THE BLUE BOX

So this is the notorious 'Blue Box' which lurked in the basement of the NSU dep't at the Audi plant in Neckarsulm, containing one ultra-rare NSU Works Four-cylinder RS54 dohc 500cc engine.

The engine itself is awaiting some remedial work; while the critical components are in place and in good condition (even the 2 magnetos and 4 Amal-Fischer RN carbs, now priceless - I tried to find a pair for an R51SS, but no dice). The engine isn't in the chassis for this machine as it lacks a sump casting; I'm sure Wolfgang will correct me but I understand this particular engine was used for another purpose (or perhaps just testing), at the end of its racing life, and the sump was removed, and ultimately lost. It will be a relatively simple matter to cast a new one, as it doesn't support the bearings or oil pump, just a cover essentially, and at that point it will be reunited with the chassis. I can't wait to hear it running.

The photo below is from my own archives; it was taken by a US soldier who was an amateur photographer / motorcycle enthusiast, and shows the NSU RS54 in action at the Nurburgring ca 1951, and is probably Heiner Fleischmann aboard. Note the enthusiastic response of the children in the background! 'Go!'

In the two boxes marked 'Spare parts for T.T.' were other NSU gems, including one of the early R11 Rennfox 125cc engines from 1951, with shaft-and-bevel driven dohc, and the funny canted angle of the cylinder head, desaxe the crankcase; see the photos of the whole machine, taken at the Deutsches Zwierad Museum in Neckarsulm (just a few minutes away from the Audi plant, and with a wonderful collection of machines in a converted Schloss). There has been much speculation about why this cylinder head was designed off-angle in this way, but the simple truth is the pressed-steel frame wouldn't permit this large head to fit in the frame any other way. In later models, the cylinder head was redesigned, and sat straight relative to the crankcase.

The R11-51 model also used a petrol tank which was stretched and modified from the original steel roadster item, and lacked the graceful hammered alloy bodywork of the later models.

Still, it has a rustic charm, and was certainly effective on the track, producing 12.5hp @ 9500rpm. I'll make a more thorough investigation of the Works versions of the NSU Max/Fox models as time permits this year; their history is amazing, including the all-conquering 'if it started the race, it won the race' Rennmax model of 1954.

SUPER-SECRET NSU COLLECTION SPY PHOTOS

During my recent trip to Germany, I had the opportunity to see some amazing motorcycle collections - public, private, and hidden. These 'secret spy photos' of a not-open-to-the-public NSU collection were only possible via access granted by my gracious hosts.

My friend Wolfgang Schneider (on the left, behind a Walter Moore-designed 'Bullus' ohc NSU) kept me occupied for a few days at Hockenheim and surrounding areas, and had arranged for a visit with Ralph Plagmann (right in the photo), who heads the NSU department at the Audi factory in Neckarsulm (Audi, formerly Auto-Union, purchased NSU in 1969, but no 'fifth ring' was added to their logo...). The Audi factory, which consists of a lot of small and large buildings, is well integrated into the town somehow, and not shunted to the outskirts. My goal in this visit was to secure the loan of a few 'gems' from the Audi collection for next year's Legend of the Motorcycle Concours - NSU is one of the featured marques (the other is Indian), and as far as I know, there are no ex-Works racing NSUs in the States. Thus, if any of these amazing machines is to be on display at the Legends, a few European collections will have to stretch across the pond. The Legends has always had high-end auto sponsorship (those Bentleys looked pretty good on the grass), and the rationale for Audi to sponsor such a trip has to be 'it's good advertising, Audi sells a lot of cars in CA...'.
Ralph Plagmann didn't need much convincing, as he is fully committed to the NSU marque, but there are higher-ups at Audi who have yet to see the Legends as a perfect venue to display a few of their motorcycles, while garnering a little positive glow for their auto sales.

Ralph led Wolfgang and myself into a warehouse which isn't open to the public, housing the collection of NSU road and racing motorcycles, and a few other things like the Kettenkraftrad (that freakish mating of a motorcycle and a tank - see pic), and a 'drone' waterski boat - controlled by the skier like a motorcycle, from very long handlebars (no, it didn't sell - see photo, it looks like a prop from 'The Prisoner').

And I'm making this all sound very academic; actually I was in a state of high anxiety, as I was VERY excited to see this collection, and my camera was dead as a doornail! So, we walked into this big warehouse full of impossibly cool motorcycles, but I don't have a camera, as my battery charger didn't like the change from 110v to 220v in Europe... and there is no way I can see this collection and NOT take photos. I remembered my US cell phone sitting in the car, so I ran and grabbed it and took 100 photos with the worst camera in the world....BUT I got the shots!

Lined up are a bunch of road bikes, from the 'teens to the 60's, lightweights and big v-twins, plus spare car and motorcycle engines on shelves, an example of the first NSU knitting machine from the late 1800's, all sorts of stuff.... but the racing bikes caught my eye... the NSU Rennmax and Rennfox are, in my humble opinion, on a very short list of the most beautiful bikes ever ever. Hand hammered aluminum bodywork and fenders, sculpted to fit a crouching human body, plus those perfectly proportioned engines. Breathtaking.

Standing in one corner was the Baumm III streamlined 'flying hammock', so called as the rider lays down in it and steers feet-forward; apparently it was incredibly stable, but looks like a wingless 50's jet. This particular machine was used in a fuel-economy test (1 liter/100km) and was road legal! The lower photos shows a plexiglass cover on the 'tail', which houses a stop and taillamp. Flaps on the sides of the cockpit open to allow the rider's legs to prop the machine at a stop. This is a fully water-and-weatherproof vehicle, and was a prototype for possible commercial development. A forerunner of the Peraves 'Eco' and Monotracer enclosed motorcycles. Given the extremely small output and precarious finances of the Peraves project, NSU was correct to put this one aside.

I got to pull the tarps off many of these machines while Wolfie and Ralph talked incessantly about other things - Wolfgang was the restorer of many of the machines present, so the two of them had much catching up to do, and I was left alone to do as I wished.

Lined up with the Rennmaxes was the remains of the fearsome 4-cyl dohc NSU racer, only the engine was missing. 'Where is the engine?' I interrupted, and Ralph looked a bit puzzled - they searched the warehouse, but no engine. 'It's in a blue box, probably at our other location' in another town. Too bad, I would have really liked to have seen it. See the photos of the front wheel and forks - serious stuff.


On the way out, Wolfie insisted we open a roll-up garage door outside - and in a little garage with a custom-built trailer sat the 1956 'Delphin III', the world record breaking streamliner... amazing. To see this historic machine in person after writing about it just the week prior (on the blog) was a real treat. There are two of these machines - one sits in the Deutsches Museum in Munich, with the original aluminum fairing but a 'hollow' engine, while the Audi machine has a fiberglass fairing and working supercharged 500cc dohc engine. Heinz Hertz made a replica of this machine on his 50-year Anniversary trip to Bonneville (in 2006) to commemorate his father's World Record in the original Delphin III.

We went back to Ralph's office so I could buy some books ('some'; I now own every book in print about NSU, plus a groovy knit blue NSU sweater, very Old School). As I wanted Everything, we had to go into the basement with a secretary to dig up all these books from storage (the NSU office isn't really set up for retail), and while they were finding books and boxing them up, I was snooping around in this basement, and found a groovy old NSU telephone from the '30's on a shelf, and a lot of other unusual relics. Around a corner I spied a row of NSU bicycles beside a stack of boxes.... Wooden boxes, old ones, and one is blue with 'NSU' in white... with two smaller boxes with 'Spares for the TT', in English!

'Wolfgang I found the Four-Cylinder engine!' And sure enough, we opened it up, and there was the thing itself. Awesome... what a kick to dig around in somebody else's basement! Many pix taken, and Wolfie and I took our leave for another part of town, with him hoping we can bring the record-breaker streamliner to CA next May... which would be COOL.

1956: NSU BREAKS 200MPH BARRIER

In one of those happy coincidences, I was trolling our antiques flea market in Alameda today, and came across a lone water-stained issue of Cycle magazine, from October 1956. A Sportster on the cover wasn't so interesting, but opening the magazine revealed a lengthy article on the NSU effort at Bonneville that year, in which the factory fielded several of their motorcycles in an all-out assault on the record books. "NSU Shatters the 200mph Barrier: Wilhelm Herz, on a blown 500, hits 211--".

I had been speaking with the owner of the Hockenheim Motor Racing Museum just the day before, about his participation in next year's Legend of the Motorcycle event (Saturday May 2, 2009 - at a location to be announced), which features NSU (and Indian).
It's high time some of the incredible NSU racing machines were seen here in the US again, and it sounds like that is a possibility next May... probably not this exact machine, but NSU built an incredible range of technically advanced racers over the decades, and became totally dominant in the 250cc class of GP racing, even after withdrawing official works support for racing in 1954 (in 1955, a Sportmax, based on the roadster Max 250cc, won the World Championship). Consider this the opening salvo in a barrage of NSU posts to come over the next few months.

The story of the record attempt: The NSU team arrived in Utah on July 25th, and began testing the SIX capacity class motorcycles - 50cc, 100cc, 125cc, 250cc, 350cc, and 500cc. The smaller machines wee successfully run during this week, taking many records in short distance and flying mile/kilometer classes. Nothing was left to chance; NSU Chairman Dr. G.S. von Heydenkampf and Technical Director Viktor Frankenberger were on hand to oversee the mechanics, technicians, and officials (including Piet Nortier, from the F.I.M., in charge of timing). A travelling machine shop had been shipped from Germany with enough spares and equipment to deal with any mechanical emergency.

On August 4th, the wind conditions were favorable and at 6am, and Herz hurtled from the starting area under full throttle 'with salt spewing from a wildly spinning rear wheel'. He made 211mph on his first run, breaking the previous record (held since July 2nd 1955 by Russell Wright on a Vincent Black Lightning - 185mph on the Tram Road at Swannanoa, Christchurch, New Zealand) by 26mph! The Vincent connection is truly ironic, as from 1954, Vincents sold NSUs under license to keep the wolf from the door.

Herz didn't have an easy time of his record-breaking, and a few days previously had been pushed off-course by a gust of wind, hammered a timing light, and tore a gash in the nose of the Delphin III (named for the sleek shape of the streamlined body). Also, while testing the 250cc 'hammock slung' streamliner, the motorcycle went out of control at 195mph and flipped over, which ended the 250cc record attempts for this session. Also ironic, as NSU had arguably their greatest technical and racing sucesses in the 250cc class.

Road-racer H.P. Muller (first privateer to win a World Championship title - on a modified roadster 250cc NSU Sportmax, at age 46) piloted the 3 smaller capacity streamliners, and gained 121.7mph from the 50cc machine, 138.0mph in the 100cc class, and 150.3mph with the 125cc, which also overtook the records for 175cc and 250cc categories. Herz was in the saddle for the 350cc category, and made 189.5mph on a 1 mile flying start run.

This 500cc engine, based on the works 'Rennmax' racer (but using a supercharger), is a work of art, and had been used to take the World Record in 1951 on the Munich-Ingolstadt autobahn. For the '56 attempt, a new, longer and lower frame was built, as well as the 'dolphin' enclosed fairing, making the total length 3.7 meters. Girder forks with hydraulic dampers were used up front, and hydraulic plungers at the rear. The unit-construction motor is an inclined vertical twin with shaft-and-bevel driven double overhead cams, with peak revs of 8000rpm. Ignition is by forward-mounted magneto, the supercharger sits atop the gearbox, and is fed by a single very large Amal-Fischer TT carb. The crankcases and covers are all magnesium. This 500cc dohc engine had a disadvantage in GP racing as it's a heavy lump, and while the power was excellent, the much lighter Guzzi singles and Gilera 4's made for a tough time on the circuit. Weight isn't an issue with a speed record though, as it only slows acceleration, not top speed. Thus the Delphin III had a front and rear brake, and lead blocks hung on the front of the frame to keep the front wheel on the salt.

The smaller machines all used the 'flying hammock' seating position, in which the rider sits with legs outstretched, to make an especially low motorcycle with minimal frontal area for the best wind-cheating layout. The Cycle correspondent (Ron Britzke) makes note of the superior handling and aerodynamics of these smaller machines, and reckoned that the 'dolphin' fairing had seen its limit, while the potential of the 'deck chair' design 'has apparently just been tapped'. How right he proved to be.