Konig History

[Bill Van Steenwyk]

Evidently Dieter was very aware of the performance gains to be had with expansion chamber type exhaust versus open pipe or megaphone type, much earlier than the time frame he made them available with 500 and 700 engines as Rex has posted about.

In a thread entitled "Konig Pipe Stingers" by Jeff Lytle, there is a picture of a brochure showing a 1961 FA Konig that is equipped with expansion chambers. Also Mike Ward, who has been a UIM observer at several WC races here and in Europe, and is the UK Yamato dealer, has some pictures taken at a 1964 European Championship of engines equipped with expansion chamber exhaust. He did not say whether they were Konig's or not.

I seem to remember that Homer Kincaid, who I believe won a "C" Hydro National Championship at DePue in the latter 1960's, was using the first set of "ZAK" pipes that Harry made. These differed from the later cast manifold type in that they were the first set Harry made and were completely fabricated by welding, i.e. no cast manifolds. This was definately prior to 1968, as I had gone to the Nationals in 1967 to look at equipment as I was planning on getting back into racing and wanted to see what was being used since I had not been racing for some time prior.

[Mark75H]

I think Bill Van has it right, Dieter put expansion chambers on the small motors in '61.

The first 500cc opposed VC motors were piston port intake, I'm pretty sure the year was 1966 (1965 if I am wrong); being replaced by the rotary valve intake in '67, but this motor was not APBA legal until '68 so we did not see them right away over here.

The VC motors seem to have been simultaneously released with regular expansion chambers and sound compliant "can" exhaust

[Bill Van Steenwyk]

If you access Peer Krage's name in the members list and then go to posts he has made, you will find pictures of both the GP bikes mentioned earlier and also a short story and pictures of the BMW/Konig he restored.

I think it is very evident that he knew about expansion chambers and the advantages of same in the early 60's at least. It would be interesting to know why he did not equip the motors being sent to the US with them until much later. The early expansion chamber/pipe setups were certainly a problem insofar as keeping them on the engine, i.e. broken brackets, difficulty with the sliding mechanism, and perhaps that had something to do with it. Also he did not equip the motors with them (4 cyl/opposed/rotary valve type) until after Harry ZAK had made the first sets of his design for Homer Kincaid, Wayne Baldwin, Ray Hardy, Billy Kurps, John Winzler, and others, and he (Dieter)then became aware of the fact that the "tin can" equipped motors were then being out performed by those equipped with expansion chambers, so perhaps in the interest in keeping the engines simple as far as things falling off, he chose to stay with the "tin can" until the use of others like Harry's forced the change. Perhaps cost could have also been a factor in not going to them until absolutely neccessary.

Perhaps Peer, Ralph Donald, or others that had a close relationship with him could shed light on this. In a lot of cases developments such as this are made by different folks at the same time, without the knowledge of the competing persons involved. That is what happened with the development of the jet engine prior to WWII by persons in both the UK and Germany The engines were developed in the same time frame but without the knowledge of the two inventors as to what the other was doing.