The elegant König was an extremely competitive race bike. Rather strangely, it was powered by a boat engine: a water-cooled, four-cylinder, two-stroke. In the hands of New Zealand racer Kim Newcombe, the König (‘King’ in German) trumped the MVs of the day. Unfortunately, Newcombe died after a crash at Silverstone in 1973, just one point away from winning the 500cc championship.
Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II | 1/160s | f/11.0 | ISO 100 | Focal length 90mm
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6 Comments
When ditching an Umlaut (the two dots over a vowel, e.g. König), add an “e” (e.g. Koenig). It does change the sound and sometimes meaning, like the difference between something being “homosexual” versus “humid.”
Often seen with Zündapp / Zuendapp, BMW’s main motorcycle competitor during the mid-20th century. Their name is a truncation of “ignition-apparatus-builder” as they used to make detonators — happy thought when see their grenade-inspired logo on the gas tank between your legs.
Great picture. I am about to publish a biography on Kim Newcombe and offer one correction. He had already lost the world GP championship by the time he got to Silverstone.
I think they also put that motor in racing sidecars as well.
They certainly did use them in sidecars, they were good enough to win the world championships in the early 70′s. We tried to run a 750 konig in 1977 but struggled with reliability problems. My mate is rebuilding a classic outfit at the moment using a 750 konig motor
http://s375.photobucket.com/albums/oo198/kitkatjeff/konig/
Hello,I like to have contact to Tim Hanna.
After Spa/Francorchamps, we lost already the Championship.MV has made an faster bike after several races.You see it on top speed and laptimes.
After this event we go back to Berlin and Built in 4 days and 3 nights an new 350/4 for extra race time.The bike has being altime in top 10 places.
We were supprised about this.Kind regards, Jan Postmus(TEAMbike@planet.nl)
The KONIG name means KING in GERMAN I am a direct desendent of the family and know this to be true from family documents. Their is also a KONIG (KING) Castle still standing on the Rhine river in germany. Just wanted to set it strait for the records. So Joe , you have to go back to your liberal U and get it correct.
I hate it when the so called educated revise history to suit their own idea’s.
Sincerely,
A.N.King