Veritas investigation

4 February 1949

GERMANY ENDED WORLD War II in ruin, yet despite terrible economic adversity and a ban from international motorsport, its enthusiasts eagerly got going again.

Among them were famed pre-war BMW motorcycle racers Ernst Loof and Georg Meier, who in 1947 joined forces with ex-colleague Lorenz Dietrich to found Veritas, a firm for turning pre-war BMW 328 sports cars into racing machines.

Before the 1949 season, Autocar got the chance to try the latest Veritas RS, owned by L’écurie Belge.

In this case, the 2.0-litre 328 engine had received many upgrades, including “a special alloy cylinder head with oversize valves, a non-standard camshaft and taller pistons” to produce about 135bhp at 5500rpm.

In addition, the gearbox was given closer ratios, the brakes gained ventilated Lockheed drums, and the sleek body was aluminium mounted on a steel-tube framework. As such, we estimated a dry weight of between 600kg and 700kg.

We found the car had a “V2 brand of acceleration”, braving it up to 110mph, and “hardly less impressive was the engine’s bottom-end docility and flexibility”.

“Threading dense traffic, the sense of not having any wheels can be a little disconcerting, but control at speed is absolute and exhilarating. If unforeseen emergency should oblige one to run up a tree, one feels that the choice of tree should be entirely volitional. Great stuff. Really great.”

“Really great” was also the verdict in racing, as Veritas cars won serially in Germany’s national sports car and Formula 2 series.

The firm tried to expand into road car making but ran out of cash, folding in 1953.