Engines

Kuchen

The post-war period was a difficult time for racers all over Europe but in Germany Alex von Falkenhausen's AFM team developed pre-war BMW 328 sportscars into single-seater racing cars. In 1951, looking for a new engine for Formula 2 racing, AFM began to use a lightweight 2-liter V8 designed and built by Richard Kuchen, a former chief engineer of the Zundapp motorcycle company. The engine was very powerful and enjoyed some success in the hands of Hans Stuck and Fritz Riess but it was not always very reliable. The program continued in 1952 when F2 regulations were adopted for the World Championship and Stuck qualified an AFM-Kuchen for the Swiss GP at Bremgarten. It retired after only four laps. In the middle of the year AFM switched back to using BMW engines but Stuck refused to give up and the engine reappeared in 1953 and at Chimay in May Stuck finished fourth. He also enjoyed some good results in the East German F2 series. With new 2.5-liter Formula 1 regulations being introduced in 1954 the Kuchen project faded away.