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World record motorcycle BMW K 100 Biturbo

Spectacular piece of motorcycle history

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The world record motorcycle based on the BMW K 100, planned by the passionate fast driver Manfred Wirth, was unfortunately never used – it now enriches a private collection.

M.anfred Wirth has always had the urge for speed. The passion for racing had awakened in him early and had made him a hobby racing driver. He was considered a man of extremes – and when he had a goal in mind, also as uncompromising. Resistance had to be overcome, laws and rules did not always have to be observed one hundred percent in his eyes. Races have also been driven privately on the autobahn, where he wanted to show the Japanese competition what a rake is with tuned BMWs. Thanks to such fast specimens as the four-valve MKM 1000 from Mike Krauser, with whom he had special contact. Turbo specialist Siegfried Stutz later gave the boxer even more power, up to 140 hp.

World record motorcycle BMW K 100 Biturbo

Spectacular piece of motorcycle history

Water-cooled four-cylinder instead of boxer

So Stutz was also the first choice when it came to preparing the technical basis for the planned record-breaking vehicle mega project and ensuring sufficient performance. Wirth wanted to set various world records, the high-speed oval in Nardo, Italy, should offer the best conditions as a venue. The idea is said to have arisen in 1986 in a conversation with racing driver Gustav Reiner. However, it was not the boxer that had to serve as the engine base, but the water-cooled four-cylinder of the still young K 100. Wirth had discovered a suitable aluminum frame from chassis specialist Nico Bakker for precisely this, which had the higher performance and the targeted well over 300 km / h should have grown.

Tuner Stutz had already made steam with the tame, 90 hp two-valve engine in series production and inflated it to an impressive 180 hp by means of turbocharging. However, significantly more horses were needed for the planned record runs over various distances with a standing or flying start. Wirth also tried to get sponsors on board. And not just performance, aerodynamics also played an important role in the high-speed record. U.T. Moto Racing made a futuristic and (in the rear area) bulky plastic cover for the record-breaking racer.

Project failed due to a lack of competence?

But which tires could the light PVM rims be able to withstand such speeds? Although the Pirellis were ultimately installed, there was no official support from the factory. Those involved did a great job, especially Stutz, who made all sorts of changes to the base engine and donated it to new Mahle pistons and a copper head gasket, had the crankshaft balanced and installed a special intake camshaft. Two turbochargers, a KKK charger for the lower and an IHI charger for the upper area, provided an output of 250 to with a maximum boost pressure of 2.5 bar and with the help of the water / methanol / glysanthin mixture injected into the intake tract 280 hp. The last boost in power was achieved by using nitrous oxide from the red gas bottle screwed onto the rear – 350 to 360 hp were supposedly to be achieved. The nitrous oxide supply lasted a maximum of four to six minutes – long enough to reach a good 350 km / h.

The first test drives, including on public roads with red license plates, were successful and without damage, the “BMW record” covered a maximum of 180 to 190 kilometers. She has never been to Nardo – the famous phrase about the many cooks and the porridge must be quoted here. “Competence wrangling” is the word that is often used when asked about the reason for the failure of the project.

For years the white racer then stood in Wirth’s huge collection of fast and / or rare motorcycles and cars in his museum in Pleidelsheim, Swabia. Manfred Wirth unfortunately passed away in July 2014, the museum no longer exists, but at least the biturbo BMW has found a new place in certainly worthy hands: BMW specialist Jochen Siebenrock now owns it. She couldn’t find a better new home.

Wirths World

If you look back to Manfred Wirth’s early youth, you understand this man. A real motorcycle crazy, in the most positive sense. At the age of 13 he is said to have been rolling through the area with his brother’s 350 Horex, and at 18 he ventured into road racing on wild Kreidler constructions.

bilski-fotografie.de

Manfred wirth.

He moved up to higher classes and switched to other brands, but after a fall, he ended his career as a hobby racing driver in 1966. In his private life he was still brisk, the bikes could hardly be fast enough – tuner friends like Mike Krauser always helped him to get high-performance material with which he cooked up and down the local highways with 270 things early on when the Japanese were still had no GSX-R racers or Fireblades at the start. Wirth’s ambitious and expensive project (of the 250,000 marks he is said to have borne around two thirds himself), to set several world records in Nardo in 1987, failed in advance, but the roadworthy record vehicle finally existed and from then on enriched his collection.

Wirth had already bought everything he could get hold of since the 1960s and gradually came into possession of numerous rare and exotic bikes, which he hoarded in a specially set up museum in Pleidelsheim near Stuttgart, partly for reasons of space. Most recently, around 300 motorcycles, scooters, sidecars, racing machines and cars were on view there on around 860 m². After Wirth’s death in 2014, attempts were made to maintain the museum for some time, but it has now been closed and the collection dissolved. Wirth’s world record project may have failed, the name of an indomitable original will be remembered. And the specimens in his collection are now delighting numerous new owners.

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