In mid-February, AUTOMOBILSPORT invited guests to the Nationales Automuseum – The Loh Collection in Dietzhölztal-Ewersbach for the first ‘AUTOMOBILSPORT Day of Legends’. The headline theme was Stefan Bellof. With over 200 guests on site, the event was a sell-out and the debut was a great success.

Considering that it was a normal Wednesday afternoon and the museum was officially still on its winter break, the car park was exceptionally full. A walk around the parked cars not only revealed an above-average number of sporty vehicles, but also signalled that many visitors had travelled a long way to get here. There were licence plates from Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, Monaco and the Netherlands, as well as from all parts of Germany. It was clearly a diverse audience.

Bellof was an ideal topic for the first ‘Day of Legends’. The 40th anniversary of his death is approaching next September and his life was celebrated in Issue #42 of AUTOMOBILSPORT. The museum proved to be an excellent location, because not only did it offer a suitable ambience, but there are several important vehicles from Bellof’s career in the collection. Little wonder, really, given Bellof was born and raised in Giessen, just 50 kilometres away.

Those present had the opportunity to explore the cars on display at their leisure. ‘Absolutely amazing,’ marvelled Hans-Joachim Stuck, who was there for the first time. ‘Both in terms of the selection of cars and the presentation. It’s one of the best museums I’ve ever seen!’

Of course, four cars driven by Stefan Bellof received special attention. First and foremost the Porsche 956 (chassis number 009), in which Bellof won the drivers’ title in the World Sportscar Championship in 1984. This Loh Collection car was presented in detail in AUTOMOBILSPORT #42. Thanks to our partner Leica, all guests were able to have their picture taken professionally next to this Group C racer and the digital souvenir was sent to them a few days later.

Bellof’s Tyrrell 012 Formula 1 car was on display as well, as was the PRS RH002 Formula Ford from 1980, another part of the museum’s collection that was seen by the public for the first time. Meanwhile, father and son Trautwein brought Bellof’s Maurer Formula 2 car out of their own collection in the Black Forest for the event. A display case with trophies, an original helmet and several photos rounded off the Bellof exhibition …

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by René de Boer

Photographs: Rebocar/René de Boer, Leica/Marcus Klimek, Jens Peterhoff, Sascha Hobbensiefken, Robert Weber

When Audi enters Formula 1 for the first time in 2026 with drivers Nico Hülkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto, the Ingolstadt-based carmaker will draw on the experience of the long-standing Sauber squad from Switzerland which it has taken over in several steps. But Sauber’s history is multifaceted. After a short career as a racing driver, electrical engineer Peter Sauber founded his own team in 1970. He built sportscars with designations that always began with the letter ‘C’ - derived from the first name of Sauber’s wife, Christiane. After several space-frame designs, Sauber produced his first monocoque, the Ford Cosworth-powered C5, in 1974. Versions of the C5 with BMW engines then competed in Group 6. This was followed by space-frame BMW M1s in Group 5, before Sauber concentrated on Group C, which was introduced in 1982.

In 1981, Swiss company Seger & Hoffmann, which manufactured plastic parts, commissioned Peter Sauber to develop a racing car to the Group C regulations. Sauber built the monocoque chassis, while the bodywork came from Seger & Hoffmann. The collaboration was also reflected in the vehicle designation: Sauber SHS C6. For the aerodynamic design of the car, Peter Sauber used outside help. He initially turned to the Technical University of Stuttgart, which was already involved in Porsche projects and therefore could only refer him on. And that’s how Sauber came into contact with Rüdiger Faul, who was already working for Daimler-Benz. Faul was so impressed by the Group C project that he not only enthusiastically set about the aerodynamic design, but also brought Leo Ress on board as a chassis engineer. In the winter of 1981/82, the C6 was born – an interesting vehicle with only one real weak point, the 3.9-litre Ford V8 engine. Two C6s were built and sold to Walter Brun and the GS team from Freiburg. The GS car was painted in a very attractive red-and-white BASF livery and was driven by Hans-Joachim Stuck and Hans Heyer. The team’s only notable result was a ninth place in the 1,000 Kilometres of Spa. The car of Walter Brun/Siegfried Müller Jr scored a fifth place at Mugello, which did not count towards the manufacturer points. Seger & Hoffmann, meanwhile, had left the project and given its shares to Peter Sauber …

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by Thomas Nehlert

Photographs: Ascott Collection, DPPI, Peter Hoffmann, McKlein, Wouter Melissen

The book From Voiturettes to Formula 1 – Maserati 1100cc and 1500cc racing and sports cars from 1931 to 1951  covers in five chapters the five Maserati voiturette models in the order 4CS, 4CM, 6CM, 4CL and 4CLT, the four-cylinder and six-cylinder, 1,100 cc and 1,500 cc sports and racing cars of which Maserati built just over a hundred between 1932 and 1951 (plus 13 spare engines).

For each individual car produced, a description of the chassis is followed by a full list of contemporary race entries and results (usually up to 1955) and profiles (cross-referenced where necessary) of almost all the drivers, owners, entrants, teams and personalities associated with the car.

Among the drivers, ‘Gigi’ Villoresi drove no fewer than 17 different examples of these cars. The first three drivers’ world champions began their careers at the wheel of Maserati voiturettes: Nino Farina, Juan Manuel Fangio and Alberto Ascari. In addition, many of the greatest grand prix drivers also raced 1,500 cc Maserati cars: Tazio Nuvolari, Louis Chiron, Achille Varzi, Luigi Fagioli and Giuseppe Campari. Other top-class grand prix drivers who were successful at the wheel of these cars: José Froilán González, René Dreyfus, Raymond Sommer, Piero Taruffi and Carlo Felice Trossi. Moreover, three of the most important and active privateer drivers on the racing scene after the Second World War owned and drove 1,500 cc Maseratis: Prince Bira, Emmanuel de Graffenried and Reg Parnell.

The following text is an excerpt from the book, the remaining copies of which we were able to acquire exclusively from the publisher. The book is available in our webshop at www.sportfahrer-zentrale.com while stocks last.

The 4CLT ‘Sanremo’ model

A new Maserati grand prix car had long been awaited. The 4CL model, a pre-war project, had enjoyed considerable sporting and commercial success in the immediate post-WWII period having been shown to be the only competitive grand prix car available on the market. Ernesto Maserati, aided by Alberto Massimino, tried various ongoing solutions for improving each new car which was sold.

While the engine and the suspension were kept essentially unchanged with respect to the original specification, changes were made to the chassis. All the improvements which had been devised were combined in the specification of chassis 1583, with the adoption of a tubular ladder frame with elements with circular section, thus completely giving up the traditional chassis with main members in boxed steel and three cross-members in light alloy. This was the last car upon which Ernesto’s hand could be seen, in its engine as well as in the chassis.

When Ernesto’s contract with the firm expired, in early 1947, Massimino took over. The success of the 4CL during the 1946/47 seasons had prompted the management to follow the option of evolving the existing model rather than the more expensive alternative of drawing up a new project with an uncertain outcome, concentrating on the search for increasing engine power by means of adopting two-stage supercharging, as had already been done, though in rather rudimentary fashion, by Scuderia Milan on their own 4CL cars …

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by Adam Ferrington und Alessandro Silva

Photographs: Collection Giovanni Bossi, Archive Adam Ferrington, Fondazione Pirelli, Archive Alessandro Silva

As fans, we are fascinated by almost every racing car. But we often love one particular model a little more than the others. We have a favourite that arouses emotion. For me, it is the Auto Union grand prix car. The reasons are rooted in my childhood: I am one of those who suffered through the nights of bombing during the Second World War at an early age. I can still see myself crouching in the bunker in Braunschweig, on a cot next to my mother, relatively safe under a two-meter-thick concrete ceiling. Muffled explosions outside. And when one of the 500-kilogram bombs hit nearby, the whole concrete colossus swayed. People moaned, the emergency light flickered, grains of sand trickled from the ceiling. And what did I do? I clutched a silver racing car produced by German toy company Märklin very, very tightly in my hand. It was an Auto Union.

It was this little model that gradually kindled my enthusiasm for racing. That and the Nürburgring board game with its fold-out cardboard surface that showed a racetrack with the Nürburg ruins in the centre of the picture. I sometimes took this game with me into the bunker as well, where we spent almost every day towards the end of the war. And while a hellish firestorm was raging outside, we boys – all six to eight years old – rolled the dice and moved the silver, red, green and blue racing cars from one field to the next according to the points.

When I was 14, I used my pocket money to buy a book about Bernd Rosemeyer and his Auto Union. And so, my passion for cars with those four rings at the front continued to grow. This affection for Auto Union has stayed with me my entire life. Through many books – especially by Peter Kirchberg – and nourished by the sound of these 12- and 16-cylinder cars during modern-day appearances on the Nürburgring, in Monaco or at Goodwood.

But my love of the Auto Union grew even stronger when I met entrepreneur Friedhelm Loh about 15 years ago through my friend Julius Kruta, a car historian and Bugatti expert. Professor Loh’s collection, one of the most fascinating in the world, was still purely private at the time. During my first tour through the halls, I suddenly found myself standing in front of a Type D Auto Union. Since the summer of 2023, this haven of automotive delight in Ewersbach in the German state of Hesse has been open to the public. As I have been making video clips for the ‘Nationales Automuseum – The Loh Collection’ (as it is properly known) for some time now, I am – as Professor Loh puts it – ‘part of the inventory’. And so I circle the Auto Union reverently and pensively every time I visit …

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by Eckhard Schimpf

Photographs: Nationales Automuseum, Audi, Martin Schröder, Tobias Reichle