A superb and rare photo of Alexander Freiherr von Falkenhausen in his magnificent BMW F1 2000 (chassis: Brabham BT7) - Formula 1 race car, on his way to brake a string of acceleration world records at the circuit of Hockenheim in 1966. Von Falkenhausen broke the world records on the Quarter Mile (400 meters) and the Halve Kilometer (500 meters).

In 1961 von Falkenhausen helped design a new, high-performance four-cylinder BMW sports engine, known as the "New Class". It made its debut in the BMW 1500. In 1964, von Falkenhausen drove the sports version of the four-door saloon, the BMW 1800 TI/SA, to victory in the Eberbach hillclimb, and won a gold medal in the Munich-Vienna-Budapest Rally. In 1966, the year the photo was taken, that same four-cylinder engine was now a serious racing engine with four valves per cylinder and two overhead camshafts. This little two-liter engine set world records at Hockenheim, where it was put into a Brabham. SEE PHOTO!  The driver was none other than Alexander von Falkenhausen, who by then was 59 years old.

The image was taken during his successful world record session, making this a very historic image!

Alexander Freiherr von Falkenhausen has had a long and distinguished career with BMW, working on very successful car and motorcycle designs and racing with them as well. When Alexander von Falkenhausen joined BMW, it was still a licensed re-marketer of Austin Sevens. By the time of his retirement in 1976, BMW was an international powerhouse in automotive production, developing cars and motorcycles that were second to none in the industry. In 1924, at the tender age of 17, von Falkenhausen rode a DKW motorcycle in his first hillclimb, and managed to finish in second place, laying the groundwork for a lifelong interest in both motorcycles and racing. In the coming years, von Falkenhausen abandoned his schoolwork in favor of a more practical education as a mechanic. He was eventually offered work as a designer with a small engine company, and with this experience, he entered Munich's Technical University in 1928, specializing in automotive and aeronautical engineering. By 1934, von Falkenhausen had attained his engineering degree. BMW's chief test engineer and fellow hillclimber, Rudolf Schleicher, was aware of von Falkenhausen's skill as a motorcycle racer, and contracted him to ride BMWs in off-road racing events. In 1935, BMW introduced the telescopic front fork, which dramatically changed how motorcycles handled. The following year, von Falkenhausen added a rear suspension, further smoothing out the ride and revolutionizing motorcycling. He took his experimental motorcycle, the BMW R5, and entered the grueling International Six Day Trials, winning gold medals in 1936 and 1937. By 1938, von Falkenhausen's rear suspension concept went into the production BMW R51. From 1938 onward, von Falkenhausen was integral in BMW's motorcycle development, both in terms of suspension and engine design. During the war years, von Falkenhausen developed a one-man armored vehicle, and put his aeronautical experience to use adapting a nine-cylinder radial engine for use in an experimental tank. Von Falkenhausen said that there was no likelihood the war would last long enough for them to get the thing finished. In 1946, von Falkenhausen, driving his own BMW 328, participated in the very first post-war races in Germany. One victory and a second place finish caught the eyes of his colleagues. In 1947, he began building and designing his own cars, at first under his abbreviated name, "Al-Fa," and then, for obvious reasons, under the name AFM, for Alexander von Falkenhausen, Munich. He continued his prowess on race tracks, and in 1948, won the German Sports Car Championship. After his brief stint as an independent racing car manufacturer, under the name Alex von Falkenhausen Motorenbau (AFM), von Falkenhausen returned to BMW in 1954. In addition to his duties managing the racing division, he took over the technical development of the road racing motorcycles. He helped design the short-stroke version of BMW's 500cc flat-twin and a 250cc flat-twin. During these years, he devised and engineered the forerunner to the BMW Paralever, which has been featured in the series production since 1987. The original system consisted of two joints for the driveshaft and a parallelogram support bracket for the rear swing arm. In the bleak years after World War II, Germans were interested in small, inexpensive cars. Following his motorcycle success, von Falkenhausen transferred his knowledge to designing automobiles. By 1957, he was given the job of BMW's engine development, specifically for the BMW 700 line of small cars, which were powered by a version of the flat-twin in use in BMW's motorcycles. By 1961, a high-performance four-cylinder engine, known as the "New Class," which was influenced by von Falkenhausen, made its debut in the BMW 1500. In 1964, von Falkenhausen drove the sports version of the four-door saloon, the BMW 1800 TI/SA, to victory in the Eberbach hillclimb, and won a gold medal in the Munich-Vienna-Budapest Rally. Success seemed to follow von Falkenhausen and everything he touched turned to gold. In 1966, that same four-cylinder engine was now a serious racing engine with four valves per cylinder and two overhead camshafts. This little two-liter engine set world records at Hockenheim, where it was put into a Brabham. The driver was none other than von Falkenhausen, who by then was 59 years old (SEE PHOTO!). In 1983, after von Falkenhausen retired, Nelson Piquet, driving a Brabham BMW BT52, became the first Formula One champion to use a turbocharged BMW engine. Of that engine, von Falkenhausen commented that he thought the block was good for 200, even 300hp, but he never thought it would take 1,000 horsepower. Von Falkenhausen retired in 1976 as BMW's oldest employee, and died in 1989, at the age of 82.

Brabham (officially known as Motor Racing Developments Ltd.) was a British racing car manufacturer and Formula One racing team. Founded in 1960 by two Australians, driver Jack Brabham and designer Ron Tauranac, the team won four drivers' and two constructors' world championships in its 30-year Formula One history. As of 2009, Jack Brabham's 1966 drivers' championship remains the only victory by a car bearing the driver's own name. Brabham was the world's largest manufacturer of customer open wheel racing cars in the 1960s, and had built more than 500 cars by 1970. During this period, teams using Brabham cars won championships in Formula Two and Formula Three and competed in the Indianapolis 500. In the 1970s and 1980s, Brabham introduced innovations such as the controversial but successful 'fan car', in-race refuelling, carbon brakes, and hydropneumatic suspension. The team won two more Formula One drivers' championships in the 1980s with Brazilian Nelson Piquet, and became the first to win a drivers' championship with a turbocharged car.

The Brabham team was founded by Jack Brabham and Ron Tauranac, who met in 1951 while both were successfully building and racing cars in their native Australia. Brabham was the more successful driver and went to the United Kingdom in 1955 to further his racing career. There he started driving for the Cooper Car Company works team and by 1958 had progressed with them to Formula One, the highest category of open wheel racing defined by the FIA, the motor sport's world governing body. In 1959 and 1960 Brabham won the Formula One world drivers' championship driving Cooper's revolutionary mid-engined cars. Despite their lead in putting the engine behind the driver, the Coopers and their Chief Designer Owen Maddock were resistant to developing their cars. Brabham pushed for further advances, and played a significant role in developing Cooper's highly successful 1960 T53 ‘lowline’ car, with input from his friend Tauranac. Brabham was sure he could do better than Cooper, and in late 1959 he asked Tauranac to come to the UK and work with him, initially producing upgrade kits for Sunbeam Rapier and Triumph Herald road cars at his car dealership, Jack Brabham Motors, but with the long-term aim of designing racing cars. Brabham describes Tauranac as "absolutely the only bloke I'd have gone into partnership with". To meet that aim, Brabham and Tauranac set up Motor Racing Developments Ltd. (MRD), deliberately avoiding the use of either man’s name. The new company would compete with Cooper in the market for customer racing cars; As Cooper were still Brabham's employers, Tauranac produced the first MRD car, for the entry level Formula Junior class, in secrecy. Unveiled in the summer of 1961, the 'MRD' was soon renamed. Motoring journalist Jabby Crombac pointed out that "[the] way a Frenchman pronounces those initials — written phonetically, 'em air day' — sounded perilously like the French word... merde." The cars were subsequently known as Brabhams, with type numbers starting with BT for 'Brabham Tauranac'. By the 1961 Formula One season, the Lotus and Ferrari teams had developed the mid-engined approach further than Cooper, where Brabham had a poor season, scoring only four points. Having run his own private Coopers in non-championship events during 1961, Brabham left the company in 1962 to drive for his own team: the Brabham Racing Organisation, using cars built by Motor Racing Developments. Motor Racing Developments initially concentrated on making money by building cars for sale to customers in lower formulae, so the new car for the Formula One team was not ready until partway through the 1962 Formula One season. The Brabham Racing Organisation (BRO) started the year fielding customer Lotus chassis, in which Brabham took two points finishes, before the turquoise-liveried Brabham BT3 car made its debut at the 1962 German Grand Prix. It retired with a throttle problem after nine of the fifteen laps, but went on to take a pair of fourth places at the end of the season. From the 1963 season, Brabham was partnered by American driver Dan Gurney, the pair now running in Australia's racing colours of green and gold. Jack Brabham took the team's first win at the non-championship Solitude Grand Prix in 1963. Gurney took the marque's first two wins in the world championship, at the 1964 French and Mexican Grands Prix. Brabham works and customer cars took another three non-championship wins during the 1964 season. The 1965 season was less successful, with no championship wins. Brabham finished third or fourth in the constructors' championship for three years running, but poor reliability marred promising performances on several occasions. Motor sport authors Mike Lawrence and David Hodges have said that a lack of resources may have cost the team results, a view echoed by Ron Tauranac. The FIA doubled the Formula One engine capacity limit to 3 litres for the 1966 season and suitable engines were scarce. Brabham used engines from Australian engineering firm Repco, which had never produced a Formula One engine before, based on aluminium V8 engine blocks from the defunct American Oldsmobile F85 road car project, and other off the shelf parts. Consulting and design engineer Phil Irving (of Vincent Motorcycle fame) was the project engineer responsible for producing an outstanding engine in such a short space of time. However, few expected the Brabham-Repcos to be competitive, but the light and reliable cars ran at the front from the start of the season. At the French Grand Prix at Reims-Gueux, Jack Brabham became the first man to win a Formula One world championship race in a car bearing his own name. Only his former team mate, Bruce McLaren, has since matched the achievement. It was the first in a run of four straight wins for the Australian veteran. Jack Brabham won his third title in 1966, becoming the only driver (as of 2007) to win the Formula One World Championship in a car carrying his own name (cf Surtees, Hill and Fittipaldi Automotive). In 1967, the title went to Brabham's team mate, New Zealander Denny Hulme. Hulme had better reliability through the year, possibly due to Jack Brabham's desire to try new parts first. The Brabham team took the constructors' world championship in both years. For 1968 Austrian Jochen Rindt replaced Hulme, who had left to join McLaren. Repco produced a more powerful version of their V8 to maintain competitiveness against Ford's new Cosworth DFV, but it proved very unreliable. Slow communications between the UK and Australia had always made identifying and correcting problems very difficult. The car was fast — Rindt set pole position twice during the season — but Brabham and Rindt finished only three races between them, and ended the year with only ten points. Although Brabham bought Cosworth DFV engines for the 1969 season, Rindt left to join Lotus. His replacement, Jacky Ickx, had a strong second half to the season, winning in Germany and Canada, after Jack Brabham was sidelined by a testing accident. Ickx finished second in the drivers' championship, with 37 points to Jackie Stewart's 63. Brabham himself took a couple of pole positions and two top three finishes, but did not finish half the races. The team were second in the constructors' championship, aided by second places at Monaco and Watkins Glen scored by Piers Courage, driving a Brabham for the Frank Williams Racing Cars privateer squad. Jack Brabham intended to retire at the end of the 1969 season and sold his share in the team to Tauranac. However, Rindt's late decision to remain with Lotus meant that Brabham drove for another year. He took his last win in the opening race of the 1970 season and was competitive throughout the year, although mechanical failures blunted his challenge. Aided by number two driver Rolf Stommelen, the team came fourth in the constructors' championship. Tauranac signed double world champion Graham Hill and young Australian Tim Schenken to drive for the 1971 season. Tauranac designed the unusual ‘lobster claw’ BT34, featuring twin radiators mounted ahead of the front wheels, a single example of which was built for Hill. Although Hill, no longer a front-runner since his 1969 accident, took his final Formula One win in the non-championship BRDC International Trophy at Silverstone, the team scored only seven championship points. Tauranac, an engineer at heart, started to feel his Formula One budget of around £100,000 was a gamble he could not afford to take on his own and began to look around for an experienced business partner. He sold the company for £100,000 at the end of 1971 to British businessman Bernie Ecclestone, Jochen Rindt's former manager and erstwhile owner of the Connaught team. Tauranac stayed on to design the cars and run the factory.

This is a very nice and very rare non period photo that reflects a wonderful era of Brabham and BMW automotive history in a wonderful way.  This is your rare chance to own this photo, therefore it is printed in a nice large format of ca. 8" x 9" (ca. 20 x 23 cm).  It makes it perfectly suitable for framing.