Erwin Kremer

Born : June 26 1937
Deceased : September 27 2006

Biography Erwin Kremer

Erwin  Kremer was born in 1937. Together with his brother Manfred, Erwin liked to work on cars, overhaul their engines and try to improve them.  The Kremer brothers founded a car workshop in their hometown Cologne. Their first job was the rebuilding of a Porsche 356 they found on a scrapyard. 

Soon, the Kremer brothers gained more and more customers and they hired Willi Grossman as their chief mechanic.   During weekdays, Erwin did the administration and public relations for the workshop, Manfred managed the workshop. In the weekends,  Erwin raced the Porsche 356 Carrera he had bought. In the 1960s, Auto Kremer was involved in low-cost motorsports like slalom events, and rallies. Erwin at the wheel, Willi Grossman as co-pilot. Manfred Kremer remained where he felt safe, behind the pit-wall.

Soon after the Kremers upgraded racing in a Porsche 911, they started going international, Erwin Kremer realized he could not compete with the true professional drivers. The Kremer brothers started hiring racers to compete for the Kremer Racing team. In 1968 Erwin Kremer drove a Porsche 911 with Helmut Kelleners and Willi Kauhsen to victory in the 24 Hours of Spa.

The team first appeared at Le Mans in 1970 and for the first 5 races, Erwin shared the driving finishing in the top ten three times. Kremer team cars appeared at Le Mans every year for 30 consecutive years.
 The team took outright victory in 1979 with Bill and Don Whittington driving with Klaus Ludwig in a Porsche 935 K3. In addition to the victory and two podiums at le Mans, Kremer Racing also won the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1995, with Spyder K8 driven by Werner, Bouchut, Lavaggi and Laessig and took two other podium finishes with Bob Wollek and Reinhald Joest.

In 1988 Manfred Kremer retired from the company and moved to Spain. His brother Erwin suffered a heart attack in 2004 but never fully recovered.  When Erwin died during his rehabilitation in 2006, Erwin’s wife inherited the company. However, she had no entrepreneurial ambitions. In 1992, when she passed away, Manfred Kremer feared the ‘Kremer’ name would disappear. To prevent that from happening, he bought the company from the estate to find a suitable successor. In 2010 Eberhard Braunach, a Cologne-based entrepreneur took over Kremer Racing. 

We strongly recommend reading the books Porsche Kremer Racing and Porsche Kremer  Eine Erfolgstory 1962 – 2012. 

Pictures courtesy Porsche AG, Kremer Racing, and unknown.