Sturzebecher, Sturzebecker, Sterzebecher, Sturzebächer...

Just received a question from a Maserati enthusiast about the driver in the title line of this thread. This man seems to be another very obscure person. Not only those many variants of his name (of which I omitted Stürzebecher, which I suppose to be the most probable), but also because of his very strange behaviour of making frequent entries almost everywhere in various German races post-war, in the West as well as in the East, and then hardly ever appearing to one of these events at all!

Of particular interest is the 1952 season, where he is in the entry list of the Eifelrennen, Leipzig and Halle, intending to bring a Maserati to the start. (At Halle it is even a "Maseradi" in the programme, but of course that is very much due to the very special dialect in that area!). Sheldon even gives a "Maserati A6", but I have no idea, where this information could be from. Of course he is a "dnf" at all three events...

Here is my complete (?) list of his entries:

1950 Eifelrennen, 1500 cc sports cars, #36 - MG - no info
1950 Schauinsland, 1500 cc sc, #34 - MG - dns / dna
1950 Solitude, 1500 cc sc, #36 - MG - dna
1950 German GP, 1500 sc - MG - dna
1951 Hockenheim, 1500 sc, #32 - MG - no info
1951 Eifelrennen, 1500 sc, #32 - MG - dna
1952 Eifelrennen, Formula 2, #137 - Maserati - dna
1952 Leipzig, Formula 2, #137 - Maserati - no info
1952 Halle, Formula 2, #137 - Maserati - dna
1953 Eifelrennen, Formula 2, #27 - Veritas RS - dna
1953 Dessau, Formula 2 - Eigenbau? - dna / dnf???
1953 Avus, Formula 2, #27 - Veritas Meteor - dna
1953 Madgwick Cup, #6 - Veritas (Meteor?) - no info
1953 Bernau, Formula 2, #114 - Veritas Meteor - no info
1953 Casablanca 12 hours, shared drive with Oswald Karch - Veritas RS - 6th !!!!
1954 Chimay, Formula 2, #26 - Veritas Meteor - dna
1954 Dresden, Formula 2, #115 - Veritas - no info
1954 Halle, Formula 2, #125 - Veritas Meteor - no info
1954 Sachsenring, Formula 2, #115 - Veritas - no info
1955 Chimay, 2000cc sc, #34 - Veritas RS - dnf!!!

after that he disappears from my records

So that makes at least nine "dna"s plus an additional eight "no info"s (which I regard as "dna"s, too, as otherwise I would expect, that he would at least be mentioned anywhere in one of the reports of those races), with only two confirmed (Casablanca 1953, Chimay 1955) and two doubtful (Schauinsland 1950, Dessau 1953) appearances, certainly an impressive record!

Interesting for me is the fact, that all confirmed appearences of him were outside Germany, so that is the reason why I ask for him here.

More hints: In the programmes his base is given as Reichenberg / Pfalz (the area near Karlsruhe). and in East Germany he was usually entered as member of the ADAC, so clearly a West German. And then he might have been also a motorcycle racer in those days, but I do not know whether with greater presence. And then I have also rumour, that he had already raced a Maserati pre-war.

So is anybody here able to tell me some more about this driver and whether he indeed owned a Maserati?

This is certainly Willy Sturzebecher, who did not cease this practice at the end of the period you cite. I had some correspondence with Willy about some engines he owned in the 1960s, a Kuechen V-8 I think.

I'm pretty sure this is the same guy that acquired some of the Borgward fuel-injected engines and put at least one in a Lotus chassis as a potential GP car for the 1.5-liter formula.

Karl, great news to hear that!

Did he explain to you his strange entry behaviour?

And the Küchen engine sounds also interesting! As far as I know there have only been three of them, two for Hans Stuck to be placed in the AFM and the third one - if I recall right having my archive not at hand at the moment - was intended for Brütsch´s second single seater or the HH49. So did Sturzebecher get his from Stuck when he replaced that with the Bristol in 1953?

And - questions over questions - do you have any information about the Maserati?

And my final one: Did he ever actually appear for one of these races?

Of course he is a "dnf" at all three events...

And looking through my first post again this should rather read as "Of course he is a "DNA" at all three events...!

Originally posted by uechtel
And the Küchen engine sounds also interesting! As far as I know there have only been three of them, two for Hans Stuck to be placed in the AFM and the third one - if I recall right having my archive not at hand at the moment - was intended for Brütsch´s second single seater or the HH49.

I'm pretty sure it was intended for Brütsch's EBS.

I'm not sure about the final destiny of the Kuechen engines. I did photograph one at Richard Kuechen's home in Ingolstadt in 1958 and it looked pretty complete. This could have been the unit that Willy later acquired.