Roland Kussmaul

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The Porsche Carrera Cup at the Norisring in July 2013

Roland Kussmaul (born September 27, 1943 in Baden-Württemberg) is a former German development engineer, racing engineer, project manager at Porsche  AG and a former rally racing driver.

Career

Roland Kussmaul studied mechanical engineering at the University of Stuttgart and received his diploma there. In 1969 he started his career as a new employee at Porsche in their development center in Weissach . As was customary at the time, he went through a two-year training period there. Since Kussmaul had a technical training already and had mechanical experience, he worked as a design engineer in the development of Leopard - tank for the German military. After a mishap in the construction of the pedals for the prototype tank (the brakes had hydraulic support, the test driver, however, stepped on the brakes as if without support, so that it broke) his boss recognized Kussmaul's talent for lightweight construction. So he was transferred there in 1974, also at the request of Peter Falk, the head of the racing department at the time.

First he worked there for the rally project of the Kuehne + Nagel racing team . There he worked - in collaboration with the suppliers - on developing shock absorbers for the 911 rally car from Kuehne + Nagel. During this early period, in addition to the development of the Porsche 911, he was also involved in the development of the Porsche 924 and Porsche 928 .

In order to gain rally experience, during the early years he partly drove as a co-driver with rally champion Björn Waldegård , who won the Monte Carlo Rally in 1969 and 1970 in a Porsche 911.

In 1978, under the direction of Jürgen Barth and Roland Kussmaul (as project manager) , Porsche used a 911 SC RS for the first time in the Safari Rally. This Porsche 911 SC RS (type 954) was then sold to customers in 1984 in the planned number of 20 copies.

In spring 1979, Kussmaul and Porsche racing driver Jürgen Barth drove a 924 at the Monte Carlo Rally on a private basis. They finished in 24th place. In autumn 1979, both of them drove to a rally around Australia in a 924 to achieve the vehicle's first ever class win. In 1982 Barth and Kussmaul took 10th place in the Monte Carlo Rally with a Porsche 924 GTS. Various other joint rallies took place on the part of Kussmaul and Barth from the late 1970s to around the mid-1980s. In some cases he received great support from his employer, Porsche AG. Among other things, they took part in the Paris – Dakar Rally in 1984 with a Porsche 911 4 × 4. The French rally driver René Metge won this rally with the Porsche 911 SC 4 × 4. In 1985, Kussmaul drove as co-pilot with René Metge on the same route. As a vehicle, Porsche used the Porsche 959, which was developed as a prototype at the time.

With the further development of the Porsche 959, racing driver René Metge and his co-driver Dominique Lemoyne took first place at the next Paris – Dakar rally in 1986 . Jacky Ickx and his co-pilot Claude Brasseur took second place and Kussmaul and his co-pilot Hendrik Unger took 6th overall. Since the service trucks often didn't arrive until dawn, Kussmaul and Unger had everything they needed on board and often worked half the night at the destination - including on the vehicles of their brand colleagues. In an emergency, they also sacrificed parts of their vehicle (as a “fire engine”) for their brand colleagues so that they would definitely reach their destination. Despite these obstacles, Kussmaul and Unger arrived in Dakar as sixth.

In addition to various internal development work, this was followed by assignments as a development and racing engineer, including at the Le Mans 24-hour races . There he was in charge of the Porsche 956 and 962 Group C racing cars.

In 1990 Roland Kussmaul was commissioned to develop a one-make cup car based on the 911 Carrera 2. This resulted in a success story, because the Porsche Carrera Cup can now celebrate its 26th season in Germany. Today, 13 series of Porsche Carrera Cup vehicles are driven for victories and points worldwide. There is also the Porsche Supercup , which has been an integral part of the Formula 1 supporting program since 1993.

Roland Kussmaul finally became head of development for racing and special vehicles as well as head of the Zuffenhausen performance department. In this role he developed the Porsche Carrera GT from 1999 and later the lightweight Porsche 911 R. He officially ended his active time at Porsche at the end of 2008. After that, he continued to work as a “consultant” for the Swabian company and continues to do the job various special tasks.

At the start of the 2016 season, Roland Kussmaul is responsible for the KÜS Team 75 Bernhard in the ADAC GT Masters series as a race engineer . This team belongs to the Porsche sports car world champion Timo Bernhard and his father Rüdiger. They field the new Porsche 911 GT3 R in the ADAC GT Masters series.

literature

  • GTPorsche - Magazine, October 2015 issue
  • Total 911 - the Porsche Magazin - 1998 issue - Interview with Roland Kussmaul

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Paris Dakar 1986
personal data
SURNAME Kussmaul, Roland
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German engineer
DATE OF BIRTH September 27, 1943
PLACE OF BIRTH Baden-Württemberg