20 replies to this topic

[anjakub]

Very sad news.
On Monday (September 5) was died in age 77 famous East-German race car designer and driver Heinz Melkus.

[Alexey Rogachev]

Very, very sad news...

[Barry Lake]

anjakub

Could you tell us something about him, please?

It would seem that not many here have heard of him.

[anjakub]

Heinz Melkus (born 20 April 1928 in Dresden) designed and produced a range of single seat racing cars and road going sports cars between 1959 and 1986. The cars were produced in Dresden in East Germany. The cars particularly used Wartburg engines.
Melkus racing cars competed in Formula Junior, Formula 3, Formula Easter and sports car races. In 1968 Heinz developed famous RS 1000 road going sports car featuring a mid-mounted tuned version of the Wartburg 3 cylinder 2-stroke engine. Most cars used the 992cc version of this engine, but a few of the later cars were built using a special 1200cc version.
Son Ulrich Melkus was most successful GDR driver but he had an deadly accident 1990 after a tire damage on public road. Younger son Peter also partecipated in auto races. Ulrich sons Ronny and Sepp again drive in races still today.
Heinz Melkus and his family now run a BMW dealership in Dresden called Autohaus Melkus.


More about Melkus dynasty on: http://www.melkus-motorsport.de (in German)

[David McKinney]

It could be added that in the bad old days when East European drivers had to do all their racing on their side of the Iron Curtain, Melkus was consistently the most successful East German driver, winning many 1960s races not only on his home ground, but in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Latvia and Russia as well. On more than one occasion he was the most successful driver in the inter-nation Friendship of Socialist Countries Cup.
His FJ and later F3 Melkus-Wartburg cars, of which scores must surely have been built, were equally successful in the hands of many other drivers from the other side of the Iron Curtain throughout this period and beyond

[anjakub]

Originally posted by David McKinney
On more than one occasion he was the most successful driver in the inter-nation Friendship of Socialist Countries Cup.

Heinz Melkus was four time champion of the Cup of Peace and Friendship (Cup of Socialist Countries) in 1963, 1965, 1966 and 1967.
His son Ulrich won this champinship six times in 1978, 1980, 1981, 1983, 1984 and 1985.

[paulhooft]

Cup of Peace and Friendship
may peace and friendship last forever!
Paul Hooft

[uechtel]

Very sad news indeed.

In my opinion Melkus was THE manufacturer of sports and racing cars in the GDR, maybe also of the whole Eastern Block. And he was one of the few remaining active drivers from my favourite period.

[Barry Lake]

Thanks anjakub and David McKinney.

Now he gets due credit, rather than being just a name known only to a minority.

[Alexey Rogachev]

The achievements of Heinz Melkus in GDR national championships:

1st 1958, 1960, 1967, 1968, 1972
2nd 1961, 1962, 1964, 1971, 1973
3rd 1965, 1969
4th 1966, 1970

...and his photo, taken in 1971:



Source: 'Za Rulem', September 1971

[Gerald Swan]

Very sad news indeed. From what I've been able to discover about his cars he used some interesting ideas to make his cars aerodynamically efficient, presumably to help compensate for the lack of power of the Wartburg. Apparently one car vented its radiator in tunnels along the body venting at the tail. I haven't been able to find many pictures of his various cars, anyone out there got any, especially any I can use on my site ;) .

Gerald Swan

www.f3history.co.uk

[Alexey Rogachev]

Gerald,

First, here are two photos of Melkus 64. Both pics are taken from very old Russian magazines (from the 60s), so I don't think anyone would worry about copyright if you used them on your site.





Second, the photo of Melkus 65 on your site is of Melkus 70 in fact. I've found another pic of Melkus 70 in Avtomotosport magazine - the similarity is obvious, isn't it?



And this is a real Melkus 65 (unfortunately I couldn't find a high-resolution photo in my archive):

[IMV]

Hi, bad news. See my picture from 65 - thread "Behind the Iron Curtain", post 19.

Michal

[Bonde]

It is always sad news when someone dies, but Heinz Melkus had, fortunately, had a long, industrious and succesful lifeby the time he passed away.

Considering that Melkus achieved what he did in a time in history and in a society which was not officially supportive of private enterprise, where materials and components were hard to come by, where trade with foreign suppliers was most difficult and where few could afford to engage themselves in the luxury that motorracing was (and still is) - let alone where few could even afford or get a half way decent road car - makes his achievements as a constructor all the more remarkable. Melkus' production numbers for single-seaters would make the majority (if not all?) Western single seater-seaters green with envy.

Heinz Melkus deserves recognition as an important designer and manufacturer of racing cars, and although I do not know how much he was engaged in its design and styling, he cerainly gave his name to one of the most handsome, IMO, single-seaters ever built anywhere by anyone, the Melkus MT77, which made pretty much a clean-sweep of Formula Easter for many seasons.

[anjakub]

The Formula Easter car MT77 was construction of Ulli Melkus and the leading GDR designer Hartmut Thassler from the year 1977.

[Gerald Swan]

Thank you very much for those Alexey, and thanks for the correction on the Melkus 70, I thought it looked a bit modern for a 1965 car

I think there is a very interesting story to be told about racing behind the old Iron Curtain. Considering all the difficulties faced there has always seemed to be a very healthy racing world in Eastern Europe. Maybe if Heinz Melkus had been born in the West he would have been another Colin Chapman or Ron Tauranac.

Gerald.

www.f3history.co.uk

[Alexey Rogachev]

Originally posted by Bonde
...he cerainly gave his name to one of the most handsome, IMO, single-seaters ever built anywhere by anyone, the Melkus MT77, which made pretty much a clean-sweep of Formula Easter for many seasons.

AFAIK it wasn't Melkus MT77, but SRG MT77...

[Dracula]

Originally posted by Alexey Rogachev
And this is a real Melkus 65 (unfortunately I couldn't find a high-resolution photo in my archive):

Here's it.

[anjakub]

Alexey, not SRG MT77 only MT77

[Alexey Rogachev]

Very, very strange... On the http://www.juergen-meissner.de site, it is called only MT77, too, but I call it how it was called in Russian magazines - at first (in 1977-78) SEG MT77, then SRG MT77. If it is wrong, could you please however tell me what SEG and SRG abbreviations meant and why they were assigned to MT77?

[anjakub]

Alexey, you are right. First was SRG MT77, later only MT77.

SEG = Sozialistische Entwicklungsgemeinschaft (socialist development partnerschip)
SRG = Sozialistiche Renngemeinschaft (socialist racing partnership)