Alex von Falkenhausen Motorenbau

Alex von Falkenhausen Motorenbau (AFM)(but some sources claim theMstood for Munich) was a Germanracing carconstructor. The team was started by Alexander von Falkenhausen, who was in the 1930s an important engineer in the development ofBMW's model 328, along with Alfred Boning,Ernst LoofandFritz Fiedler. The 328 was a dominant sports car in late 1930s Europe and winner of the 1940Mille Migliarace inBrescia,Italy.
AfterWorld War II, von Falkenhausen opened a garage inMunichwhere he tuned pre-war 328s, converting some of them into single-seaters, and in 1948 went on to build his own car marque with the 328's engine. As a result, theFormula 2AFM-1 appeared in 1949, driven byHans Stuck, resulting in a third place at theGrenzlandring. AFM won a heat in the Autodromo GP at Monza with Stuck behind the wheel, beating theFerrarisofAlberto AscariandJuan Manuel Fangio. Other cars were raced byFritz Riess, Karl Gommann,Willi HeeksandManfred von Brauchitsch. By 1951 Stuck was within the development of a lightweightV8 enginedesigned by Richard Küchen and won the 1951 Grenzlandring F2 race with the so-called AFM-4-"Küchen". The1952and1953World Drivers' Championships were run to Formula Two regulations, enabling AFM cars to compete in several World Championship rounds. By the time 1953 rolled in, the cars were becoming less competitive and with the fall of F2 that year the marque and the team faded away, whileFreiherrvon Falkenhausen in 1954 started to work for BMW again, leading theirRennsportabteilungfor more than the following 20 years.
The first AFM to be entered in a World Championship Grand Prix was a works car entered for Stuck at the1952 Swiss Grand Prix. Stuck qualified the car 14th, beating some established names such asHarry Schell, who was driving aMaseratientered byEnrico Platé. However, he was some 14 seconds behind the pole time ofGiuseppe Farina's worksFerrari. In the race, Stuck dropped back steadily until Küchen's engine failed him on the fifth lap.
The other race of1952to feature AFM cars was theGerman Grand Prix. Privately owned cars were entered byWilli Heeks,Helmut Niedermayr,Ludwig FischerandWilli Krakau, all usingBMWengines instead of the Küchen unit favoured by the works team. Neither Fischer nor Krakau started the race, and while Niedermayr was down in 22nd place, Heeks qualified his car a magnificent 9th. He qualified ahead of several works cars, includingJean Behra'sGordini. Come the race, Heeks took advantage of bothPaul Pietsch'sVeritasandErnst Klodwig'sBMWrunning into trouble on the opening lap, and moved up to 7th, where he remained for 5 laps. However, on lap 6, he began to suffer with the BMW engine in his car, and by the end of the 8th lap, he was out. Meanwhile, Niedermayr had been making fantastic progress from his lowly grid slot. Heeks' retirement moved his compatriot up into 9th place. By capitalising on other's mistakes. Niedermayr had moved up through the field, and whenRobert Manzon's Gordini lost a wheel on the 9th lap, he inherited the Frenchman's 8th place. He was passed byToni Ulmen, driving a Veritas, late in the race, but still brought the car home in 9th, the first ever finish for an AFM in a championship race.
AFMs were back in action inGermanythe following year. Stuck entered once again, privately this time. He was using yet another different engine, theBristolstraight six. He was joined byGünther Bechemin his privately entered machine, andTheo Fitzau, driving a car for Niedermayr, who had performed so well in it himself the previous year. Niedermayr himself had retired from racing after killing at least 13 spectators during a crash at theGrenzlandringin 1952. Both Bechem and Fitzau were using BMW engines. Fitzau was the highest qualifier, in 21st place, over 80 seconds behindAlberto Ascarion pole for Ferrari. Stuck was 23rd, while Bechem, down in 30th, was well over 2 minutes shy of Ascari's time, made possible by the extreme length of theNürburgringcircuit. Stuck was out on lap 1, as his new engine failed. By the end of lap 4, Bechem and Fitzau were also out with similar engine problems.
AFM's last appearance in championship F1 came at theItalian Grand Prixlater in the year, as Stuck entered his car again. He qualified second last, beating onlyJohnny Claes'sConnaught. However, he finished 14th in the race, simply by virtue of not running into difficulties. He was 13 laps behind the victoriousJuan Manuel Fangio.
As Grand Prix racing abandoned the F2 regulations at the end of 1953, so AFM withdrew from the scene. Their best result remained Niedermayr's 9th place at the German Grand Prix of 1952.
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