The winner and runner-up of the 1952 AVUS GP had nothing much in common, apart from the fact that they both spoke German and were born in Germany, entered Veritas Meteors for other drivers and competed side by side in the 1952 German GP. While Hans Klenk was a gritty ex-Messerschmidt fighter pilot who transformed into a low-flying daredevil, Rudi Fischer was a well-to-do restaurateur and proficient amateur driver who with his Ecurie Espadon became a much-seen figure in early-fifties Grand Prix events, combining a limited World Championship programme with a large number of lesser GP events across the European continent.
For a driver of his talent – he was exceptionally good for a gentleman racer – Fischer’s GP career spans a mere three years, and it was a great surprise to see him leave the scene after the 1952 season, only coming back for a couple of hill-climbs every year, which were some sort of a speciality for the Swiss.
Zürich-born Fischer came to prominence in 1949 when racing a HWM to sixth at the Prix de Berne, sharing with Moss. Having discovered his talent he made no qualms of ordering a specially-built Ferrari 212 for himself to go Grand Prix racing in 1951.
His World Championship participations were limited to the nearby Swiss, German and Italian GPs and he certainly did not make a fool of himself. Profiting from his local knowledge the bespectacled Fischer put his F2 car a magnificent 10th on the grid, ahead of all the Talbots, Maseratis and HWMs. He was less lucky in the race, finishing 11th, 3 laps down, as the two-hour race wore him down, but he soon found success in non-championship events such as Bordeaux (second), San Remo (third), Syracuse (third) and the Dutch GP at Zandvoort (fourth). Next to that he took three F2 wins – at AVUS, Aix-les-Bains and Angoulême – while also starring in hill-climbs.
In the German GP Rudi finished just outside the points in 6th, having started an outstanding 8th, and the promise was already showing. He delivered in 1952, of course helped by his acquisition of one of the latest Ferrari 500 models. But speaking volumes for his ability is the fact that he took his best World Championship results – second at his home GP, third in Germany (our picture) – at real drivers’ circuits: Bremgarten and the Nürburgring. He was less lucky at Rouen-les-Essarts, blowing the engine of his 500 in practice and having to resort to the back-up 212, while in Britain he was pushed back by a drone of fast locals – from Downing to Collins – on a circuit unknown to him. Another engine blow turned his last GP appearance into a disappointment, but not before this underrated driver took convincing wins at AVUS (leading Hans Klenk) and in the Eifelrennen.
Sportscar ace Hans Klenk will always be known as Vulture Man, for his epic contretemps with a vulture that hit his svelte Mercedes 300SLR during the 1952 Carrera Panamerica became instant history – as much a classic as Stefan Johansson colliding with a deer in practice for the 1987 Austrian GP. Co-driving with his friend, old Mercedes hack Karl Kling, Klenk mastered the gruelling Latin American road rally and turned the fifth and last sporting appearance of the Gullwing car into a victorious journey, vultures coming their way or not.
1952 was the comeback year for Mercedes-Benz’s motorsport division – and it was a return with a bang. The sportscar codenamed W194 was launched as the 300SLR and made its first racing appearance at the Mille Miglia on May 4. With its streamlined body – reaching a Cw value of just 0.25 – the car looked stunning and was immediately on the pace. Fittingly, one of the Stuttgart cars was entrusted to Rudi Caracciola, who went on to finish fourth, while Hermann Lang was out after 220 kilometres, a stone having damaged the rear axle. This left Kling to defend silver honours, and things were looking good until well into the race – no doubt thanks to Hans Klenk’s innovative “prayer book”, which became the mother of modern rally pace notes. Unfortunately the K&K challenge was blunted by a flat tyre getting stuck to the car leaving the red Ferrari 250S of Bracco to win by four minutes.
Two weeks after the Swiss sportscar GP took place at Berne, where Mercedes scored an emphatic one-two-three with Kling leading Lang and Rieß, there was sorrow as well as Caracciola rammed a Bremgarten tree, putting an end to his distinguished racing career. Also, this was the only occasion on which Mercedes cars didn’t race as the Silver Arrows. Expect for Rieß’ 300SL, which remained silver, Caracciola’s car was red, Kling’s dark green and Lang’s pale blue.
Next stop for the 300SL armada were the Le Mans 24 hours, where everyone was expecting a Mercedes tidal wave. It happened, but not before the ACO stewards had objected to the car’s doors. Mercedes team boss Neubauer (see above) compromised by allowing the door openings to be lowered, thus creating the well-known “Flügeltüre”. So this is how the 300 SLR received the famous “Möwenschwingen” or Gullwing nickname. In practice Mercedes also dabbled with a so-called “air brake”, a moveable spoiler on top on the roof that could be put in use by the driver to assist the drum brakes. But it was not until 1955 that the contraption, in a somewhat adapted form, actually raced.
While the cars were favourites, they had the win not coming their way, as Pierre Levegh – in a monster solo effort – led the race until the 23rd hour before his Talbot broke. That left a clear road for a Mercedes double, Lang/Rieß in the No.21 car winning ahead of Theo Helfrich/Helmut Niedermayr in the No.20 car. Hans Klenk, in his Mercedes debut, and Karl Kling had to retire the No.22 car during the night.
The toughest challenge followed in Mexico during the third edition of the multi-day Carrera Panamericana event: 3500 kilometres of torture for both man and machine. Mercedes sent four 300SLs to Mexico: Karl Kling and Hans Klenk led the way in the No.4 car, Erwin Grupp partnered Hermann Lang in car No.3, while John Fitch and Eugen Geiger with starting number 6 drove a Spyder version, as did Auto Motor und Sport reporter Günther Molter in the No.5 car, which was there as a spare. Molter also acted as an assistant to Neubauer, which won’t have done any good to the impartiality of his reporting!
After 19 hours of racing Kling/Klenk were the victors, with Lang/Grupp coming second. Mercedes were prevented a clean sweep when Fitch/Geiger were disqualified for allegedly crossing the startline of the penultimate stage in reverse gear! While this seemed preposterous enough, the winning car suffered a memorable mishap of itself along the way, a vulture (others speak of a buzzard) demolishing the windshield. Hans Klenk, acting as the co-driver, was hit straight in the face by the dead bird. Klenk continued with his head injuries while overnight the car’s windshield was replaced by some welded iron bars… In this shape the car is still to be seen at the Daimler-Benz Museum in Stuttgart.
It was the final appearance for the purposely built W194 sportscar, having won four of its five starts in 1952. The W198 road-car follow-up had its fair share of racing as well in the hands of privateers.
Since, the car has become a myth. Today a 300SL Roadster will raise approximately 400,000 DM on the car classics market while a genuine Gullwing won’t go below 550,000 DM. In 1999, when classic magazine Motor Klassik invited 50 experts to select their sportscar of the century, they unsurprisingly went with the 300SL.
Meanwhile, Klenk’s career in monopostos centered around converted Veritas sportscars. Having built specials in 1950, Hans soon moved to racing the streamlined Veritas Meteor previously used by his friend Karl Kling. He was pretty successful with it, finishing second twice in 1952, at the typical German high-speed tracks, AVUS and the Grenzlandring. Klenk also entered the car in the German GP, using a self-developed open-wheeled body, along with many other Veritas privateers and BMW specials. Shortly after the start of the race Hans had another scare, with Felice Bonetto spinning right in front of him (and Marcel Balsa’s BMW) at the entry of the Südkehre. Here is a newspaper clipping related to the event.
The back side of this newspaper clipping shows a few words written by Klenk himself: ‘The ONS [the highest German Sports Authority] awarded me with the No.128’. A strange remark… Didn’t he like the combination of one, two and eight? Or did he feel the need to explain the peculiar German numbering system for that event?
The Veritas (Latin for ‘truth’) car company was established by pre-war BMW engineers Ernst Loof and Lorenz Dietrich in 1947. As it was hard find any suitable parts in battle-scarred Germany, Loof, Dietrich and former Auto Union driver Schorsch Meier had to scour the nation for components to get started. They began by converting pre-war BMW 328 ‘Brescia’ sportscars into racing machines – a common practice at the time, as the BMWs were streets ahead of anyone else in the aerodynamics department. Veritas cars – be it the racing cars or the road-car derivatives – thus always looked the part. Despite the French ban on German cars several French enthusiasts bought Veritas cars from the Messkirch factory in the French sector of Germany. To avoid importing obstructions the cars were sold as kit cars and appeared in France under other names…
Then Loof began to develop his own engine design to complement his 1948 single-seater design. The 2-litre six-cylinder unit was built for the company by Heinkel (the light-alloy casts of the block and cylinder heads were too complicated to do themselves) and featured a single overhead camshaft that activated a similar pushrod layout to the 328 engine. It had three Solex carbs and ran on methanol, giving it an output of 140bhp.
The cars and engines were quite successful in the late 1940s although its overambitious plans to conduct parallel racing and road-car projects caused the company to run into trouble. In 1950 it was closed down. Loof moved to new premises at the Nürburgring and started again, producing the Veritas Meteor chassis for Formula 2 racing. At the 1950 Salon de Paris Veritas unveiled a single-seater with a streamlined body and de Dion rear axle, especially designed for high-speed circuits such as AVUS and Hockenheim.
It was the start of a true Veritas revival. In June 1951 Paul Pietsch won the Eifelrennen at the Nürburgring, and the marque had been almost solely responsible for re-elevating the German motorsport scene to a professional level of competition, giving cars to such drivers as Karl Kling, Hans Klenk, Hans Herrmann and Wolfgang Seidel. With the World Championship being run to Formula 2 regulations in 1952 it allowed the cars to take part in the German GP, with Belgian amateur Arthur Legat also entering his home GP. That year Veritas engines were also seen in Eugene Martin’s Jicey and Toni Ulmen won the West German title in a works car. But then the pressure grew to remain competitive and Veritas quickly faded away, unable to keep up with the pace of development. In 1953 fewer Veritas-Meteors were seen in the German championship, although six cars turned up at the GP. A two-three-four result for Klenk, Theo Helfrich and Herrmann at the Avusrennen, trailing Jacques Swaters’ private Ferrari, looked good but the works teams had stayed away. Shortly after Loof was forced to close the company and went back to BMW to work as a development engineer. Sadly, he died of a brain tumor three years later.
In 1954, the 1.5-litre days over by now, Hans Klenk produced his own derivative of the Veritas Meteor, the Klenk Meteor. It made Klenk the only man to have one GP appearance as a driver and one as a constructor, but not in the same GP! Klenk’s racing career cut short by a nasty accident while testing for Mercedes during 1953, he invited Theo Helfrich to race the Klenk in the 1954 German GP. The car qualified 1.5 minutes (!) slower than the fastest Ferrari and lasted eight laps before retiring with an engine failure.
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