In fact, Ley and Gall managed to book a 1-2 finish against the fierce competition of the works machines of Norton, DKW, Moto Guzzi and FN. Ley again finished second during the 1936 Dutch TT, but it was in Sweden where the Kompressor would celebrate its first road race win. Georg Meier in 1958 on his 1939 TT winner Even though the Kompressor was much more powerful, it was also much heavier and didn’t handle as well. The naturally aspirated Norton single was a great handler and Guthrie knew how to exploit it. Ley finished second behind Norton works rider Jimmie Guthrie in the Swiss Grand Prix. In 1936 BMW work riders Otto Ley and Karl Gall also campaigned GP races with the 500 Kompressor. The Kompressor’s maiden victory came in the International Six Days Trial that same year, when Wiggerl and swinger Hermann Paul Müller rode to victory ahead of BMW solo works riders Meier and Jospeh Stelzer. The race was won by Ragnar Sunqvist on the new 500cc Husqvarna V-twin, with an average speed of 170km/h, impressive for the mid-1930s. It would be the forerunner of an impressive series of GP racers that followed.The BMW Type 255 RS500 Kompressor debuted at Berlin’s famous Avus circuit in 1935 in the capable hands of Ludwig ‘Wiggerl’ Kraus.Īs impressive as it was, Wiggerl didn’t win. BMW picked up the gauntlet and developed a new, 500cc supercharged boxer racer. The two most important titles in motorcycle racing at the time, and when combined, had the same status as a world championship.Īs part of the nationalist propaganda campaign in the 1930s, German automotive factories were urged to participate more actively in racing and thus highlighting the technical capabilities of Germany’s new National Socialistic regime at the time. BMW quickly became a force to be reckoned with in international GP racing, this led to a prestigious European Championship title in 1938 and a year later, a highly coveted victory in the Isle of Man 500cc Senior TT. The black machine didn’t appear all that threatening, but a 28-year-old Bavarian named Georg ‘Schorsch’ Meier entered the BMW factory racing team in 1937 and it all changed. In the middle of the 1930s, BMW surprised friend and enemy when it introduced its newest racer, a supercharged boxer twin. 03 April 2019 / Text Size (-) (+) / PrintĮighty years ago Georg Meier won the 1939 Senior TT on the Isle of Man on what’s regarded today as a rather extraordinary motorcycle
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