Sport: 60 years of the BMW RS 54

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Sport: 60 years of the BMW RS 54
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60 years of the BMW RS 54

Production racer with vertical shaft boxer

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The BMW Production Racer RS ​​54 made its debut 60 years ago with the vertical shaft boxer. Anyone who wanted to become world champion in a team would need one of these rare engines. At the start Noll / Cron won, ten years later Deubel / Horner won their last title and in 1974 Enders / Engelhardt. Four anniversaries, one story.

S.A single engine won 19 world titles from 1954 to 1974. This is what records look like that will really last forever, and in times of Bavarian football exuberance this should definitely be pointed out. Konigswellen-Boxer is the name of this multiple champion, each equipped with two overhead camshafts, tested and developed from 1951 in white-blue factory racers from Meier, Baltisberger, Zeller and Co. Due to the compressor ban by the FIM, BMW built feverishly after returning to the international stage this piece of sports equipment.

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Sport: 60 years of the BMW RS 54

60 years of the BMW RS 54
Production racer with vertical shaft boxer

The Solo RS disappointed

On the other hand, however, the solo motorcycle disappointed. Only excellent and also specialized drivers like Walter Zeller were able to cope with the nervous, very short machine. Zeller’s second place in the 500 World Cup in 1956 can be seen as proof of extraordinary ability. Richard “Dickie” Dale, who was also gifted, drove to similar regions in 1958 with a third place finish, but many desperate because of hard cardan reactions, excessive pendulum motion and front brakes worthy of criticism. In any case, Geoff Duke quickly switched to Norton Manx in 1958, and even John Surtees only had a few guest appearances in 1955 to assess the RS as tricky in retrospect and compared to the MV. Decades later, Dieter Busch, who was taken into account in detail below, built a solo chassis and was amazed at some of the instabilities. So he deviated from the original in the front section in particular and cut open many tubes in order to reinforce them internally and then put them back together again. He swears that in this way he created a very drivable RS.

Apart from national championships, the subject was quickly dealt with, and as a result, teams with former solo engines or the solo chassis appeared shortly after the start of RS sales. The tricycles sometimes offered more than the new price just to get hold of the coveted material. There was no alternative to the vertical shaft boxer because the Italians did not send any four-cylinder out of the country, because the English only offered the Manx single-cylinder from Norton, which was limited in its maximum output, and because the bumper boxer lagged far behind the RS flat twin. The potential of the new vertical shaft motor had already become apparent in 1953, when Wiggerl Kraus / Bernhard Huser not only became German champions, but also spent their first trial weekends in the World Cup together with Wilhelm Noll / Fritz Cron and scored a few points against the overwhelming Norton supremacy. In 1954, the multiple world champion Eric Oliver and co-driver Les Nutt presented three victories on their disguised Norton before the driver injured himself and had to pause at the field hill climb.

Noll / Cron, on the other hand, got better and faster and also benefited from the greatly improved mechanical injection system of their factory team. After the first BMW victory in the World Championship at the German GP at the Solitude, they also won in Belgium and were tied with the English before the last race in Monza. Unfortunately, Oliver’s injury prevented the showdown and his arm had to be treated again. Even more so, the Germans seemed to be thinking, because in every round they took away the third place in the World Championship Smith / Dibben – also on Norton – for over four seconds and won undisputed. In September 60 years ago.

Injection caused trouble

One of the many puzzles surrounding the successful engine is certainly its injection. Georg “Schorsch” Meier stopped helping them develop as early as 1952 because he found them horrible. For two decades, it should have always produced a few more horsepower, which is why Noll used it. Helmut Fath and Otto Kolle later built very powerful injection engines. But on winding roads, the softer and more predictable carburettors almost always scored. However, not the type R 2 A Amal with a 30 millimeter passage installed by the factory and manufactured under license by Fischer, but almost always 32 or later even larger Dellortos. Almost ten years after its debut, injection continued to be a mystery, as Max Deubel reports. He once saved top driver Kolle from despair and lent him a set of Dellortos. So the set-up worked, and Kolle did not yet know his engine so beautifully drivable. PS magician Dieter Busch also remembers hopeful tests on the test bench, only to then experience an unfortunately poorly running and poorly performing engine during training – with the pump heated up.

BMW dissolved the works team almost by winning its first world championship title. No more money. Or is it? Some drivers continued to have factory support, not all the same, mostly in kind. An example: In the 1961 season – after accidents involving defending champion Helmut Fath and his closest rival Florian Camathias from Switzerland – the time seemed ripe for his compatriot Fritz Scheidegger. But the young Max Deubel had bought well with the 59 world champion Walter Schneider, namely his complete team. The winning country won in Hockenheim, his rival in Clermont-Ferrand. Then the factory support began: Deubel was allowed to travel to Munich, invite Lachermair and the factory engine, drive home again, pack everything and go to the TT. He won it with a new lap record. Then he brought Lachermair plus Motor back to Bavaria. The TT victory left an impression: From then on, Lachermair received a car, a tiny 700 with a removed rear seat so that the factory engine and parts could fit in. Strangely, after the TT of all times, Scheidegger also got a powerful factory engine for the last two 61er races. But just a little Lachermair.

Gustav “Gustl” Lachermair. Another riddle. As a meticulous mechanic, already responsible for the Zeller and Noll engines. Then, in addition to his job in car engine development, he also worked for factory-supported drivers. Later he made the engines at home, the parts came from BMW, how? One does not know. Deubel had two of its own engines and later got two from the factory. Lachermair maintained the latter at work’s expense, the former at Deubels. In 1957 he had already bought an RS team to accelerate his career. With a slack engine. Its repair cost 500 marks more than a new one – 5000 marks according to the BMW price list. But there was only the price list, no engines. And few parts. At least for a non-Bavarian with no World Cup chances.

BMW was stingy with parts

Some of those involved can still get upset about the white-blue patriotism today. But Deubel always got along well with Gustl, he was reliable and loyal. But sometimes too meticulous: If another motor had to be installed very quickly, the trained toolmaker Deubel and his co-driver Emil Horner took up their own tools. As world champions, they had no engine or parts worries, but Florian Camathias also had at least one factory engine, Scheidegger very fast material from Fath and Kolle. The Swiss were resourceful, and BMW put its hands on its lap. Deubel says today that he was never ahead in terms of performance. In 1964 Camathias suddenly appeared with a Gilera four-cylinder. He burned it regularly, but the signal was clear. Also for Max Deubel, who secured his fourth title in a row at the Solitude with a second place behind Scheidegger. That was sensational, and it was July 1964.

Come the four-cylinder?

Of course everyone knew that at some point some engine would replace the boxer, which had hardly been further developed since 1956. It started as a Langhuber, and a Norton Manx with the short-stroke engine introduced in 1953 was already approaching top performance. In 1956, BMW also switched to short-stroke and five-speed transmissions in order to be able to turn higher. This engine was considered a purest treasure, everyone wanted something like that. Ideally two, just how? And how to keep it alive? The short-stroke engine produced four to five more horsepower, i.e. around 55. Another five or six were provided by Ludwig Apfelbeck with larger valves in a flatter combustion chamber for the Deubel and Scheidegger factory engines in 1961. Mainly because of its thinner crankshaft journals, the short-stroke engine was more maintenance-intensive than the Langhuber. As a continuous load, it could withstand 9000 to 9200 rpm, with correspondingly high demands on performance-relevant parts: In Helmut Fath’s self-assembled short-stroke engine, for example, valve springs developed by a friend enabled greater valve lift and higher speed stability. BMW knew the problem, in 1956 they even flirted with desmodromics. In 1963, Fath started planning his URS four-cylinder together with said friend, the engineer Peter Kuhn. Deubel wrote a letter to Honda in 1965 to explore possibilities. The industry leader didn’t even give the four-time world champion an answer.

So it stayed with BMW. But with another main actor: Dieter Busch, sidecar specialist on the side. First the ingenious mechanical engineer helped the technically very open-minded and extremely experienced driver Fritz Scheidegger to snatch the title from Deubel – and Lachermair – in 1965. Kneeler versus Sitzer – a generation battle. As early as 1954, Norton driver Eric Oliver had presented a Kneeler team. Busch, too, had long been familiar with it. Of course, these chassis had nothing to do with the BMW sidecar from 1954, the wheel size had long since shrunk to 16 inches, and the tank moved into the sidecar. Not only did they offer significant aerodynamic advantages, but also an even lower center of gravity thanks to the almost lying rider. In 1966 Scheidegger defended the title with extremely strong and stable engines with five wins in five races – and died in an accident in early 1967.

In winter Busch had also built a Kneeler for Deubel, but it ended his career after Scheidegger’s death, the team went to Siegfried Schauzu, and Busch devoted himself more and more to Klaus Enders’ team. The Wetzlar from Wetzlar and his strong co-driver Ralf Engelhardt had already made strong appearances in a team built by Busch in 1966, but their first title in 1967 came just as surprising as that of Deubel six years earlier. For the next season, Dieter Busch developed a completely new team and switched the RS engine to dry sump lubrication. So he could build even flatter. The injection caused nothing but trouble and was soon thrown out again, but the greatest handicap lay in the age of the material: Far ahead, the engine tore apart in the TT, the innards of which had simply surrendered after almost ten years of stress at World Championship level. Helmut Fath on his four-cylinder URS became world champion, and now parts suddenly came to Hesse from Munich. At the start of the / 5 series motorcycles, an effective world championship title seemed quite welcome. For many years, the ex-trailer driver Max Klankermeier, as head of customer service, had watched over all RS parts, and had them reproduced where necessary and without making large requests.

Seven wins in seven starts

For the sake of the title, he was now somewhat generous towards Busch and Enders. And Dieter Busch knew how to deal with the URS four-cylinder: The boxer’s vertical shafts each drive one camshaft directly, which in turn sets the second in motion. The valve clearance is adjusted via the eccentrically mounted rocker arm shafts. Which means that the sliding point of the lever on the camshaft and thus the valve lift curve are also shifted. The meticulous comparison of the two valve lift curves, however, brings performance. And it was like a fight for hundredths of a millimeter, in which even valve stems were shortened. As a reward for all efforts, 67.68 horsepower jumped out – and that was Fath’s hold.

After the third title, Enders sold all of his material and drove car races. Another URS won, now under Horst Owesle. Then the resignation from resignation. For Enders, four wheels were one too many, Engelhardt missed the racing circuit. BMW even provided a budget this time. Of course Dieter Busch was part of the team again, he built a central bearing engine and he built his first monocoque team. Although it wasn’t finished until the third race, the advanced chassis alone was enough to keep the pack in check. And then the legendary 1973 season followed, in which Enders / Engelhardt scored seven victories in seven starts. An increasing number of two-stroke combinations screeched among their pursuers. It was getting tight. MV offered factory engines. It would have had to be converted to dry sump lubrication and still had a lot of height. They did not promise more power, so Busch refused and optimized their own new engine. It was stuck in the middle bearing. The crankshaft was balanced again and again to minimize friction. 73 hp. Plus the enormous ability of the driver and co-driver: It was just enough, Enders / Engelhardt won their sixth title. In July 1974.

BMW team world champion from 1954 to 1974

1954 Wilhelm Noll / Fritz Cron

1955 Willi Faust / Karl Remmert

1956 Wilhelm Noll / Fritz Cron

1957 Fritz Hillebrand / Manfred Grundwald

1958 Walter Schneider / Hans Strauss

1959 Walter Schneider / Hans Strauss

1960 Helmut Fath / Alfred Wohlgemuth

1961 Max Deubel / Emil Horner

1962 Max Deubel / Emil Horner

1963 Max Deubel / Emil Horner

1964 Max Deubel / Emil Horner

1965 Fritz Scheidegger / John Robinson

1966 Fritz Scheidegger / John Robinson

1967 Klaus Enders / Ralf Engelhardt

1969 Klaus Enders / Ralf Engelhardt

1970 Klaus Enders / Wolfgang Kalauch and Ralf Engelhardt

1972 Klaus Enders / Ralf Engelhardt

1973 Klaus Enders / Ralf Engelhardt

1974 Klaus Enders / Ralf Engelhardt

Info

The BMW Veterans Club will be showing three different versions of the BMW RS 54 at the Bremen Classic Motorshow from January 31 to February 2. In addition, four-time ex-world champion Max Deubel has announced that he will visit the club’s stand. On top of that, visitors can look forward to a special show on the subject of mopeds and the well-known diverse range of exhibitors. The exhibition halls are located in Bremen in the middle of the city center, right behind the main train station. It is open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., the normal day ticket costs 15 euros, clubs pay 13 euros per member.

The book about the BMW RS 54

For the anniversary, Lothar Mildebrath has completed a very carefully researched book on the RS 54 family. In it he describes the development from the factory racers to the short-stroke engine, names the successes and also weak points of the vertical shaft BMW, which is one of the most important German sports motorcycles due to the success of the sidecar, has become a myth and a coveted collector’s item. The book is self-published, contact: Lothar Mildebrath, Marianne-Brandt-Strabe 6, 48291 Telgte; Price: 29 euros plus 4 euros postage and packaging.

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