Ferdi Lehder

Ferdinand Lehder was born in October 1913 in Neu-Isenburg in central Germany. He built his first small car, the LTE Juwel, in 1948  to German kleinstrennwagen rules. Ferdi and his eigenbau showed pace from the beginning and he was able to take the fight to the production Scampolos, taking a couple of podiums in his first year and three wins in his second to make second overall in the inaugural 1949 West German Championship to Walter Komossa's Scampolo.

Ferdi's results for the Juwel :

Leverkusen 12th September 1948, 2nd

Grenzlandring 19th September 1948, 2nd

 

Hockenheim 8th May 1949, 3rd

Nürburgring 22nd May 1949, DNF

Schottenring 12th June 1949, 1st

Dieburg 17th July 1949, 1st

Nürburgring 7th August 1949 German Grand Prix, 2nd

Grenzlandring 11th September 1949, DNF

Koln 2nd October 1949, 1st

Ferdi on his way to a win at Dieburg in July 1949

At the end of 1949, we believe he sold the car to East German, Bobby Kohlrausch who renamed it GvB. Ferdi then built his second car, the LTE Brillant for the 1950 season, the first year of 500cc Formula 3 regulations in Germany. While the car was well engineered, it was s little large and proved to be no better than its predecessor, Ferdi taking one win and two podiums to end the year in second again, this time to  Toni Kreuzer in his Cooper Mk IV.

Ferdi's results for the Brillant:

Hockenheim 14th May 1950, 3rd

Frankfurt 21st May 1950, DNF

Nürburgring 11th June 1950, 2nd

Donauringrennen 30th July 1950, DNF

Freiburg 6th August 1950, DNF

Solitude 12th August 1950, 1st

Feldbergrennen 1st October 1950, 4th

Lehder then moved to record-breaking, in collaboration with George von Opel. They built a 500cc car for NSU and Ferdi set a series of records in October 1951 on a German Autobahn.

Please get in touch if you know more.