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A few years ago the Ferrari/McLaren spy scandal rocked the sport of Formula 1 car racing. The story grabbed headlines across the world, but looks positively pedestrian against the most fascinating case of industrial espionage in motorsport history.
Stealing Speed by Mat Oxley, now available in paperback, tells the story of how one of Japan's biggest motorcycle manufacturers stole Nazi rocket technology secrets from behind the Iron Curtain to become the world leader in motorcycle manufacturing.
At the height of the Cold War in 1961, the East and West were battling it out on the racetracks of Europe. Using technology from the notorious V-1 flying bomb, former Nazi rocket scientist Walter Kaaden created the world's most powerful race bikes for East German factory MZ. But just as MZ's star rider Ernst Degner was poised to win the world championship he defected and sold Kaaden's secrets to Suzuki, while his wife and children were drugged and smuggled to freedom through the Berlin Wall.
Suzuki and Degner went on to win the world title, then Yamaha and Kawasaki also adapted Kaaden's technology to position Japan at the forefront of the motorcycling industry.
Now rich, free and famous, Degner's life took a downward spiral. Branded a traitor by the Communists, he suffered horrific injuries in a fiery racing accident and died in mysterious circumstances.
Stealing Speed presents the whole breathtaking story of how Degner raced for the world title, escaped from the Communists in true James Bond-fashion and finally met his lonely, mysterious end during an era when motorcycle racing was a hugely dangerous way of making a living.
"A proper motorsport spy scandal" - Daily Telegraph
"Can't fail to get the blood pumping" - Moto GP World
"A pretty rollicking read" - James May
Author
Mat Oxley is a writer and former motorcycle racer. He won the 1985 Isle of Man 250 production TT and finished third in the 1986 world endurance championship. He has been writing about motorcycle racing for more than 25 years and is author of Haynes' acclaimed biographies of modern-day motorcycling kings Valentino Rossi and Mick Doohan.
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Review copies available
Notes to Editors:
The information on this page is supplied courtesy of Haynes Publishing, please credit accordingly if you intend to use it. For more information or to request a review copy please contact Dani Marlborough at Spirit PR on 0117 944 1415 or email haynes@spiritpublicrelations.co.uk
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