I wanted to make a post about a book I recently was able to buy online. It has been out of print and not sure how many copies were ever made but some pop up time from time.
The book is about a New Zealander engineer and motorcycle racer named Kim Newcombe. I only know the main points of his story and am looking forward to reading this book and gaining more specific details on his life.
He grew up with a passion for motorcycle racing and was a gifted engineer. He came across a powerful and lightweight 2 stroke 500cc 4 cylinder engine made in Germany by a company named Konig. The engine was made for boat racing, mainly hydroplane racers. He got the idea of putting it in a bike and racing it. He reached out to Dieter Konig, the company owner and eventually moved with his family to Germany to build the bike and pursue racing it in the world championship.
He amazingly finished the 1973 500cc Grand Prix season in 2nd place. A truly titanic feat considering all the challenges he faced. He raced against the giants of the day like Agostini, Read, Findlay, Saarinen and their factory backed machines and much larger better funded outfits.
The Konig 500 motorcycle is a beautiful piece of machinery and in a way connects with "bucket" racing today. It was no finely polished factory engineered creation but a cleaver and utilitarian use of what was available to Kim and he executed his vision and it worked. I would love to know what the big factories thought when a boat powered motorcycle with minuscule development time behind it started beating them.
Kim tragically died in August of 1973 at Silverstone during a non-championship event. One can only imagine what he could have done had he been able to continue developing the bike.
I have no doubt it will be a great read. If you're looking for a book about motorcycle racing from the past and like the story of an under dog this might be your ticket.
https://www.bookdepository.com/Kim-Tim-Hanna/9780473177461
