Konig History

[Master Oil Racing Team]

I wouldn't exactly say Hans Georg was a wild man Tim.....he did what he wanted to do very well. It didn't always play out like he planned, but he did it with enthusiam. Hans was full of energy and told it like it was. When we were near Fort Worth, Texas I gave him a can of cold root beer because he was thirsty. I told him it was root beer, and he had apparently not known what root beer was....took a sip thinking it was some kind of Texas beer...then promptly spit it into the dirt. He said "It tastes like it came from a urinal!"

That's what I liked about Hans. He lived life to the fullest. When I spent some time with his son Peer at the World Championships in Florida the previous year, we laughed over some of the stories Hans told me. I didn't know Peer from when I raced in Germany. He was too young. But when I told him some of the stories from his Dad, he said he had heard them before, but he wasn't sure they were actually true. He confirmed some of the things Hans had told me back in 1993 that their family was going to get back some of the land that was confiscated in East Germany when the Russians took it over. Hans had a sailboat at his shop to sail in the North Sea near their old property.

Hans-Georg Krage was one of the most dedicated, focused, and most fun loving boat racers I ever met. I don't know how many stories about Hans-Georg might be out there...but I guess like Yogi Berra....some might be embellished by the reputation he had.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

I was writing my post in the midst of your followup post Tim. Maybe Sam can help you because I have no clue about the V-6. The only automotive type motors Dieter ever told me about was when a British group approached him about making a 12,000 rpm motor to run the F2 circuit. He thought about it but the crank would be the obstacle.

[Mark75H]

Sorry to keep firing questions but was the V6 in fact the biggest outboard in the world in 1968 or was it perhaps the most powerful and did the winged boat establish any records?

The winged Konig boat didn't establish any records that I know of. I suspect the motor on it is the opposed 6 Konig. I think young Mssrs Konig & Krage would be good sources on this.


The Konig/Ford V-6 was the same hp as the Merc in 1969, but weighed twice as much as the Merc. The price was almost 13,000DM, I don't know how that compared to the Merc at the time.

There was also a 70hp with a 4 cylinder Renault.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Because of BRF I learned something new today. It was easy to do the translation, but it did not come out totally right. I didn't have my glasses on and it was kind of hard to see all the punctuation and of course my keyboard doesn't do the double "S" letter or the "A's" or "O's" with the umlaut above. So I will see if I can somehow convert to German typing as much as possible then do the translation that way. I'm not too sure how close that will be though, without a German keyboard.

Anyway here is what the translation says about what I originally guessed at.

"Taking place Adolpf, the Brown, he was ordered by then his civil development work unconditionally in the services of his country....on behalf of the Army, he developed the legendary Grossduetschen 3 cylinder radial engine for assault boats, even emen underen engine for the Navy."

I don't know what the last part means. Maybe there were no English words that fit or I typed the text in wrong because I didn't have my glasses. But might have something to do with "an under water engine".

I will play around with it some more Tim, and if I can get it to make sense, I will do the whole article.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

The story about Flo's car reminded me of another story I posted somewhere about Dieter's Mercedes. It was kind of between red and burgundy and I think it was a 300, but not exactly sure. This was in February 1975 and Dieter was in the midst of putting together a speedway bike for a race coming up in a few days. He had cast some "pots" to hold water for cooling that would bolt on the block. As the races were short sprints, he designed the water reservoirs to cool without circulating. He also was having a faring made of fiberglass. We stopped what we were doing and went to some shops in another part of the city to check on work he had hired out.

We went to a couple of places, I forget to get what, then to an older section of town with buildings that had not been bombed down. We went up three stories to an apartment where the man was building the fiberglass faring. It was dark in the building and the central courtyard that the building surrounded was unkempt and rundown. There were not many people around. Then we went to a small shop not too far from there to check on a radiator that a guy was building for a GP bike. After that Dieter parked on Kurfurstendamm, one of the main streets in downtown Berlin while we went to several stores. I think he was picking up some stuff for Flo, We walked several blocks and then crossed the street before he got what he was looking for. Dieter was talking non stop about all the stuff he had to do and he was in a hurry to get back to the shop and work on that speedway bike.

As we walked back to where he parked the Mercedes, we recrossed the street and walked up to it, but before he stuck the key in the doorlock he paused. Then he looked across the roof at me and said :"This is not my car. Mine doesn't have these seat covers!" It had slip on thick wool seat covers. Not wool fabric after it had been spun and woven into a cloth, but the real wool with tanned hide just like it came off the sheep. He looked up and down the street for his car, and since everything looked much the same to me, I couldn't help. There were Mercedes' everywhere, and every so many meters were trees. There was not really any outstanding feature right around there like a fire station or statue that we cause us to remember, so we walked up and down Ku'damm looking for a reddish/burgundy Mercedes. After about ten minutes or so, and no luck, we went back to that first one. Dieter stuck the key in the lock and it opened. The ignition key worked and he drove to their house. When we got inside Dieter asked Flo "When did you get those seat covers?" Flo replied "About six months ago."

[tim hanna]

The winged Konig boat didn't establish any records that I know of. I suspect the motor on it is the opposed 6 Konig. I think young Mssrs Konig & Krage would be good sources on this.


The Konig/Ford V-6 was the same hp as the Merc in 1969, but weighed twice as much as the Merc. The price was almost 13,000DM, I don't know how that compared to the Merc at the time.

There was also a 70hp with a 4 cylinder Renault.

Well that answers all the questions I have about that. I think the weight issue would have been an absolute killer given the quality of the Merc.
I did not know about the Renault so thanks for that.
When Kim was in Melbourne he worked for a dealership as a mechanic and raced Koenig hydros with his two bosses, the Jackson brothers. Bobby Jackson was a state and national champion who also set a number of absolute national speed records - 77 miles an hour with a 320cc Koenig. It was faster than the international record but not by enough to be recognised. They tried selling the domestic Koenig line with almost no success

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Here are some notes from my journal about the changes Dieter made with his outboard motors for the 1975 racing year. No details...just what short notes I made from what Dieter told me.

New crankshaft (this was the one that replaced what we called the black crankshaft. You could only get a couple of heats out of the black crank with a D motor)

Rods 1mm wider, more and longer big end roller bearings.

Caged needle bearings to eliminate the critical crank spacing of the rods. This was a milestone in time to make it easier for anyone to rebuild a Konig.

Cushinor to absorb shock between driveshaft and crankshaft. I don't know what this is. It was just in my notes. Maybe for stock production motors.

No more 1:1 gears. Not strong enough. (my notes...don't remember if that's what Dieter said, but I suspect so.)

No more VF motors.

No more 12:14 gears.

Baffles for exhaust system reduce engine noise without hurting performance

Stronger pipe bracing

Convert stock 65 hp for OE.

More casting on exhaust side of sleeve to prevent water leaks.

6 cylinder OE engine.

It was during this time that I am sure he was also working with Volvo Penta for the brief joint venture in which Lars participated in a little over a year or so later.

[tim hanna]

Here are some notes from my journal about the changes Dieter made with his outboard motors for the 1975 racing year. No details...just what short notes I made from what Dieter told me.

New crankshaft (this was the one that replaced what we called the black crankshaft. You could only get a couple of heats out of the black crank with a D motor)

Rods 1mm wider, more and longer big end roller bearings.

Caged needle bearings to eliminate the critical crank spacing of the rods. This was a milestone in time to make it easier for anyone to rebuild a Konig.

Cushinor to absorb shock between driveshaft and crankshaft. I don't know what this is. It was just in my notes. Maybe for stock production motors.

No more 1:1 gears. Not strong enough. (my notes...don't remember if that's what Dieter said, but I suspect so.)

No more VF motors.

No more 12:14 gears.

Baffles for exhaust system reduce engine noise without hurting performance

Stronger pipe bracing

Convert stock 65 hp for OE.

More casting on exhaust side of sleeve to prevent water leaks.

6 cylinder OE engine.

It was during this time that I am sure he was also working with Volvo Penta for the brief joint venture in which Lars participated in a little over a year or so later.

This list makes a lot of sense. The 'cushioner' may have been a version of the shock absorber built for the bikes. This was like a rubber cone on the end of the crank and it was to eliminate the metal to metal stress when the drive snatched. I guess that might have been useful when you booted an outboard from low revs when there was already drive - ie no cavitation.
I wonder if Hoekle were going to make the new crank. I think the quality control issues were beyond the koenig factory's capabilities. Lousy cranks, porous blocks and poor ignition systems cost Koenig at least one world championship in sidecar racing and very possibly the 500cc motorcycle world championship.

[tim hanna]

The story about Flo's car reminded me of another story I posted somewhere about Dieter's Mercedes. It was kind of between red and burgundy and I think it was a 300, but not exactly sure. This was in February 1975 and Dieter was in the midst of putting together a speedway bike for a race coming up in a few days. He had cast some "pots" to hold water for cooling that would bolt on the block. As the races were short sprints, he designed the water reservoirs to cool without circulating. He also was having a faring made of fiberglass. We stopped what we were doing and went to some shops in another part of the city to check on work he had hired out.

We went to a couple of places, I forget to get what, then to an older section of town with buildings that had not been bombed down. We went up three stories to an apartment where the man was building the fiberglass faring. It was dark in the building and the central courtyard that the building surrounded was unkempt and rundown. There were not many people around. Then we went to a small shop not too far from there to check on a radiator that a guy was building for a GP bike. After that Dieter parked on Kurfurstendamm, one of the main streets in downtown Berlin while we went to several stores. I think he was picking up some stuff for Flo, We walked several blocks and then crossed the street before he got what he was looking for. Dieter was talking non stop about all the stuff he had to do and he was in a hurry to get back to the shop and work on that speedway bike.

As we walked back to where he parked the Mercedes, we recrossed the street and walked up to it, but before he stuck the key in the doorlock he paused. Then he looked across the roof at me and said :"This is not my car. Mine doesn't have these seat covers!" It had slip on thick wool seat covers. Not wool fabric after it had been spun and woven into a cloth, but the real wool with tanned hide just like it came off the sheep. He looked up and down the street for his car, and since everything looked much the same to me, I couldn't help. There were Mercedes' everywhere, and every so many meters were trees. There was not really any outstanding feature right around there like a fire station or statue that we cause us to remember, so we walked up and down Ku'damm looking for a reddish/burgundy Mercedes. After about ten minutes or so, and no luck, we went back to that first one. Dieter stuck the key in the lock and it opened. The ignition key worked and he drove to their house. When we got inside Dieter asked Flo "When did you get those seat covers?" Flo replied "About six months ago."

I somehow missed this post. It had me laughing like a drain!

[tim hanna]

Because of BRF I learned something new today. It was easy to do the translation, but it did not come out totally right. I didn't have my glasses on and it was kind of hard to see all the punctuation and of course my keyboard doesn't do the double "S" letter or the "A's" or "O's" with the umlaut above. So I will see if I can somehow convert to German typing as much as possible then do the translation that way. I'm not too sure how close that will be though, without a German keyboard.

Anyway here is what the translation says about what I originally guessed at.

"Taking place Adolpf, the Brown, he was ordered by then his civil development work unconditionally in the services of his country....on behalf of the Army, he developed the legendary Grossduetschen 3 cylinder radial engine for assault boats, even emen underen engine for the Navy."

I don't know what the last part means. Maybe there were no English words that fit or I typed the text in wrong because I didn't have my glasses. But might have something to do with "an under water engine".

I will play around with it some more Tim, and if I can get it to make sense, I will do the whole article.

I can't believe how the final pieces are coming together. It's wonderful.
I have seen film of german troops in Russia crossing a river with an inflatable raft powered by a little outboard. I will try to find it again.