Hartmann Type 2/0007 Formel Junior

Text and photo: Roman Klemm

The idea for the motorsport enthusiast Count Lurani regarding the introduction of a simple and therefore affordable monopost class (Formula Junior) was primarily intended to serve the discovery of new Italian talents. But at the turn of the 1950s and 1960s, this class became widespread throughout Europe. In Germany, it was Gerhard Mitter, a native of Krásno Leipzig, and Alfred Hartmann from Bavaria, who started the design and construction of such single-seaters.

Bavarian connoisseurs are particularly proud of the cars that were created in Hartmann's workshop between the resort town of Berchteshgaden and Lake Königsee. Equipped with a 3-cylinder two-stroke DKW with an output of around 85 hp, especially the "factory driver" Heinrich Maltz and the popular Eberhard Mahle had great duels with Mitter constructions and with cars from abroad. Thanks to the owner of one of them, Joachim Althammer, I was able to try such a car near Salzburg.

The simple frame of the car with the engine in front is "coated" with an unpainted aluminum body. Optically, the Type 2 positively differs from its "Type 1" predecessor with a lower nose. Hartmann achieved this by building the gearbox in front of the engine. The fuel tank is located directly behind the rider - the shape of the car is absolutely classic for its time - reminiscent of a small Maserati 250F. Entering the generously designed hooves is unproblematic, but the huge steering wheel surprises. The rider sits almost upright and slightly straddled, as the engine in front of him offers only a mile of legroom.

Hartmann had many customers, among them the Yugoslav leader Josip Tito. He sold three of these cars in 1961. After half a century, the fragments of chassis number 0007 moved back under the Alps, where it originated. Althammer managed to re-mobilize Hartmann's then-mechanics who built the car and these seniors brought it back to perfect condition.