MotoGP – French GP MotoGP Warm-up: Iannone resists Lorenzo –

Posted on by admin

Munch Mammut 2000 in the driving report

The return of the mammoth

Fifteen years ago I had a 50 Hercules. A Suzuki GS 500 was a big bike for me. The Munch Mammut 2000 cost 174,000 marks and was as inaccessible as March. Today, 15 years later, I’m going to drive one. Take care when your dreams come true …

Awe wafts through the morning conference. Munch M.ammut 2000 – even hardened colleagues listen up. Eyebrows rise. Capo Pfeiffer, at the time one of the handful of journalists who were able to move the exclusivity turned metal, warns: “Mammut 2000? Watch out, boy, is ‘dangerous!” But the hint is hardly noticed in synapse nirvana. My thoughts have been wandering for days.

Munch Mammut 2000 in the driving report

The return of the mammoth

Munch Mammut 2000 found its ultimate and final expression of forced ventilation. I was 15 years old when the modern mammoth adorned the title of MOTORRAD, and the introductory lines of the driving report in issue 23/2001 are carved into my brain stem: “A mammoth is the primeval, big brother of an elephant. Weighing a ton, incredibly strong and not exactly squeamish when it came to quenching its hunger, the herbivore mowed down the lush fauna of times long past without any problems … The mammoth had no natural enemies – except for humans. As a lone he quickly ran away, of course, but appearing in a horde, the bipeds brought down many a mammoth. "

More motorcycle just couldn’t be

Almost prophetic lines. Together with the powerful, larger-than-life presence of the turbo machine, reason enough for a haphazard but deeply impressed Palatinate student to lose his young heart to the Munch Mammut 2000. Others had posters of McLarens and Lambos in their rooms, and the mammoth accompanied me for months. She was noble. She was beautiful. And she was the ultimate trick in the motorcycle quartet. Displacement? 1.998 cubic, engraving. Power? 256 Peh-Ess. Sting. Torque? 359 newton meters. Weight? 390 kilos. Price? 176,000 marks. Sting. Sting. Sting. More motorcycle just couldn’t be. And nowhere else has there been more motorcycle.

Instead of the planned 250, only 15 pieces were made until Thomas Petsch, together with Friedel Munch, father of the Munch Mammut 2000, who died in 2014, had to pull the plug for series production. Around a Cosworth cylinder head they had put a completely separate motorcycle on its wheels, and something like that costs a lot, a lot of money. Frame, wheels, swing arm, clutch, gearbox – everything specially designed and manufactured for the turbo beast. Visionary, brave, crazy to tackle such a mammoth undertaking. Perhaps a small miracle that they even got this far until it was priceless in the end.

Can the Munch Mammut 2000 be tamed??

A miracle for me too, because 15 years later I received the key to one of Petsch’s own Munch Mammut 2000. Forgive the empty phrase: A dream comes true. Only: Do I even want that? Do I want to see the dream burst against the harsh reality? Because it can’t possibly be as good as I imagined. Better to leave it as a fantasy than a nostalgic memory? I should have done with Knight Rider instead of watching another episode on YouTube and disenchanting David Hasselhoff and KITT so harshly.

And: will I even be able to cope with the mammoth? “In third gear, the throttle grip is on stop … the clutch does not spin. It’s the rear wheel! All of a sudden the mammoth storms off, as if it wants to shake off its annoying trainer … Measured 380 Nm, too much for driving in an inclined position, for most situations at all … Difficult to dose … Only in fourth gear does the slip become bearable, but the Munch Mammut 2000 is already running over 180 … Uncomfortable feeling in the tester’s stomach area … Fear … "

Video: Johannes Muller about the Munch Mammut 2000

Subscribe to MOTORRAD videos on Youtube

It rests colossally on its side stand

I feel like the Stone Age man, small, alone, without a friend or hand ax, when I see the primeval creature. It rests colossally on its side stand in a Wurzburg underground car park cave. It smells of gasoline and broken bones. With wobbly limbs, the eight hundredweight want to be balanced in the vertical. On the right it is just enough to bring the ball of the foot to the ground, on the left the tip of the toe, which is much too short, is fishing for the side stand. Just one degree too much incline and the primeval elephant will bury me. Ignition. The two-liter wakes up. Sonorous, fine, full of displacement, it hums from the thick underseat exhaust, breathing more serenity than elemental force. The clutch, which, with so much torque, clearly requires enormous manual force, is reminiscent of this. Like pressing granite. Gear one engages hard, the Munch Mammut 2000 jerks impatiently. Far back and down there are stirrups, far in front, behind the 23-liter tank, tusks. Ultra-wide, massive, powerful. It’s like stretching a normal motorcycle 50 percent. The name is program. Will the mammoth tear my head off when I engage it??

No, it drives. Like a motorcycle. The sixteen-valve engine pushes remarkably gently, almost piously, hangs finely on the gas, and thanks to its lush flywheel it rolls along at idle speed. Up to around 2,500 turns, little is felt by the loader. Well. Because of course the weight, the high center of gravity is always there. The steering angle is small, the colossus demands caution and determination. But after a few kilometers you get closer, fear gives way to healthy respect. The transmission shifts cleanly. Dignified, sluggish, but absolutely neutral and predictable, the Munch Mammut 2000 with the 200 mm rear tire on a 6.25-inch rim moves its course noticeably, but justifiable to the outside. The Ohlins fork springs up full and tight at the front, while the two suspension struts behind the oil pan are hard, earthy. They had to go there, because the large exhaust and the voluminous swing arm left no other space. Just one of the numerous, extraordinary technical solutions on this unique motorcycle.

The power diagram is likely to be in the shape of a skyscraper

Out of the city, the inner fifteen-year-old and the curiosity tease: "Go full throttle! "Full throttle? This requires courage tablets, a lot of space and a solid character. Let’s try anyway. 2,500 turns, the loader pauses, begins to breathe more and more air-fuel mixture into the intake ducts with a quiet but auspicious hiss. In a razor-narrow area, a full wave of torque flushes the jumbo jet forward, until then, suddenly and vehemently, the very thick loader club strikes. Club? At 3,000 revolutions, the power output is more like a meteorite impact. An old school turbo engine, after a big hole comes unbelievable power. The performance diagram of the Munch Mammut 2000 should have the shape of a skyscraper.

It goes without saying that no rear tire in the world can cope with this. Traction control? Wasn’t there back then, didn’t fit at all. The 200 passes seamlessly from static to sliding friction, painting thick black lines on the asphalt. While the warning words from the boss echo in my memory ("Watch out …"), respect becomes healthy fear again. There are further attempts to master the beast, to force my will upon him or at least to show it. They either lead to more black lines or rather large eyes under the helmet because of the explosive acceleration of almost half a ton of motorcycle with driver if the rear tire gets stuck. Certainly, a compressor Kawa accelerates harder, above all more foolproof, but no, it by no means creates this unbelievably kinetic feeling of so much, so vehemently catapulted, sheer mass. And certainly not this indescribably archaic sensation of barely controllable violence.

Taming the mammoth challenges the whole man

The ride on the cannonball, it was often tried, but no other motorcycle should describe it as aptly as the Munch Mammut 2000. With this knowledge we roll back to its cave. Enough adrenaline for a day. Tame, good-natured again, without boost pressure. Everything went well at the Mammut Rodeo. Here and there I think I see something like respect in the looks of passers-by. Some seem to be aware that the last great land mammals live on among them.

“The taming of the mammoth demands the whole man and is definitely not for two-wheeled greenhorns. Munch Mammut has never been like that. “It’s also my final meters with the Munch Mammut 2000. Real sadness. Disenchanted? On the contrary. The dream, the idea, have given way to experience and thus reality. It wasn’t at all what I imagined. It was a lot better.

Technical data Munch Mammut 2000

  • Four-cylinder in-line engine
  • Turbocharger with charge air cooling
  • Displacement 1.998 cm³
  • Compression ratio 9.0: 1
  • Output 188 kW (256 hp) at 5,250 rpm
  • Torque 359 Nm at 4,500 rpm
  • Wheelbase 1,540 mm
  • Steering head angle 62 degrees
  • Trail 115 mm
  • Weight 390 kg
  • Tank capacity 22.7 liters
  • Price (2001) 86,000 euros

Offers of real naked bike monsters in Germany

1000PS marketplace app

Monstrous naked bikes in price comparison

Designers and manufacturers have always tried to break the performance limits of a motorcycle. There is neither too much displacement nor too much power. While real big-block motorcycles like the Munch Mammut or the Boss Hoss enjoy a rarity on the second-hand market, there are a number of bikes that are more drivable and more practical, but lack anything in terms of performance and monstrous displacement: Prices Monster Nakedbikes Germanyhttp: //bit.ly/Nakedbike_Monster_Preis_DE

Related articles

Related articles

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *