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STEALING SPEED: The biggest spy scandal in motorsport history

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Degner's pursuit of wealth and freedom did not bring him happiness, though. Despite realizing his dream of becoming world champion in 1962, Degner was badly burned in a race accident at Suzuka. He eventually died of heart failure at the age of 52, after a lifelong struggle with morphine addiction, acquired in the aftermath of that accident..

Bonds hit his last home run on Sept. 24, 1981, for the Cubs -- he connected against Jesse Orosco, still playing for the Yankees. For other speedsters, traveling at the speed of sound could make them miss actual events as they run. Godspeed increased significantly, so much so that he could lift and dangle a grown man well above his head with one hand. Superhuman durability: This is the underlying lesson to be drawn from Mat Oxley's latest book, Stealing Speed. The book tells the story of how the two-stroke engine came to dominate motorcycle racing, and of the two men who brought about that immense change. They both changed the course of history and were swept up in events even more momentous, bringing about the ruin of one motorcycle manufacturer, the rise of another, while driving a third almost to the brink of madness in its stubborn resistance to the tide of history. The tale revolves around two men, Walter Kaaden and Ernst Degner, one the man who turned two-stroke engines from discarded relics into high-powered racing machines, the other the brave recruit who raced them, then turned traitor and sold the technology to the Japanese.Zoom’s body can sustain the pressure of traveling at superhuman speeds for extended periods without growing exhausted or weak. Superman agility:

Zoom possesses superhuman agility, balance, and physiological coordination. This ability allows him to perform fast moves and leap large distances while traveling at incredible speeds. Swift healing time: Long after he hung up his leathers, Degner ran a rental car business in Tenerife, on the Canary Islands. That’s where he died, probably of an accidental prescription drug overdose, though it could just as easily have been a suicide. Inevitably, there were also rumors that he was murdered by the Stasi. Zoom can make himself faster than the Flashes because he can alter time relative to himself. Zoom is unaffected by friction or other issues that other Flash-type speedsters face because they move at supersonic speed. Exceptional reflexes:

How was the drive?

Oxley's book is a thrilling history of one of the most important moments in motorcycle racing. Lucidly written, the book recounts the events that shaped Kaaden, the two-stroke engine, and Degner, and went on to change the world. Oxley explains both the function and the developments which Kaaden brought to bear on the two-stroke engine in a clear and easy to understand way, and explains just why this was such a big deal.

Although the author goes slightly off-message once in a while with extraneous detail, it’s very easy to read. If you like period motorcycle racing, you’ll get the sense of what Grand Prix racing was like and how dangerous it was during this time period—infused with a perception of the social and political unrest that was happening behind the Iron Curtain. Recommended. I love the way Papazoglakis hid the sound of the two-stroke motor in the cloud of oil smoke trailing from the bike. Photo provided by Mat Oxley. About a decade ago, Oxley published "Stealing Speed." That book was a minutely researched account of Grand Prix racing’s own Cold War spy story: the defection of East German racing star Ernst Degner, and Degner’s theft of the industrial secrets that allowed Suzuki to finally field a really competitive two-stroke racing motorcycle.

Walter Kaaden was 21 years old in 1940 when he graduated technical school. Soon after the young engineer would work in the area of missile development to aid the German war effort. Kaaden would be repatriated to East Germany after the war where he would start a timber business, but his childhood fascination with racing spurred by a childhood trip to the opening of the Nürburgring never left. Real stories about spies and espionage are almost never as thrilling as the ones conjured up in books or movies. That’s because they are works of fiction, the product of someone’s fertile imagination unencumbered by reality. However, sometimes truth can come close to, or even surpass fiction, as does the tale spun by Mat Oxley. For those who don't know this amazing tale... This is the amazing true story of how one of Japan’s biggest motorcycle manufacturers stole a Nazi secret-weapon engineer’s secrets from behind the Iron Curtain to win the motorcycle power race and conquer the world In a frantic attempt to use the cosmic treadmill himself, Zoom broke into the Flash Museum. Unfortunately, it was a complete failure. The event resulted in an explosion that destroyed the museum. In the new graphic novel, the risks taken by Degner’s wife and children — who were smuggled out of East Germany in the trunk of a car at a precisely coordinated moment — are even more harrowing than Degner’s escape; all he had to do was slip the rest of the MZ team, which surely included a few Stasi "minders," and drive his car onto a ferry from Sweden to West Germany.

Just like every other speedster, Godspeed has his weaknesses. Chief among them is the instability of his powers. As a result, Hunter Zolomon could slow time down with relation to himself, even bringing it to a complete standstill while moving correctly through it, creating the impression of incredible super speed.After WWII, Western Europe set about rebuilding shattered industries. In the 1950s, the metallurgical, engineering, and manufacturing breakthroughs that had been developed on a war footing were adopted by civilian industry. One side effect of that tech transfer was that racing motorcycles improved rapidly. You know what that’s like,” he told me. “It bumbles along; you don’t hear anything for a year, then there’s two weeks of frantic activity. Then it goes silent for another year. And every time you meet the producers and directors, it’s all about money.”

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