The “Fritz B. Busch Dieselstar” record car (1975)
Autocult surprises us once again with an out of the ordinary model: This time it is the release of the “Dieselstar” land record car of the writer and automobile fan (that word doesn’t even start to do him justice) Fritz B. Busch. I do remember having read his book “Einer hupt immer” – loosely translatable to “There is always one who honks” – many years ago, and finding it an easy, relaxing, relatable and fun read, always to the point. I liked his sense of humour, I wish I had met the guy…
As far as Autocult’s model goes, there is nothing that could have gone wrong during the development and the making of the model. All things considered, what can go wrong making a model from a “thing” that looks like a doorstop? Suffice to say, that the colour and decorations of the model are as perfect as the 1:43 reproduction of the actual speed record car.
Fritz B. Busch (born May 2nd, 1922, as Fritz Bob Busch; died August 5th, 2010.) was a German motoring journalist who wrote humorous and satirical articles as well as non-fiction books on the subject of cars.
In the early 1960s, he became known for his series of articles “Für Männer, die Pfeife rauchen” (“For pipe smoking men”) in the automotive magazine Auto, Motor und Sport. Probably his best-known contribution from this series was his impression of the Jaguar E-Type published in 1961 under the title “Whisky pur oder: Die Flunder.” (Whisky straight, or: the flounder).
He then worked for the magazine “Stern” but was laid off in the mid-1970s while on a trip from Fairbanks, Alaska, to Tierra del Fuego; but by the time he returned to Germany, he had an employment offer from “Quick” magazine. In the end, he wrote a monthly column for the classic car magazine “Motor Klassik”.
In 1965, Busch presented a city car developed together with the German Michael Conrad and the Italian Pio Manzù at the IAA Automobile Salon in Frankfurt am Main. The "Autonova Fam" was intended as a counter-design to the passenger cars of the time; Busch described the cars produced by the automotive industry as "impractical" and "not suitable for traffic". Similarly, "Team Autonova" had designed a two-seater sports coupé, the "NSU-Autonova GT". Both cars had the "unmistakable concrete line" of the Autonova team in common: "Functional, factual, chrome-free, appropriate, consistent".
However, no financiers were found for the series production of either one or the other model.
Based on a Formula 2 racing car, Busch built a record-breaking vehicle in 1975, the "Dieselstar". The shell, made of 25 square meters (269 ft²) of aluminum sheeting, was fastened with 3,000 rivets, and Mercedes-Benz supported the project with a five-cylinder turbodiesel arranged as a mid-mounted engine. The engine was fitted with a turbocharger from AiResearch and a special injection pump from Bosch for the record attempt, as well as being slightly modified: smaller cylinder bores reduced the displacement to 2,999 cm3; the engine was given a nitrided crankshaft and a reinforced oil pump, as well as special injection nozzles, and produced 138 kW (187 hp) at 4500 rpm.
On November 16, 1975, Busch set the world record for diesel vehicles with a top speed of 253.7 km/h with the "Dieselstar" on the Volkswagen test track in Ehra-Lessien (East of Hannover,
Lower Saxony, Germany). It is particularly noteworthy that the diesel records in force until then were set in pure straight-line driving at the Bonneville Salt Flats Racetrack in Utah, whereas Busch also had to drive curves as well as brake on the test track.
In 1973, Busch founded the first private car museum in Wolfegg in Upper Swabia, initially to house his own collection, including the "Dieselstar"...Since spring 2017, the collection of Fritz B. Busch from Wolfegg has been housed in the AUTO & TRAKTOR MUSEUM in Uhldingen-Muhlhofen on Lake Constance.
(с)BERND D. LOOSEN