Adolf Brudes - BMW and Borgward works driver

In 1952 Adolf Brudes and Hans Hugo Hartmann were the two main drivers in the Borgward factory racing team. Of course there has already been a TNF-thread on Hartmann, but it remained sketchy, and even on Leif Snellmann’s fabulous website for once there is not much more info. But recently I discovered two articles on Hartmann and moreover I will try to contact his son – so you can expect a new Hartmann-thread soon, but in the meantime let`s try to reconstruct the career of Adolf Brudes, one of the stalwarts of German motorsport from the twenties into the fifties.

Since Brudes competed in the 1952 German GP you will easily find his dates of birth and death on the web (for example here: http://www.gpracing..../careers/97.cfm) : Born 15 Oct 1899 in Kotulin near Breslau (today Wroclaw in Poland, then belonging to the “German Reich”), died 05 Nov 1986 in Bremen (he is indeed one of the oldest drivers ever in the F1-World Championship ). BTW, Kotulin : I wonder if there is a connection to Freddy Kottulinsky ?

Brudes worked as a car mechanic, in the thirties he opened a BMW- and Auto Union-dealership in Breslau. He started his racing career with motorbikes (BMW, Norton) – there seems to have been a very active motorbikeracing-scene in Breslau before the war, Kurt Mansfeld, Hans-Joachim Lommel (brother-in-law to Emil Vorster – sorry for that ) and Brudes maybe the most successful among them.
The records I have compiled so far show that until the mid-thirties Brudes raced bikes and cars, sometimes even at the same event – unfortunately most of the (many) hillclimbs are unknown territory for me, but Lückendorf may be a fitting example.

1928
April 29 Lückendorf (Hillclimb)
at least 2 BMW-Motorbikes (one with sidecar), one win

1929
May 26 Lückendorf (Hillclimb)
at least 2 BMW-Motorbikes (one with sidecar)
1. racecars up to 1150cc (make unknown)

1930
February 2 Isergebirgsrennen (Hillclimb)
1. overall racecars (Bugatti T37A)
May 18 Lückendorf (Hillclimb)
did qualifying in 5 classes ! (bikes and cars)
2. racecars up to 1500cc (Bugatti)
August 24 Riesengebirge (Hillclimb)
1.overall (Bugatti T37A)

1931
February 8 Isergebirgsrennen (Hillclimb)
1. overall (Bugatti T37A)
May 17 Lückendorf (Hillclimb)
at least 2 BMW-Motorbikes (one with sidecar)
1. racecars up to 1500cc (Bugatti)
overall: 8. (BMW 1000), 13. (Bugatti), 35. (BMW sidecar)

1932
May 22 AVUS
ret racecars up to 1500cc (Bugatti T37A)
June 26 Lückendorf (Hillclimb)
at least 3 motorbikes (BMW 1000, Norton 350, Special 500)
1. racecars up to 1500cc (Bugatti)
overall: 11., 16. (Bugatti), 20., 25.

1933
May 14 Lückendorf (Hillclimb)
2. racecars up to 1500cc (Bugatti)
3. motorbikes up to 1000cc (Norton)
May 21 AVUS
ret racecars up to 1500cc (Bugatti T37A)

1934
June 1 Nürburgring Eifelrennen
1. racecars up to 800cc (MG)
August 12 Lückendorf (Hillclimb)
2. + 4. cars up to 800cc (MG + BMW)
3. motorbikes up to 500cc (Norton)


On Leif`s website Hans Etzrodt states that Brudes aquired the Emil Frankl-Bugatti T35B after the latter`s death in 1934. He also seems to have bought a MG C-type (ex-Eddie Hall) that he raced in the small class against Kohlrausch, Bäumer et.al. In 1936, aged 37!, he took part in the Auto Union new-driver-evaluation test at the Nürburgring, but clearly lost out against HP Müller.

So in 1937 he took the next step and became one of the growing number of private BMW 328 owners. His showings earned him a place in the works-team for the 1938 Spa 24 hours and the 1940 Mille Miglia.

1937
June 13 Nürburgring Eifelrennen: ?
July 18 Riesengebirge (Hillclimb) : 1.
August 1 Großer Bergpreis v. Deutschland Schauinsland (Hillclimb) : 2.
August 29 Hohensyburger Dreiecksrennen: 1.


1938
May 8 Hamburger Stadtparkrennen: 5.
May 22 Avus: 3.
July 10 24heures Spa: 4. (2nd in class) with Paul Heinemann, works-BMW

1939
May 7 Hamburger Stadtparkrennen: 4.

1940
April 28 Mille Miglia: 3. with Ralph Roese, works-BMW

This is all I have, concerning the pre-war years. Before we move on - any further results, details on cars or even pictures are very much appreciated.

Originally posted by eukie
In 1952 Adolf Brudes and Hans Hugo Hartmann were the two main drivers in the Borgward factory racing team. Of course there has already been a TNF-thread on Hartmann...

I must have missed that one on H.H. Hartmann but I know the thread about Laszlo Hartmann from Budapest. Please let me know about the H.H. Hartmann thread.

Hans, in fact there have been two:
http://forums.atlasf...?threadid=62526
http://forums.atlasf...?threadid=45803

Two additions to Brudes' records:

1932
August 28 Riesengebirge (Hillclimb)
5th in class racecars up to 1500cc (Bugatti)
September 18 Hohnstein (Hillclimb)
2nd in class racecars up to 1500cc (Bugatti)

Seems to me that Brudes in those days competed only in his local area in the eastern part of Germany, and mainly in Hillclimbs (at least - with the exception of the AVUS - he missed all of the few street races).

One addition from Hans Etzrodt website:
1935
Hochwaldstasse (Bad Salzbrunn)
1st (Bugatti T35B)

(now Hochwald = Chelmiec, Bad Salzbrunn = Szczawno Zdrój; in Poland)


Other Adolf Brudes starts with motorbikes later.

Andrzej, here is the source information for 1935 Hochwaldstasse climb (Bad Salzbrunn) :

Erwin Tragatsch, Die großen Rennjahre, pg. 216 left ----- So, unfortunately no date, just the year; and what was the next big town besides Bad Salzbrunn in present Poland/former Germany?

Originally posted by eukie
...1937
June 13 Nürburgring Eifelrennen: ?
July 18 Riesengebirge (Hillclimb) : 1.
August 1 Großer Bergpreis v. Deutschland Schauinsland (Hillclimb) : 2.
August 29 Hohensyburger Dreiecksrennen: 1...

Eukie, please give me your source for the July 18 "Riesengebirge Bergrennen" date. I don't have it on my list but want to add the missing date.

Originally posted by Hans Etzrodt
what was the next big town besides Bad Salzbrunn in present Poland/former Germany?

Hans, it is in Poland - Walbrzych/in former Germany - Waldenburg (Schlesien). 75 km from Wroclaw (Breslau).

Thanks, Andrzej!

Eukie, please give me your source for the July 18 "Riesengebirge Bergrennen" date. I don't have it on my list but want to add the missing date.

R.Simons, BMW 328, Vom Roadster zum Mythos, p.318. According to this Brudes must have driven his BMW 328, not the Bugatti you mention on your website:

1937, Jul ? Sudeten (Ober-Schreiberhau), 8th (4.300 km) D Brudes, Adolf Bugatti 2.3-liter

So what`s right? What was your source?

Originally posted by eukie
...So what`s right? What was your source?

My source for the 9th Riesengebirgsrennen (4.3 km) was MOTOR und SPORT 1937, No.31, pg.21 very brief report:

"...The Breslau driver, Brudes, who started three times, was fastest sportscar driver with the big Bugatti and only three tenth of a second slower than Schindel [500 cc NSU bike]. Brudes also won the 2-liter sports car class with his BMW. The highest average was 89 km/h."

I guess Simons as usual lists only a class win with the 328, and Brudes took part with different cars (and probably bikes) - as usual, too.

After the war the earliest hint at Brudes I could find so far is a short but maybe very interesting notice in "Das Auto" 1947 H. 1/2, p39. According to this German magazine, Adolf Brudes at that time was in Berlin, preparing 3 (!) BMW 328 raceready - ordered by an American! No further details. Any idea regarding the identity of this American? The only one that comes to my mind is "Alexander Orley" - http://forums.atlasf...?threadid=28303 - but did he have any connections to Berlin?

Interesting, but absolutely news to me.

But indeed the first appearance I have for him is at Hamburg in 1947, driving a BMW 328. Then again in 1948 at Berlin.

In 1949 he seems to have first been involved in the Reif business, but then was chosen to drive the S1 streamliner from Eisenach.

Time to reanimate this thread again, because uechtel, Michael Fleischer who knew Brudes personally and others have contributed some new ideas on Brudes.

First a snip from the net:

It shows Brudes as a motorcycle-racer in 1926, after having established a new german speed record on a bike from the Victoria works at Nuremberg. Brudes is said to have started racing as early as 1919, but since I am no expert in bikes my knowledge about his early career is still very sparse.
But let`s move to the years after 1945. One central point regarding “Alexander Orley” was already outlined by uechtel in this thread:
http://forums.atlasf...?threadid=67427
In one way or another Brudes seems to have had connections to „Alexander Orley“ – maybe already in 1946/47, and for sure in 1952 when he drove the “Orley Speciale” at least in the Eifelrennen and in the German GP. Here`s a picture from the start of the race, that clearly shows this car as #126, Adolf Brudes:

Brudes`races 1945-52 (without the later, well-documented Borgward sportscar-races) as far as we could gather them:

1947
Aug 31, Hamburger Stadtparkrennen
? SC2000 BMW 328

1948
Jul 11, Berlin, Interzonen-Rennen
? SC2000 BMW 328 ?

1949
May 29, Berlin Interzonen-Rennen
? SC2000 Reif-BMW ? (Renngemeinschaft Berlin) (dna Awtowelo S1)
Aug 8, GP Nürburgring
5. SC2000 Reif-BMW ? (dna Awtowelo S1)
Sep 4, Dessau
1. SC2000 Awtowelo-BMW S1 (Awtowelo)

Sep 25, Sachsenring
1. F2 BMW 340/1 (Awtowelo)
? SC2000 Awtowelo-BMW S1 (Awtowelo)
Oct 10, Kölner Kurs
? SC2000 Reif-BMW ? (Awtowelo)

1950
Aug 6, Freiburg, Großer Bergpreis a. Schauinsland
5. F2 Veritas RS

1951
Rallye Monte Carlo
277. (IFA DKW 900, together with Helmut Niedermayr)
Jul 1, Berlin, Avusrennen
Ret. F2 Veritas RS
+ some minor rally-like endurance tests in Germany as a Borgward driver

1952
May 4, Bernauer Schleife
Ret. SC1500 FWB VW Special (Renngemeinschaft Berlin)
May 25, Nürburgring Eifelrennen
Ret. F2 Veritas „Orley Speciale“ (Orley)
Aug 3, Nürburgring GP Deutschland
Ret. F2 Veritas „Orley Speciale“
Aug 31, Grenzlandring
? F2 Veritas RS (Renngemeinschaft Ulmen)
Sep 28, Berlin, Avusrennen
? F2 AFM (Renngemeinschaft Berlin) ?

So, relatively seldom did he race, but he was – in one way or another - involved in quite a few interesting projects, where his well-known engineering ability might have been very welcome, maybe even central:

Reif-BMW/-Meteor
Again already described by uechtel: http://forums.atlasf...?threadid=67427
Before the war Reif had been a BMW-dealer in Chemnitz (East Germany), just how exactly the Reif-cars after the war were built remains unclear. The bodies was made by Georg Hufnagel, a former Auto Union employee. Helmut Niedermayr, who until his dreadful Grenzlandring-accident in 1952 mostly drove the Reif, and Brudes were closely connected, together they were the early mainstays in the „Renngemeinschaft Berlin“. While Niedermayr later was bound for East Germany (the GDR), Brudes seems to have been based in the western part of Berlin, before he finally went to Bremen.

Awtowelo
Another East-German project: the short-lived workscars of the former BMW-factory in Eisenach in 1949, now (after soviet reorganisation) called Awtowelo. How and why Brudes was involved in this project is unknown to me. Again the bodies were made by Hufnagel.

Borgward sportscar worksdriver
In 1945 a team of former Auto Union staff, led by August Momberger and Martin Fleischer, fled Chemnitz, now in the russian zone, and went to a small town near Oldenburg in Northwest Germany. They established a construction and engineering bureau called INKA, which, apart from other projects, built a record car (closely connected to the 1938 Wanderer sportscar that had been developed by the same key staff members before the war!). They established a link to the Borgward company in nearby Bremen, and after a successful record-run in Monthlery 1950 this car was adopted as a Borgward. While it was taken over by the Borgward R&D department, which developed the sportscars Borgward entered from 1952 on, Momberger and Fleischer went to the smaller Goliath company (which was, of course, part of the Borgward group, too, but had no connection to the parent company’s race programme).
As to Brudes: Martin Fleischers son, Michael, told me that Brudes was a close friend of his father, even before the war, when Martin Fleischer was an employee of BMW in Eisenach (from 1936-38) and afterwards of Auto Union in Chemnitz. Because Brudes after the war was situated in Berlin it is unlikeky that he was a direct member of the INKA group, but he drove the Goliath- and Borgward-recordcars at least from 1951 on – unfortunately at the moment I do not know if he was part of the INKA (aka Borgward)-drivers in 1950.
Moreover Brudes had further personal connections to at least one other key member of the Borgward staff. And he was without doubt a respected driver and valuable engineer, reportedly highly energetic and outspoken, who was able to develop a car, whereas Borgward teamleader and -manager Hans Hugo Hartmann was more diplomatic, but as a driver relatively unexperienced, despite his short prewar career in the Mercedes GP-team.
(BTW There's a new book on the Borgward racing cars of the 50`s: Silberpfeile aus Bremen – Rennsportwagen der Borgward-Werke, by Heinrich Völker. Verlag Peter Kurze, Bremen, 2004, ISBN 3-927485-43-8, 14,90 Eur (in Germany) – it focuses on the technical history of the cars, nevertheless highly recommended!; a second volume on the races themselves is to follow).

This picture from the backsleeve of this new book shows Brudes (right) and Hartmann (centre).

Please excuse me for such an extensive post. But, whether some of these projects were more intertwined than we currently know, remains an open question. More knowledge about them and their leading personae could shed some light on interesting parts of postwar german racing. What I already dare to say is that Adolf Brudes was more than only an obscure GrandPrix-one-off way past his career.

Great work Eukie

And evidence that the Orley special raced at the 1952 german GP

One question: Autocourse and "a record of Gp and..." do not have Brudes on their
entries or results lists of the 1952 Avusrennen, what is your source?

Axel Kirchner: Motorsport in Berlin 1947 bis 1967. Lemgo 2003, ISBN 3-935517-11-4, p.76

Kirchner states that Brudes "intended" to race Niedermayr`s AFM after the latter had been hurt at the Grenzlandring. However the author leaves open what became of this intention.

Between the Grenzlandring race and the Avusrennen, Niedermayer is supposed to
have raced the Sachsenringrennen. Was he there?

I think he was most probably a "dna" there. He appears in the entry list, but no mention of him in the race report.

The next additions to Brudes' motorbike records:

August 21, 1927 Riesengebirgsrennen
Class C (500 cc) – BMW – 2 place
Class D (750 cc) – BMW – 3 place
Class E (1000 cc) – BMW – 1 place
Sidecar:
Class G (1000 cc) and overall – Victoria – 1 place

In Poland:
1929 Poland Grand Prix (Katowice) – BMW (class over 500 cc) – 1 place overall and class
Juni 8, 1930 Poland Grand Prix (Katowice) – BMW (class over 500 cc) – ret. (carburettor)
Juni 28, 1931 Poland Grand Prix (Katowice) – BMW (class 1000 cc) – ret.
Juni 28, 1931 Poland Grand Prix (Katowice) – BMW (sidecar over 600 cc) - ?
July 17, 1932 International Hillclimb in Wisla - BMW – 1 place in class 550 cc

The next additions to Brudes' motorbike records:

Between the Grenzlandring race and the Avusrennen, Niedermayer is supposed to
have raced the Sachsenringrennen. Was he there?

After his accident at the Grenzlandring Niedermayr had to stay some days at the hospital - I don`t know exactly for how long, but since the race at the Sachsenring took place only one week later it is very much unlikely that he was there (or even could have taken part in the race).

Adolf Brudes, motorbike and... ski

Isergebirgsrennen: 22 January 1928
Class B and C - BMW - 3 place
Clas F (sidecar) - BMW - 2 place

Ski-motorrennen - German Championship
Class B and C (BMW) with Kuschel - 2 place

Some new findings on Brudes, pre-1945:

Adolf Brudes, motorbike and... ski

Isergebirgsrennen: 22 January 1928
Class B and C - BMW - 3 place
Clas F (sidecar) - BMW - 2 place

Ski-motorrennen - German Championship
Class B and C (BMW) with Kuschel - 2 place

"Ski-Motorrennen" means Skikjöring, i.e. in this case ski towed by motorbikes! Indeed, the first german championship was held in 1926 during the Isergebirgsrennen in Bad Flinsberg, Silesia.

And here some more early motorbike-results:

1922 Oct 3.-10. Reichsfahrt des ADAC (Leipzig-Breslau-Berlin)
Motorbikes: 9. overall (Wanderer 3.72)

1923 Aug 19. ADAC-Fahrt durch Schlesiens Berge (long-distance run through the silesian hills)
Motorbikes up to 750cc: 2. (Victoria)

1925 May 16/17 Rund um die Solitude
Motorbikes w. sidecar up to 600cc: 3. (Victoria)
Motorbikes up to 500cc: 8. (Victoria)

1926 May 16 Rund um die Solitude
Motorbikes up to 1000cc: 2. (Victoria)

1930 Oct 5 Hohnstein Hillclimb
Motorbikes w. sidecar: 2. (BMW)

1932 Jan 31 Isergebirgsrennen Hillclimb
Racecars: ret. (Bugatti)
Motorbikes up to 1000cc: 1. (BMW)

1932 June 26 Lückendorf Hillclimb

at least 3 motorbikes (BMW 1000, Norton 350, Special 500)
1. racecars up to 1500cc (Bugatti)
overall: 11., 16. (Bugatti), 20., 25.

Motorbikes up to 1000cc: 3. (BMW)
Motorbikes up to 500cc: 4. (Norton special)
Motorbikes up to 350cc: 3. (Norton)

1932 Würgau Hillclimb
Racecars up to 1500cc: 1. (Bugatti)

1932 Aug 28 Riesengebirge Hillclimb
Motorbikes up to 500cc: 2. (Norton special)
Motorbikes up to 350cc: 3. (Norton)

1932 Sep ? Groß-Wartenberger Dreiecksrennen
Motorbikes over 350cc: ret (BMW)
Motorbikes up to 350cc: 1. (Norton)

Regarding his Solitude-races in 1926/26: Maybe as a farewell to his career, Adolf Brudes appears on the entry-list of the 1963 Formula Junior-race at the Solitude! In fact, in qualifying and race the Cooper Ford entered by A.W. Lang was not driven by Brudes but by Joachim Diel, and even Wolfgang Neumayer (formel3guide.com) can`t tell why Brudes entry didn't materialise - but if we take it serious, his active career spans from at least 1922 to 1963.

In the meantime I was able to speak to the daughter of Adolf Brudes. She still keeps the autobiographical notes her father wrote some years before his death. Although in part sketchy they give an impression of a remarkable racing life, and of course they answer at least some of our questions, especially those concerning „Alexander Orley“ . And that`s how the story goes:

1945, after his wartime services, Brudes had lost nearly everything. He and his family have fled from Breslau/Wroclaw to Sedlitz, a small town in eastern Germany where his brother lived. Of course there was no work for a mechanic or engineer, so he did some minor repair jobs (sewing machines etc.). And one day he went to Berlin, asking the local BMW car dealer Schoth in Halensee for a job.
About the same time (it must have been at the end of 1945 or the beginning of 1946), „Alexander Orley“ contacted the same BMW car dealer, in search for a BMW race car. They told him that they had nothing available, but introduced him to Brudes whose name he already knew from the pre-war racing scene. Brudes describes Orley as an american officer, whose family had left Russia in 1917 and who had lived some years in Germany before the war. Now in Berlin he worked as a translator for the High Commission of the Allies.
So Brudes and Orley became partners. Orley bought three BMW „coupés“, and Brudes prepared them for racing. He writes that Orley gave them away to some friends, but unfortunately he mentions no names, and he does not say whether the Todd Special was one of these. But to me this now seems very likely (and uechtel already suggested to look at some of the Balsa BMw-powered cars …).
Orley paid Brudes with food, cigarettes and everything else necessary to live, and in 1947 he made it possible that Brudes and his family moved from Sedlitz to a deserted villa in Berlin. He gave him a car for private use and a pass with which he was able to drive from Berlin to Eisenach in order to get spare parts from the old BMW factory. His whole life Brudes praised Orley as the man who enabled him to lead the life he did after the war, especially that he took him away from what became later the GDR. His daughter told me that Orley, who BTW was jewish, was married to austrian actress and ice-dancer Olly Holzmann (http://www.cyranos.ch/smholz-d.htm) and that he died early, presumedly because of alcool abuse.
Brudes does not claim to have been involved in preparing the Orley Special, too (the Veritas monoposto Alexander Orley raced from 1949 onwards). But he states that he was lent the car on various occasions – he mentions especially the Freiburg Schauinsland hillclimb in 1950 – so that (together with the fact that no other Veritas cars occur in his report) I tend to suppose that all his Formula 2 outings were in fact with the Orley Special!
Having lost all his cars and bikes during/after the war, Brudes didn`t own a race car for himself but he had to rely on being hired or asked to drive one. In 1949 he was „invited“ (as he describes it) to drive the Awtowelo S1, the streamlined car built by the former BMW works in Eisenach. He gives no reasons why they contacted him, but for sure he already knew some people there from his pre-war BMW years (he mentions Georg Hufnagel as a friend) and from his visits in order to get spare parts for Berlin. Aside from that, he was one of the few renowned drivers still around in the eastern part of Germany at that time.
As to the Reif cars and Helmut Niedermayr with whom he briefly formed the Renngemeinschaft („Ecurie“) Berlin-Halensee, his autobiographical notes are very thin. His daughter remenbers that Niedermayr was of course a friend of the family, but as to the cars it seems that Brudes was not directly involved in their construction (on the occasion of the Nürburgring GP 1949 he states that chassis and engine were made by Reif and the bodywork by Hufnagel). But I think it`s still very probable that Brudes maintained the cars for the inexperienced Niedermayr.
In spring 1950 he got another call from an old friend, this time August Momberger who now was in charge of a private engineering bureau near Bremen. Together they did some record runs with what became later a Borgward sports car. Until the end of 1952 Brudes remained without a firm works contract, but nevertheless he was the main driver for the Bremen company in German rallys and endurance runs. Finally, in 1953 he was contracted as a Borgward employee, and the Brudes-family left Berlin for Bremen.

Eukie, simply fantastic!

Here a photo of Marcel Balsa at Monthlery looking after the OrleySpecial. 1949(?).

Eukie, wunderbar!

Do you know precise home address of Brudes in Breslau?

P.S. I found Brudes on the entry list of Schleizer Dreieck rennen (17 September 1933) : class D/E Norton 592 cc, start number 140. In this race also Bernd Rosemeyer - NSU 600 cc (#118). I don't know the results.

Originally posted by eukie
In the meantime I was able to speak to the daughter of Adolf Brudes. She still keeps the autobiographical notes her father wrote some years before his death. Although in part sketchy they give an impression of a remarkable racing life, and of course they answer at least some of our questions, especially those concerning „Alexander Orley“ . And that`s how the story goes:

eukie great !!!! more of this !!!! so long

Originally posted by anjakub
Eukie, wunderbar!

Do you know precise home address of Brudes in Breslau?

P.S. I found Brudes on the entry list of Schleizer Dreieck rennen (17 September 1933) : class D/E Norton 592 cc, start number 140. In this race also Bernd Rosemeyer - NSU 600 cc (#118). I don't know the results.

Hello,

Rosemeyer won his class. soory but I don't have more

so long

Do you know precise home address of Brudes in Breslau?

No, but I will ask his daughter next time I speak to her - maybe she knows or can look it up (she`s born 1943, so she will not remember much about Wroclaw personally). BTW, in his early entries his hometown is Schurgast (Skorogoszcz today).

Originally posted by eukie
Regarding his Solitude-races in 1926/26: Maybe as a farewell to his career, Adolf Brudes appears on the entry-list of the 1963 Formula Junior-race at the Solitude! In fact, in qualifying and race the Cooper Ford entered by A.W. Lang was not driven by Brudes but by Joachim Diel, and even Wolfgang Neumayer (formel3guide.com) can`t tell why Brudes entry didn't materialise - but if we take it serious, his active career spans from at least 1922 to 1963.

I found some Borgward Isabella starts.

19.-23. November 1954 Carrera Panamericana
Euro Touring 1900 cc 6th in class and 74th o/a

8. May 1955 6th GP de Voitures de Serie Spa-Francorchamps 12 laps
Touring Cars up to 1600 cc 1st Borgward Isabella 129,697 km/h
fastest racelap with 148,7 km/h

13. May 1956 7th GP de Voitures de Serie Spa-Francorchamps
Touring Cars up to 1600 cc 2nd Borgward Isabella

so long

To add a little to the Orley story: he had a textile business in Paris, this explains why he
was often in France and the Balsa connection to the Orley Special. He had also some
business in the Munich area.

The Todd Speciale at Monthlery 1948:

A nice one. I wonder if there are any pictures of other BMW specials in France 1947/49?

BTW, Brudes did his last race (or better: hillclimb) in 1968, with a Alfa Romeo Giulia! Taunus Hillclimb, 3. in class, touring cars up to 1600 cc (thanks to Bernhard Völker for providing me with an article on Brudes, Motor Klassik Dec. ? 1986).

He made that hillclimb with 69 years? What a career.

He seems to have been one of this kind. Of course he had more or less retired as a "pro" after the Borgward years - but he couldn`t resist doing the occasional race or hillclimb. His daughter told me that he seldom visited a race without helmet and overall, just in case an opportunity to drive arose.

Looks a little bit like the last years of the career of Hans Stuck (sr.), although he retired earlier. Anyway isn't it interesting that Brudes was engaged by Borgward with an age of over 50.