Martin Wimmer is a friend of GP Originals and has attended a number of our testing, racing and social events. We regularly tap in to his extensive knowledge and first-hand experience of racing (and winning) on genuine Grand Prix two-stroke machines of the period.
who is Martin Wimmer? – grand prix rider
Martin was born in Munich, Germany in 1957. His interest in speed began to take shape as a young boy – he recounts two humorous stories. The first was the 35cc engine installed into his bicycle when just 12 years old which he rode to school, often reaching speeds of 30mph. The second experiment was an NSU Quickly; the fire-breathing moped shot off like a rocket for a short period before blowing itself to bits providing his first experience of a two-stroke seizure. The piston skirt was so short that the intake port remained permanently open. This experiment was a catalyst for his life-long passion for innovative engineering, developing engines and, of course, riding motorcycles as fast as possible.
A snapshot of Martin Wimmer’s career
- 1976 first hill climb races
- 1977 first race on a closed circuit – pole and 3rd place finish
- 1978 The first winner of the Yamaha Cup – five wins, one 2nd, two DNFs
- 1980 Became a Mitsui Yamaha Germany Grand Prix rider
- 1981-1982 Campaigned both 250cc and 350cc Mitsui Yamahas
- 1982 Winner British 250cc Grand Prix, Silverstone, Mitsui Yamaha
- 1985 Winner German 250cc Grand Prix, Hockenheim, Mitsui Lui Yamaha
- 1985 250cc World Championship 4th place, Mitsui Lui Yamaha
- 1981/1985 Four times German National Champion – three 250cc, one 350cc
- 1986-1987 250cc World Championship 6th and 8th respectively, Marlboro Yamaha
- 1987 Winner Spanish 250cc Grand Prix, Jerez, Marlboro Yamaha
- 1987 Winner Suzuka 8hr partnered with Kevin Magee, Yamaha YZF750SP
- 1988 Hein Gericke Yamaha Grand Prix team
- 1989-90 Hein Gericke Grand Prix Aprilia team
- 1991 Lucky Strike Suzuki Grand Prix team
- 1980-1991 achieved TEN, top-10 250cc World Championship season finishes
- 2000 Neander Motorcycle Chassis development, Turbo Diesel motorcycle
- 2002 Mountain bike with patented front fork design, securing world wide patents
- 2009–2012 Ownership of the MZ factory and brand name, in partnership with Ralf Waldmann
- Current: Developer and Founder of Hydrogen Two-Stroke Zero Emission Combustion Engine Systems for alterative energy creation
★ GPO
You achieved three Grand Prix wins (England, Germany, Spain). Were there many more that narrowly slipped away?
★ MW
Unfortunately YES, at least three that I remember. First was in Rijeka Circuit 1982. I was 15 seconds ahead, when the ignition coil on my aluminium Spondon frame fell off and the engine stalled. The coil had been fixed on an aluminium plate with two rivets to the frame.
The second time was 1987 at Brno. Yamaha brough a new magnesium case and they changed all parts of the old housing to the new magnesium one. The power was less than before, so I told Yamaha that I had the same trouble 1982 and they changed it back again. My mechanic was Trevor Morris who is still working for DORNA as chief of Triumph Moto2 engine supplies. After the warm-up I told Trevor that there was something wrong and the gear shifting will fail… obviously, they were ‘pissed off’ and did not check. As a result, in the third lap of the race I had to retire.
The next mishap was my own fault, also in 1987 and the race was in Goiania Brazil. Yamaha had won the title with Carlos Lavado in 1986 and if Yamaha wins a title, their engineers go into a winter sleep. Thus, the power of the 1987 Yamaha stayed the same as ‘86, while Honda got 6hp more. So, the riding in 1987 was like Quartararo in MotoGP 2023. The track in Goiania was very special: One straight of about 1.5km and then, on the return, only corners. Once I passed seven Hondas on the corner section, they re-passed me on the straight. Before the end of the race, some of them got tired and so I managed that only three Honda riders could pass me on the straight. I then re-passed them all on the other parts of the track. Finally, entering the last corner before the straight, I tried to brake extremely late and hoped they could NOT repass me in a straight line. Unfortunately, my braking was too late and I lost the front end and crashed… The next lap all the other riders came by waving hands! Stupid me. I had not looked at the leader board and did not know I was leader of the last lap. As the start and finish was in the middle of the main straight, they would have not even had the chance to pass me.
Martin Wimmer’s first year on a Yamaha TZ250, 1979. Hockenheim small circuit, fastest of all classes (250, 350, 500)
★ GPO
You were highly rated for your development skills, what encouraged you to learn how to tune a race bike?
★ MW
This answer is easy. Firstly, I was always very technically interested, I quit my Law studies and started learning to be a car and motorcycle mechanic. This usually takes three years in Germany, but I got my papers after seven months, during this time I was racing National Championships in Germany. In the 1981 season I raced 250cc and 350cc at Grand Prix and National Championship – that was 20 events in two classes, totalling 40 races. I did all of that with one mechanic, my friend Andy Hübner. So basically, we drove the truck, slept, worked on the bikes, raced and went to the next event. This was the basis of my understanding of jetting, experiments and so on.
My biggest asset was my memory. When I did seven laps, I could tell what the bike was doing in which corner and if the jetting or the handling was bad. I did not need a ‘crew chief’ as following experience from the 1981 season, I could explain to the mechanic what to change and make the bike perform.
Where I was not so skilled at that time, was the actual tuning of the motorcycle engine. Riders such as Manfred Herweh (1984 Vice Word Champion) however were experienced in tuning. In 1984 I could ride circles around Manfred in the corners of a track, but once a straight line came and he opened the throttle, he was nearly gone. Best example of this story is the 1984 Nürburgring GP 250cc. In 1984 I had 64 HP, Christian Sarron and Manfred Herweh must have had about 70 HP. On the last lap of the race I was in the lead but Manfred passed me on the straight; sitting straight-up, he gave me a little slap on my shoulder. First Christian took charge and passed us both, later I passed Manfred – the race finish was Christian, me, then Manfred.
★ GPO
What do you feel were your best technical achievements and how did these affect your career?
★ MW
In 1985 I worked with Helmut Fath, in my opinion the most skilled technician, as he tuned and built engines in 4-stroke and 2-stroke that won World Championships. From him I learned the rest that I was missing. His masterpiece was the engine he built me for the Hockenheim GP in 1985. I lost only 0.2 seconds to Freddie Spencer in qualifying, the other riders were 0.7 seconds behind me. The engine had a powerband from 10.700 to 12.700, 71 HP – below 10.700 the engine stalled. It used piston ported Hummel cylinders that Helmut had modified. A small bird could have passed through the exhaust port. As it looked like rain for the race, I told him, “Helmut, in the rain I might crash with that powerband”, so we used the factory Yamaha engine – a modified 1985 reed valve crankcase with Kenny Roberts’ 1984 Yamaha factory cylinders, producing 69 HP. That was enough to win my home GP in the rain against Freddie Spencer and Anton Mang.
Later all this experience helped me, and when factory support came in, the engineers loved the details I could give them to develop the bikes. If Yamaha (in 1986/87) had come to a race with new engine parts and I rode them in the practices and they asked me, I could‘ve made a hand drawing of the power band before and after to show them where the engine was better or worse. I did not have the absolute numbers but the power line was very exact and they could not believe that I had the ‘popometer’ engine test bench while riding.
My best riding seasons were 1985 to 1987. If I had not have made certain mistakes in my choices and had bad luck with accidents (I broke a scaphoid in my right hand in 1985 and missed four races or in 1987, I smashed my left ankle) at least one world title could have been possible.
Later, when I went to Aprilia or Suzuki, I was always better with my own team (Hein Gericke or Lucky Strike) than the factory run teams.
After Lucky Strike Suzuki took away the Factory Team in late January 1992 from me, I had no chance to find new bikes and sponsors and had to declare my retirement.
Lucky Strike Suzuki paid badly for their decision to give the Team to Tech3 under Poncheral. They had to stop their effort completely after Kockinski blew their engine up in Assen 1993. Even Simon Crafar, who later won a 500 cc GP at Donington was helpless on the 250cc. Suzuki and Poncheral never achieved any better result at the end of the season than myself in 1991. The factory bike from Suzuki had 7.5 horse power less in 1991 compared to my Aprilia in 1990.
★ GPO
It is rumoured that your Mum was instrumental in the development of the knee slider! Please tell us how she contributed to the design?
★ MW
Yes, this story is true! In the 1981 season, at Salzburgring, it was the first time I managed the ‘hanging off‘ riding style, touching the track with my knees. Obviously I was bleeding. Then we took plastic sheets from bottles and duct tape to find solutions, but she finally said, “Why don’t you use Velcro to fix it?” Thus I filed a utility patent and with my racing boots manufacturer, Daytona from Germany, we made a mould and produced the very first knee slider of the world.
Stupid me, I did not extend the utility patent to a worldwide patent, otherwise from 1982 until 2002 everybody in the world would have had to buy knee sliders from me and I could lie at the Bermudas or the Fiji Islands!
★ GPO
You’ve worked closely with Helmut Fath, Hans Hummel and Werner Juchem, three of the most respected two-stroke engineers. Each one provided something that defined your racing, please explain more?
★ MW
While Werner Juchem was an artist making frames (but also engines, he built a reverse cylinder 350 cc, with the exhausts straight through the rear seat); Hans Hummel and Helmut Fath were artists of horsepower. Hans (Hummel) became a Millionaire in 1984 with his cylinders as Yamaha failed completely! This is the story:
Yamaha had produced a Power Kit for each 250cc Grand Prix rider in 1984 and they delivered those kits at the Misano Grand Prix. There were enough parts for the whole season: 8 cylinders, enough pistons, heads, exhaust pipes and all such important parts!
- First practice: all Yamaha Riders had seizures on both cylinders.
- Second practice: all Yamaha riders had seizures on both cylinders.
- Third and fourth practice, same story, all parts gone!
I remember the Yamaha manager’s name; I think it was Arakaki. Poor him, it was his last race most probably Yamaha offered him a Hara-kiri knife.
Thus at 10 pm, Saturday night before the Misano GP, I went to Hans Hummel and asked: “Hans, do you still have a set of cylinders for me?’ I was lucky, I got the last set. As there was no warm up, only a sighting lap out of the pit lane before the warm up lap and the start. There was no “running in” of a new cylinder. Also the left fingers for the clutch where already “nervous” from four seizures in four practice sessions.
So, I decided the following: I used a grinder to cut the sharp edges after honing to keep the piston rings safe. I installed a used set of pistons that had already 150 miles of running on them, new piston pins, bearings and piston ring and then I made the maximum test (the Misano circuit was raced anti-clockwise then, in 1984). I went full throttle down the long straight on the sighting lap with the full hand on the clutch… no seizure!
Then, I did the same in the warm up lap… No seizure. I finished the race second, despite having qualified way down.
Then, as I told before about the 1984 season, beginning of January 1985 I met with Mitsui Germany Boss Manfred Weihe and told him: “Look, we are looking like fools against Manfred Herweh (1984). We have to do something; I need a guy for the engines and we need better parts from Yamaha!”
The result was a business class flight to Iwata in Japan, a three day test at Yamaha’s test circuit and the modified engine, I had explained before. Next, it was already March, we both visited Helmut Fath in Ursenbach, his hometown near Heidelberg and Hockenheim.
It took some convincing and then Helmut worked for us and it was to become my best season so far. The main thing was Helmut’s experience in engine preparations for 28 years by then in 1985, and his test bench. Nothing left his workshop that was not better than before. Recently I made a calculation. In 1985 after Hockenheim, I was leading the Championship and the next race I was on pole at Mugello against Freddie only being second.
Unfortunately, my clutch failed at the start (which is slightly uphill), as I was using an ultra-long first gear ratio. This was too much for the clutch springs, they overheated and the clutch slipped. Later, at Le Mans, being on a pole lap, I had a light engine seizure leaning in a corner. I had pulled the clutch, but decided to start the engine as it was only three corners before the lap was finished. I paid with a broken scaphoid in my right hand and missed the last four races of the season. Adding up five races missed with each race in 6th position and may be two more third places, would have been enough for the title, but if-and-when don’t count.
Jan FrijtersMartin Wimmer on the Mitsui Yamaha in 1983, ©Jan Frijters
★ GPO
What happened when you joined Giacomo Agostini’s team?
★ MW
My biggest mistake, despite I am friends with Giacomo Agostini, was to change to Marlboro Yamaha for the 1986 season as Helmut said: ”I am not going to work for Ago!”
It was the hardest decision of my life (in racing, many more to come in real life later). Yamaha Japan wanted me to go with Ago, Mitsui Yamaha had HB cigarettes as a sponsor and made me an offer too!
Finally I asked the boss of Yamaha Racing then and he told me: “If you stay with Mitsui, we have to build four bikes for four riders, as you and Carlos (Lavado) are set and Ago wants two riders, if you go to Ago, we only need to built three!”
Finally, that’s how Carlos got HB sponsorship in 1986 and won the title!
What happened with Ago with me? Basically Ago was paying bills and let Yamaha do the work, nothing happened technically. Most trouble was my engine never started as we still had push starts by then! I don’t know how many times I drove from Munich to Bergamo and back to try push starts as Kel Carruthers always told me I would be “too nervous” which was BS to be honest!
At the end of the season I finished 6th in the Championship, beating my teammate Tadahiko Taira I started a thought process, as obviously the start was my dead point of 1986:
What was different between me and Carlos? Same bike, I am not too stupid to push start a two-stroke race bike? What could be different?
The answer was: PETROL! So I asked Ago: “where do you get your petrol from?”
His answer was, “I have a friend, he gives me API petrol for free…” so I went to BASF in Germany with a petrol sample and got the answer: This petrol is not even good for a lawnmower engine!
So after two years with Ago (1986/87, 6th and 8th in the Championship), being worse in the results than before when I was on my own (1982 and 1985, 4th in the Championship), I got the offer from Hein Gericke and went back with Helmut Fath for the 1988 season.
Gericke’s plan was the same as Red Bull Mateschitz: he wanted to build a Hein Gericke bike and run it in the championship! Contracts were signed in October 1987, all looked wonderful!
But then, late December, after Christmas, Hein Gericke called me up, telling me: “Martin, I got the offer of my life, I can sell my company for 30 Millions!”
Thus we managed the 1988 season on Yamaha production bikes, later Helmut built a 250cc bike with a revolutionary boxer engine layout (1989 and 1990) but it was never raced.
Helmut Fath died in 1993 and the last time I went to his house was in 2019 as his wife is still alive and his fans celebrated his 90th birthday as he was born on May 24th 1929. His wife made me a most valuable present as his workshop was removed and now is a living space in his house: I got a box full of Helmut Fath special valve springs which he developed for his 1967/68 effort and winning the title in 1968 himself and 1971 with Owesle/Rutherford.
Some papers clipped to the springs give numbers at which they have been tested at a special valve spring testing machine that he had built: some say 17.500 other say 18.000 …..I guess Honda or Kawa SBK would be happy to know how they are designed and from which material they are 😉
★ GPO
Which 250 Grand Prix win are you most proud of and why?
★ MW
Basically, all three of them are very important to me, but if I had to choose one it would be Hockenheim beating Freddie Spencer!
One can not imagine the feeling when you wake up in the morning, it started drizzling as the weather forecast said and you simply know: TODAY I WIN THIS RACE! It was clear to me in the morning when I looked at the weather! I was good in dry and wet conditions, I only missed 0.2 Seconds to Freddie in qualifying who had a one-off Honda factory bike, but in the rain that did not matter.
Then some laps before the end, it was clear that nobody could catch me, but it was difficult to keep the concentration high, not to make a mistake. Then the final lap, entering the Hockenheim Motordrome where 110,000 visitors are cheering you, this is a moment in life you never forget for the rest of it!
I could beat Wayne Rainey in 1984 in the Championship standings. I won races against Spencer or pole positions in 1985. The one rider I respected most of all was CARLOS LAVADO! In his best days, there was nobody who could beat him!
★ GPO
How would you describe the performance of the tyres available to professional riders up to 1984?
★ MW
There was a close battle between Michelin and Dunlop in those years. Chief of Dunlop was Peter Ingley. In 1982 Michelin made a wonder front tyre, 16 inch rim, the size was 3.5 inch wide, which normally by then was a wide rear tyre rim in 18in.
With his tyre in 1982 Jean-Louis Tournadre, 1983 Carlos Lavado and 1984 Christian Sarron won the title. It was simply superior when braking into corners.
Then in 1985 there was the change to 17-inch rims and it got more even, but still Michelin won the title.
Where Dunlop was unbelievable was rain tyres. They had soft compounds and made new cutting patterns by hand whilst at the events for Dunlop Factory tyres.
Later in 1989, I was the first rider using a tyre warmer in Grand Prix racing, but this is out of the timeframe of the GP Originals.
★ GPO
What is your impression of the standard of machines being raced at GP Originals?
★ MW
When I lived in UK from early 2017 until early 2020 I had the chance to visit many GPO races with my racing friends I made there. It was planned that I can race a 350 in the UK, but the owner got an offer and sold it before, so I am still missing to do a race with you!
BUT there will possibly a moment in time, when I would like to come back to GPO and this could already be in 2024… The bike, that I did the Hockenheim 1985 qualifying with is the Helmut Fath special 1984 tuned Hummel cylinder bike. It is in USA now and I plan to get it back this year!
It would be my pleasure to rent a truck with some tools and take the ferry from Calais to Dover like in the 1980s and race the bike at a GP Originals race at Donington or another track. The warming up of this bike would excite many people, that I can guarantee! The running possibly even more.
★ GPO
Which rider during your Mitsui Yamaha years do you feel was your most challenging rival?
★ MW
Like I said before, the rider I have most respect for is Carlos Lavado! I even flew one time (I think it was in the early 2000s) to Caracas to visit him and his Yamaha Dealership. We had an unforgettable time and he even invited me on a one-week holiday on a Venezuelan Island! Once we drove through Caracas and it was close before 8pm. At 7.55pm he stopped at red traffic lights, but suddenly after 8pm had passed, he simply looked left, right and crossed all red lights full throttle! I told him: “Carlos, I know you are fast, you don’t need to show me”… His reply: “You don’t understand, in Caracas after 8pm, if you stop at a traffic light, a guy can come with a gun, opens your door and your car is gone!”
Those moments one never forgets!
Henny Ray Abrams
Juha ElinImage 3: Martin was renowned for working on his own GP Machines, 1985 ©Henny Ray Abrams
Image 4: Martin at Imatra on the Mitsui Yamaha 1981 ©Juha Elin
★ GPO
If you had your time in Grand Prix again, is there anything you would do differently?
★ MW
Yes, definitely! I should have stayed with Mitsui Yamaha and Helmut Fath with the Yamaha Factory bikes in 1986 and 1987 and most probably then hereafter!
First of all, we would not have had the petrol problem with “Api”, then the power would be 4 to 5 HP more than Carlos and I would have fought for the titles for sure. 1985 had happened as it happened, but also, if I would have had a guy with experience like Toni Mang on my side, I would NOT have made some other mistakes too. But Toni was my opponent then.
★ GPO
Do you have any advice for modern era Grand Prix riders?
★ MW
If I would have had the chance to give some advice to Marc Marquez who makes a change to Ducati for 2024 I would have told him:
Make a one-year or even two-year sabbatical and let Honda develop their bikes. Let your factory contract “sleep” and don’t charge them any money during your sabbatical, they paid you well enough When they are ready with their bike, THEN come back and win another title or simply be their test rider and make some wild-cards!
Marc had found a way to split with Honda in peace, but it is still a divorce. You never know if it will be happening again, most probably it won’t and the Marc is just another former-Honda rider. One can never turn the clock back.
★ GPO
You have been a prolific inventor, creating innovations from mountain bikes to lawn mowers. Please tell us what is coming up next? (if its not a secret!)
★ MW
Well, when I had the “stupid idea” to buy an old motorcycle factory with zero money in my hands in late November 2008, after Ralf Waldmann called me and said: “MZ is for sale, wouldn’t that be something for us” we finally managed to get it done and crucial to this succeeding was my second wife Martina Häger, a very skilled business woman and Investor Peter Ertel that we found in Autumn 2009.
The only problem was, that this was something “political”! Long story, short I made some mistakes business wise but also, politically they wanted nothing to be of memory of the former DDR. MZ was still alive even 22 years after the German reunification.
In the last moments (October 2012) I filed a crucial patent in regards to the energy transformation of constantly producing electricity out of natural resourced. The key element for this is Biogas created by fermentation and a modified regular engine. We made lost of experiments, as I had 50 people employed.
One core experiment was a special heat exchanger that I designed and thus we achieved (with the same amount of petrol used) 1.5 kW of electricity with the generator but additionally 3.5 kW heat with my special heat exchanger. Thus if one takes the thermal efficiency of the engine with 28% (which is low) we gained 65% efficiency with my heat exchanger which adds up to a stunning 93% efficiency!
A former MZ employee told me in November 2022, this generator is still in a corner of the MZ company building, I can get if for you!
After six months of work I have designed a new type of two-stroke engine that is based on a patent I had filed in 1995. You can search the 1995 patent on YouTube. It shows a new type of scavenging and there is no two-stroke or four-stroke! One can run a four-stroke with some modification to fire at every revolution without a turbo charger.
That’s all I can say by now. My new engine is designed as a generator and can produce a lot of power. Could we see this on a motorcycle? That would be a real project obviously needing lost of funding but I am already talking to racing organisations, I can use the MZ Moto2 chassis I designed for the 2010 season, made from German Quality steel!
What I can prove as well with this development? – The CO2 story about being the reason for climate change is the second biggest scam in history of mankind. My engine is the proof! The real reason for climate change is the electricity creation with atomic powerplants and their excessive heat being released into the rivers and oceans.
I am working on a website to publish all step by step.
Martin explains his innovative mountain bike suspension development
