Description
A fine art print from an original painting of Helmut Fath & Wolfgang Kalauch (U.R.S.) by John Hancox
Size: A3
Helmut Fath (1929 – 1993) was a German motorcycle racer and designer.
Career
Helmut Fath attended elementary school in his birthplace. He completed training as a precision mechanic at the then “Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Medical Research” in Heidelberg (today the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research). After the Second World War, he worked for the US occupying forces in Heidelberg as a bus driver, then as a motorcycle mechanic for the Mannheim company “Zeiss & Schwärzel”. In 1959, he became self-employed with this profession.
Career as a racing driver
From a young age, Fath secretly did laps on his father’s motorcycle. When he got his driver’s license, he bought his first motorcycle – a BMW with 250 cc and soon began to tinker with engines, with which he also secretly competed in races. He built his first sidecar in 1948, after he bought a BMW motorcycle again, which he then supplemented with a sidecar. With this team he achieved his first success in 1952 at a race in Lorsch, where he achieved third place.
After a few races, which he had finished victoriously, Fath received the International Racing Driver’s License in 1954. In order to be able to compete with competitive material, he purchased a 500cc BMW engine from the Swiss Florian Camathias. For this engine, Fath later designed a completely new frame frame, also known as the “Kneeler”, with which he then became the best private driver at the 1956 World Championship.
He and his partner Alfred Wohlgemuth crowned the continuous development of his engines and machines in 1960 by winning the World Sidecar Championship and winning the Isle of Man TT.
