Incredible re-coloured photos show the history of the car and motorbike dating back to the 1900s
A new book has brought images from the early years of motoring history back to life. Featuring shots from the early 20th century, the collection shows landmarks of the modern car and bike
AN incredible collection of colourised images dating back to the early 1900s have revealed the evolution of the car and motorbike.
Collected in a book by British author Michael D. Carroll, the images detail some key moments in automotive history.
The re-imagined pictures show the first woman to obtain a motorcycle license in Washington DC in 1937, a Maxwell car in 1916 and the first official Austrian Formula 1 mechanic in his custom-made motor.
Other shots also show an Alfa Romeo race car in 1922, men observing a car wreck in America in 1923 and a postman using a motorbike in 1915.
The original black and white images were colourised over a period of 40 to 50 hours by Austrian photographer Mario Unger.
One of the most iconic features in the collection are the images of former motorbike racer Lawrence Ray Weishaar.
Ray Weishaar was a Class A Racing Champion in the 1910s and 1920s, riding for the Harley-Davidson "Wrecking Crew".
He helped to make famous the motorbike nickname "hog", by carrying the Harley-Davidson pig mascot around on victory laps.
The racer claimed victory in a 100-mile race in Pratt, Kansas in 1915 setting a world record time of two hours, one minute and 30 seconds.
He died in 1924 from internal injuries after a motorcycle crash, and was inducted into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 1998.
The book follows the later part of history of the motorcycle - which originally began in the second half of the 19th century.
Motorcycles are descended from the "safety bicycle," a bicycle with the same size front and rear wheels and a pedal crank mechanism to drive the rear wheel.
It is generally accepted that the idea for a motorbike occurred to numerous engineers and inventors around Europe at around the same time.
All the images feature in Carroll’s new book, Retrographic: History's Most Exciting Images Transformed Into Living Colour.
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Photographer Mario Unger said: “Colour reduces the time distance to the photographed object.
“It also adds mood and feeling while black and white somehow reduces this. I thought this would be a very nice and interesting project.
“I plan to do an exhibition with these images at a custom bike and motor tradeshow. I love the Ray Weishaar images the most as he looks like the real X-Man.”