Edgar Barth
Edgar Barth ( born January 26, 1917 in Herold, † May 20 1965 in Ludwigsburg ) was a German racing driver.
Barth began his career in 1934 with motorcycle racing brand DKW and BMW. After the Second World War, he lived in East Germany and began in the early 1950s again intervene in international racing events. In 1953, he won on the highway spider Dresden. At the Grand Prix of Germany 1953, he took on EMW the flags of the GDR in the drivers' world championship. In 1957 he emigrated to the West and was taken thereupon by Porsche under contract.
In the following years he drove both Formula 2, sports car and mountain races. His victories included, among other things, number one in the Formula 2 rating at the Grand Prix of Germany 1957 at the Nürburgring, the Targa Florio in 1959 and the three-time winning the European Hillclimb Championship in the years 1959, 1963 and 1964, where his title success in 1963 was particularly impressive because he won six of the seven races.
The Targa Florio 1959 he won together with Wolfgang Seidel on a Porsche 718 RSK. This race went 14 laps or 1008 km, achieved by the team in 11:02:21,8 hours and with an average speed of 91.3 km / h. When training to his penultimate race on the Nürburgring, the 1000 km race in 1964, he crashed spectacularly with a Porsche 904-8 after changing the brake pads. He had failed to operate before shutting down the brake pedal several times to build up brake pressure. Thus it appears the brakes before Südkehre certain extent into the void. The car came with great force into the ditch at the side of the track and Barth was thrown together with seat, was injured but hardly and should start in a replacement car on Sunday. But Barth did not play because his partner Colin Davis already crashed after ten laps and was eliminated.
In Formula 1, Barth went on sporadically. Most recently, he drove - already drawn by his cancer - a Cooper - BRM the Rob Walker Racing Team at the Grand Prix of Germany in 1964, but dropped out early with a broken clutch.
In 1965, he died only 48 years old his suffering. His son Jürgen Barth was a well-known long-distance drivers and could win the 1977 24 - hour race at Le Mans.