Heinz Fuchs (entrepreneur)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Heinz Fuchs (born January 9, 1934 in Rutesheim ; † March 20, 2012 there ) was a German entrepreneur and racing car designer.

Life

Fox Formula Vee racing car from 1965 at the Solitude Revival 2019.

Heinz Fuchs was a trained mechanic and coachbuilder. After completing his training, he worked at Porsche in the testing department in Zuffenhausen .

In 1964, at the suggestion of the then Porsche race director Huschke von Hanstein , Porsche bought a small series of the small formula racing cars, which were built in the USA since 1963 by Beach-Car and Form-Car on the basis of the VW Beetle , and which were intended for young drivers. These single-seater racing cars were imported as kits and assembled in the Porsche factory in Zuffenhausen, where Heinz Fuchs met them.

Fuchs developed his own Formula Vau 1200 monoposto secretly bypassing his employer and, together with his friend Günter Steckkönig , a Porsche test driver and racing driver, built the first prototype based on his ideas in a garage in Leonberg. On April 7, 1965 he founded Heinz Fuchs Rennwagenbau and left Porsche on April 9, 1965.

On May 15, 1965, the day before the hill climb in Eberbach am Neckar, when Porsche presented Formula Vee to the public for the first time, Fuchs wanted to present his design. However, there was a dispute with the Porsche company and Huschke von Hanstein obtained that Fuchs was forbidden to show his car.

Fuchs soon became the most successful German provider of Formula Vee racing cars. Between 1965 and 1976 around 240 Formula V and Super V vehicles were manufactured and sold. The number of partial kits for ambitious do-it-yourselfers is not known. When the Formula Vee and Super Vee boom subsided towards the end of the 1970s and Volkswagen Motorsport also reduced its involvement in the racing series, Heinz Fuchs stopped building racing cars. He then constructed high-quality racing bikes, mountain bikes and spring bikes as well as touring bikes with hand-welded aluminum frames, which were marketed under the slogan "Fuchs Powerbikes - competence also on two wheels".

The successful Fuchs Formula Vee racing drivers from the 1960s to the mid-1970s included Helmut Bross , Marc Surer , Roland Müller and Werner Müller, who brought home numerous titles and victories for the Fuchs brand from Rutesheim. The Fuchs prototype Formula Vau 1200, built in 1964/1965, with chassis No. 1 is used by the current owner in historic Formula Vee races. Around 50 other Fuchs Formula Vee and Super V vehicles are in action around the world.

One of his traditional quotes was: “When I have my cars and bicycles around, I am fine. I don't need more to be happy and satisfied. ”In March 2012, Heinz Fuchs died at the age of 78. Heinz Fuchs had two daughters; since 1987 he was divorced.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ US Formula Vee, made by Porsche ( Memento of the original from July 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on formel-vau.eu  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.formel-vau.eu
  2. ↑ a b Obituary of the Historische Formel Vau Europa e. V. for Heinz Fuchs . Accessed June 9, 2014.
  3. ↑ Heinz Fuchs ( Memento of the original from July 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on volkswagen-motorsport.com  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.volkswagen-motorsport.com
personal data
SURNAME Fuchs, Heinz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German entrepreneur and racing car designer
DATE OF BIRTH January 9, 1934
PLACE OF BIRTH Rutesheim
DATE OF DEATH March 20, 2012
Place of death Rutesheim