AWE R3 - The Now-Forgotten Porsche 550 Competitor #blogpost

The Porsche 550 is a car that is well-known amongst classic car enthusiasts for winning numerous Grand Prixs and amongst the classic move enthusiasts for killing James Dean. Not as popular today - in fact unpopular enough to make it hard to find information about in the internet that isn’t in German - is its direct and successful competitor, the AWE R3.

History

The development of the R3 started in 1954. There were earlier models, but we won’t concentrate on that one right now. Previous models had engines based off the BMW 328, the models after 1954 were own designs.

AWE stands for Automobilwerk Eisenach, a motorcar factory in Thurinigia, Germany (formerly: Bezirk Erfurt, DDR). Being during the Cold War, it was important to be better than the West German race cars. A quick note: the Cold War was held on any aspect of the society. It was important to beat the “enemy” not only in the military might, but also in sports - and motorsport is a sport. The Porsche 550 was racing in the 1.5 litre class, so it was very obvious that the new race car must be competing in that class as well.

Power and Success

The engine was a full-aluminum DOHC straight-six engine with dual ignition and three double downdraught carburettors. 66 mm bore × 73 mm stroke made for a total displacement of 1498 cm³. The power output was 138 hp (7000 r/min) and 142 Nm (5500 r/min), which was a power output similar to the competition. The Porsche 550 for example pushed 110 hp and 117 Nm from a flat-four in the same year while being 50 kg heavier.

Exactly like it was usual for race cars at that time, its chassis was a steel tubular frame with an aluminium body on top. Power was fed to the rear wheels through a four-speed transmission.

The AWE R3 had its biggest success at the GP of Dessau where it did the hat trick - first (Barth), second (Rosenhammer) and third (Thiel) place with the Porsche 550 finishing fourth (Lautenschläger). At the Eifelrennen at the Nürburgrennen, the AWE R3 did the quickest lap of the 1.5 litre class. 10:39.10 minutes, the AWE R3 was about 16 seconds quicker than the Porsche. At the 1000 km race of the Nürburgring, the AWE R3 finished one place behind the Porsche. As you can see, the AWE R3 was just on par with the Porsche 550 performance-wise. In 1957 Porsche updated the 550 to make it considerably quicker.

Legacy

The R3 competed with the West German competition for the last time at the AVUS race in late 1956 where it finished third and fourth behind Porsche. Its very last race was two weeks later in Dessau, where no West German car started. After the 1956 campaign, the race car production was stopped, probably due to pressure from the Socialist Unity Party. In 1957, the AWE racing team was dissolved and some of its drivers went to West Germany, which was still possible until 1961.

In two years of manufacturing, eight vehicles were built. One of them is now exhibited in the AWE museum in Eisenach, this is the car you see in the main picture. I took that photo. Another two vehicles are in the Dresden Transport Museum, two more are possibly in private ownership. The fate of the remaining three cars is unknown.

So, that it’s. After racing for merely three years, the AMW R3 project was stomped and forgotten after fifty years. Despite being at least as good as the Porsche 550, the Porsche is remembered but the AWE isn’t. Like many cars that could have competed successfully with the West German competition, the project was stopped after pressure from the Socialist Unity Party and the funds were used in favour of the production of small passenger cars.