Konig HRE 500cc triple

[Mark75H]

Here are pictures of the first Konig HRE triple I ever saw (about 20 years ago). It was at a junk dealer who just brought in a haul of racing stuff from a racer. He didn't know what it was or how old it was, and at that point neither did I, but I was interested enough to take pictures. The next time I saw the Konig stuff it was in a different building where the roof had leaked and it was all wet :( The next time I went it was gone. A few years later I learned where it went and have been trying to buy it ever since.

It appears as though the gear drive magneto has been removed and points added under the starter sheave.

The first year is probably 1956 and last 1958. It was replaced with a 407cc twin and then a 445cc twin

[Mark Suter]

Sam, the most interesting thing I saw in the photos of the junkyard motor was that it had individual cylinder heads whereas mine has a single piece head to cover all three cylinders (some of the magazine pics at the bottom of your message also appear to have a one-piece head like mine). Any idea when they used the separate heads (my serial number indicates it is a 1956 model)? I would think the single piece design would offer a significant structural advantage.

[Glenn Coates]

I'm thinking ( and you all know what sort of trouble that will get me in) could the junkyard motor be a homebuilt version of the 3 cylinder engine built using the readily available 2 cyl B parts, cutting 2 heads up and bolting them on each cylinder. On the C,the cylinder head and magneto are about the only parts that are not commom with the B.

[Mark75H]

I think Glenn is probably mostly correct. There were 2 cylinder Konigs with individual cylinder heads and single cylinder Konigs, I would not be surprised if the junkyard motor was assembled from parts that did not belong together. Along with it were several 2 cylinder motors and many loose parts. Enough parts that I could see how to assemble a single, twin or triple.

There were crankshaft tops, middles and bottoms; likewise crankcase tops, middles and bottoms everything seemed to have the same bolt pattern like Tinkertoy parts. I'm sure if you had enough parts you could assemble a 4 or even a 6 ... visions of Frankenstein :eek:

[Glenn Coates]

Sam,
Thanks for posting these pictures. I was wondering what you meant by "mostly correct", so I went back and looked at the photo's. The junkyard motor looks to have the correct lower middle crankcase section with the cast bracket to mount the scintella magneto.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

This weekend I organized some of my old magazines by publication and date. I came across these three articles. The first set is from BOAT SPORT September 1955, the second group--September October 1956, and the final pic from February 1958.

[Mark75H]

It is interesting that the motor appears with top drive and bottom drive magnetos

[Bill Van Steenwyk]

In the mid 1950's while living in Little Rock, Arkansas, I belonged to the Little Rock Boat Club which held sanctioned NOA races at their facility on an "old river" lake near Scott, Ar. I had the opportunity to see Dieter Konig participate in what I was later told was his first trip to the US. The 500CC motor pictured in this thread looks very similiar to one of the engines he ran at that race. If I remember correctly he had a borrowed boat and had brought his own engines which were an A, B, and C which were all the same size cylinders, in other words the A was slightly less than 10 Cubic inches and then by adding more cylinders between heats he would basically build another engine by adding a cylinder. I do remember he ran all hydro classes that day and won most everything he raced in. He was not at all familiar with our clock starts and was far behind at the start of each heat, but passed everbody and won the great majority of heats he participated in if not all of them. To the best of my knowledge and also based on what I was told, that was the first time Konig engines had been run in the US. The next weekend he attended a race in Memphis and had the same type performance. I did not personally see the cylinders being added between heats to make another engine of larger displacement, but the story was told and retold so many times in the next year or so, I think it was true. If not, it only added to the Konig "mystique" at the time, and helped to promote the sale of the engines. The engines he was competing against were mostly SR's, KR'S, and PR'S, at least at that race anyway.

[ProHydroRacer]

Bill,
When I started in 1966 Ray Hardy had a 3 cylinder Konig I don't remember if it was a 350 or 500. It was a deflector type much like the photos above this posting. The head was the one piece design. Old Ray and his gang had a bunch of old engines at the time - old and new Konigs and even a few C-service engines.

[Mark75H]

Bill,
When I started in 1966 Ray Hardy had a 3 cylinder Konig I don't remember if it was a 350 or 500. It was a deflector type much like the photos above this posting. The head was the one piece design. Old Ray and his gang had a bunch of old engines at the time - old and new Konigs and even a few C-service engines.

The 500 was the only Konig triple, so it was a 500

[epugh66]

That photo of Dieter at the work bench looks just like one I have of Peter at a drill press.

Claude Fox celebrated his 99 birthday a few weeks ago. He may be older though, it's just that Julie had hosted his 95th birthday four years earlier.

[Mark75H]

All 3 cylinders are marked 18 as are all the crankcase sections ... it is an original HRE

[Mark75H]

I recently acquired a single head for this motor ... all three spark plug holes were stripped out. That may be why single cylinder heads were grafted onto this motor. It may even be the original head from this motor, but its not marked with a serial number like the rest of the parts, so there is no way to know either way.

[Tim Chance]

Keep the info coming, Sam