Thread: Konig History

  1. #221
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    I really enjoyed the notebok entries. It made me feel like I was there!
    I don't know whothe airplane guy might have been but I am aware that he conducted a long correspondence with a Canadian called Bill Lishman, who flew a revolutionary bi-wing hang glider called an Easy Riser, which he had motorised with a go-cart engine in 1978. Bill had became a leading figure in the development of ultralights, and he was ultimately famous around the world as Father Goose after he reared geese and taught them to migrate by leading the way in just such an aircraft.
    He did so after purchasing a number of motors from Dieter so that the first geese to learn to migrate alongside an ultralight did so to the guttural growl of a König engine.
    Of course your airplane guy predates this by some years.
    I do know that Dieter was interested in hang gliders from around 72 - 73.
    The accident was indeed a tragedy and seems to have been sadly predictable.

  2. #222
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    Quote Originally Posted by Master Oil Racing Team View Post
    More pics of testing the motorcycle engine and pipes.
    I have an obvious question.
    This bike looks like a solo but it might have had a siecar attached I suppose. Do you know what class it races - solo or sidecar?

  3. #223
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    I remember seeing the "Father Goose" story on a news program, or documentary or something. Very interesting.

    I have some more info somewhere on the ultralights that Scott Smith sent me. He wanted me to take the ultralight thing and run with it in the U.S., but I had no interest. I joked with him something about "flying in a machine powered by a Konig motor? No way!" I will see if I can find some of that correspondence and see if the aircraft was mentioned because I can't recall.



  4. #224
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    I would certainly be interested to know more about the aircraft side of things.

  5. #225
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    I do not know the class Tim, but I do know that it was for sprint racing on short dirt tracks. I don't recall why Dieter had the cowling remodified because he was afraid water would get into the carbs. It wasn't from anything I can remember. If I saw it I would have recorded my observatios during the test. I don't recall any caps ever placed over the pots. It may be that Dieter had run previous tests, and it was better to boil off the water than have the pots capped off in order to release heat. I can't say either way. But I can say that Dieter was concerned about water spilling out of the pots and possibly getting into the carbs...even small amouts. As a boat racer Dieter knew what that could do.

    As to the timing of the ultralight venture, I do not think it is all too far removed from the time I took my notes until you mention Bill Lishman's go cart engine in 1978. When Jimmy Carter became President in 1976 he did things that pushed our economy into the pits. The "Windfall Profits Tax" shut down the oilfield. Prices on everything rose, The Duetschmark value raised significantly against the dollar. So you can imagine the time it would take for Dieter to agree to build the motors, set a price...possibly contingent on an otherwise stable currency not so much now, and then design, tool up, cast, machine, and then put the motors out with wooden propellers Dieter had to have arranged. This is all speculation, but absent Peter or someone else giving us the actual story...it might have been Bill Lishman that got the ball rolling.



  6. #226
    Team Member Tim Chance's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Master Oil Racing Team View Post
    I remember seeing the "Father Goose" story on a news program, or documentary or something. Very interesting.

    I have some more info somewhere on the ultralights that Scott Smith sent me. He wanted me to take the ultralight thing and run with it in the U.S., but I had no interest. I joked with him something about "flying in a machine powered by a Konig motor? No way!" I will see if I can find some of that correspondence and see if the aircraft was mentioned because I can't recall.
    The last conversation I ever had with Dieter, I told him that he must be "out of his mind to go up in the sky with a Konig motor". And he told me that it was "a good motor, low rpm, reliable". So tragic.

  7. #227
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    I took this self portrait in my room at Hagen Haus on Hagenstrasse in the Grunewald section of Berlin, just to prove I was there. Three months later I had a bad crash when I stuffed my D hydro at Baytown, Texas on a Memorial Day race. I had about 12 or so stitches on my chin and so couldn't shave. Never have seen the scar because I've had the beard since then.

    It was the following year when David Westbrook and myself raced in Berlin, we stayed at the house of Jenny Swartz-Nitka only a few blocks away from Hagen Haus. I ate at an Italian restaurant only a hundred yards from Hagen Haus that was owned by a good friend of Jenny's son Peter Preis. The walk from Hagen Haus to Jenny's was only a few blocks and could be completed in a matter of minutes. You can read the story of David and Faye Westbrook and photos of Jenny's on Random Shots from the Pits that was posted last week.

    My first trip to Berlin, I landed at Templehof which was the same airport that Hitler used, and was also part of the Berlin Airlift in 1961. Regretfully, I didn't take any pictures. I got an awesome sense of history, but the guards and officials looked like I could get a big hassle out of attempting to take photos. That was the last year that Templehof was used for commercial traffic...or at least by civilian travelers.

    I had no reservations and didn't have a clue where to stay, so I just asked the cab driver to take me to a nice place, but not too expensive. Like Joe Rome and I sometimes talk about....there can be a "Karma" when it comes to boat racing. It was a perfect small place with about 20 rooms, and two story. The lady that ran it was extremely nice, and called up Dieter to find out how to get to his place. She wrote down what I needed to do to hand it to bus driver to help me get there. I would walk a few blocks down to Roseneck and take either bus no. 29 or no. 19. Either one would get me into downtown Berlin near the bombed out remains of Kaiser-Wilhelm Cathedral on Ku'damm. It was about a 15 minute ride. Then I would walk four blocks to Banhoff Zoo and catch bus No. 23 to Fredich-Olbricht Damm and get off near the Imbiss we would eat bratwurst and drink beer at. From there it was a short walk to Dieter's factory. It took 45 minutes to an hour for the trip, depending on how long the wait for the buses was.

    When I took the cab to Jenny's the next year, I started recognizing familiar scenes, and when the cab drove past the Italian ristorante, I knew exactly where I was. From 1976 until 1981 I returned to stay at that house. When Debbie and I went there on our honeymoon in 1977, Peter Preis took us to the Italian ristorante and introduced us to his friend. He would have made us the finest dish we wanted, but Debbie wanted to eat a pizza made by Italians in an Italian ristorante. When we told him we wanted pepperoni pizza, the owner made a digusting look on his face and said "Bah......peasant food" But he made it. Our surprise was that the pepperoni was long green peppers.
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  8. #228
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    Do you remember about when that was Tim? I've never seen the ultralight motor in person, but an ex neighbor of mine has. He was an ultralight dealer in the 80's and although he handled Rotax, he was familiar with the Konigs.

    I never have talked to Ralph Donald about it, but I suspect Scott Smith asked him first about doing the airplane deal because he was close to Scott and knew everybody.



  9. #229
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    This part of the warehouse is where you would walk into after entering the main part from the lobby. As you look at the building from the parking lot, the wall on the left with the glass would be facing Saatwinkler Damm. That is the street running beside Hohenzollern Kanal....that famous canal running by the shop where so many drivers tested boats and motors. Freidrich-Olbricht Damm is at the corner of Saatwinkler Damm and the factory was right there.

    Once through the lobby and through the door, you look straight to the back. Near the back Bernd Tschierske is working on an outboard. A little behind and to the right you can catch a glimpse of a motorcycle. That's where I always saw them, and I suspect that is probably where Kim worked. The door to the very back opens into the motor test room.

    ADD: If you go back to Dumperjack's post no. 146 you will find b&w pics of the factory before 1968. The first one is taken by someone standing near Freidrich-Olibricht Damm. When Lars came to Dieter's shop in 1977 to pick up the Volvo Konig, he drove down the right side of the building and turned the corner left behind it. When I was there a fence was built to the right and there was about 20' or so between the building and the fence. This photo does not show the other half of the building to the left where the lobby entrance is and the portion of the building facing Saatwinkler Damm that I just posted.

    The second pic from Dumperjack was taken at the rear of the building and facing toward Freidrich-Olbricht Damm. At the far end to the right you can see part of the wall of the other half of the building and windows. Further to the right is where entrance from the lobby would be. Directly behind the photograper is the rear hanging door. Just directly to the right, and all the way to the corner from the photographer's position is where the motor test room is.
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  10. #230
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    These are pictures taken in February 1975. The were taken from the back of the building in relation to the photo I posted before. These were looking back toward the front of the building. Behind me was the door to the dyno room. To the right was the wall and glass facing Saatwinkler Damm. These bikes were left of that wall. To the right of the bikes is the bench where Dieter and I worked on the exhaust systems. Here's some pictures of the bikes.

    ADD: I scanned these pics three times previously, & had trouble....so I just scanned the whole lot And this is what was on that particular strip of film.
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