Kim - The Kiwi on the König
Wayne is correct, my pal's cousin hauled two copies of this weighty tome back from New Zealand, one for himself and one for me. I will not provide a review although I will comment on the book's physical attributes.
This softback book is 7.5" wide x 10" high x 1.5" thick and weighs 1.6kg (3.5lbs) It was published in 2010 by a company called Finish Line Productions and its ISBN is 9780473177461. In January 2012 the book cost NZ$35.
The book contains numerous half-tone photographs and a few colour photographs too. Sadly there is no Illustration list though Tim has listed the name of his illustration sources on the Title page. Neither is there a Contents listing the book's 43 Chapters but there is a brief Foreword by Janeen Newcombe followed by a lengthy Prologue by Tim Hanna and then you're right into Chapter 1- Opatija. Opatija? What does that taste like? I can hear some readers mouthing. Well to European motorcycle racing fans, Opatija was for some time the location of the Yugoslavian Grand Prix, a small town on the Adriatic coast in roughly the same area of the world as Venice. It is the circuit where Kim Newcombe took the König Grand Prix racer to its first and only Grand Prix victory in June 1973.
Whilst the inside of the rear cover provides the book's Acknowledgements, the book does not contain an Index of its contents. Those wanting fast access to learn what Tim has to say about specific people, events or topics will be devastated. The lack of such 'signposts' as a Contents list and Index, are not helped by the book's length which I accurately estimate to be over 400,000 words whereas most marque histories are in the 80,000 to 100,000 word range. So KIM is a L-o-o-o-o-o-n-g read and would have probably benefitted from editing. All you can do to find out what it says is to read it...
The first thing I noticed was the density of the text on each page (around 800 - around double the typical words per page). This provides another way of illustrating the sheer size of this volume (ha ha). A typical book may have 250 pages, this book is around four to five times more wordier and on that scale would have consisted of between 1,000 to 1,250 pages. The word density has a knock-on effect; each line contains almost double the industry standard words. What this means in practice (and why publishers have such guidelines) is that when the reader's eye reaches the end of a line and flicks backs to the start of the next line, it will often select the wrong line. This is very annoying.
I have to admit to not having read this book. I started and I gave up. My friend read it from cover to cover noting things that may be of specific interest to me in my own researches. Then we exchanged copies so that he has a pristine copy on his bookshelves and I have the copy that he read so diligently.
For those wishing to buy a copy for themselves, Google... "The Kiwi on the Konig" book ....using the quotation marks where shown and you will find plenty of returns. Here is one such link to a New Zealand bookshop selling this title for NZ$45.
http://www.wheelers.co.nz/books/9780...-on-the-konig/
Finally, I'd appreciate a PM from anyone has an email address for anybody involved with König in Berlin during the 1950s.
Happy reading!
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Koenig BMW motorcycle and 8 cylinder motor
I suppose this is a good place to post this. On my recent visit to Berlin, Peer Krage asked me to see if there might be any interest in the bike or motor over here. I don't know all of the background of either, so I suggested he take emails from anyone interested and he can answer them as needed.
His email address is 911@krage-tuning.de Attachment 53613Attachment 53614Attachment 53615Attachment 53615Attachment 53616Attachment 53617Attachment 53618Attachment 53619Attachment 53620Attachment 53621