NSU Rennmax 250cc works racer & Werner Haas - Ulster GP 1953 - photo 1

Description

A superb and rare photo of the great German NSU factory rider
Werner Haas
, seen in action with his
250cc N.S.U. Rennmax factory racer
during the
1953
250cc
Ulster
Grand Prix
which was ridden on
August 15, 1953
. This image shows excellent detail of this impressive bike.
Werner Haas would finish the race in
SECOND
position, behind winner Reg Armstrong on an identical NSU Rennmax!
In 1953 Werner Haas would become
250cc WORLD CHAMPION
on the photographed NSU Rennmax. The Ulster GP was a good race for him that year as he also would win the 125cc race on N.S.U. His teammate Reg Armstrong would win the 250cc Ulster GP race on a similar NSU Rennmax as Werner Haas is seen riding on the photograph with an average race speed of
81.76 mph
(
131,58 km/h
).
In
1954
Werner Haas would WIN the 250cc race on a similar NSU Rennmax. That year he also would become
250cc WORLD CHAMPION
on a NSU Rennmax.
This great photograph of the Grand Prix of Ulster was taken during the 250cc race of 1953. The race was won by Reg Armstrong (
Ireland
) on a similar NSU Rennmax as seen on the photograph with an average race speed of
81.76 mph
(
131,58 km/h
).
Werner Haas
was born on
May 30, 1927
in
Augsburg
and he passed away on
November 13, 1956
in Donau. He is a former Grand Prix motorcycle road racer from
Germany
. He became
Germany
's first motorcycle world champion when he won the 1953 FIM 125 and 250 World Championship for NSU. The following year, he would repeat as the 250 world champion. Haas was killed in
1956 in
a light plane accident in
Germany
.
The
Ulster Grand Prix
is a motorcycle road race that takes place on the Dundrod Circuit near
Belfast
,
Northern Ireland
. The first races took place in 1922 and in 1935 and 1948 the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme gave it the title Grand Prix d'Europe. The Ulster Grand Prix was included as one of the races in the inaugural 1949 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season, a place it held until 1971. It also counted for the TT Championship between 1979 and 1990. According to the race organisers, it is the fastest road race in the world. Thomas Moles, motorcycle enthusiast and Member of Parliament, helped to push through parliament the
first Road
Races Act, which made it legal for the Clady Course to be closed for the first Ulster Grand Prix on
14 October 1922
. That first race had 75 entries in four classes (250cc, 350cc, 600cc and over 600cc). The race has been held on three different circuits. The
20.5 mile
Old Clady circuit was used from 1922 until 1939 and included a notoriously bumpy 7-mile straight. It also ran across part of the grass runway at RAF Aldergrove and for the first two years of its existence the pits were on the Seven Mile Straight, by
Loanends
Primary School
. In 1926 the 500cc race was won by Graham Walker on a Sunbeam. He also won the 1928 Senior race on a Rudge. In the 1936 Lightweight (250cc) event, Ginger Wood and Bob Foster, both on New Imperials, crossed the line so close, that after over
200 miles
of racing, it took the judges an hour to decide that Wood was the winner by one-fifth of a second. Foster was, however, adjudged to have achieved the fastest lap. The 1939 Grand Prix was almost called off, but went ahead in spite of an entry of only 60 riders. After World War II the new Clady circuit was used that, due to road improvements, was now
16.5 miles
in length and in use between 1947 and
1952. In
1953 the race was moved to the
7.401 mile
Dundrod Circuit where it is still held. The event was cancelled in 1972 because of the political situation in
Northern Ireland
and in 2001, during the Foot-and-mouth crisis, when the
North West
200 and Isle of Man TT were cancelled, the race was held. The 2007 Grand Prix attracted an entry of 162 riders, including 38 new riders, and took place on
18 August 2007
, sponsored by The Belfast Telegraph. Joey Dunlop won twenty four Ulster Grand Prix races during his career with Phillip McCallen winning fourteen races and Brian Reid nine wins. Some of the famous riders include: Stanley Woods (7 wins), Jimmie Guthrie, Jimmie Simpson, Artie Bell, Les Graham, Freddie Frith (3 wins), Geoff Duke (3 wins), John Surtees (6 wins), Ray Amm, Carlo Ubbiali (5 wins), Bill Lomas (3 wins), Mike Hailwood (7 wins), Giacomo Agostini (7 wins), Phil Read (3 wins), Bill Ivy (3 wins), Bob McIntyre, Gary Hocking (3 wins), Tom Herron (5 wins), Ron Haslam (5 wins), Jon Ekerold, and more recently Mick Grant, Wayne Gardner, Steve Hislop, Robert Dunlop (9 wins) and Carl Fogarty. The most recent rider to join the famous riders group is Guy Martin (5 wins).
NSU
Motorenwerke AG, (normally just NSU), was founded in 1873. NSU began as a knitting machine manufacturer in the town of
Riedlingen
on the
Danube
in 1873, and moved to Neckarsulm, where the river Sulm flows into the river
Neckar
, in 1884. The company soon began to produce bicycles as well, and by 1892, bicycle manufacturing had completely replaced the knitting machine production. At about this time, the name NSU (from
Neckar
and Sulm) appeared as brand name. The first NSU motorcycle appeared in 1901, followed by the first NSU car in
1905. In
1932 the car production in
Heilbronn
was sold to Fiat. During World War II NSU designed and produced the famous Kettenkrad, the NSU HK101, a half-tracked motorcycle with the engine of the Opel Olympia. After the war, NSU restarted in a completely destroyed plant with pre-war constructions like the Quick, OSL and Konsul motorbikes; furthermore, the HK101 continued to be sold by NSU as an all-terrain vehicle in a civil version. The first post-war construction was the NSU Fox in 1949, available in a 2-stroke and a 4-stroke version. In 1953 the famous NSU Max followed, a 250 cc motorbike with a unique overhead camdrive with connecting rods. All these new models had a very innovative monocoque frame of pressed steel and a central rear suspension unit. Albert Roder, the genius chief engineer behind the success story, made it possible that in 1955 NSU became the biggest motorcycle producer in the world. NSU also holds 4 world records for speed: 1951, 1953, 1954 and
1955. In
1956 Wilhelm Herz started at the
Bonneville Salt Flats
,
Utah
. Herz was the first man to ride a motorcycle faster than
200 miles
per hour, in August 1956. Motorbike production continued until 1968. NSU's last production motorcycle was the Quick
50. A
museum in Neckarsulm, the Deutsches Zweirad- und NSU-Museum, has many of NSU's products on display. NSU had several successes in the Isle of Man TT races in the 1950s. NSU holds 4 World records for speed: 1951, 1953, 1954 and 1955. During the 1930s, and in the mid 1950s NSU was the largest motorcycle producer of the world. The NSU Quickly was the most popular moped of its time. It was produced between 1953 and
1966 in
over 1.000.000 examples and still can be found today all over the world as more than 60% were exported.
This is a very nice and very rare photo that reflects a wonderful era of 1950s motorcycle history in a wonderful way. This is your rare chance to own this photo, therefore it is printed in a nice large format of ca. 8" x 12" (ca. 20 x
30 cm
). It makes it perfectly suitable for framing!
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