Alex von Falkenhausen Motorenbau
Alex von Falkenhausen Motorenbau (AFM) (but some sources claim the M stood for Munich) 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. 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 Ferraris 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".