RACING IN TANDEM
After the defection of Ernst Degner, with all the secrets of MZ’s two-stroke development, to Suzuki in 1961, it did not take long for the Japanese bikes to turn from also-rans to world champions.
Walter Kaaden, the head of the MZ Race Department in Zschopau decided that if they were going to beat the Japanese two-strokes, in the 125 class, he would have to change from the single-cylinder engine, which had been so successful to a multi-cylinder one.
A three-cylinder, across the frame 125 engine was designed with the carburettors behind the water-cooled cylinder block feeding directly via disc-valves to the crankcases; because of the narrow powerband the gearbox was to be given eight speeds.
Early in 1966 the villagers in a couple of nearby villages started to hear sounds like a turbine on the road between Hohndorf and Boernichen; it was works rider Heinz Rosner testing the new triple. The motor suffered from overheating problems, but work continued until the autumn of 1967 when the FIM Congress decided that from
