It was the roaring seventies, when magazines such as Sport Auto, Rallye Racing and Motorsport Aktuell were able to report steadily increasing circulations and readers were captivated by reports on the German racing championships. And one name came up again and again: Max Moritz. And almost every child knew the orange-brown Jägermeister Porsche 934 and 935, or at least certainly all the readers of the magazines that reported on the races and racing teams of the time. For example, there was this July issue of Sport Auto, which even featured the Max Moritz-Jägermeister Porsche 934 on the front page.
It's almost as if it were yesterday. Memories of the seventies come flooding back as soon as you start leafing through Jürgen Lewandowski's newly published book.
The observations of insiders
Lewandowski was close to the action back then, which is probably what prompted him to write a book about the Max Moritz racing team and in particular the most active period from 1970 to 1979. He can draw on many of his own memories, but he didn't want to stop there. He contacted countless people, who in turn contributed anecdotes or even entire chapters. Until it was finally a complete story.
A family history
The book begins with the family history of the Moritz dynasty, the beginnings with the bicycle trade, the takeover of the Porsche, Volkswagen and Audi agencies. The fortunes of the patrons are traced right up to the present day.
Events became really exciting for racing fans when the decision was made to enter motor racing. And they did so not just once, but several times.
A racing story
The focus, however, is of course on the race participations and racing successes. Starting with a rather amateurish entry of a Porsche 914/6 in Hockenheim, the small racing team became a professional squad that not only often produced better chassis or engine set-ups than the factory formations, but also always impressed with its collegial and fair conduct on the race track.
From the Porsche 914/6, Porsche 911 and the RSR models to the 934 and then the 935, the people around Max Moritz and team boss Rudi Sauter used all the Porsche GT vehicles that the factory could offer in the 1970s.
And some of the fastest racing drivers of the time were at the wheel, including Manfred Schurti, Jacky Ickx, Harald Ertl, Jürgen Barth, Derek Bell and Helmut Kelleners. Also important were Mr. Jägermeister Eckhard Schimpf, Reinhardt Stenzel and Edgar Dören, without whom many a Max Moritz success would not have been possible. And the men behind the scenes and at the pits, who also made their contribution.
Many of them have their say personally or are at least mentioned succinctly.
Because of the many contributors, it is not always a straightforward story, but it is never boring.
A multi-layered photo album
Of course there are some factory photos in the book, but many of the pictures come from the private photo albums of the contributors at the time. And this makes the book a mega photo album and a treasure trove of perhaps never-before-seen racing shots and background images.
It is the latter in particular, the (perhaps somewhat less sharp and professional) shots on and behind the pits, that make up a considerable part of the appeal of this large-format book. Because the time period and the variety of races are manageable, you come across a lot of similar pictures, but this doesn't really bother much.
It is more important that, in addition to the DRM, the entries in Le Mans, the Targa Florio and the one-make world championship races are also documented.
Even the bright yellow Porsche 928 GTS built in the nineties made it into the book and the entries in the Porsche Cup were also documented, although of course they took place well after the seventies.
For the real fans
With 300 pages and certainly over 300 pictures, it has become a very comprehensive work. And the fact that the umbrellas, team jackets and samples of letterheads used are also depicted shows that the book is intended as a complete documentation of the most important period of the Max Moritz team. Accordingly, it is of course also aimed at fans of that era of motor racing, when it was still possible to hire Jacky Ickx for a weekend for DM 15,000 or feed the team members with Leberkäs sandwiches. That was the time before the huge motorhomes behind the pits, when the racing drivers drank a beer together in the evening or met up in the Bilstein racing bus. Anyone who enjoys reminiscing about this will certainly find the Max Moritz book a relaxing read.
However, the book is also recommended for those interested in Porsche, as it shows the 914/6 GT, 934 and 935 types, which have been somewhat forgotten in this country, from the perspective of the private teams that made a significant contribution to Porsche's overall success. It was teams like Max Moritz that made racing exciting and great, and it is great that their contribution has been immortalized in such a generous work. EUR 69.00 is not too much to ask.
It may seem obvious that you also get a complete list of racing entries, organized by vehicle type, but anyone who has ever compiled such a list can understand how much work this overview alone took, especially if you (as a reader of the book) still know that Max Moritz once disposed of his own documents in large quantities.
Bibliographical information
- Title: Max Moritz Racing Team - Racing Years 1970 - 1978
- Author: Jürgen Lewandowski (and many other contributors)
- Language: German
- Publisher: View GmbH
- Edition: 1st edition (November 1, 2016)
- Format: Hardcover, 29x4 x 24.4 cm
- Size: 300 pages, over 300 images in black and white and color
- ISBN: 978-3-945397-04-6
- Price: EUR 69.00
- Buy/order: Online at amazon.de or in relevant bookstores
