View source for Alex von Falkenhausen Motorenbau

{{short description|Automobile manufacturer}}
{{One source|date=February 2019}}{{Former F1 team
| Short_name    = AFM
| Long_name     = {{flagicon|GER}} Alex von Falkenhausen Motorenbau
| Logo          = AFM badge.jpg
| Base          = {{flagicon|GER}} [[Munich]], [[Germany]]
| Founders      = {{flagicon|GER}} Alexander von Falkenhausen
| Staff         =
| Drivers       = {{flagicon|GER}} [[Hans Stuck]]
| Engines       = [[BMW in Formula One|BMW]], [[Bristol Cars|Bristol]], Küchen
| Debut         = [[1952 Swiss Grand Prix]]
| Races         = 4
| Cons_champ    = 0
| Drivers_champ = 0
| Wins          = 0
| Poles         = 0
| Fastest_laps  = 0
| Last race     = [[1953 Italian Grand Prix]]
}}
'''Alex von Falkenhausen Motorenbau (AFM)''' (but some sources claim the '''M''' stood for Munich<ref>For example, [http://www.motor-klassik.de/oldtimer/der-bmw-baron-zum-100-von-alexander-von-falkenhausen-1104394.html MotorKlassik] and [http://8w.forix.com/df2-afm.html Forix motorsport history].</ref>) was a German [[racing car]] constructor. The team was started by Alexander von Falkenhausen, who was in the 1930s an important engineer in the development of [[BMW]]'s model 328, along with Alfred Boning, [[Ernst Loof]] and [[Fritz Fiedler]]. The 328 was a dominant sports car in late 1930s Europe and winner of the 1940 [[Mille Miglia]] race in [[Brescia]], [[Italy]].

[[File:Bechem AFM Norisring 1951.jpg|thumb|[[Karl-Günther Bechem]] in his AFM F-50 after a victory at the [[Norisring]] in 1951]]
[[File:AFM-1948-1.jpg|thumb|AFM Intertyp Racing Car (1948)]]

After [[World War II]], von Falkenhausen opened a garage in [[Munich]] where he tuned pre-war 328s, converting some of them into single-seaters, and in 1948 went on to build his own car marque with the 328's engine. As a result, the [[Formula 2]] AFM-1 appeared in 1949, driven by [[Hans Stuck]], resulting in a third place at the [[Grenzlandring]]. AFM won a heat in the Autodromo GP at Monza with Stuck behind the wheel, beating the [[Ferrari]]s of [[Alberto Ascari]] and [[Juan Manuel Fangio]]. Other cars were raced by [[Fritz Riess]], Karl Gommann, [[Willi Heeks]] and [[Manfred von Brauchitsch]]. By 1951 Stuck was within the development of a lightweight [[V8 engine]] designed by Richard Küchen and won the 1951 Grenzlandring F2 race with the so-called AFM-4-"Küchen". The {{F1|1952}} and {{F1|1953}} World Drivers' Championships were run to Formula Two regulations, enabling AFM cars to compete in several World Championship rounds. By the time 1953 rolled in, the cars were becoming less competitive and with the fall of F2 that year the marque and the team faded away, while [[Freiherr]] von Falkenhausen in 1954 started to work for BMW again, leading their ''Rennsportabteilung'' for more than the following 20 years.

==World Championship participation: 1952–1953==

The first AFM to be entered in a World Championship Grand Prix was a works car entered for Stuck at the [[1952 Swiss Grand Prix]]. Stuck qualified the car 14th, beating some established names such as [[Harry Schell]], who was driving a [[Maserati in motorsport|Maserati]] entered by [[Enrico Platé]]. However, he was some 14 seconds behind the pole time of [[Giuseppe Farina]]'s works [[Scuderia Ferrari|Ferrari]]. In the race, Stuck dropped back steadily until Küchen's engine failed him on the fifth lap.

The other race of [[1952 Formula One season|1952]] to feature AFM cars was the [[1952 German Grand Prix|German Grand Prix]]. Privately owned cars were entered by [[Willi Heeks]], [[Helmut Niedermayr]], [[Ludwig Fischer (racing driver)|Ludwig Fischer]] and [[Willi Krakau]], all using [[BMW in Formula One|BMW]] engines instead of the Küchen unit favoured by the works team. Neither Fischer nor Krakau started the race, and while Niedermayr was down in 22nd place, Heeks qualified his car a magnificent 9th. He qualified ahead of several works cars, including [[Jean Behra]]'s [[Gordini]]. Come the race, Heeks took advantage of both [[Paul Pietsch]]'s [[Veritas (automobile)|Veritas]] and [[Ernst Klodwig]]'s [[BMW]] running into trouble on the opening lap, and moved up to 7th, where he remained for 5 laps. However, on lap 6, he began to suffer with the BMW engine in his car, and by the end of the 8th lap, he was out. Meanwhile, Niedermayr had been making fantastic progress from his lowly grid slot. Heeks' retirement moved his compatriot up into 9th place. By capitalising on other's mistakes. Niedermayr had moved up through the field, and when [[Robert Manzon]]'s Gordini lost a wheel on the 9th lap, he inherited the Frenchman's 8th place. He was passed by [[Toni Ulmen]], driving a Veritas, late in the race, but still brought the car home in 9th, the first ever finish for an AFM in a championship race.

AFMs were back in action in [[1953 German Grand Prix|Germany]] [[1953 Formula One season|the following year]]. Stuck entered once again, privately this time. He was using yet another different engine, the [[Bristol Cars|Bristol]] straight six. He was joined by [[Günther Bechem]] in his privately entered machine, and [[Theo Fitzau]], driving a car for Niedermayr, who had performed so well in it himself the previous year. Niedermayr himself had retired from racing after killing at least 13 spectators during a crash at the [[Grenzlandring]] in 1952. Both Bechem and Fitzau were using BMW engines. Fitzau was the highest qualifier, in 21st place, over 80 seconds behind [[Alberto Ascari]] on pole for Ferrari. Stuck was 23rd, while Bechem, down in 30th, was well over 2 minutes shy of Ascari's time, made possible by the extreme length of the [[Nürburgring]] circuit. Stuck was out on lap 1, as his new engine failed. By the end of lap 4, Bechem and Fitzau were also out with similar engine problems.

AFM's last appearance in championship F1 came at the [[1953 Italian Grand Prix|Italian Grand Prix]] later in the year, as Stuck entered his car again. He qualified second last, beating only [[Johnny Claes]]'s [[Connaught Engineering|Connaught]]. However, he finished 14th in the race, simply by virtue of not running into difficulties. He was 13 laps behind the victorious [[Juan Manuel Fangio]].

As Grand Prix racing abandoned the F2 regulations at the end of 1953, so AFM withdrew from the scene. Their best result remained Niedermayr's 9th place at the German Grand Prix of 1952.

==Complete World Championship results==
([[:Template:F1 driver results legend 2|key]])
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; font-size:95%"
! Year
! Chassis
! Engines
! Tyres
! Drivers
! 1
! 2
! 3
! 4
! 5
! 6
! 7
! 8
! 9
|-
| rowspan="6"| {{F1|1952}}
| rowspan="6"| AFM
||
||
||
|| [[1952 Swiss Grand Prix|SUI]]
|| [[1952 Indianapolis 500|500]]
|| [[1952 Belgian Grand Prix|BEL]]
|| [[1952 French Grand Prix|FRA]]
|| [[1952 British Grand Prix|GBR]]
|| [[1952 German Grand Prix|GER]]
|| [[1952 Dutch Grand Prix|NED]]
|| [[1952 Italian Grand Prix|ITA]]
||
|-
|| Küchen [[V8 engine|V8]]
|| {{Englebert}}
|| [[Hans Stuck]]
|style="background:#EFCFFF;"| Ret
||
||
||
||
||
||
||
||
|-
|| [[BMW in Formula One|BMW]] [[Straight-six engine|L6]]
|| ?
|| [[Willi Heeks]]
||
||
||
||
||
|style="background:#EFCFFF;"| Ret
||
||
||
|-
|| [[BMW in Formula One|BMW]] [[Straight-six engine|L6]]
|| ?
|| [[Helmut Niedermayr]]
||
||
||
||
||
|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| 9
||
||
||
|-
|| [[BMW in Formula One|BMW]] [[Straight-six engine|L6]]
|| ?
|| [[Ludwig Fischer (racing driver)|Ludwig Fischer]]
||
||
||
||
||
|style="background:#FFFFFF;"| DNS
||
||
||
|-
|| [[BMW in Formula One|BMW]] [[Straight-six engine|L6]]
|| ?
|| [[Willi Krakau]]
||
||
||
||
||
|style="background:#FFFFFF;"| DNS
||
||
||
|-
| rowspan="4"| {{F1|1953}}
| rowspan="4"| AFM
||
||
||
|| [[1953 Argentine Grand Prix|ARG]]
|| [[1953 Indianapolis 500|500]]
|| [[1953 Dutch Grand Prix|NED]]
|| [[1953 Belgian Grand Prix|BEL]]
|| [[1953 French Grand Prix|FRA]]
|| [[1953 British Grand Prix|GBR]]
|| [[1953 German Grand Prix|GER]]
|| [[1953 Swiss Grand Prix|SUI]]
|| [[1953 Italian Grand Prix|ITA]]
|-
|| [[Bristol Cars|Bristol]] [[Straight-six engine|L6]]
|| {{Dunlop}}
|| [[Hans Stuck]]
||
||
||
||
||
||
|style="background:#EFCFFF;"| Ret
||
|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| 14
|-
|| [[BMW in Formula One|BMW]] [[Straight-six engine|L6]]
|| {{Dunlop}}
|| [[Theo Fitzau]]
||
||
||
||
||
||
|style="background:#EFCFFF;"| Ret
||
||
|-
|| [[BMW in Formula One|BMW]] [[Straight-six engine|L6]]
|| {{Dunlop}}
|| [[Günther Bechem]]
||
||
||
||
||
||
|style="background:#EFCFFF;"| Ret
||
||
|}

==External links==
* [http://8w.forix.com/afm.html Alex von Falkenhausen's brave F2 effort]

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Clear}}
{{Formula One constructors}}
{{F1 cars 1952}}
{{F1 cars 1953}}

[[Category:Alex von Falkenhausen Motorenbau| ]]
[[Category:Formula One entrants]]
[[Category:German auto racing teams]]
[[Category:German racecar constructors]]
[[Category:1948 establishments in Germany]]
[[Category:1954 disestablishments in West Germany]]
[[Category:Auto racing teams established in 1948]]
[[Category:Auto racing teams disestablished in 1954]]