Personal memories of the standard NSU TT
In its day, the NSU TT was regarded as the ideal sports car for racing newcomers, whether at national slaloms, hill climbs, rallies or small circuit races. As a so-called Group 1 vehicle - at least 5,000 units had to be produced in twelve consecutive months - only minor improvements to the engine were permitted within the production tolerances. The same applied to the chassis. At least the shock absorbers, tires and brake pads were exempt.
As a result, the NSU TT driver had to accept a displacement handicap of 123 cc at the start of the Group 1 race up to 1300 cc. Compared to a well-driven Renault 8 Gordini or BMC Mini Cooper S, he was therefore severely behind in terms of performance. To compensate for this, you could always assume a failure rate of one third (!!) for the Gordini. Thanks to their simple swing axle, dramatic rollovers were inevitable. This gave you the feeling of compensatory justice compared to the 90 hp French cars. The Cooper S gave no cause for such speculation.
However, the photo taken at the 1969 slalom at the airfield in Emmen shows that even the NSU TT was not beyond all doubt at the limit. Fortunately, not a single Gordini was entered for this event, so the Minis remained. And so I had to acknowledge without envy the 68 hp of the Cooper engine (1275 cc, triple bearings), its front-wheel drive concept and the driving skills of Peter Burri from Lucerne.
Looking back, it can be said that the R 8 Gordini and the Cooper S could certainly hold a candle to the NSU TT in the production touring car class.
More about the NSU TT, including brochures, tuning documents and many pictures, can be found in the large Zwischengas report on the TT.
