A home-built, 10-cylinder radial Twin-Star two-stroke engine would be impressive if it came from an established manufacturer but when it comes from the home workshop of a Czech motorcycle enthusiast, it's off-the-scale impressive. And he even builds the rest of the motorcycle as well.

Engineering Wonder: 10-Cylinder Two-Stroke Radial Engine

Every now and then you come across something that makes you realize that your own attempts in the workshop are actually not all that impressive and that maybe you should just give up and leave it to the professionals.

Which would be all right if it was only professionals who were creating something special. When it's just an ordinary Czech guy - Marek Foltis - in his workshop building a radial, 10-cylinder twin star, vertical crankshaft, two-stroke engine, plus the rest of the motorcycle as well, then maybe it's time to curl up in a corner and give up!

What is even more amazing (if that is possible) is that each cylinder has its own tiny Roots-type supercharger to compress the intake gases! I mean, come on! That's just unfair!

The video shows the process of the build in both stills and video and goes some way to illustrating the engineering needed to create the engine. A commentary would have been great to explain some of the details - for example, was absolutely everything created from scratch or were parts modified for the purpose?

It hardly matters, to be honest. The skill needed to conceive and draw, let alone build and run, such an engine is incredible. I can only imagine that the guy is an engineer of some sort, although it doesn't always follow that that is the case.

It would be a bit easier to swallow if the resulting bike was a bit ugly but, in fact, its absolutely perfect in a 1950s BSA-Bantam way.