Kurt Kuhnke

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Kurt Kuhnke
Nationality	German
World Championship Career
Active years	1963
Team(s)	non-works "BKL" Lotus
Races	1 (0 starts)
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podium finishes	0
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First race	1963 German Grand Prix


Last race	1963 German Grand Prix

Kurt Kuhnke (April 30, 1910, Stettin—February 8, 1969, Braunschweig) was a racing driver from Germany, although he was more successful in motorcycle racing.

After racing motorcycles and cars in various formulae during the late 1940s and 1950s, including Formula 2, Kuhnke moved into Formula One, failing to qualify Wolfgang Seidel's Lotus 18 at the non-Championship 1962 Grand Prix de Pau before retiring the same car from the Solitude Grand Prix that year with engine failure. The first appearance of his Borgward-engined Lotus was delayed through problems preparing the engine, and Kuhnke missed four races he had entered in the second half of 1962.

In 1963, Kuhnke failed to qualify his BKL Lotus at the Rome Grand Prix, along with team-mate Ernst Maring, and both cars suffered engine failures at the Solitude Grand Prix in July. His single World Championship Formula One entry was at the 1963 German Grand Prix where he failed to qualify by a considerable margin. The BKL Lotus was simply an ordinary Lotus, lightly modified by Kuhnke, the initials standing for Borgward Kuhnke Lotus.

After this, he retired from the Kanonloppet at the Karlskoga Circuit in Sweden with fuel injection problems, before moving away from Formula One.