Over a salt lake at 200 mph – BASF sponsors jubilee race of legendary NSU Delphin

* Demonstration ride at original venue of 1956 world record at Bonneville, Utah, USA

* Motorcycle reproduction painted with BASF pigments

With its large tail fin, it reminds you of an enormous fish. The 3.70-meter long, 1.10-meter high Delphin III is no ordinary bike. Fifty years ago the legendary motorcycle racer Wilhelm Herz caused a furor on just such a remarkable machine. Riding his NSU Delphin on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, USA, he broke both the 300 km/h and 200 mph barriers and set an absolute world record for motorcycles.

In memory of his father’s heart-stopping exploit, his son Heinz has now had an exact reproduction of the record-breaking vehicle built according to the original NSU plans. “Without the help of sponsors and friends, the project would have been impossible”, says Heinz Herz. The red, white and blue longitudinal stripes of the Delphin’s full fairing were painted by BASF’s paint shop at Ludwigshafen, Germany. The colors – flame red with BASF pigments Paliogen® Red L 3880 HD and Paliogen® Red L 4120, green-blue with Heliogen® Blue L 6905 F, and pure white – are all of automotive quality, because they have to be weather-resistant. To ensure that the valuable machine arrives undamaged in the USA, BASF’s joinery workshop has also made the container box to transport it. In honor of his late father, Heinz Herz intends to go for a demonstration ride “on this dinosaur” at the original Salt Flats venue during Speed Week (Sept. 3 - 7). “I want to pay tribute once more to my father’s historical sporting achievement, which took place there 50 years ago.”

BASF’s Paliogen® Red pigments are high-quality organic perylene pigments with an excellent technical profile. They have high color strength, are very brilliant, and impress with their outstanding fastness to light and weathering and their high heat stability. With qualities such as these, Paliogen® pigments are ideal for producing high-gloss finishes with good hiding power. BASF’s Heliogen® Blue pigments are organic phthalocyanine pigments with very good coloristic properties, a high standard of fastness and high color strength. Heliogen® pigments are therefore suitable for a wide range of coatings applications, for example high-quality automotive and industrial coatings.

BASF Performance Chemicals – always one idea ahead!

The product range of BASF’s Performance Chemicals for Coatings, Plastics and Specialties business unit includes pigments, preparations and dyes, binders and crosslinkers, light stabilizers and process chemicals. Our products are manufactured and marketed worldwide. We are one of the world’s leading suppliers in these fields. Further information on our products may be found at: www.basf.com/pigment.

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Jürgen Jakob

BASF

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