Here is the test tank.
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Here is the test tank.
I've posted some of these pictures somewhere before on BRF. I can't remember where. Jeff Lytle once asked in a PM if I had any more to post? I just said Yes!. At the time I thought I would be able to follow up with some posts, but we got so busy in the oilfield that I could only barely keep up. At the time, my reply now seems flippant, but I didn't mean it to be so. Jeff wanted a look inside the factory. These pics aren't great. My flash (in those days they were very unreliable on the non commercial side) copped out in the dust of the Sahel of Africa so I shot every thing with available light. I can take pics OK, but my lab skills on developing film on the high end of the temparature gradient in South Texas mean lots of refinement on the computer. When I took all these pics I was not trying to do a story, but merely record some of the history of Konig. I just went around snapping pics of what was there. As Joe Rome and I have discussed many times....we saw a lot of things....and met a lot of people...and did things we never thought about at the time. That's kind of how I remember my times at the Konig factory. I was there to race, and I had a camera and liked to take pictures.
I did do an interview with Dieter the year before, and also took some pictures but I never submitted them. It was a feeling of getting things ready for racing and the history was later. When you were done.
Of course, anyone who knew Dieter....Boat racing history was for a grand celebration.....when you had time. However, Dieter loved and knew the history of Germany, Austria, and surrounding countries. The ancient sientific acheivments were paramount in Dieter's mind. When we drove from Berlin to Linz, Austria he pointed out a monestary above the Danube River and explained how the monks pumped water more than a 1000 meters above the Danube into the monestary in the 1400's.
This is some of the stuff I was talking about. 2nd pic off the roll, with light intruding. Thought though that any pics from the shop that is gone would be good for outboard history buffs.
A couple more before I sign off tonight.
A few more. Stay tuned.....
Still more to come
ADD: The guy in the background with the apron is Dieter's foreman Sigfried Lubnow.
Wayne............You amazed me with your driving skills way back in the day..........But your foresight in knowing what you recorded on film and saved all these years, again, is amazing. Thanks for what you are giving us. I am reliving some wonderful times with your photos.............
Wayne,
These pictures are the greatest! I'm sure you know where most of them will eventually end up.
Based on my experience of engine manufacturing & collecting, especially one off rare Konigs,and my analysis of the castings in your photos of the opposed 4 cylinders stacked up -- were the pictures taken in 1975 or early 1976? They appear to be C 500 castings by the bore spacing of the sleeves and the bore sizing, along with the external casting traits that Dieter I'm finding changed over the years for reasons unknown. It's almost surreal that my father and Dieter were so alike in many unusual ways.
Tell me, Wayne, how close did my analysis hit?
Many thanks, Wayne, for your insightful photos.
Paul A Christner
I thank you for your comments Charley, but if I had foresight...I would have taken more notes. Being at the factory was something I never dreamed would have happened as a 16 year old reading the brochures and looking at the pictures over and over. It really was an afterthought that I went there in the first place. I had a six week excursion ticket, but only a 30 day visa to Nigeria. When I left I spent a week in London, then on a lark I flew to Berlin to see Dieter and visit the factory. To my luck...Jerry Drake just flew in from South Africa. That is where I met Jerry. It was the following year I was invited to race in Berlin for the first time.
Paul...these pictures were taken in 1975. I guess I can say that you were right, but I also can't confirm it. I never saw any racks of castings that were separated. I thought at the time and still do that 350 through 1100 were the same castings....just a larger borehole for the bigger sleeves. I may be wrong though. I will send you the pics of the casting block and molds for your website when I get the e mail working again. I am really looking forward to your comments on how those work.
More pics
ADD: In the third pic with a green shirt....I couldn't communicate with this guy...but he was friendly. After Dieter introduced me to him he said "He is a refuge (refugee) from Palestine".
A few more before I sign off. Debbie went to San Antonio yesterday and is going to Austin tommorrow....so I have been able to pull out photo binders, scan and leave them on the floor while searching the next group. It makes a quicker turnaround time on scanning photos. Maybe no pics tommorrow. I have to put everything back, plus file a bunch of backlogged stuff on the shelves in the study. It's been fun though, going through the old pics. I've been thinking about drawing a schematic about the layout of the factory so everyone could get an idea of the places the photos were taken.