Product Description

This is the compelling story of how one of Japan's biggest motorcycle manufacturers stole a Nazi rocket scientist's engine secrets from behind the Iron Curtain to conquer the world. In 1961, with the Cold War at its height, East German motorcycle manufacturer MZ was using World War II rocket technology to win Grands Prix, only for rider Ernst Degner to defect and sell the secrets to Suzuki, while his wife and children were drugged and smuggled through the Berlin Wall. The following year Suzuki and Degner made history by winning the world title. Branded a traitor by the communists, Degner suffered horrific injuries in a fiery racing accident and died in mysterious circumstances.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8557 in Books
• Published on: 2009-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 224 pages

About the Author
A former motorcycle racer and Isle of Man TT winner, Mat Oxley has been writing about bike racing for more than two decades and is the author of Haynes' acclaimed biographies of Valentino Rossi and Mick Doohan.

Customer Reviews

Great read
Good read - great pace, exciting subject, written by someone who knows the subject and has ridden the TT (and won).

Amazing story
Amazing story - it'd make an awesome James Bond style movie! Like Jamie Whitham said, I could hardly put the book down. What the racers got upto back in those days was crazy - some very scary stories in here - makes modern racing all seem so tame.

A Ripping Yarn
Bit of a mixed bag, those looking for a story, written in a journalistic way, where the facts are a bit sparse, and juxtaposed to make a tabloid-style of yarn need look no further.
An assumed cornerstone is a connection between the work of Walter Kaaden on the V1 flying bombs in the Second World War, and his later efforts in successfully developing the MZ two-stroke racing motorcycles to become the most powerful of their type in the world. Facts are meagre, for instance no explanation or diagrams are given as to how the pulse-jet of the V1 worked, and how this may have been similar to two-stroke technology. Nevertheless, the story is spun out to its utmost, as is the defection of the MZ Works Rider, Ernst Degner, to The West in 1962. Probably worth buying for the enthusiast as the book's not expensive and reasonably entertaining, but the style of content to expect is indicated by the "Boy's Own Paper" type of picture on the cover.