Alfa powered Veritas?

In entry list from Hockenheim 5/14/1951 driver Theo Fitzau

Was it an Alfa Romeo engine or one produced by Alex von Falkenhausen?

Not sure of Fitzau as driver but Arthur Rosenhammer (as original owner) did have an Alfa engine in his Veritas. He used to call it Veritas-ARO which could stand both for Alfa ROmeo and Arthur ROsenhammer.

The biggest enigma in this car's history is that Rosenhammer or subsequent owner Heinz Melkus later installed an aero engine of only 1500cc displacement. Its origin has previously been given as "Pantin" but there has never been a French aero engine operation of that name. And anyone who knows about aero engines (even in the smallest aeroplanes) may be surprised of its size !!

Originally posted by David McKinney
Was it an Alfa Romeo engine or one produced by Alex von Falkenhausen?

No, Alfa Romeo engined, although there was a FIAT with an AFM engine in that race...probably one of the few AFM/ALFA engines based on a FIAT 1100 block with a cross-pushrod head like a BMW 328...

Originally posted by r.atlos
Not sure of Fitzau as driver but Arthur Rosenhammer (as original owner) did have an Alfa engine in his Veritas. He used to call it Veritas-ARO which could stand both for Alfa ROmeo and Arthur ROsenhammer.

The biggest enigma in this car's history is that Rosenhammer or subsequent owner Heinz Melkus later installed an aero engine of only 1500cc displacement. Its origin has previously been given as "Pantin" but there has never been a French aero engine operation of that name. And anyone who knows about aero engines (even in the smallest aeroplanes) may be surprised of its size !!

By any chance do you have photos of the car, or happen to know what type of Alfa engine was used?

All I know is that it was a 2000 cc straight 6 engine (sleeved down ??); see:

http://www.melkus-mo...eritas_1952.php

Here we have Heinz Melkus in Leipzig on 16/05/1954:




And one of very bad quality from the Avus race on 19/09/1954:

Thanks for the help. If the motor was a 2 liter (or less) Alfa Romeo straight 6, it would have to be a pre-war motor.

Stu-
Couldn't it be a sleeved down 6C2300/2500? Not that that would necessarily be a good idea.
TK

The problem is that it could be virtually any motor from a pre-war 6c1500, to a 1750, to a 1900, to a 2300 or a 2500 reduced in displacement. As the car was built in 1952, I would tend to think it was a pre-war, rather than post war motor, as it would be cheaper and easier to find a used pre-war one. The motor only lasted a few races, so I assume it was bought used...

Originally posted by dretceterini
[...] As the car was built in 1952, I would tend to think it was a pre-war, rather than post war motor, as it would be cheaper and easier to find a used pre-war one. The motor only lasted a few races, so I assume it was bought used...

This car predates 1952 (I guess the Melkus webpage may be misleading in that respect) - remember that you had spotted it already with Fitzau in Hockenheim in 1951.

We also need to bear in mind that Rosenhammer had his usual EMW / DAMW works drives from at least 1951 onwards. This may well have been the reason why Melkus took it over. But I guess it needs "uechtel" to finally clarifiy these matters.

Originally posted by r.atlos
But I guess it needs "uechtel" to finally clarifiy these matters.

He's on vacation in Holland actually....

meet & greet

Meet not but greet

But the right person to ask would probably be Wolfgang Melenk, author of "Meister des Sports". From him I got all information I have and he is also very probably the source for the Melkus website.

Nevertheless the story of that car is still quite mysterious and while I can add a little bit to the history of its origin your questions about the engine are still very much the same as mine.

As already posted, the father of that car was Arthur Rosenhammer, who raced a BMW 315/1 sports car in the late thirties. I have him with a second place at the Großglockner 1938 in my archive, 1500 cc class of course.

For the Eifelrennen 1939 his car already appears as "ARo-BMW" in the entry list (don´t knwo whether he already took part in the race). Hence "ARo" cannot be an abbreviation for "Alfa Romeo" but must stand for "Arthur Rosenhammer".

He was second in class in Schotten and third at the Großglockner, but so far I have failed to get a view of the car on a picture.

After the war Rosenhammer´s position is quite unclear. The race programme from Hockenheim 1947 lists him as resident in Göttingen, which was in the British occupation zone I think. But usually we know him as living in Dessau in the Soviet occupation zone where he must have returned to again shortly after. Nevertheless the Iron Curtain had not been built up so it was possible to travel between East and West, but already with some restrictions at the border.

His entry at Hockenheim is simply a "BMW" in the programme, but Melenk states - and it makes sense - that it is still that ARo-BMW from prewar times. First actually documented appearance is for Schotten 1947 (still "BMW" only, still Göttingen as place of living), where he finished third, followed by another start at Hamburg, where also the whole Eastern "racing family" seemed to be present, but still no pictures of the car whatsoever.

Now, for the 1948 Schotten race (the cancelled event) he seems to have moved back to Dessau and also placed a Veritas entry ("BMW-Veritas" in the programme) for the first time. Also we know in the meantime he was building a rear engined 750cc midget racer with a BMW boxer engine for the "Kleinstrennwagen" class, which is well documented today, and was similarly named "ARo-BMW". But this can not have been the car from pre-war times, as it is no sports car and also has a completely different layout and engine than the BMW 315/1 on which the first car was based.

After that it became quiet about him for some time until he of course was part of the game again at the very first automobile race in the Soviet Zone (only few days before the GDR state would be founded) at Dessau in 1949. Here he had placed an entry for a "Veritas 1500 ccm", but there is still disagreement today whether heactually started with this car or whether he followed the invitation to drive one of the factory cars from Eisenach (which is my opinion), as he did again at the Sachsenring. Anyway, still no pictures of his car...

The first documented race of the Veritas is at Cologne 1949. There has been a picture of this car in the net for some time but unfortunately it has disappeared from that website in the meantime. Anyway I remember to have seen a quite standard looking Veritas RS on it.

Into 1950 and now Rosenhammer´s car officially appeared as "ARo-Veritas" in various East German races, but now always the capacity is given as 2 litres and of course he is promoted to the bigger class. Eukie has posted two pictures from Halle here one of them giving a good view on Rosenhammer´s car:


(the car in third position)

As we can see the air intake on the bonnet - typical for BMW engined cars in those days - has disappeared. Also the increase of engine capacity lets me conclude, that in the meantime that mysterious Alfa engine had been installed - so now the "ARo" could stand for this, too!

With the involvement of Rosenhammer in the Rennkollektiv - some kind of National Team of East Germany - he handed (sold?) his car to soap-fabricant Theo Fitzau, who also drove for the Kollektiv in 1951. Fitzau renamed the car "DRS-Veritas", but it seems to have maintained its configuration. After Fitzau had defected to the West for 1952 his car was confiscated and then got into the hands of Heinz Melkus, who also returned to its original designation "ARo-Veritas" for the rest of its career.

The rest has been already written above. Unfortunately I have also no further information on the engine side, neither for the Alfa Romeo nor for that even more mysterious "Pantin" engine.

@r.atlos: Great pictures!!!

A report in the GDR-magazine Motorsport from December 1951 (p. 14) states that Rosenhammer used a 2.3 ltr Alfa engine he had reduced to 2 ltrs.

After the war Rosenhammer´s position is quite unclear. The race programme from Hockenheim 1947 lists him as resident in Göttingen, which was in the British occupation zone I think. But usually we know him as living in Dessau in the Soviet occupation zone where he must have returned to again shortly after.

Rosenhammer was a member of the Renngemeinschaft Göttingen, at least 1948, maybe even earlier (other members of the Renngemeinschaft were one Josef Herzig and Willi Krakau). So the race programmes may only reflect that he belonged to this Renngemeinschaft, not his town of residence?

Arthur Rosenhammer was born in Dessau and I understand that he always lived there; even post-war, I think to remember that GDR programmes and publications always quoted it as his place of residence.

He was appointed Technical Director of the "Rennkollektiv" in 1951, was allowed to travel abroad, was even authorised to show Jenks and (Sir) Stirling details of the EMW as late as 1954 (Nürburgring GP), he was publishing articles ... All that does not sound to me as if he had been a "wanderer between two worlds".

When you look through GDR motor sport publications it is amazing how quickly the "happy-go-lucky" atmosphere of say 1951/52 flips to a very stringent and politically ..., no - I should say: party-orientated style by 1954 - and it is even getting worse in subsequent years ...

Rosenhammer seems to have wheathered all that pretty well; had he had a foot in Western Germany previously I doubt that "Big Brother" would have allowed him to such an exposure.

OK, I know that you are now saying "von Brauchitsch" to convince me of the opposite ...

Originally posted by r.atlos
[B]Arthur Rosenhammer was born in Dessau and I understand that he always lived there; even post-war, I think to remember that GDR programmes and publications always quoted it as his place of residence.

Of course no races in East Germany in 1947, so no programmes from that year either. As I said, the programmes of Hockenheim and Schotten list Göttingen. I think this is not too far away from Dessau and Eisenach, so he could have moved there for a while to see how things would develop in the Eastern Zone in the meantime.

I agree that we know virtually nothing about Rosenhammer's day-to-day activities immediately post-war and before he had been appointed Technical Director of the "Rennkollektiv" in 1951.

When his ARo 750 cc racer was presented in "Der Motorsport" N° 20/1948 his place of residence was given as Dessau.

Originally posted by eukie
[B]A report in the GDR-magazine Motorsport from December 1951 (p. 14) states that Rosenhammer used a 2.3 ltr Alfa engine he had reduced to 2 ltrs.

Thanks for that information.

I think in the Pre-Berlin-Blockade times the curtain was more open than afterwards. So I think "a wanderer between two worlds" wasn't uncommon. And ask why was he allowed to "go west". Perhaps to meet friends, make promises and lure the to the East. Not too uncommon in those days too. As well as in the other direction.