Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126891
Herman Bohm and Karl Fuchs pilot a supercharged NSU sidecar at Hockenheim, West Germany, in 1960. all capacity was put into the war effort. The papers were forgotten, the engine was sent back. During this time ex-racer Wilhelm Herz sat in a truck in Russia and thought about racing and wondered' about the missing horsepower. In one of those coincidences that change the course of history he met one of the two technicians on leave, who had < worked on the supercharger in Stuttgart. They exchanged information and Hen went back to his truck. The war went on and in 1946 he was released from prison camp. Europe lay in ruins. The-economy was built on exchange systems and . Wilhelm's father, who was a carpenter, could also support the returning son. Wilhelm was probably a good son but at the first opportunity he lay down his hammer and went on bicycle to his friend and mechanic Otto Mack. He thought he knew how to get more power out of the engine, but was there an engine to find? Mack shook his head, brushed off the cigar ashes and told him that the NSU factory lay in ruins. The workers had begun to come back and clean up the area but basically it wasaJl ruins. None of the two could know that two engines had been sent to the Indian factory in the U.S.A. for "stu- dies." Part of the war booty. Incidentally, those engines have never been found. Dejected. he went back home, thought it over for a few days, and then pedalled the 60 miles to the factory. Mack had been right; he found only ruins. He went back several times after that and made a plan of the factory and staked out the site of the former race department. One day, in the summer of 1946, a door was found to a cellar. In the water-filled cellar one of the old racers was found, rusty and covered with slime. There were also parts for a new supercharger, made from the experiences of experiments in Stuttgart. Together with the technician from Stuttgart, Karl Schafer, Hen took the whole thing apart and started to build a new machine. Parts were still missing but suppliers all around Lampertsheim, outside of Ludwigshafen. which was where Hen lived, delivered what was needed, prompted by the common currency at the time, wine. Caskets of home-bottled wine. Finally they had 53 hp. Germany was still banned from international competition but for national races the pre-war rules were still used and therefore the supercharger could be used. The first race was to be in Hamburg in August 1947. NSU was not in any way involved; theef(ort was all in the hands of Herz. Three laps in practice was all the small team managed and just before the start a former race mechanic from NSU shouted to Herz that he should watch out with the lubrication of the supercharger. Maximum dose on the adjuster was advised and oil flooded the spark pi ugs. Theexlra setaf plugs was put into the engine but they also failed. Those four plugs were all they had. In Nurnberg he was in second place when a flat put a stop to the race. Now he knew he was on the right way and that there was more to get out of the engine. Modifications for alcohol-based fuel gave 58 hp and that gave him the right to call himsel£ German "Meister" in the 350cc class in 1948. Nine starts, eight victories. Close to 120 mph a lap at the Gremlandring. Of course this prompted NSU to join in and build a full scale racing team for 1949. In the meantime Hen had built two 350s and they were returned to the factory and used as the basis for building new 350s, a 500, and a 600cc sidecar. Riders were Hen and Heiner Fleischmann, and for the sidecar Hermann Bohm and Karl Fuchs. A new supercharger fan with 10 !>lades instead of four and a new pressure chamber caused overheating and suddenly the team had to start a new series of development. The new engines received a cog primary transmission to replace the old chain, slip clutch to the supercharger and rubber shocks in the rear wheel. Hen lost his title in the 350cc class and fleischmann could not beat BMW's Schorsch Meier and Ludwig Kraus. At Grenzlandring a new thing occurred. The BMW team began at a furious pace so as not to have Fleischmann too close. Fleischmann's top speed on the straights was 136 mph;,wd the rear tire separated from the cord from the heat, perhaps a first in racing history. The same thing happened to Bohm/Fuchs in the Sidecar class. Two second place finishes were the best results for the season in the 500cc LTH 12