Alex von Falkenhausen Motorenbau

AFM ( the acronym should stand for Alexander Falkenhausen engine, other sources, however, the M Munich would mean ), founded by the Munich racer and designer Alexander Falkenhausen, was a German racing team of the late 1940s and early 1950s, the same racing cars began. About a dozen plain chassis or full race vehicles were produced under the name of AFM.

Formula 2 cars of AFM

With the advent of Formula 2 class in the late 1940s, tried various race car designers who possessed small amounts of money to get a foothold on this racing formula in motorsport. One of them was the nobleman Alexander Freiherr von Falkenhausen. His company AFM initially built the BMW 328 in single-seaters to. The vehicles were given a conventional tube frame, double wishbone and a De Dion rear axle. From the BMW 328 had only parts of the substructure and especially the engine, but even this BMW six-cylinder engine has been revised.

The first of these cars appeared in 1949 on the German race tracks, but were generally still the Veritas racing cars in Formula 2 inferior. The pre-war veteran Hans Stuck was with such a vehicle, however, a remarkable performance at the Italian Grand Prix at Monza in 1950, where he none other than the Ferrari F1 drivers and later double world champion Alberto Ascari defeated spectacular in any of the races. In another run stucco could long keep at the forefront of the field before he once again failed with engine problems.

Other racers who participated with AFM vehicles in competitions at home and abroad: Teddy Vorster, Manfred von Brauchitsch, Fritz Riess, Hermann Lang, Helmut low Mayr, Karl -Günther Bechem, Theo Fitzau, Willi Heeks, Karl Gommann, Peter Hirt and Willi Krakow.

The kitchen AFM

From 1949 the engineer Richard kitchens designed a promising, modern light metal V8 engine with double camshaft ( which are only three or four units have been built ), with Hans Stuck in 1950 his own new and ordered without motor at Falkenhausen AFM -50 4 (the 50 stood for the Year 1950, which was 4, the chassis serial number) in equipping. This so-called AFM "Kitchen " was driven 1950-1953 Stuck on various successes. Stuck for example, could win him the Grenzlandring race of the year in 1951 and occupy the second place in the Formula 2 category and fourth place in the overall results at the already legendary Schauinsland mountain race in the same year. Early 1953, considered the " King of the Mountains " The Kitchen V8, of which he is said to have even owned two pieces, as not sufficiently competitive, then its stucco AFM 50-4 stocked for another race with a Bristol engine.

Grand Prix statistics

Passenger car project

In 1951 AFM with the 2.5-liter prototype of a luxury coupe before. The vehicle had analogous AFM race car a low-lying tube frame chassis with a wheelbase of 2850 mm. The front suspension consisted of double wishbones and coil springs. The rear axle had a three-point suspension with coil springs. Engine and transmission came (6 cylinder, 2473 cc, 60 PS, 44 kW) from the Opel Kapitän. The fuel tank took 90 liters. The body was made ​​of light metal over a steel skeleton. The coupe had a modern pontoon body with contrasting rear fenders. The equipment included a tachometer. An image of the AFM 2.5 liter appeared in 1951 in the Swiss Automobil Revue. The car should cost 16,000 DM, but did not go into production. In addition to this coupe was created in the body company Drews a single Cabriolet, called AFM Super 2500th

Literature and sources

  • David Hodges: race car from A to Z in 1945, engine book publishing house, Stuttgart 1994, p 7, ISBN 3-613-01477-7.
  • Gloor, Roger: '' war wagon '', 2nd edition (1981 ), Hallwag AG, Bern, editor of the Automobil Revue, p 48, ISBN 3-444-10263-1
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