Klaus Niedzwiedz

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Klaus Niedzwiedz
Nation: GermanyGermany Germany
DTM
First race: Berlin 1985
Last race: Donington 1991
Teams (manufacturers)
1985–1986 HWRT • 1987 Wolf Racing • 1988 Ringshausen • 1989  Eggenberger (all Ford) • 1990  Irmscher • 1991  Eggenberger (both Opel)
statistics
Starts Victories Poles SR
82 (51) 6th 6th -
Podiums: 16
Overall wins: -
Points: 531
Template: Infobox DTM driver / maintenance / old parameters

Klaus Niedzwiedz (born February 24, 1951 in Dortmund ) is a German automobile racing driver and television presenter .

Victory vehicle Nürburgring 1987: Ludwig , Niedzwiedz and Soper
Niedzwiedz 'Honda NSX-R (Nürburgring 2005)

Career

Racing

Niedzwiedz's career began with the Mini Cooper and Formula Vee before he finally became a works driver at Ford in 1979 .

He gained fame with a Zakspeed Ford Capri in the German racing championship . The turbo-charged engine with 1.4 liter displacement was later used for the 1.8 liter Super-Capri . With this car with up to 650 hp and a top speed of 300 km / h, Niedzwiedz holds the all -time training course record for Group 5 cars on the old circuit of the Nürburgring-Nordschleife . In 1982 he needed 7: 08.590 minutes and an average speed of just under 192 km / h on the 22.835 km long track, only about 10 seconds more than Niki Lauda , who in 1975 with a Formula 1 Ferrari during training for the German Grand Prix achieved a best time of 6: 58.400 minutes, the fastest lap on the Nordschleife of all time for a Formula 1 racing car.

In 1982 ( Ford Capri ) and 1987 ( Ford Sierra Cosworth ) he won the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring together with Klaus Ludwig . In 1987 he was runner-up in the World Touring Car Championship and in 1989 in the German Touring Car Championship .

In 1998 he won the privateer driver classification of the Super Touring Car Cup with an Opel Vectra . In 2003 he won a run of the VLN in a Porsche 911 GT3 , in 2005 the n-tv - Honda NSX -R, driven by Niedzwiedz, among others, achieved 12th place overall and class victory in the 24-hour race on the Nürburgring.

In 1988 he drove a Sauber C9 at Le Mans , although he survived a blown tire during training only by luck at 390 km / h. He also competed in the 24-hour races in 1981 and 1982.

journalist

Since 1984 Niedzwiedz has also worked as a journalist and television presenter. Starting with the moderation of the motor magazine “ Treibstoff” on Sat.1 , he has been working for n-tv-Motor on n-tv since 1997 and as a co-moderator for ZDF since 2003 . Since 2009 he has also produced the magazine NRW-mobil for the broadcaster NRW-TV. In this magazine, Klaus Niedzwiedz presents new automobiles. He also moderates the n-tv-TopCars magazine at n-tv. Klaus Niedzwiedz is one of the few engine moderators who can look back on a long period of active motorsport.

statistics

Le Mans results

year team vehicle Teammate Teammate placement Failure reason
1981 GermanyGermany Joest Racing Porsche 908/80 United StatesUnited States Dale Whittington GermanyGermany Reinhold Joest failure accident
1982 GermanyGermany Fordwerke AG Ford C100 GermanyGermany Manfred Winkelhock failure Engine failure

Web links

Commons : Klaus Niedzwiedz  - Collection of images, videos and audio files