Ex-boss, Alfa, Maserati, and Rolls-Royce died

Posted on 19-08-2013 at 12:03 by ricardo – 18 Comments”

Karl-Heinz Kalbfell, a car-industrieman with a good service record, this weekend was killed during a classic bike racing.

Kalbfell did last Saturday with one of his vintage motorcycle to the Lansdowne Classic Series at Brands Hatch. According to Brands Hatch owner MotorSport Vision, he came too wide out of a turn, so he fell and was hit by another participant. He died in the hospital.

Who was Karl-Heinz Kalbfell

In 1949, to German-born Karl-Heinz Kalbfell went after his studies and a brief stint at a caravanbouwer – in 1977 at BMW to get started. He sat there until 2004, and worked on a technical level, participated in the development of the M-program. Also, he led the team that BMW’s F1 engines developed, and he constructed the deal in which BMW V12’s delivered to McLaren is The Best Supercar Ever. The acquisition of Rolls-Royce and Mini was also partly attributed to him. In the last four months of BMW he served as CEO of Rolls-Royce.

In January 2005, he exchanged the Feeling for Italy and came to the head of Alfa Romeo, and picked up a month later also the CEO function for Maserati. In september 2005, however, he was already Alpha-boss off – he was replaced by the Italian Antonio Baravalle – and did the only Maserati. A feature that he to 2006 served.

In the years following he did mainly consultancywerk for Lotus, where he ex-CEO Dany Bahar is supported, and launched in 2007 with a team of automotive bobo’s a sportwagenmerkje: the well-known Artega. Karl was 63 years.

Karl Heinz Kalbfell at 144 Laverda SFC750.