 races on four continents with two racers and managed to get 10 world points. The most successful race was Le Mans, France, when our Dutch racer Jasper Iwema reached the sensational 7th position. In the overall standing, 10 points were just enough for the total 7th position out of 11 brands in the Constructors Championship. So far, the MOTO FGR racing team have gone through the total of 144 races, achieved 75 podium placements, 33 victories, and 4 titles.
Before the first drawings of FGR racing motorcycles began to appear, Miroslav Felgr had had something bigger on his mind, something hardly anybody believed in. A motorcycle of a high capacity that would differ from others and would have the best the times offer mounted on it. That was in 2000 and he was looking for inspiration at exhibitions throughout Europe. The beginning of the implementation came several years later when constructor Oldřich Kreuz started to draw the six-cylinder engine in 2005. Already three years later in 2008, a prototype of the FGR 2500 V6 engine came into the world and was introduced to the public in the same year.
The development and the production of the chassis of the FGR MIDALU motorcycle began in the following year. The prototype of the motorcycle was finished in the end of 2010 and it was introduced to the public in spring 2011. Since 2012, the finishing work on the development of the motorcycle and tests on engines in our own engine testing room have continued and many kilometres have been done. Through the time, the motorcycle has undergone numerous adjustments, both technical and visual.
In 2016, the sale version of the motorcycle was completed and presented, it showed numerous changes compared to the prototype. The public first saw the motorcycle at INTERMOT exhibition in Germany in October 2016. An order system was launched to sell the first pieces of the zero series of the motorcycle.
All PERTI and FGR motorcycles had and still have one thing in common – tube frames. Without a doubt, this will stay the same for the future.