ernst degner and walter kaaden, racer and engineer, don't know where this photo is from but i know it speaks volumes about the two men and their relationship, degner, for whatever reason, i like to think that he just wanted the best for his family, defected to the west, stealing kaaden's secrets and selling them to the suzuki factory, the rest, as they say, is history........
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Had the pleasure of chatting with Alan Shepherd many moons ago when I was manning the MZ club stand at the BMF. He wasn't quite as forgiving and said it almost destroyed Walter Kaaden. Wish I had had a tape machine to record his memories of riding for MZ and the great man Kaaden
ReplyDeletei think that the hurt of degner's betrayal comes across in matt oxley's book, not only the fact that degner had stolen kaaden's tuning secrets and used them against the mz equipe but also the fact that his friend had let him down so badly, degner himself was a very good engineer not just a racer and i try and imagine the pair thinking out ideas in the workshop that they would put into practice at the race track, it's a fascinating story, not just from the racing aspect but also the personal relationship that they shared.
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