Lufthansa Racing

I recently stumbled upon this picture in my archive - and I'm not sure what I should think about it. If the decription below the picture is right it was taken during the Nurburgring 500 km race in 1965. Is this 'Scuderia Lufthansa'-sticker an early form of sponsorship or is it possible that the German airline ran a racing team during the 60ties (like the UDT-Laystall Team for example)?!?!

I wonder if anyone (especially the German 'specialists') have more info about it.

McRonalds,

Janos Wimpffen's excellent "Time And Two Seats" has exactly the same photograph published (page 605), for its report on the 1965 Nürburgring 500.

The text under the photo:
"Nürburgring 500 Kms., 1965. Flight 1300. Scuderia Lufthansa was one of the strongest backers of German privateers until the early 1970s. Toni Fischhaber was a very versatile German amateur of the era and here he passes through the pits in the pristine, beautiful Abarth 1300 OT. He was to retire with clutch problems."

In the race report:
"An important Abarth privateer, Scuderia Lufthansa, had three cars, including a Prototype 1300 for Toni Fischhaber. ..."

As entrant, Janos has listed "Lufthansa".

Well, I think I just HAVE to reply here, as I'm working for the airline for 25 years...

Not enough though to be totally sure about the sort of sponsorship the team was granted in the 1960ies. But it certainly was an "official" sponsorship, as one can see from the Lufthansa emblem on the car. Some of the cars were painted in LH colors (yellow/blue).
I'm not sure about the length of the support, but I belive it stopped in the late 60ies.
I also doubt that LH was the official entrant of the cars as Janos stated in his "Time and Two Seats". I think that German privateer Hans-Dieter Dechent was involved as well.

A "Scuderia Lufthansa" nowadays is active in historic racing. Team members are employees of the airline, but I don't know whether there is any official sponsorship.

This information in German was provided on avd.de :

29. AvD-Oldtimer-Grand-Prix 2001

Das Auto, das Carlo Abarth gar nicht wollte - Erster Rennstrecken-Auftritt des Lufthansa-Coupés seit 1965

Leo Aumüller: "Abarth mochte den Mittelmotor nicht"

Der Abarth-Papst Leo Aumüller (Schönbrunn) hat zum 29. AvD-Oldtimer-Grand-Prix ein ganz besonderes Fahrzeug mitgebracht. 1965 baute Abarth einen 1,3 Liter-Rennwagen mit Mittelmotor auf Fiat-Basis und Gitterrohrrahmen. Hans-Dieter Dechent und Toni Fischhaber starteten mit dem Wagen, der von der Scuderia Lufthansa eingesetzt wurde, beim 500 Kilometer-Rennen. Das Team schied allerdings aus. Zum ersten Mal gewann nicht ein Abarth das Rennen sondern ein Alpine-Renault.

"Über die Renngeschichte des Autos ist wenig bekannt", muss Experte Aumüller zugeben. "Der Wagen ist auch nie richtig ausgetestet worden, weil Abarth lieber auf den Heckmotor setzte".

Über viele Umwege gelangte der Wagen in den Besitz von Leo Aumüller. "Eigentlich wollte ich das Lufthansa-Coupé gar nicht in meiner Sammlung haben, weil es nie ein Rennen gewonnen hat", sagte Aumüller. "Ich habe den Wagen gekauft, weil ich an dem Motor interessiert war".

Mittlerweile hat Aumüller das "Lufthansa"-Coupé mit einem Fiat-Vierventiler und 48er Weber-Vergasern bestückt. "Das Auto besitzt auf jeden Fall ein sehr gutes Potential. Es hätte nur weiterentwickelt müssen".

According to : http://www.classicsc...sis/abarth2.htm
the car is an 1965 Abarth 1300OT with chassis # SE06*064

Once again I need Barry to post a photo of this car, which I took at last years "Oldtimer GP".

Udo

Scuderia Lufthansa was still active in 1968, backing a Porsche 911, Snetterton ETC, for Dorner/Schwarz, I just learned from Milan's copies of Motoring News.

In this weeks copy of Motorsport Aktuell, the "Hallo, wie geht's" series is about Robert F. Huhn.
This hobby driver managed to get Lufthansa sponsorship in july 1961. He worked as a manager at the company, and after long talks (top management was not too enthousiastic at the start) "Scuderia Lufthansa" became an entrant.
The victories of Huhn, Hans Werle, Hans-Dieter Dechent and Günther Schwarz made the team the most succesful privateer team in Germany. Guest appearances were made by Jöst, udo Schütz and Stommelen.
Porsches were the favourite cars.
The team folded in 1972, while most of the original drivers had hung up their helmets.
Robert is still alive and well at 70.

Scuderia Lufthans is really a sponsored oldtimer racing team by the german airline. When I was at the ring for the Oldtimer Events in the 80s and 90s, the president name of the scuderia was Klaus Häffels, often came up into the Audi VIP Lounge. They had some really brillant DKW drivers in their team, which always have very warm welcomed in that Auto Union club. As two stroke stroke strong, was their motto.

I don't know what the team was about in the 60s, like Frank de Jong pointed out. But I could believe, that racing was and is a nice hobby for the airline captains and managers. So those guys, who visited Audi in the 80/90s, were 747-pilots or managers of the airline. Why not sponsoring the hobby of the employees?;)

Don't mind me, I know noone requested (poor) translation; but I gave it a shot because my German needs some practice...

29. AvD-Oldtimer-Grand-Prix 2001

The car that Carlo Abarth did not want - the first track appearance of Lufthansa coupé since 1965

Leo Aumüller: "Abarth did not like mid-engine"

Abarth-Pope Leo Aumüller (Schönbrunn) brought to 29. AvD-Oldtimer-Grand-Prix a very special car. In 1965 Abarth built one 1,3 Liter mid-engined racing car on Fiat basis and with spaceframe . Hans-Dieter Dechent and Toni Fischhaber started with the car, which was entered by Scuderia Lufthansa, 500 km race. Team retired and for the first time Abarth did not win the race, but Alpine-Renault.

"Little is known about the racing record of the car", expert Aumüller must admit. "The car did not finish testing cycle, because Abarth preferred rear-engine".

Car found itself in possession of Leo Aumüller through many detuors . "Admittedly, I never wanted Lufthansa-Coupé for my collection, since it never won a race", said Aumüller. "I bought the car, because I was interested in the engine".

In the meantime, Aumüller mounted a four-valve Fiat engine and 48 Webber carburettors in the "Lufthansa"-Coupé. "In any case, the car has potential. It just needs to be further developed".