Klaus Niedzwiedz

Klaus Niedzwiedz (born February 24 1951 in Dortmund, Germany) is a former professional race driver and motoring journalist.

Driver

His greatest success came in the 1980s, as a driver for Ford.

Niedzwiedz rose to promincence when driving a Ford Capri for Zakspeed in the Deutsche Rennsport Meisterschaft. The turbocharged 1.4 L engine from the Zakspeed Ford Capri was later enlarged for the 1.7 L "Super Capri". With this 500+hp car, Niedzwiedz holds the "eternal lap record" for Group 5 touring car racing at the old 22.8 km Nürburgring with 7m06s, just 2 seconds slower than the F1 record by Clay Regazzoni.

The enlarged engine was also used in the World Endurance Championship from 1982 onwards, in the a modified Ford C100. The Zakspeed-prepared Group C machine was run by the works Ford Germany team with Klaus Ludwig, Manfred Winkelhock and Marc Surer at the wheel, but the car was a midfielder at best, although Jonathan Palmer and Desiré Wilson scored a 4th place overall the 1000km of Brands Hatch in 1982. Ford Germany retracted their support and one car was sold to privateers, while the other chassis was evolved by Zakspeed into the C1/4 and the C1/8, making few appearances in international racing, but becoming a front-runner in the German Interserie, where it won the European championship in 1984 with Klaus Niedzwiedz.

In 1982 and 1987, he was the winner at the 24 Hours Nürburgring, in both events with Klaus Ludwig. With a Ford Sierra he was runner-up in the World Touring Car Championship of 1987 and the Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft of 1989.

In 1998, he won the privateer title in the ADAC German Supertouring car championship (Super Tourenwagen Cup) with a Opel Vectra.

In 2003, he won a VLN race with Porsche 911 GT3 at the Nürburgring

Others events:
* Sauber Mercedes C9
* 1988 24 Hours of Le Mans
* 1982 24 Hours of Le Mans
* 1981 24 Hours of Le Mans

Journalist

Since 1984, he also works as a journalist and TV host in Germany, starting with moderation of Sat.1 magazine "Treibstoff". Since 1997, he moderates "n-tv Motor".

Tamiya Model

A 1/24 scale model of the 1979 Ford Capri Zakspeed (model 24014) is represented as the D&W Klaus Niedzwiedz car, and actually comes complete with Niedzwiedz in team uniform.

External links

* [http://www.n-tv.de/397.html bio at n-tv]
* (for his appearance in "Treibstoff")
* [http://www.zakspeed.de Zakspeed Website]
* [http://zakcapri.co.uk/ Profile of the highly successful Zakspeed-built Group 5 racing Capri]