To win at Goodwood, BMW is entering one of their most recent acquisitions, the legendary RS500OL Special built in the US in the 1960s by German ex-pat Oscar Liebmann and raced to copious success in the US and Canada by his son Kurt.
It was an honor to be the first person outside the Liebmann family to ride the Daytona-winning BMW. Kurt trucked the bike up to Pocono Speedway in the Pennsylvania mountains and it wasn’t until we started chatting about the OL Special that I realized just how much endeavor Oscar expended in creating the motorcycle bearing his initials.
It might look like a BMW Rennsport externally but the engine owed more to OL’s talents as engineer and machinist than to the race shop of the Bavarian company. Oscar’s contacts in Germany remained close after he emigrated to the US in the 1950s, and they extended to the BMW factory’s Experimental Department. Among them were BMW technical director Dr. Helmut Bönsch and famed engine tuner Ludwig Apfelbeck, who lent support and advice in the development of the OL Special in the 1960s.
Kurt: “My father’s friends were eager to help improve the engine for solo racing, so in 1958 they sent him a batch of unmachined castings – enough to build five RS engines to my father’s own specification, though in the end, he built just two.”
Denne historien er fra September/October 2019-utgaven av Classic Racer.
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Denne historien er fra September/October 2019-utgaven av Classic Racer.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Whatever Happened To? Michael O'rourke
Michael was born on April 11, 1931, in Plumstead London and the family later moved to Camberwell.
Webster Stars At Stafford
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The Early Years Of Fausto Gresini
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The Bob Mac
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Record Breaking Weekend Of Classic Action
British Historic Racing’s third racing weekend of the year was held at the lovely one-mile-long Kent circuit of Lydden, just a few miles outside of Dover.
Specialist Spotlight Louigi Moto
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John Williams A Private Matter
Despite the interest fromYamaha and Honda, it was Suzuki who John lined up with in 1976 and it saw John and wife Margaret give up the life of the privateer, replacing it with the more luxurious comforts of a factory-backed rider. He also had an eye on his future though and included a gents’ boutique amongst his business interests.
Goodbye Gene
Gene Romero excelled in every aspect of motorcycle racing across a long and successful career. And he was known as ‘Burrito’.
Farewell Itoh-San
It is with great sadness that I write this tribute to a long-time Japanese Suzuki Team icon who was one of Suzuki’s flagship riders and my friend of 59 years.
Boxing Clever
Last September, after more than 10 years of trying, BMW finally scored a victory at the UK's annual Goodwood Revival. The top step of the podium came courtesy of double World Superbike champion Troy Corser and his Austrian teammate Herbert Schwab on a supercharged 1929 R57 Kompressor. Now the German manufacturer's BMW Group Classic historic vehicle division will be trying to make it two in a row in 2019, when the race reverts to its later format for bikes built before 1967 And they will be trying to do it on this — the RS500 OL Special.
