Rapid Classics

KIM NEWCOMBE AND THE KONIG 500 GP

Story by Graham Clayton I Photos Courtesy of Norman White

Dieter Konig’s venture into building a 500 cc GP racing motorcycle began in 1968. Konig was the chief engineer and boss of the Berlin-based Konig Motorenbau family business that over the previous four decades had developed considerable expertise in the building of high performance two-stroke outboard engines with which they won many hydroplane races and set numerous world marine speed records.

Konig had taken over a one-off road racer project started by local racer Wolf Braun when injuries and financial difficulties forced Braun to abandon the project. Braun’s racing special was powered by a Konig longitudinal 180-degree flat-four twostroke marine racing engine fitted into a much-modified BSA frame fitted with road racing suspension and brakes.

The Konig ‘marine’ engine was cooled by cold water drawn from the water course on which the boat was being operated. Its conversion to use as a motorcycle engine would critically depend on the development of an effective on-board cooling system. In addition, the marine engine had a straight drive which meant that a racing gearbox and clutch had to be developed for its use in a racing motorcycle. These two area areas would prove to be problematic for the new racing machine for a couple of years as various solutions were tried, proved to be lacking and replaced.

While Dieter Konig had a lot of two-stroke engine expertise, he knew relatively little about racing motorcycles. Fortunately for Konig a New Zealand-born engineer named Kim Newcombe approached him looking for a temporary job until he could take up a position with Maico in March 1969.

Newcombe had worked in Australia for a marine dealership and was familiar with Konig engines. He was also a successful motocross and speedway racer in Australia where he had raced Maicos for their Melbourne importer Modak Motorcycle. The move to Europe and Maico was part of Newcombe’s motocross career plan. Konig hired Newcombe as a marine engine development engineer, but soon made him the lead man on the Konig 500 GP racer program.

The Konig 500 GP engine consisted essentially of two flat twins with their cylinders facing fore-and-aft much like an early Douglas twin. The engine employed a single shared three-bearing crankshaft housed in a common bottom end, but with each side’s pairing of front and rear cylinders having their own individual sealed engine case for separate pumping chambers. The original bore and stroke were both 54 mm that produced a swept volume of 494.7 cc.

The Konig ran on a premix of gasoline and oil at a ratio of 16:1. This was fed into the paired twins’ cylinders via a rotary disc valve mounted flat on top of the crankcases. The rotary disc valve was driven by a rubber toothed belt directly from the right-hand-side (RHS) main shaft. With the help of two rollers, the belt drive turned through 90 degrees, up and over the top of the engine to rotate the rotary disc valve. The two BVF carburetors fed fuel through the rotary disc to either the right or left pair of cylinders.

Originally the exhausts of all four cylinders were fed into a huge crude-looking single canister-like expansion chamber. This was soon replaced. In the revised exhaust each pair of front and rear cylinder exhaust ports was fitted with a very short siamesed two-into-one exhaust header pipe. Each siamesed header routed exhaust gases through a single large expansion chamber upward and backward over the engine.

Liquid-cooling for the engine employed a large rectangular radiator mounted to the frame’s front downtubes, plus a cast magnesium water tank (sump) bolted to the bottom of the engine, both of which were fed by a rubber band-driven water pump located on the right side of the motor.

The use of the bottom-mounted sump to cool the engine cases required that its four cylinders be reversed so that their exhausts exited upward above the engine rather than downward. It also required that the gearbox be located at the back of the engine on its right side which resulted in a relatively long wheelbase. The primary and final drives for the bike were on the left side of the engine and utilized a toothed Westinghouse chain driven off the end of the engine’s crankshaft. The basic ignition system for the engine consisted of a battery, two sets of points and twin ignition coils.

By late 1969 Kim had made significant progress improving the race-worthiness of the 500 GP and forgotten about the move to Maico. Newcombe had never planned to be a road racer, but by the fall he decided to race the Konig himself in a German Junior Championship race on the Avus street circuit in Berlin. It was his first ever road race and he won. It’s fair to say that Newcombe was a natural when it came to racing motorcycles. 1970 was another development year for the 500 GP, but Kim Newcombe found the time to enter and win five more German Junior Championship races ultimately making him eligible for an FIM GP licence. For 1971 Dieter Konig decided to hire Australian

(Opposite page) This precise copy of Kim Newcombe's Konig 500 GP, at times faster than the MVs of Agostini and Read, was built by his mechanic and fellow racer Rod Tingate. (Above) The slim, light and low Konig 500s shown here at the 1973 West German GP finished third, sixth and eighth after Newcombe DNF'd.

“continental circus” racer John Dodds as a development rider and works racer.

As it turned out 1971 was not a good year or experience for Dodds for while the Konig proved to be very fast with strong acceleration, it was also very fragile as engine overheating and transmission problems plagued the bike causing DNFs. Dodds scored his sole GP point on the Konig with a 10th place finish at the West German GP early in the season and later left Konig to race Yamahas.

He became the first FIM F750 World Champion in 1974.

The power output of the Konig 500 GP in 1969 was 68 horsepower at 9,000 rpm at the crankshaft and rose to 75 hp for 1970. A major engine redesign was undertaken before the 1972 GP season with a larger 56 mm bore and shorter 50 mm stroke for a swept volume of 492.6 cc. Major changes included a new stronger four-bearing crankshaft, a switch to a twin-choke 45 mm Solex carburetor and changes to the non-unit primary and secondary transmissions.

The new engine’s power output was close to 80 hp at the crank with usable power available from 7,000 to 10,500 rpm. While cooling continued to be a potential Achilles heel for the 500 GP, an improved radiator and successful experimentation with air vents in the bike’s fairing by Kim provided better engine cooling. Even so, unlike most race bikes, the Konig 500 was typically taken to the grid cold and started cold for races. Given this, poor starts were not uncommon.

Newcombe also developed a new frame for the racer. It utilized a large diameter steel backbone tube that ran from the top of the steering neck angled downward at about 20 degrees before turning straight down to support the back of the engine. Two smaller diameter steel tubes connected to the lower left and right sides of the steering neck, angled outward and more steeply downward to provide further support behind the engine around the swingarm axle. Additional frame tubes at the rear of the bike provided top mounts for the twin Girling shocks and support for the rider’s seat. Finally, two much smaller downtubes to the front of the engine supported the bike’s radiator. The engine was suspended by the frame without any bottom tubes.

For 1972 Newcombe had acquired an FIM GP licence in order to contest some non-GP international races and selected GPs. Two other racers, Ernst Hiller and Paul Eikenberg would also race the works machines on occasion. During 1972 Kim also met up with his former Maico teammate, Australian racer Rod Tingate, who would join the team as his mechanic and right-hand man.

In his first ever GP in West Germany held at the 32.0 km (14.2 mile) Nürburgring circuit Newcombe finished an incredible third behind the two works MV Agustas of Agostini and Pagani, with his new teammate Ernst Hiller coming home fifth. It wasn’t long before the ever-stronger performance of the Konig 500 prompted Dieter Konig to start producing race kits and over-the-counter versions of the racer.

(Left) Newcombe astride a Konig 500 GP illustrates how diminutive the bike was, basically the same size and weight as a Yamaha 250/350 GP twin. (Above) This black 1976 Konig 500, seen here at the Barber Museum, is fitted with triple disc brakes, monoshock rear suspension and other updates.

Third place finishes by Eikenberg at the Yugoslavian GP and by Newcombe at the East German GP further boosted the race credibility of the Konig. At the Swedish GP Kim finished fifth, but only after having to push his bike all the way to the first corner before it fired up and then having his clutch cable break on the third lap. Despite these setbacks he was able to catch and overtake the entire field save for four riders. The more Newcombe raced the Konig the faster he got.

By 1973 the Konig 500 GP developed 85 to 90 hp at the crankshaft. It used a 35 mm Ceriani GP fork and twin Girling rear shocks. Stopping power was provided by a Ceriani 230 mm 4L4S front brake and a 2L2S Ceriani rear drum brake. The bikes rolled on 18-inch alloy-rimmed spoked wheels shod with GP tires. The wheelbase was 1430 mm (56.3 in) and the dry weight was about 115 kg (253 lb). The bike had a low centre of gravity roughly equal to the height of the bike’s axles, was very narrow with a low frontal area, had good handling and was capable of extreme lean angles. Its top speed by then was 282 km/h (175 mph) in sixth gear, faster at times than the mighty MVs. The company had also developed a 680 cc version of the GP with 90-plus hp.

After finishing 10th overall in 1972 Newcombe went all out in the 1973 500 GP series. Yamaha’s ‘Flying Fin’ Jarno Saarinen won the first two GPs with Newcombe finishing fifth and third. At the next round Saarinen broke his chain while leading. Newcombe also DNF’d, but Ernst Hiller took third on his Konig. Next came the tragic Grand Prix des Nations at Monza and a fifteen-rider crash on the opening lap of the 250 GP in which both Saarinen and Renzo Pasolini died and other racers were injured. Given the tragedy both the 250 and 500 GPs des Nations were cancelled, and Yamaha’s works team withdrew for the balance of the 500 cc championship.

Next came the IoM Senior TT which most top GP racers boycotted for safety reasons. Newcombe then won the Yugoslav GP putting him into first place overall. Then came the Dutch TT won by Phil Read (MV) with Newcombe second, but still first overall by one point. By the time of the August break in the GP calendar Newcombe was in second place overall behind Read with only the Spanish round left.

Kim had been invited to compete during the GP break in two major race meets in the UK, the latter of which was at Silverstone. Mechanical problems with his 500 GP forced him to ride the brutish 680 cc Konig at Silverstone. Kim had identified an unprotected trackside wall at Stowe corner as a serious hazard and requested hay bales be placed there, but the course marshal refused. In the big race, open to works F750 and 1,000 cc machines, Newcombe led the field for six laps, but then ran wide at Stowe corner laying the bike down and sliding into the unprotected wall. Kim sustained head injuries to which he succumbed three days later.

The next day racer Stan Woods also crashed at Stowe Corner, but by then hay bales had been placed in front of the wall enabling Woods to walk away from the crash. Kim Newcombe finished a posthumous second overall in the 1973 500 GP World Championship. As with Saarinen and Pasolini, one can only wonder what Newcombe would have gone on to achieve.

Newcombe’s death was taken very hard by Dieter Konig and basically ended his interest in solo racing motorcycles. His firm did however assist Rolf Steinhausen and his passenger Josef Huber to win the FIM Sidecar World Championship in 1975 and 1976 with their Busch-Konig outfit, basically Konig’s motorcycle racing swan song. IM

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