Hey Sam!! Konig's History Is Here!!!

[Jeff Lytle]

How about posting Konig's history here??

[Mark75H]

What? Have me run over by Steve Litzell? I think he already hates me for the radio thing :o

I'll put it up and ask Steve to correct it for us :rolleyes:

[Jeff Lytle]

Excellent!

[Mark75H]

Konig History

Page 1

The story of Konig racing outboards begins in Germany in the year 1928. Rudolph Konig began manufacturing small and medium size outboards in Berlin, and was joined some years later by his son, Dieter. These early pleasure and fishing motors resemble other motors of their time period. Konig's most popular model was a light weight small horsepower extra long shaft outboard to be used on sail boats as auxillary to maneouver in and out of harbor. This motor was ridiculed at first, but became one of the best selling outboards in Europe, giving the Konig's the last laugh :).
Sometime in the early 1950’s Dieter began designing successful racing models. Thru the years Konig racing outboards dominated most of the classes they where they were used. In the US, Konigs were only used in the PRO or Alky racing division, but from time to time dominated every class in the division. In Europe, Konig motors for Stock gasoline classes were popular as well.
Some (or maybe all)of the early Konig racing outboards used modular construction. Cylinder sections stack together like tinker toys. Each cylinder was individually cast, as was each cylinder’s crankcase section and cylinder head.
These engines used an internal rotating disk to time the intake, rather than reed valves, the piston skirt, or either of the other rotary valve arrangements previously used on racing outboards: an external rotating barrel or hollow crankshaft sections. Rotary valve two stroke motors have advantages over reed valve and piston port motors. A timed rotor can be set to open a quite large intake opening at the optimum time, well ahead of a reed check valve, and close it again at the optimum time, well before the piston skirt closes the intake port on a piston port motor. Compared to the other rotor types, three advantages of the internal disk rotor come to mind. First, there is no additional drag from the external barrel type’s driving mechanism and stabilizing bearings. Second, the rotor shape did not need to be partially symmetrical, as was traditionally done with external barrel rotors running at half crankshaft speed. Third, the opening area could be somewhat larger than was practical than could be used on the hollow crankshaft type rotary valve motors. The drawback is a slightly longer crankshaft resulting in a slightly taller motor, not a problem on 15, 20, and 30 cubic inch two and three cylinder racers.
The exhaust outlet from the cylinders goes straight out the side, much like a chain saw or Go Kart motor, and usually had a narrow bell shaped megaphone. This megaphone would be tuned to match the motor’s speed. The harmonic sound wave returning to the exhaust port and reflecting out slightly before the port opened the next time helped give the motor a little more power.
Things were still tight in Germany in the late 50’s. Konig saved a little bit of money in the manufacture of their racing motors by purchasing surplus hydraulic jack pump handles (among other things) and welding them in as part of the drive shaft tower. If you find a vintage Konig with a part welded in with the notches to turn a hydraulic jack valve, you don’t have something made in some racers garage, you have the real thing!
The lower unit for these early Konig racers was a smooth aluminum casting, with a rear end screw-on end cap. Gears were small 1:1 (14:14) ratio hardened steel. The cooling water inlet was a round hole directly on the point of the bullet or torpedo. Water forced its way in thru the hollow nose, and if you were going more than 15 mph or so, all the way up and thru the motor. That’s right, no water pump!
Carbs for these racers were special, too. Mounted on the side of the crankcase at a slight uphill angle they are very close to the rotary valve disk. The throttles were neither regular flat butterflies nor motorcycle type slides, but rotating (half turn)barrels much like some racing cars would use 35 or 40 years later. Don’t look to hard for a carb maker’s name on them…Dieter and Rudolph made them themselves.
Designed for special alcohol fuel (methanol) these motors used a compression ratio of 12:1. In this time before super space age synthetic lubricants, castor bean oil was used. Yes, that very same product sold in drug stores as a laxative. Castor bean oil has a very high film strength and very high ignition temperature, two qualities very favorable for lubricants for two stroke racing motors. Its use in general purpose two stroke motors is limited due to the fact that it accumulates in the piston ring groves, tending to gum things up. Alcohol and castor oil make a very distinctive and sweet odor when burned…if you have ever been to an outboard race where “Alkies” were running, I’m sure you remember the odor.
All this added up to give the Konig “HRE” 500cc racer 45 horsepower at 7,000 rpm. In 1957 this was very impressive from just 30 cubic inches! I don’t know who drove 500cc Konig racers, but I do know Dieter Konig ran in the A and B classes using a US designed Swift hydro.
The next generation of Konig racers were all 2 cylinder piston port motors. Carbs for these motors mount father back, directly on the cylinder. This is because the piston skirt is the intake valve. The most of this type have one carb on each side and one exhaust pipe on each side. Some have the cylinders cast together and a one piece cylinder head, others have the modular configuration, one has modular cylinders and a single cylinder head casting.
Scott Smith of Dallas, Georgia, imported Konigs thru his importing company, “Overseas Dealers”. Not everybody in the US jumped on the Konig bandwagon, but many famous US racers did. Dick O”Dea, Bud Wiget, “Dub” Parker were among the many who did. Rich Young from Coriopolis, PA bought a Konig, and his mother, who was a very skilled cabinet maker, built him a very good racing hydro! Pep Hubbell in California, and O.F. Christener in Illinois, lead the patriotic defense against the German invasion. Hubbell produced reproductions of 1940’s OMC racers and both Hubbell and Christener made alky conversions of Kiekhaeffer Mercury racers. With a lot of hard work and some luck, these American alkies gave the Konigs good competition once in a while.

Early tuned exhaust Konigs had the pipes going straight out the sides, shortly thereafter they put about a 45º bend part way out the pipe and let them curve to the back. These got the nickname "mule ears" because of the 2 large back swept pipes.

For a short time Christener’s Quincy Machine Works made a Merc based alky that equaled the Konig’s lap times. The key was exhaust tuning with two cylinders sharing one megaphone pipe. This gave the “Quincy Deflector” a big increase in mid range power. Acceleration off the corners was so much better with the two into one exhaust pipe, it made up for the Konigs’ higher top end power and top speed at the end of the straight. As soon as it was obvious to Dieter and Rudolph, they rotated one cylinder to put both exhaust pipes on the same side and a deflector piston engine never rivaled a flat topped piston racer again.
What’s a deflector piston? Most outboards made before 1975 used the deflector type piston to direct the incoming charge to the top of the cylinder; its like a dam across the piston crown. Two strokes using flat topped pistons require the more elaborate “loop” charging scheme. Loop charging requires more intricate and special design and fabrication of the cylinder than deflector piston design. Deflector pistons are much heavier and have about twice the surface area exposed to the hot gasses during combustion. Both of these factors are unfavorable for high output racing motors. High weight lowers safe motor rpms and large surface area increases the amount of heat transferred to the piston its self. Hot pistons can over expand and seize in the cylinder bore, or over heat the wrist pin bearing, both fatal to any piston engine. The second generation of Konigs, beginning around 1960, used the loop charging.
One of the last deflector pistoned Konigs was a 10 cubic inch single cylinder “J” class kids’ racer made around 1959. The next Konig “J” racer was a 7.41 cubic inch single cylinder version of the Konig “FA” racer. To ensure real competition the “FM” was sold only to racing clubs in minimum orders of 10 motors. They never caught on in the US.
This second generation Konig racers got an improved lower unit, too. Instead of a single water inlet in the center of the bullet, three water inlets were used. One at each side of the point, and one below the point all three were about an inch back from the point. These gave increased water volume to the motor and improved flow around the lower unit. Little by little the size of the skeg increased, too. Early Konig racing lower units were much like Merc Quicksilver lower units with the prop shaft/bearing/gear assembly loading in from the back and the tail cone screwing on counter clockwise .... hence the notation in German: LINKS denoting left hand threads. For a short while a next step up lower unit was made with the tail cone secured by 2 very long bolts coming down from the top.

Their most noticeable technological advance was in exhaust tuning. 1963 Konigs were the first to carry full length “expansion chamber” tuned exhaust. In 1962 Carniti had produced a very limited edition V-4 500cc racer with expansion chambers. (Copied no doubt from the expansion chambers Walter Kaaden came up with for the famous MZ racing motorcycles a few years eariler). All these first racing outboard expansion chambers were tuned for maximum power for long courses and straight-away speed records. Often they were removed and the familiar bell shaped open end megaphone pipes were installed for shorter course racing. (The telltale shape is in the final cone, at the back of the expansion chamber. Pipes made for maximum top end power use a rather short final cone, giving a short, but powerful reflection back to the exhaust port.)

[Mark75H]

Page 2

In 1964, the Konig V series racing motor began. These motors closely resemble late model Konigs and Konnys. Two (cylinder) into one (pipe) full length expansion chambers were used for maximum exhaust tuning benefits. The first V series Konigs were piston port with 4 carbs. A year or two later Konig used rotary valve intake timing again, but this time the arrangement was different. V series motors all have 4 cylinders arranged in two banks of two, exactly the same as the famous OMC “4-60” racers from the 1930’s. Both designs took advantage of firing two cylinders together, working the crankcase scavenging common to each opposed pair. Both pistons rise in their cylinders at the same time, and return to the center at the same time giving crankcase pumping that can not be matched by pistons working a single crankcase alone. The “4-60” used internal hollow crankshaft rotary valves, but the V series Konigs use an external disk rotary valve. Centered across the intake side of the motor, the rotor sits behind each cylinder pair’s carb. A cogged belt running from the crankshaft, below the flywheel, around two idler pulleys (much like a Chevy Corvair’s fan belt) drives the side mounted rotary valve. By 1968 all Konig motor sizes were using the V series configuration. With the V series motor came a new lower unit. This lower unit’s construction has been copied by several other racers since its introduction. It is easily identified by its construction, being split horizontally right down the center of the bullet. A row of recessed screws up from the bottom, holds the two halves together.
For a short time an “L” series was made for larger racing classes. “L” Konigs were basically eight cylinder motors made by stacking two V series motors one on top of another. “L”’s came in 60 and 80 cubic inch sizes, double the normal 30 and 40 cubic V sizes. Considering that the “VC”’s of that time were making over 80hp, “LX” Konigs pumped out well over 200hp in 1968, when Mercury’s “1250 Super BP” racer produced 155hp. I have some data on a motor designated “SF” indicating a six cylinder 60 cubic inch motor, but it may be an error, or a motor that was never produced.
V series Konigs used expansion chambers with cone shapes narrower and longer than the early ‘60’s expansion chambers, favoring strong mid range power. During the 70’s two improvements to the expansion chamber design were made. The final cones were again shortened and flattened a little, but to increase power below maximum rpm, the length of the pipe was made to be adjustable by the driver while underway. For maximum power at top rpm, the driver pulled a lever mounted in front of the throttle and shortened the pipes. Coming out of the corners the lever was released and the length of the pipe was increased to match the lower rpm of the motor. This gave the motor the benefit of a pipe correctly tuned for more than a single motor speed. Additionally, a valve controlling cooling water admitted to the expansion chamber was also used. Cooling the gasses inside the expansion chamber affects the sonic wave speed in the pipe, adding even more flexibility to the expansion chamber’s tuned length.
In 1976 Konig made a high speed lower unit for the Volvo-Penta OE class tunnel hull racing motor. A few years later another special racing lower unit was made for a slightly smaller Archemedes F-4 tunnel hull racer. A prototype of one of these motors lost a flywheel. The fragments exploded in a rather spectacular fashion and killed a seagull. There after the motor was known as the “gull cannon” in Scandinavia.
By the 1980’s the founder, Rudolph Konig, had passed away, and the next generation had joined the design team. Dieter’s son, Peter Konig, helped his father improve the design little by little, also, power plants for ultra light planes were added to the Konig product line. Sadly, Dieter Konig died in a crash of a Konig powered ultra light plane around 1990. Peter kept improving his family’s product and kept it ahead of such competitors as Yamato and converted snow mobile engines. In the late 1990’s a pair of newcomers spelled the end for the long tradition of Konig racing outboards. Konny racing outboards, a close copy made by less expensive labor in the Czech Republic, and Rossi racing outboards made in Italy forced Peter Konig to make the hard decision between a complete redesign to be competitive or superior, or to discontinue manufacture. Spring of 1998 saw the last shipments of Konig racing outboards from Berlin, Germany, (German postal zone code) 36 (as embossed on the flywheel of early Konig racers).


This is 50% or so of the story. I'll try to fill it in and correct as I can and put up images of each change and motor type.

[Mark75H]

OK, I'm going to my notes from IM'ing Steve Litzel a few years back.

In the late 1940's Dieter modifed the single cylinder 175cc sailboat motor for
racing and it was raced by his older sister because he wasn't old enough yet.
Seeing that it wasn't full capacity in B, Dieter spliced together 2 175 cranks
and made the first 350cc (B) racer shortly thereafter. History being what it is, the
Russian blockade of Berlin (http://www.usafe.af.mil/berlin/quickfax.htm) (click on that link if you aren't old enough to remember it)
brought the Konig racing outboards to the attention to 2 US pilots running
supplies into Berlin in the summer of 1948. Mather Hyatt and Al Bryant from
the Atlanta, Georgia area, were on leave between flights and went to watch
a boat race they heard about. They were amazed at the speed of these little motors.
Al became the first Konig dealer for the US.


A few years later Konig came to the US to race with help from Mather and Al.
They ended up borrowing a pickup truck from the owner of the local
hardware store in Dallas, GA to haul their stuff to the races.
The owner of the hardware store was none other than Scott Smith.



http://www.boatsport.org/BSV54/p6.jpg

Notice that Mather is wearing his Air Force flight helmet and
government issue pilot's life vest!

This image is courtesy of Ed Hatch's www.boatsport.org website. Thanks for all your hard work, Ed! :)

[Mark75H]

An old mule ear Konig

[Steve Litzell]

Konig History

Page 1

The story of Konig racing outboards begins in Germany in the year 1928. Rudolph Konig began manufacturing small and medium size outboards in Berlin, and was joined some years later by his son, Dieter. These early pleasure and fishing motors resemble other motors of their time period. Konig's most popular model was a light weight small horsepower extra long shaft outboard to be used on sail boats as auxillary to maneouver in and out of harbor. This motor was ridiculed at first, but became one of the best selling outboards in Europe, giving the Konig's the last laugh :).
Sometime in the early 1950’s Dieter began designing successful racing models. Thru the years Konig racing outboards dominated most of the classes they where they were used. In the US, Konigs were only used in the PRO or Alky racing division, but from time to time dominated every class in the division. In Europe, Konig motors for Stock gasoline classes were popular as well.
Some (or maybe all)of the early Konig racing outboards used modular construction. Cylinder sections stack together like tinker toys. Each cylinder was individually cast, as was each cylinder’s crankcase section and cylinder head.
These engines used an internal rotating disk to time the intake, rather than reed valves, the piston skirt, or either of the other rotary valve arrangements previously used on racing outboards: an external rotating barrel or hollow crankshaft sections. Rotary valve two stroke motors have advantages over reed valve and piston port motors. A timed rotor can be set to open a quite large intake opening at the optimum time, well ahead of a reed check valve, and close it again at the optimum time, well before the piston skirt closes the intake port on a piston port motor. Compared to the other rotor types, three advantages of the internal disk rotor come to mind. First, there is no additional drag from the external barrel type’s driving mechanism and stabilizing bearings. Second, the rotor shape did not need to be partially symmetrical, as was traditionally done with external barrel rotors running at half crankshaft speed. Third, the opening area could be somewhat larger than was practical than could be used on the hollow crankshaft type rotary valve motors. The drawback is a slightly longer crankshaft resulting in a slightly taller motor, not a problem on 15, 20, and 30 cubic inch two and three cylinder racers.
The exhaust outlet from the cylinders goes straight out the side, much like a chain saw or Go Kart motor, and usually had a narrow bell shaped megaphone. This megaphone would be tuned to match the motor’s speed. The harmonic sound wave returning to the exhaust port and reflecting out slightly before the port opened the next time helped give the motor a little more power.
Things were still tight in Germany in the late 50’s. Konig saved a little bit of money in the manufacture of their racing motors by purchasing surplus hydraulic jack pump handles (among other things) and welding them in as part of the drive shaft tower. If you find a vintage Konig with a part welded in with the notches to turn a hydraulic jack valve, you don’t have something made in some racers garage, you have the real thing!
The lower unit for these early Konig racers was a smooth aluminum casting, with a rear end screw-on end cap. Gears were small 1:1 (14:14) ratio hardened steel. The cooling water inlet was a round hole directly on the point of the bullet or torpedo. Water forced its way in thru the hollow nose, and if you were going more than 15 mph or so, all the way up and thru the motor. That’s right, no water pump!
Carbs for these racers were special, too. Mounted on the side of the crankcase at a slight uphill angle they are very close to the rotary valve disk. The throttles were neither regular flat butterflies nor motorcycle type slides, but rotating (half turn)barrels much like some racing cars would use 35 or 40 years later. Don’t look to hard for a carb maker’s name on them…Dieter and Rudolph made them themselves.
Designed for special alcohol fuel (methanol) these motors used a compression ratio of 12:1. In this time before super space age synthetic lubricants, castor bean oil was used. Yes, that very same product sold in drug stores as a laxative. Castor bean oil has a very high film strength and very high ignition temperature, two qualities very favorable for lubricants for two stroke racing motors. Its use in general purpose two stroke motors is limited due to the fact that it accumulates in the piston ring groves, tending to gum things up. Alcohol and castor oil make a very distinctive and sweet odor when burned…if you have ever been to an outboard race where “Alkies” were running, I’m sure you remember the odor.
All this added up to give the Konig “HRE” 500cc racer 45 horsepower at 7,000 rpm. In 1957 this was very impressive from just 30 cubic inches! I don’t know who drove 500cc Konig racers, but I do know Dieter Konig ran in the A and B classes using a US designed Swift hydro.
The next generation of Konig racers were all 2 cylinder piston port motors. Carbs for these motors mount father back, directly on the cylinder. This is because the piston skirt is the intake valve. The most of this type have one carb on each side and one exhaust pipe on each side. Some have the cylinders cast together and a one piece cylinder head, others have the modular configuration, one has modular cylinders and a single cylinder head casting.
Scott Smith of Dallas, Georgia, imported Konigs thru his importing company, “Overseas Dealers”. Not everybody in the US jumped on the Konig bandwagon, but many famous US racers did. Dick O”Dea, Bud Wiget, “Dub” Parker were among the many who did. Rich Young from Coriopolis, PA bought a Konig, and his mother, who was a very skilled cabinet maker, built him a very good racing hydro! Pep Hubbell in California, and O.F. Christener in Illinois, lead the patriotic defense against the German invasion. Hubbell produced reproductions of 1940’s OMC racers and both Hubbell and Christener made alky conversions of Kiekhaeffer Mercury racers. With a lot of hard work and some luck, these American alkies gave the Konigs good competition once in a while.

Early tuned exhaust Konigs had the pipes going straight out the sides, shortly thereafter they put about a 45º bend part way out the pipe and let them curve to the back. These got the nickname "mule ears" because of the 2 large back swept pipes.

For a short time Christener’s Quincy Machine Works made a Merc based alky that equaled the Konig’s lap times. The key was exhaust tuning with two cylinders sharing one megaphone pipe. This gave the “Quincy Deflector” a big increase in mid range power. Acceleration off the corners was so much better with the two into one exhaust pipe, it made up for the Konigs’ higher top end power and top speed at the end of the straight. As soon as it was obvious to Dieter and Rudolph, they rotated one cylinder to put both exhaust pipes on the same side and a deflector piston engine never rivaled a flat topped piston racer again.
What’s a deflector piston? Most outboards made before 1975 used the deflector type piston to direct the incoming charge to the top of the cylinder; its like a dam across the piston crown. Two strokes using flat topped pistons require the more elaborate “loop” charging scheme. Loop charging requires more intricate and special design and fabrication of the cylinder than deflector piston design. Deflector pistons are much heavier and have about twice the surface area exposed to the hot gasses during combustion. Both of these factors are unfavorable for high output racing motors. High weight lowers safe motor rpms and large surface area increases the amount of heat transferred to the piston its self. Hot pistons can over expand and seize in the cylinder bore, or over heat the wrist pin bearing, both fatal to any piston engine. The second generation of Konigs, beginning around 1960, used the loop charging.
One of the last deflector pistoned Konigs was a 10 cubic inch single cylinder “J” class kids’ racer made around 1959. The next Konig “J” racer was a 7.41 cubic inch single cylinder version of the Konig “FA” racer. To ensure real competition the “FM” was sold only to racing clubs in minimum orders of 10 motors. They never caught on in the US.
This second generation Konig racers got an improved lower unit, too. Instead of a single water inlet in the center of the bullet, three water inlets were used. One at each side of the point, and one below the point all three were about an inch back from the point. These gave increased water volume to the motor and improved flow around the lower unit. Little by little the size of the skeg increased, too. Early Konig racing lower units were much like Merc Quicksilver lower units with the prop shaft/bearing/gear assembly loading in from the back and the tail cone screwing on counter clockwise .... hence the notation in German: LINKS denoting left hand threads. For a short while a next step up lower unit was made with the tail cone secured by 2 very long bolts coming down from the top.

Their most noticeable technological advance was in exhaust tuning. 1963 Konigs were the first to carry full length “expansion chamber” tuned exhaust. In 1962 Carniti had produced a very limited edition V-4 500cc racer with expansion chambers. (Copied no doubt from the expansion chambers Walter Kaaden came up with for the famous MZ racing motorcycles a few years eariler). All these first racing outboard expansion chambers were tuned for maximum power for long courses and straight-away speed records. Often they were removed and the familiar bell shaped open end megaphone pipes were installed for shorter course racing. (The telltale shape is in the final cone, at the back of the expansion chamber. Pipes made for maximum top end power use a rather short final cone, giving a short, but powerful reflection back to the exhaust port.)

I will try over weekend to tell about this as i was told by Dieter himself, There are a lot of myths and rumors that just add to the mystic of Konig motors, so The truth might not be as entertainig but none the less from his lips to my ears. The jack handle thing is a good one though. I will also try to learn how to scan and post some pictures. Until then........ Steve:)

[Mark75H]

Looking forward to reading it Steve. I've learned a lot since I posted that history years ago and know it should have been updated/corrected some time back.

[Donald]

Not that it makes any difference, but I want to correct the information about Al Bryant and Mather Hyatt in Berlin. They were not in military service at that time. After the war, they were discharged in Berlin and were hired by the US government as civilian employees. Both married German women, Al came home in 1949 and Mather stayed in Germany working for the government until he retired. Al was supposed to be the USA distributor, and did most of the early negotiations getting the motors approved. However Al had a job which prevented him from being available to answer inquiries most of the time. I remember seeing Al's garage full of crates of motors with room for no more. That's when Scott Smith came into the picture. Scott was Mather's brother in law and owned a hardware store with a warehouse in Dallas, Ga. So, Al, Mather and Scot agreed that Scott would become the distributor and Al would become a dealer. After meeting Dieter in 1956 and Al pressuring me to switch to Koenig, I bought an A, B, and C from him for a total of $1500. In 1957 I won the overall highpoint trophy in SEBA, (Southeastern Boating Asso), and the B runabout championship in Fort Payne, Al. We didn't go to any NOA or APBA races at that time. Dub Parker pursuaded me to go to my first NOA race in 1958. Dieter come over for the Fort Payne SEBA championship in 1957, and since I had been having trouble keeping the three cylinder going, he worked on the motor and set it up on my hydro with his prop and I set a SEBA record of just under 74 mph. That was the race where Dieter took his Barbecue down to the lake and washed the sauce off. That's enough typing for me in one day.

[Jeff Lytle]

These surfaced around the Miss Supertest celebration http://www.misssupertest.ca/ I attended a few weeks ago.
The Harmsworth Trophy Races were held in Picton Ontario Canada in 1961, and the same weekend, the John Ward Trophy for class OC races were held.

Pic #1--The John Ward Trophy

Pic #2--A Smiling Dieter with his trophy

Pic #3--The Mayor of Picton, H.J. MacFarland, shaking the hand of the OC winner as the Lieutenant Governer of Ontario John Keiller MacKay beams his approval.

[F-12]

Dieter Konig was not only a brilliant engineer, he was a nice guy. Got the chance to see him when I worked for Walt Blankenstein. When you could get him out of creative mode, he just loved being with friends, and enjoying a good time. He is very much missed.

[Steve Litzell]

Not that it makes any difference, but I want to correct the information about Al Bryant and Mather Hyatt in Berlin. They were not in military service at that time. After the war, they were discharged in Berlin and were hired by the US government as civilian employees. Both married German women, Al came home in 1949 and Mather stayed in Germany working for the government until he retired. Al was supposed to be the USA distributor, and did most of the early negotiations getting the motors approved. However Al had a job which prevented him from being available to answer inquiries most of the time. I remember seeing Al's garage full of crates of motors with room for no more. That's when Scott Smith came into the picture. Scott was Mather's brother in law and owned a hardware store with a warehouse in Dallas, Ga. So, Al, Mather and Scot agreed that Scott would become the distributor and Al would become a dealer. After meeting Dieter in 1956 and Al pressuring me to switch to Koenig, I bought an A, B, and C from him for a total of $1500. In 1957 I won the overall highpoint trophy in SEBA, (Southeastern Boating Asso), and the B runabout championship in Fort Payne, Al. We didn't go to any NOA or APBA races at that time. Dub Parker pursuaded me to go to my first NOA race in 1958. Dieter come over for the Fort Payne SEBA championship in 1957, and since I had been having trouble keeping the three cylinder going, he worked on the motor and set it up on my hydro with his prop and I set a SEBA record of just under 74 mph. That was the race where Dieter took his Barbecue down to the lake and washed the sauce off. That's enough typing for me in one day.

Cannot get any better than having a good friend and racer chime in on this. Seems that I will have nothing to offer on this as it has been posted before at another thread on this site. But I will expose some of the rumors and myths about Konig that I know and remembered to ask about. This past Tuesday was the 20th year since we lost or friend and a MAJOR PLAYER in our sport. And I miss him very much to this day. On the other thread I will tell of the myths. Some of these stories, Dieter knew about, and he played well into them being of the dry since of humor that he had and I think he knew that drew in motor customers

[Lee Sutter]

Great reading!!! Thank you everybody.

You can do it Steve....

[Steve Litzell]

Great reading!!! Thank you everybody.

You can do it Steve....

Well most of the History has already been said on this site at the Konig history thread. The USA dealership/ Importing of Konig motors carried some stories with it. Many did not know about Mather and Al being the first, But one Myth that has been around a while that I heard as a young lad was that Dieter and Scott where related. I'm sure that there are some that still think this. Mather is Rosie Smith's ( Scott's Wife) brother. So when Dieter first came to USA. Mather introduced Dieter to Scott that owned the hardware store and warehouse in Dallas Ga, where motors were stored. Scott also loaned Dieter his pickup truck to attend a Race I think in Mississippi or Alabama. As Ralph said that is how Scott got into the Konig importing as Al had his work and Mather was living in Germany. In the mid 50's and early 60's there were many Konig dealers in USA and Canada, but these were sub dealers if you will, that was much like Mercury or OMC dealers. These dealers bought their Konig motors and parts from Scott who was the Importer. Keep in mind also that as Dieter helped his father grow their company he thought that all motor sports could used Konig power. Konig motors ruled the Go cart tracks and later moved up into 3/4 midgets with the 4 cylinder motors. One of the early Konig stars on the land quest for speed was Ron Ambrose, he won many races with the 125/175 cc cart motors and then again in 3/4 cars. The win sheets at cart tracks were filled with Konig winners. This came to a stop when the organizer's put limits on production numbers that Konig could not meet. USAC did the same to the 3/4 cars by stating only 4 stroke motors. Also at this time Rudolf drove the pleasure engine side of their company. Racing was at this time just extra cash but pleasure boating was growing in Europe and mercury and OMC did not have a sound footing in Europe at the time so Konig pleasure boat motors were the mainstay. In one of the Elvis Presley movies from that time should a water skiing sene that had Konig power on the ski boat. With the racing motors being used on boats and carts/cars it was only natural to also apply them to bikes. ( The Kim Nucombe story) and latter sport aircraft. The changes to the motors were made in castings and crankshafts to suit these new needs.The aircraft motors were of their own casting and design. Among some of the myths on the cranks, I heard one time the reason for a key way in the top of the crank was Konig was trying to stop the movement of the rope plate when the motor was running. It was believed by racers this was why the key way. The truth be told it was used for the drive side of the crank to the transmission on bikes and the in out coupler on cars. The 2 degree taper always held the flywheel and ignition timing in one place if properly tightened.The jack handle thing on the tower is one of the stories that Dieter actually liked and help promote as his very dry sense of humor would sometimes overcome him. When I asked point blank about this, he laughed and said I'm glad this joke is still told. he then said to me." I can make fast this part more easy than modifying used part! Also Jack handle has two slots not one!" Later these where changed to the same tubing with a 6 mm bolt in the center that threaded into the motor plate. This was done because of vibration would wear the locating pin in the steering bar and made for a hand full of boat and motor when the bar would shift from one side to the other. Konig motors was a on going state of subtle change for improvement and lasting more so than speed. "If my motors win race, Why do I need to make them Faster? This work is for boat makers and propeller makers". He only made horsepower changes when he was beaten on the race course. The modern makers of race motors have even pondered, How can you make a motor from 250 cc all the way up to 748 cc, and used the same exhaust, and it works? Just subtle changes, easy to manufacture and keep cost down, this is the genius of this man. In closing of this segment many people have trouble saying the Konig name properly. Some transpose the i and n as say like koing. I here this mostly up North. In the south we say it like it has two o's as in Koonig but we in the south tend to make two syllable word out of a one syllable word. Truth be told the two dots over the o in German gives that sound a er sound
So to say Dieters last name correct. it is Ker-nig.I was taught that by Uli Collaz at the factory. I here this before from Ralph Donald but he was taking German lessons and I thought that his teacher was a little off, but not so . Thanks Steve

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Great info Steve. I had heard that Mather was Scott's brother-in-law also. I did an interview with Scott in 1975, but I don't remember details. I will get it out and play it back sometime soon.

Dieter was also approached by some Englishmen to build a 6 cylinder motor for a formula 2 car, but I think they never came to an agreement.

As far as pronouncement of his name, you are correct Steve, but I have also heard Germans pronounce it like ker-nicch or ker-nish. It's a little bit hard to describe it in writing. Easier to say it.

[Steve Litzell]

Great info Steve. I had heard that Mather was Scott's brother-in-law also. I did an interview with Scott in 1975, but I don't remember details. I will get it out and play it back sometime soon.

Dieter was also approached by some Englishmen to build a 6 cylinder motor for a formula 2 car, but I think they never came to an agreement.

As far as pronouncement of his name, you are correct Steve, but I have also heard Germans pronounce it like ker-nicch or ker-nish. It's a little bit hard to describe it in writing. Easier to say it.

yes Wayne, you are right about that as well, but as I was told, and I don't know if I was having my leg pulled or not, (Don't know why they would ever do that as I would not do that to them) but Dieter said to me that that Ker-nish pronounce was more Berlin type slag. As you know the word for no is Nine in proper German, but ne is slag from the North and nea is the slang from the south region. Like we say na for no in some regions in USA. It's all fun though Eh?:D

[Allen J. Lang]

I showed the Konig literature to a German sailor while we were in the Naval hospital in Charleston, SC back in the early 60s. e pronounced it Ker-nig and said it meant "KING" in German. Quite fitting I thought.
This is a great run down on Konig history. Thanks to all the contributors. :cool:

[BRIAN HENDRICK]

At our recent Rideau Ferry VINTAGE meet in Eastern ON, we had a few Konigs on display and a discussion ensued regarding the Konig factory.
I have always thought that post 1950 it was in East Berlin, ie; -the GDR.
Another 'story' was that Dieters fatal crash in 1991 was related to the ultralite being 'tethered' to the ground. Reason being it was in the EDR, and permission for private test flying was difficult to arrange.
Is any of this correct, or was the shop just in west Berlin, which until 1989 ,
was encompassed by the GDR.

[Mark75H]

It was not tethered due to any permitting problem, he was working on a tethered trainig scheme to develope more sales of ultra light craft and engines.

[Steve Litzell]

At our recent Rideau Ferry VINTAGE meet in Eastern ON, we had a few Konigs on display and a discussion ensued regarding the Konig factory.
I have always thought that post 1950 it was in East Berlin, ie; -the GDR.
Another 'story' was that Dieters fatal crash in 1991 was related to the ultralite being 'tethered' to the ground. Reason being it was in the EDR, and permission for private test flying was difficult to arrange.
Is any of this correct, or was the shop just in west Berlin, which until 1989 ,
was encompassed by the GDR.

No Brian, The last factory of Konig was in West Berlin and I think it was built there in the 60's just after the the wall/ barbed wire was put up dividing the city, Could of been before this time. Original factory was in East Berlin as Hans Krage showed it to Ralph Donald and Ed Thirlby and myself on our last trip there before we went on to Konny factory in Czech Republic. Deiter's tragic accident was at some property that he owned where he placed a tall pole in the ground and attached a cable from the top of the pole to the wing of his utralight. Like many of he ideas, he felt that everyone should be able to learn to fly just like he said and did about racing a boat.:( Steve