Chapter 6

Racing in Their Blood

 PREVIOUS PAGE: At Bad Homburg, en fête for the finish of
the 1910 Prince Heinrich tour, the victorious team posed on the
cobbles with Count Schönfeld on the left, Eduard Fischer in the
center and Porsche on the right. These were demonstrably the
fastest touring cars of their day.
THIS PAGE: While his crew members argued procedures with
officials, left, Ferdinand Porsche waited impatiently at the wheel
of his entry in the 1909 Prince Heinrich tour. His was the shaft-
drive car while his teammates had chain-drive models, similarly
capable of 73 mph.

T
he early car-design career of Ferdinand Porsche teaches us a
powerful lesson. It is that he believed wholeheartedly in subjecting
a new design to the rigors of competition. He manifested this
conviction with all his early designs. Few indeed were those that in
one form or another he didn’t put to the test of a race, sprint, rally
or hillclimb. It mattered not whether it was a small car or large luxury model. If it
could be tested against its rivals on road or track, Porsche would do so.
He had several reasons for this. One of course was that dedicated proving
grounds were still far in the future. Cars were tested on the road, and when
measured against their rivals this gave a good index of engineering progress.
Those rivals could most easily be found in open competitions. Another was that
success in races and hillclimbs was an excellent source of publicity. This was a
powerful incentive in the industry’s early years and indeed was still strong moti-
vation for racing participation in the twenty-first century.
Yet another reason was that Ferdinand Porsche found that he really enjoyed
fast driving. He proved this with his long journeys across the continent of Europe
at a time when roads left a lot to be desired. Porsche soon developed a take-no-
prisoners style at the wheel. “He was a very, very rough driver, more of a racing
style,” recalled his grandson Ernst Piëch. “He would always get faster and faster
and faster. He couldn’t really see a car in front of him. He’d always be looking in
the mirror, but not in front. But he was very good—a very good driver.”1
A further reason for taking part in the early competitions was that they were
planned and designed to improve the state of the art. While from 1906 the French
concentrated on their Grand Prix races, circuit competitions for out-and-out racing
cars, the Germans turned to events for four-seaters that were framed to promote
progress in the design of road cars. Germany’s Emperor, Kaiser Wilhelm II, was
among the most auto-friendly monarchs. We recall the Kaiser’s backing for the
1907 Taunus races in which tire problems kept Porsche’s Mixtes from competing.
His younger brother, Prince Heinrich of Prussia, was an authentic car enthusiast
who even held a patent on a windshield wiper.
Touring cars were catered to by a new event launched in 1905, the Herkomer
Cup. This was the brainchild of Prof. Hubert von Herkomer, who returned to his
native Bavaria after a spell in Britain to encourage an event for amateurs driving
ordinary autos. A Mercedes was the 1905 winner, a Horch in 1906 and a Benz in
1907, the Herkomer’s final year.

1. Ernst Piëch said that his mother inherited a similar driving style.
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 146
REPLACING THE HERKOMER CUP in 1908 was a new German
competition, the Prince Heinrich Trial.2 Complex rules guided
the design of entries by regulating bore sizes in relation to car
weight, requiring four seats of specific sizes and demanding that
entrants be true owner-drivers who had covered at least 1,200
miles in their cars before the start. Nevertheless many cars were
unabashed factory machines including the winning Benz and
second-place Mercedes in 1908. No Austro-Daimlers took part,
but news of the event was brought back to Vienna by Reichen-
berger Automobil-Fabrik driver and backer Alfred Ginzkey and
a loyal supporter of Laurin & Klement cars from Bohemia’s
Mlada Boleslav, Count Alexander Kolowrat. A colorful figure in
Viennese motoring circles, the Count was a keen motorcyclist as
well as film producer.
Ferdinand Porsche, now well into his stride at Austro-Daimler,
decided with company General Manager Eduard Fischer to field
a team in the Prince Heinrich Trial’s 1909 edition. In fact they’d
be conspicuous by any absence, because for the first time the Trial
broke out of German territory from its start in Berlin and headed
southeast to Breslau and then to Budapest before turning west
through Vienna and Salzburg to finish up in Munich, a distance
of 1,143 miles. Such a comprehensive traverse of the Austro-
Hungarian Empire had to attract Austro-Daimler participation.
The Wiener Neustadt company was perhaps being economi-
cal with the truth when it said that its three factory team cars “cor-
respond rather precisely with the normal touring-car type, except
that the engine was dimensioned rather larger and thus also
develops more power. The chassis and body were kept somewhat
lighter than usual.” Here was a hint that the entries were merely
tuned versions of Austro-Daimler’s 4.5-liter 28/32. In fact their
body designs were not so radical as those of some of the contend-
ers of 1908 and 1909, but under their hoods was cylinder capacity
increased by a whopping 42 percent.
Staying within the Trial’s taxable-horsepower formula that
was heavily dependent on cylinder-bore diameter, Porsche
fashioned a four-cylinder engine of 115 x 154 mm for 6,398 cc.
It kept the separate two-cylinder blocks and T-head configuration
of the Maja with inlet ports on the right and exhausts on the left,
fitted with valves of equal diameter. A Bosch magneto was along
the block’s left flank, underneath four individual exhaust pipes
curving downward. This was Porsche’s first use of this exhaust-
tuning technique, which he was to employ successfully on his later
competition cars. His single updraft carburetor was on the right-
hand side. The big four’s output exceeded 60 bhp to permit the
team cars to reach 73 mph and cruise comfortably at 50–55 mph.
Although Porsche retained chain drive for two cars, he intro-
duced shaft drive for the third. All kept ten-spoke artillery wheels
with rear-wheel brakes only. While open four-seated touring-car
coachwork by Jacob Lohner & Co. was conventional, meeting the
dimensional requirements laid down by the regulations, the scuttles
shielding the cockpit were unusually deep and given added-on
cowls that reduced drag and further protected the occupants.
2. The pedant may with justice complain that this should be either Prinz
Heinrich or Prince Henry. The author prefers this hermaphroditic version.
LEFT: Entries by Austro-Daimler in the 1909
Prince Heinrich contest were virtually mandated by
its route, which passed through Austria-Hungary’s
capital cities on its way from Berlin to Munich. His
participation was a valuable learning experience for
Ferdinand Porsche.
FACING PAGE: Fitted with a so-called “American
top,” Austro-Daimler’s 1909 Prince Heinrich
entries were powered by new 6.4-liter T-head
fours. This chain-drive car showed the deeper cowl
fairing that was the main body-shape difference
from touring-car coachwork. Porsche was to rue not
having more radical bodies. He would not make the
same mistake in 1910.
 147
Unlike some of the more radical entries, said one report, the
Austro-Daimlers “gave the impression of touring cars that were
comfortable albeit built for lightness. Soon after their arrival in
Munich interested parties asked Director Fischer whether cars of
this type could be delivered with the same type of body.” As noted
in Chapter 5, in 1911 their desires were satisfied by introduction
of the 6.9-liter 27/60.
A star-studded field of 108 cars took the start in Berlin for
the Prince Heinrich, held from June 10 to 18, 1909. Wilhelm and
Ludwig Opel drove Opels and Ettore Bugatti a Deutz. August
Horch passengered in a Horch. The three Austro-Daimlers,
handled by Eduard Fischer, Ferdinand Porsche and Count
Hugo Boos-Waldeck, faced serried ranks of Opels, Benzes and
Mercedes.
Messrs. Porsche and Fischer won praise in the competition
as “bold and skilful drivers.” They distinguished themselves in
the final speed event, a time trial in Munich’s Forstenrieder Park.
Tackling a tricky curve, said one witness, “the first cars through
weren’t particularly exciting. Some of their drivers had reserva-
tions about taking this dangerous corner flat out. The story took
on a bit more life when the two Viennese, Director Fischer and
Porsche, passed the bend at almost undiminished speed. It’s a
shame that the two cars weren’t faster. Their two drivers would
really have deserved awards.”
Under a handicap system that favored smaller cars, Opel won
1909’s Prince Heinrich Trial with a Mercedes second and another
Opel third. Although all three Austro-Daimlers completed the
demanding tour intact and with no loss of marks, none placed
in the top dozen. Best placed among them was Fischer, who
received a special prize from the Austrian Automobile Club.
The cars’ reliability spoke well for the qualities that touring-car
buyers look for, said Fischer, who found “the competition in fact
a challenging test, and we can rightly be proud that our three cars
finished 100 percent.”
Afterward, independent observers noted that the results
were heavily biased by the results of the speed tests, one of which
carried a doubled points weighting and was used as a tie-breaker
among cars with similar points totals. Wielding his slide rule
during the grand banquet for the winners in Munich, his brain
whirring with future solutions, Ferdinand Porsche had grasped the
need for speed. He began outlining his car for 1910 before 1909’s
engines had cooled.
148

BELOW: Ferdinand Porsche transformed his 1910 contenders

for Prince Heinrich honors from bloodhounds to greyhounds,
slim and spare in sharp contrast to his 1909 entries. With a
flat radiator, this was one of the first cars completed.
FACING PAGE (top): This plan view of the series-built Austro-
Daimler 22/86 depicted the narrowness of the frame that was
adopted to help reduce the car’s aerodynamic drag. Also visible
is its live rear axle with the transverse division of its steel
housing that was a Porsche design attribute.
FACING PAGE (bottom): A profile view of the production
version of the 22/86 Austro-Daimler showed the height of
its engine, a byproduct of the long-stroke design adopted to
exploit the Prince Heinrich rules. Two large foot-operated
brakes were just forward of the universal joint and pivot of
the rear axle’s torque tube.
149
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“To win such a competition,” Porsche said afterward, “I thought
it would be enough to send in a robust, fast touring car. But in this
Prince Heinrich Trial I learned something important, namely that
a victory is only possible if one exploits every opportunity of the
regulations to the fullest and, so to speak, builds a ‘refined’ vehicle.
Now that’s no trick for me, as I’ll prove in 1910.”
FERDINAND PORSCHE BUILT HIS 1910 CAR on the 1909 chassis, which
proved its merits in that year’s Trial. Although narrowed on the
three team cars, the frame was little changed. The forged I-section
front axle was given a gentle curve instead of 1909’s more anti-
quated double drop. Brakes were still on the rear wheels only,
now behind quick-detachable Rudge wire wheels. A hand lever
applied the wheel brakes, while separate foot pedals brought
contracting-band brakes into action on the shafts from the gearbox
to the left and right chain-drive sprockets. Separate left and right
pedals allowed braking of a spinning drive wheel, a manual form
of limited-slip differential.
The four-speed transmission, said the designer, “is the normal
gearbox for the 28/32 hp Austro-Daimler. There is no difference
whatsoever. For the clutch I used both the steel-disc clutch and
the spring-band clutch as well. Both systems are good. For a good
driver, the spring-band clutch is perhaps a little better than the
multi-disc clutch. But the latter can be treated more harshly.”
The spring-band or scroll clutch was used in the three cars of the
official team.
Although live rear axles were increasingly being used in
the industry, Porsche chose chain drive. It had several benefits.
Roadholding was better, thanks to better suspension geometry,
much lower unsprung weight and the absence of torque reactions.
Overall weight was lower as well. Further, it was a snap to change
final-drive ratios with different sprocket sizes to adapt the car to
changing circumstances. “One special feature of my chain drive,”
Porsche explained in an AAZ article, “is the automatic lubrication
system, which to my knowledge isn’t used elsewhere. A pipe runs
from the lubricator to the drive sprocket of the chain. The pipe
ends close to this sprocket, so that oil trickles from within onto
the chain. As a result of centrifugal force the oil is then sprayed
outward, and thus is forced into the links of the chain.”
Porsche’s big changes were under the hood. Ingeniously, he
helped his handicap chances by using a smaller cylinder bore
 151

PAGE PRECEDING COLOR FOLD-OUT: A

front view of one of the flat-radiator 1910
Austro-Daimlers showed the care taken
with its aerodynamics: faired running gear,
separation of the fenders from the body to
reduce frontal area and headlamps meeting
only the letter of the law.
RIGHT: An overhead view of the 1910
curved-radiator Austro-Daimler for the
Prince Heinrich contest revealed its wind-
cheating bodywork with separated fenders
and faired suspension parts. Even the
acetylene tank for the headlamps was given a
low-drag shape.

than he had in 1909, 105 instead of 115 mm, thus reducing his
engine’s taxable-horsepower rating. “Under the Prince Heinrich
formula,” Porsche told AAZ, “the engine I built had 20 [taxable]
horsepower. If I’d wanted to, I could have gone up to 26 hp. But
I didn’t do that for quite specific reasons, although I can rule out
the possibility that a more powerful car would have had a better
chance of winning. As the power of a car increases, the difficulty
of driving it at maximum power also increases.
“Also,” Porsche added, “I didn’t know the course in detail. If,
for example, there’s a curve somewhere in the course, a powerful
car must be powered down before it and even braked. Its actual full
performance capabilities will exceed those that can be deployed
in the race. The driver of a less powerful car, on the other hand,
will be able to take the curve at full speed and he’ll achieve a
relatively better time.”3
Ferdinand Porsche married his 105 mm bore with the longest
stroke allowable under the rules, 60 mm greater than the bore, or
165 mm. The resulting capacity was 5,715 cc. This was larger than
the 4.5 liters of the Mercedes but decisively smaller than the 7.3
liters of the Benzes and 6.3 liters of the Berliets.
3. Although when he laid down the basic design Porsche didn’t know the
course in detail, he did reconnoiter it before the actual event. He passed on
valuable course guidance to all Austro-Daimler drivers.
 152

Having chosen relatively modest cylinder dimensions,
Porsche’s challenge was to build an engine that would deliver ex-
ceptional performance for its size. That was the only way to beat
the bogey times that the organizers established for each level of
taxable horsepower in the Trial’s speed tests. Two such tests would
be held in the 1910 run, one on a 3.4-mile stretch at Genthin, soon
after the departure from Berlin on June 2. Competitors headed
west to Braunschweig and then south to Kassel and Nuremberg.
From there they turned west toward Stuttgart and Strasbourg, after
which a second speed test was held at Heiligkreuz south of Colmar.
The final legs went north again through Metz to Homburg, close
to Frankfurt. Entirely in Germany, the route was longer than the
year before at 1,208 miles.
The bald facts of the design that Ferdinand Porsche chose for
his 1910 car’s all-new engine are straightforward enough. It used a
shaft-driven single overhead camshaft to open inclined overhead
valves, in hemispherical combustion chambers, through rocker
arms. But this was a quantum leap in the engineer’s technology.
Nothing in Porsche’s previous work suggested that such a solution
would or could be on his agenda. Although he was also working
on aviation engines at the time, some of which had overhead
valves, none of them had overhead camshafts.4 Examples of such
engines were already in existence, however, and some of them not
all that far from Wiener Neustadt.
shaft and worm gears to drive its camshaft, which opened the
exhaust valves through rocker arms. In 1903 the inlet valves were
added to its repertoire. Maudslay later built both two- and six-
cylinder versions.
Nineteen-ought-three also saw the completion by Daimler in
Cannstatt of a marine engine with features specified by Russian-
born Boris Loutzky. Working in Nuremberg in 1896, Loutzky
had helped develop a vertical single-cylinder engine with valves
operated by cams at the head, driven by a vertical shaft. Now the
six designed for him by Wilhelm Maybach and built by Daimler
had a combustion chamber shaped like a truncated cone, with its
inlet valve vertical at the top and its exhaust valve on the left side at
a 70-degree angle from the vertical. Between their stems Maybach
placed a single camshaft that opened the valves through rocker arms
that had small rollers at both ends.
Meanwhile in far-away America other engineers were building
power units of remarkably advanced design. In 1903 work began
in Indianapolis on a racing car commissioned by entrepreneur
and auto fanatic Carl G. Fisher. Intended to compete in the first
Vanderbilt Cup race of 1904, it was designed by George Weidely
and built by the Premier Motor Company. “I want it to be the
fastest damn race car in the world” was Fisher’s succinct instruc-
tion to Weidely.

CREDIT FOR THE FIRST USE of an overhead camshaft in a car engine
belongs to the Maudslay brothers, whose eponymous three-
cylinder overhead-cam car was introduced in 1902. Designed by
Alexander Craig and produced in Coventry, it used a vertical
4. Reports at the time and later stated that the 1910 Prince Heinrich
Austro-Daimler engine was itself also an aero engine or was derived from
one. Porsche himself asserted this immediately after the Trial, when he
said, “My car has an engine that has not only operated on earth, it has
also already flown in the air, and it’s the same engine that’s used in the
Etrich monoplane, with which the Austrian aviator Illner has flown so
successfully.” The aero engines are discussed in Chapter 8.

THIS PAGE: With a relatively small bore and long stroke to take full advantage
of the Prince Heinrich regulations, Porsche’s engine for his 1910 contender was
a pure racing four with an overhead camshaft and inclined valves. The fan,
unusual on a competition engine, was essential to cool the exhaust valves in their
finned cages.
 153

RIGHT: As installed in an early

flat-radiator chassis for the 1910
Prince Heinrich, the Austro-
Daimler’s 5.7-liter engine was
packed into the available hood
space. Its unusual elevated valve
springs were clearly visible, an
advantage being that any breakage
could be quickly spotted and
remedied. Not all the ten entries
used this elaborate inlet manifold.

The result was an air-cooled four with individual cylinders
measuring 177.8 x 152.4 mm for a total of 15,136 cc. Integrated
with the car’s frame, the Premier’s rods and crankshaft flailed
in the open air with total-loss oiling. Most strikingly, George
Weidely fitted the four with a single overhead camshaft driven by
a shaft and bevel gears at the front. Valves inclined at a 60-degree
included angle were closed by dual coil springs and opened by
long rocker arms, pivoted on a shaft above the camshaft. At the
cam-lobe end, each rocker arm was roller-tipped. Completed in
1904, the Premier Special proved too heavy to contest the Van-
derbilt Cup race. However, it marked a striking step forward in
overhead-cam-engine design.
Other American experimenters had similar ideas. In 1901
the Welch brothers of Pontiac, Michigan, used hemispherical
chambers fed by two automatic inlet valves and exhausted by a
single pushrod-operated exhaust valve in their first twin-cylinder
engine. In February 1904 the Welches introduced a vertical four-
cylinder engine with two overhead valves at a 90-degree included
angle, opened through high-leverage rocker arms from a single
central camshaft. Its drive came up the front of the engine, from a
five-bearing crankshaft, through a shaft and bevel gears.
Production of Welch cars began in earnest in 1905, when
elder brother Allie R. Welch obtained a patent on his design that
was published widely in engineering magazines. Running in five
main bearings, the 1906 Welch four measured 117.5 x 127 mm for
5,508 cc and developed 50 bhp at 1,250 rpm. In 1910 the Welch
Motor Car Company was subsumed into the expanding General
Motors empire and soon superseded as a brand.
Late in 1907 the Jackson Automobile Company of Jackson,
Michigan, introduced its Model E, a dramatic advance over its
154

ABOVE: Alexander Craig’s 1902 triple-cylinder design for

Maudslay had overhead-camshaft operation of its exhaust
valves and automatic inlets. A vertical shaft and worm gears
drove the camshaft in this pioneering use of an overhead cam.
LEFT: In his 1902 design of a large marine engine for Boris
Loutzky, Wilhelm Maybach fitted a single overhead camshaft
operating vertical inlet valves and angled exhausts through
rocker arms. It was the first engine design of this genre.
BELOW: Although unlikely to have inspired Fedinand Porsche,
George Weidley’s 1904 creation for Premier in Indianapolis
topped its 15.1-liter capacity with a shaft-driven overhead
camshaft and vee-inclined valves. Porsche would devise a more
compact rocker-arm layout.
 155

ABOVE: In America the Welch brothers were authentic pioneers of vee-

inclined valves operated by a shaft-driven overhead cam and rocker arms.
Such four-cylinder Welch engines were produced from 1905 and their
details widely published in engineering journals at the time.
RIGHT: Built with two-cylinder blocks on a common crankcase, the
1906 Welch produced 50 bhp from 5.5 liters. Its overhead cam and
rocker arms were entirely exposed in the manner of the day. The Welch
brothers used smoothly sophisticated exhaust piping.
BELOW: The 3.3-liter four designed for Nesselsdorf by Hans Ledwinka
appeared as its Model S in 1907. Its single overhead camshaft and vee-
inclined valves were advanced features certain to have been noticed by
Porsche before he designed his 1910 Prince Heinrich contender.
156

ABOVE: By the standards of 1910 the

Prince Heinrich Austro-Daimler was the
epitome of low-drag design. A leather strap
kept its engine crank from swinging wildly.
LEFT: Under the floorboards this transaxle
delivered torque to lateral shafts and
sprockets from which chains drove the rear
wheels of the 1910 Prince Heinrich Austro-
Daimler. Each shaft could be braked by a
contracting band.
FACING PAGE: With Ferdinand Porsche at
the wheel and a full passenger complement
to simulate racing conditions, one of the
1910 Prince Heinrich cars was put through
its paces on the Neunkirschner Allee during
tests before the Prince Heinrich tour.
 157
usual flat twins. Designed by Byron F. Carter, its five-bearing four-
cylinder engine had a single overhead camshaft operating inclined
overhead valves through pairs of roller-tipped rocker arms whose
pivots were neatly encased. Both inlet manifolding on the right
and exhaust on the left were smooth, clean designs.
By 1910 Jackson was making its overhead-cam engines in
three different sizes, the two largest having vertical-shaft drive at
the front of the engine and the smallest a chain drive at the rear.
Looking eminently well-suited to high-speed power production,
three Jacksons were entered in the first Indianapolis 500-mile race
of 1911. One, the largest with a 9.2-liter four, placed 10th. Jackson
failed to regain pace after the war and faded away after 1923.5
MUCH CLOSER TO HOME for Ferdinand Porsche was an engine
designed by a fellow Austrian. In 1878, three years after Porsche,
Hans Ledwinka was born in Klosterneuburg on the Danube a few
miles northwest of Vienna. Ledwinka trained in the mechanical
arts in the workshop of an uncle and also in a Vienna trade school
before moving to Nesselsdorf in eastern Moravia in 1897 at the
age of 19 to take up work there in a leading maker of railway
carriages that was just taking an interest in the car business. In
this respect the well-known company, named after the town, had
much in common with the standing and role of Lohner when
Porsche joined it.
Again like Porsche, Ledwinka was active in the creation of
Nesselsdorf’s first autos, based on Benz designs. For Theodor von
Liebieg, who later backed the founding of RAF in Reichenberg,
he built a special racing car in 1900. Ledwinka had been in charge
of the company’s auto designs when he left the firm in the autumn
of 1902 to pursue a steam-car project. He returned to Nesselsdorf
at the end of 1905 to resume guidance of the company’s car activi-
ties at the age of 27. After doing his best to salvage the indiffer-
ent designs he found, the engineer launched a crash program to
design a completely new car with the help of a young draftsman,
Antonin Klicka. By the end of 1906 he had completed the design
of his new Nesselsdorf, the Model S.
This was a car on which the company’s future depended—
Nesselsdorf was contemplating quitting the car field—so Hans
Ledwinka pulled out all the stops. Like Porsche almost contem-
poraneously, he used a radical gearbox, a so-called “bell” design
that engaged its gears in an unusual way. But the Model S’s crown
jewel was its engine, an in-line four cast in two blocks of two
measuring 90 x 130 mm for 3,308 cc. Bevel gears and a vertical
5. Welch and Jackson were only the most prominent among the American
makers of single-overhead-cam fours in the first decade of the twentieth
century. Trebert of Rochester, New York, offered proprietary engines of this
design, while in 1907 Tincher of South Bend, Indiana produced a costly
chain-drive automobile of this configuration with valves that were vertical
rather than inclined.
 158
shaft at the front drove a single overhead camshaft that opened
overhead valves through rocker arms. Inclined at an included
angle of 90 degrees, inlets were on the right and exhausts on the
left. A transverse shaft, also at the front, drove a water pump on
the left and magneto on the right.
Combining as it did some of the most advanced features
of the day, Hans Ledwinka’s Model S was a technical tour de
force. Three ball bearings carried its crankshaft in an aluminum
crankcase with twin circular access ports that would become a
Ledwinka trademark. Rated at 30 bhp at 2,200 rpm, the new
engine gave birth to a 5.0-liter six as well, a handsome engine
that in 1910 was credited with 50 bhp at 2,600 rpm.6 Both types
remained in production to World War I. They gained a sister, the
45-bhp Nesselsdorf Model T, in which all four cylinders shared a
single block and the valve gear was fully enclosed.
In the automotive world of Austro-Hungary, Porsche and
Ledwinka were well-acquainted. Their paths crossed at suppliers,
shows and sporting events. Among the entrants in 1907’s Semmering
Hillclimb, gathering place for Europe’s automotive nobility, was
Ledwinka in a Nesselsdorf. The innovations of his new Model S,
said one historian, “made it a hit at the Vienna Auto Salon.” We
can be confident that Ferdinand Porsche was well-acquainted with
the technology that Ledwinka had synthesized so well.
At Mlada Boleslav, halfway between Maffersdorf and Prague,
another advanced prototype had matured by 1909. After helping
launch RAF in Reichenberg, the talented Otto Hieronimus—1906
Pötting Prize winner—moved to Laurin & Klement in 1908. For the
Mlada Boleslav firm he developed several racing cars, including
the four-cylinder FCR of 1909 with 5,675 cc from the extreme di-
mensions of 85 x 250 mm. He topped its two cylinder blocks with
vee-inclined valves at an included angle of 120 degrees, opened
by a shaft-driven overhead camshaft. The two FCRs Hieronimus
made were active competitors at Semmering and elsewhere.
THUS FERDINAND PORSCHE had a small but well-defined cache of
suitable solutions at his disposal when he mulled over ways to
increase the specific power of his 1910 Prince Heinrich engine.
They pointed unerringly to inclined overhead valves in a compact
combustion chamber. “Why the valves need to be set in the
cylinder head is no longer a mystery,” said Porsche. “We do it to
reduce as far as possible the dead volume”—the space that remains
6. One driven by Ledwinka, two of the sixes competed in 1911’s Alpine
Trial against Porsche’s 14/32 Austro-Daimlers.
 159

FACING PAGE AND BELOW:

This phalanx of seven Austro-
Daimlers for the 1910 Prince
Heinrich contest represented
the fruits of an incredibly
intense year of researching,
designing, testing and
construction following the
indifferent result of 1909. In
all, ten of the new cars took
the start.
 160
above the piston at top dead center. This was another way of saying
that the layout encouraged a higher compression ratio than the
T-head or L-head chambers with their “dead volume” sprawling
out at the sides to house the valves. As in Ledwinka’s Model S, the
Austro-Daimler’s two valves per cylinder—a generous 71 mm in
diameter—were equally disposed at a 100-degree included angle.
Next was the question of valve actuation. Porsche could have
used pushrods and rocker arms, in the manner of Pipe, Benz, Fiat
and others, and as he did in his own aviation engines. For his new
Austro-Daimler, however, he chose a single overhead camshaft
driven by a vertical shaft and bevel gears at the front of the engine.
This was heavier than the pushrod alternative, but weight was less
a concern in a car than in an airplane. The valves were opened
by short and light rocker arms, roller-tipped where they contacted
the cam lobes, that gave the small multiplication ratio of 1:1.11. In
this way, said Porsche, “we gain an advantage because the recip-
rocating parts are kept as small as possible.”
Each rocker arm had a wide-based pivot at the periphery
of the central aluminum housing that contained the camshaft.
To keep his engine’s profile as low and compact as possible
Ferdinand Porsche innovated in its rocker-arm layout. If he’d
placed the rockers above the valve stems pushing them down,
like Welch and Nesselsdorf, he’d have had to use long rocker
arms and a high-placed camshaft. Instead he forked the valve
end of the rocker arm so it could push down a collar, integral
with the stem just above the valve guide, to open the valve. Thus
each valve’s coil spring protruded outward, reacting against an
abutment bolted to the head to close the valve. In addition to
compactness this had the merit of giving better cooling to the
spring and thus to the valve.7
Each valve seated in a cage, also serving as a stub port, which
was clamped into position in the non-detachable cylinder head
by a large screwed-in toothed ring. Removing these port cages
was the normal manner of extracting the engine’s valves. Each
cage and port was isolated from the coolant, which circulated
around it but not through it. “I willingly admit that this was the
biggest risk in the whole design,” said Ferdinand Porsche. “At the
beginning of the Trial it aroused much headshaking among the
German competitors.
“I only decided in favor of it,” the designer added, “because
otherwise removing the valves is very difficult. If we had also
wanted to make the valve stem water-cooled, the cooling water
would be lost when the valve is removed.” Each valve seat wasn’t
“directly connected to the water cavities; it has what you might
call contact cooling. This type of cooling proved to be totally
satisfactory.” The exhaust-valve cages and their adjacent ports
were heavily finned for cooling. To ensure an ample draft, Porsche
supplemented his usual flywheel fan with an additional fan behind
the radiator that was belt-driven at faster than engine speed from
the nose of the camshaft.
Bevel gears from the vertical shaft drove two Bosch magnetos
at the front of the engine, each angled gently to the rear. This
provided dual ignition, adopted not for performance but for
7. Opel would copy this distinctive valve gear for the four-valve heads of its
four-cylinder 1914 Grand Prix car. Albeit with pushrods, Vincent would use
a similar layout for some of its motorcycle engines.
LEFT: Entirely witin the borders of
Imperial Germany, the route of the 1910
Prince Heinrich trial was expected to
favor the many entries from domestic auto
makers. Foreign teams from such as Fiat,
Vauxhall, Puch and Austro-Daimler were
expected to struggle.
FACING PAGE: The best-known
image from the 1910 Prince Heinrich
competition showed Porsche pressing on
with his characteristic air of confidence
and behind him a well-shrouded Louise.
His mount’s tiny headlamps are reversed
to offer the absolute minimum of drag.
 161
security.8 The two plugs were athwart the inlet valves. “To be
sure, the operational reliability of modern ignition systems is such
that it would have been the most unusual of coincidences if an
Austro-Daimler had broken down because of an ignition fault,”
the designer avowed. “Both were in operation, but spot checks
were made now and then. One of them was switched off and the
other checked, and then vice versa. Otherwise it was possible that
one of them had failed. We would then perhaps have continued
with the other one in operation until it too failed. Although such
an event is improbable, in this world anything can happen.”
Also driven at the front was a single water pump, placed
at the bottom of the cam-drive tower. It delivered water to a
manifold along the left, exhaust side of the engine, from which
warmed coolant was also extracted next to the exhaust valves. The
three factory team cars had sharply veed honeycomb radiators
that combined maximum cooling area with minimum frontal
area. Two of the seven privateered Austro-Daimler entries, all
of which had the new engine, had rounded radiators while the
rest were flat.
Coolant manifolding to and from the cylinders was needed
because each was an individual iron casting. Although seemingly
a retrograde step from more modern en bloc engines, Porsche chose
separate cylinders “because then I can mount the crankshaft in a
much better way. Mounting plays an important role in engines with
high rpm.” The added spacing between cylinders left ample room
for five main bearings to support the crankshaft fully. Caps for
the front and rear mains were integral with the aluminum oil pan,
while separate caps were provided for the remaining three. All the
bearings had bronze shells with babbitted bearing surfaces.
Machined from a steel billet, the crankshaft was bereft of
counterbalancing. Pistons were thin-wall steel, attached to I-
section connecting rods with four-bolt big ends. Lubrication of
the babbitted big ends was by scoops in their caps, picking up
oil from troughs in the sump. Fresh oil was fed to key parts of
8. One of the magnetos was fitted with twin points for a battery-powered
ignition system that was used to assist starting. Had the engine been used for
aviation, dual ignition would have been essential.
162

LEFT: Count Georg Orssich relied on his

front-seat partner to honk the horn during
his drive to 49th place in the 1910 Prince
Heinrich contest. His Austro-Daimler
was fitted with an experimental radiator
with forward-facing curvature.
BELOW: Unable to start the second day
of the 1910 Prince Heinrich on time,
Hungarian Eugen von Baruch’s Austro-
Daimler was disqualified. Nevertheless he
loyally carried on to finish the complete
route so that Wiener Neustadt could
claim finishes by all its cars.
FACING PAGE: Among the privateers
piloting Austro-Daimlers in the 1910
Prince Heinrich tour was H. C. Hanson.
Penalized for a leaking water pipe, he
placed 59th for the poorest official result of
the cars from Wiener Neustadt.
163
 164
the engine from a reservoir by Porsche’s favored Friedmann
multi-plunger pump. Although seemingly more primitive than
full-pressure oiling systems, this had the merit of constantly de-
livering fresh, clean oil. Given the state of the art at the time,
Porsche preferred this to systems that recirculated oil that might
contain damaging debris.
Separate pipes on the exhaust side entered an expansion
chamber from which a single pipe took exhaust gases to the rear.
Screw couplings clamped them to the exhaust ports, similar to
the couplings used to attach the inlet manifold. The latter was
optimal in design, giving perfect mixture distribution through two
branches debouching into two more for the front and rear cylinder
pairs. An alternative simpler manifold, more akin to a simple log
design, was fitted to some of the engines. Where mixture entered
the manifold it was warmed by a water jacket. This was needed,
said Porsche, “to prevent the carburetor from freezing.”
Anti-icing provisions apart, Ferdinand Porsche aimed for his
cars to ingest the coolest possible air. “By drawing in cold air,” he
 165
said, “it is possible to induce a larger quantity of explosive mixture
into the chamber than is the case with warm-air induction.” Made
as part of the inlet manifold was Porsche’s own compact single-
jet carburetor, whose mixture strength was adjusted by a leather
diaphragm that controlled an air valve in response to manifold
vacuum. Otherwise all its settings were either built into the instru-
ment or adjusted by changing spring pressures.9 After an initial
pump-up, exhaust-gas pressure from one of the cylinders forced
gasoline from the tank to the carburetor.
With its large valves the engine’s cam timing didn’t need
to be radical; an avoidance of overlap assured sufficient pulling
power. Porsche tailored it to give good flexibility through its range
to a maximum of 2,300 rpm with peak torque of 238 lb-ft at 2,000
rpm. At 1,000 rpm it was already developing 32 bhp and 168 lb-ft
of torque. It produced 86 bhp at 1,900 and reached its maximum
output of 95 bhp at 2,100 rpm. This was exceptional specific power
for 1910, indeed one of the highest, if not the highest, power levels
per liter yet attained by any engine. Yet it was achieved without
fuss or fury for a car designed to cope with the requirements of a
demanding road rally.
Arrowing southwest from Wiener Neustadt, paralleling the
railroad, a dead-straight road ran for 8 miles toward the town
of Neunkirchen. This, the Neunkirchner Allee, was Ferdinand
Porsche’s high-speed test track. When he took his first completed
1910 Prince Heinrich prototype there in April he clocked it at 80
mph, not at all a mean pace for a touring car. Friendly as he was
with the aviators at a nearby airfield, Porsche invited one of them
along to his tests. Igo Etrich was already famed for early flights in
his Taube, or Pigeon; in February he had just moved his operations
to the flat, open Steinfeld northwest of Wiener Neustadt. Etrich
and Porsche were beginning to cooperate in the air. Now the
Austro-Daimler engineer asked for his advice on land.
Etrich passengered in a speed run on the Neunkirchner Allee.
“After our test Porsche asked for my opinion,” he wrote. “I told
him that the engine was very good, but the body shape was wrong,
because the car drew heavy air turbulence behind it that reduced
its speed. I added that if I’d given the tail of my Taube a similar
shape, my airplane wouldn’t have managed even a hop. I recom-
mended that he give the car’s tail a metal enclosure, as an experi-
ment, which would provide a more favorable airflow at departure.
Thereafter the car was given streamlined-shape bodywork with
the result that the engine revved over the allowable speed limit,
demanding a change in the final-drive ratio.”10
This was an excellent result. The Neunkirchner Allee had
become Porsche’s wind tunnel as well as his test track. “We cannot
imagine how much power must be used to overcome air resis-
tance,” he had discovered. “According to my calculations, on cars
with the power and velocity of the Austro-Daimler no less than
60 to 65 bhp is required to overcome air resistance.” This was his
finding after he’d addressed the aerodynamics of his 1910 Prince
Heinrich contenders.
Porsche credited many detail refinements with a top-speed
improvement of 6 mph. These included the shrouding of many
components exposed to the wind. “The front axle, the lamp
struts, the muffler—all of these components are in fish-form,” he
explained. He could have added the fender struts, the rear axle
and the acetylene generator. “This means that their front edge
9. In order to obtain the optimum carburetor settings for the Prince
Heinrich Trial, Porsche arranged to have samples of the event’s official fuel
sent to Wiener Neustadt so it could be used in the final dynamometer tests.
10. Many accounts credit Ernst Neumann-Neander, who although older
than Porsche shared a birth date with him, with the design of the car’s body.
A drawing exists but it does not resemble the completed body and crucially
lacks the pointed tail that was Etrich’s contribution. We can conclude that
the final design was chiefly influenced by Igo Etrich.
 166
has a wider, rounded form that then tails off sharply at the rear.
Initially this shape seems illogical, but even so it is what I found
in my trials. It makes a great difference whether you choose this
fish-shape or—as many designers do—you give the car sharp edges
which cut through the air. This may seem more logical, but it is not
such an advantage in the end. On fish-shape components the air is
compressed, and then when it flows back together again, it pushes
the car forward, as it were.”
Ferdinand Porsche was not the only designer who brought cars
to the start in Berlin that professed to offer less wind resistance. The
Brennabors were bullet-shaped, the Mercedes dart-shaped and
the Benzes exceptionally clean with cowled radiators, disc covers
for their wheels and a tapered tail akin to that recommended by
Igo Etrich. Many adopted a “tulip” shape for the body, which
was wide at the top to meet the Trial’s mandatory dimensions but
narrow, curving down to the frame rails, to reduce frontal area.
PREVIOUS PAGE: Another entry roared
by as Count Schönfeld’s crew changed
a right rear tire during the 1910 Prince
Heinrich tour. Heinrich Schönfeld was a
staunch ally of the efforts of Fischer and
Porsche and no mean competitor behind
the wheel.
LEFT: Severin Schreiber, manager of
Austro-Daimler’s new sales branch in
Vienna, placed 33rd in the 1910 Prince
Heinrich with his flat-radiator model. It
benefitted from the full fairing of its axles.
BELOW: In a white vee-radiator factory
car that was close kin to the winner’s,
Count Heinrich Schönfeld drove to a
worthy third place in the 1910 Prince
Heinrich, completing Austro-Daimler’s
sweep of the top three positions.
 167

ABOVE: Porsche ensured that this

red Austro-Daimler of his Managing
Director lacked nothing in the hunt for
victory in the 1910 Prince Heinrich
trial. Eduard Fischer, however, was
happy to see the win go to the man
who’d worked so hard to achieve it.
RIGHT: Some of the Austro-Daimlers
in the 1910 Prince Heinrich had this
simpler log-type inlet manifold. This
was the style chosen for later production
of the commercially marketed version of
Porsche’s victorious 5.7-liter four.
168
169

LEFT: The Austrian heroes of the 1910

Prince Heinrich contest were pictured with
their loot. Seated from left were Count
Schönfeld, Ferdinand Porsche and Eduard
Fischer. Those standing from left were other
team members Doctor Grohmann, Count
B. Schönfeld, H. C. Hanson, F. Schreiber,
Major von Bolzano, Doctor Havak,
Lieutenant Schuster, C. C. Friese, Severin
Schreiber and Benno Brauda.
170
171

LEFT: Porsche’s laurel-bedecked Austro-

Daimler posed in front of Bad Homburg’s
Savoy Hotel at the end of a hard-fought
Prince Heinrich tour. Aloisia was behind
him, next to the official observer, while his
injured chauffeur was ballast in the front.
Behind him was the red second-place car of
Eduard Fischer.
 172
This was emphasized in Wiener Neustadt’s three factory team cars
by giving them a narrower chassis frame, 27.6 inches wide. All the
Austro-Daimlers rode on a 120.3-inch wheelbase.
In their basic “tulip” body form, constructed as the previous
year by Jacob Lohner & Co., the Austro-Daimlers resembled
some of their rivals. None, however, was fashioned with Porsche’s
fanatical attention to detail. Etrich’s suggestion of a tapering tail
was adopted to very good effect on the official team cars. Porsche’s
fish-form fairing of wind-blasted components was unique. “I have
even gone so far as to shroud every single nut on the fenders so
the air has nothing to catch on,” the designer confessed. He also
fitted a full undershield and fairings for the Hartford friction shock
absorbers and the chain sprockets.
The special features of the three works cars were kept under
wraps until the last minute. In mid-May a test was organized
on the Neunkirchner Allee for some of the talented amateurs
who, it was hoped, would acquire cars to drive in the Trial.
Two flat-radiator models were brought, one of them the car
that had been pictured in early photos that purported to show
Austro-Daimler’s contender. The company’s first-ranked cars,
with their veed radiators and tapering tails, gave a sensationally
more intense impression. And that was before their hoods were
opened to display engines that were at the cutting edge of 1910’s
technology.
AMONG THOSE TIPPED FOR SUCCESS in the third Prince Heinrich
were Benz, the previous year’s winners with spectacular new cars,
and Opel, winner of the first Prince Heinrich, with 20 cars among
the starters including the only entry piloted by a woman, Lilli
Sternberg. Racing drivers Willy Pöge and Camille Jenatzy were
stars of the Mercedes team, while the international scope of the
event was shown by entries from Vauxhall, Mathis, Fiat, Berliet and
Bugatti—with Ettore himself at the wheel. As Ferdinand Porsche
relates in this chapter’s sidebar, however, his Austro-Daimlers im-
mediately impressed with their immaculate readiness.
Fischer and Porsche were successful in attracting customers
for their exciting new cars. In addition to the three team cars,
seven more took the start. One was handled by a Hungarian,
Eugen von Baruch. At the first stop in Braunschweig he had to
make heavy repairs that kept him from starting on time the next
day. This meant disqualification. With his car sorted, however, von
 173

FACING PAGE: Much as onlookers would

gather to admire a Ferrari or Lamborghini
today, these Londoners paused to inspect
one of the fastest road cars of 1911, a
production-model Austro-Daimler 22/80
based on the successful Prince Heinrich
racing cars of 1910.
RIGHT: The title page of Vienna’s AAZ
on June 19, 1910, showed justified pride
in a great triumph of Austrian technology
in the heart of Germany. Porsche had pride
of place with Eduard Fischer at left and
Count Schönfeld at right. The “Iron Team”
was born.
BELOW: This plan view purports to show
the layout that Ferdinand Porsche might
have used had Austro-Daimler chosen to
tackle the Prince Heinrich again in 1911.
Though possibly apocryphal, its radical
“sidecar” design could well have conformed
with the rules while giving an unbeatable
aerodynamic advantage.
 174
Baruch carried on and completed the run unofficially. Another
Austro-Daimler, that of Robert Voight, was driven by Düsseldorf’s
Benno Brauda. It fell out of competition with a seized clutch—the
sensitivity of the scroll clutch of which Porsche spoke—but Brauda
bravely drove to the finish by shifting without the clutch, aided by
the engine’s flexibility.
That left five private cars eligible for awards. They all received
plaques commending their completion of the Trial. Of the 86
finishers H. C. Hanson’s car placed the least well, 59th. He’d mis-
takenly slowed when a rogue white flag was waved during the first
speed test, and later picked up penalty points when a water hose
sprung a leak. Forty-ninth place went to another Austro-Daimler,
that of Count Georg Orssich. He was the only competitor, he
said, to carry five people rather than the mandated four. Egon
von Jägermayer placed 41st while 33rd went to Severin Schreiber,
manager of Austro-Daimler’s new sales branch in Vienna.
Best placed of all the privateers was the black Austro-Daimler
of a Porsche ally of old, Count Siegfried Wimpffen. He engaged
an engineer, C. C. Friese, as his driver for the Trial. Friese, who
had been Porsche’s dispassionate controller in the 1909 Prince
Heinrich, decided to return to the fray in 1910 as a driver. They
finished an excellent 12th in a flat-radiator car that had all Porsche’s
aerodynamic chassis refinements.
Ferdinand Porsche’s own story, in the sidebar, gives a good
sense of the demands of the 1910 Prince Heinrich, in which the
biggest risk for the Austro-Daimlers, with their air-cooled exhaust
valves, wasn’t going too fast but rather going too slow. In the two
time trials a Benz was fastest, 84.5 and 85.8 mph, but performed
less well against its specified target time than the Austro-Daimlers
of Eduard Fischer, 79.5 mph in the first test, and Ferdinand
Porsche, 82 mph in the second. It was Fischer’s desire that, of
the two of them, Porsche should take the lead, and the engineer
eagerly responded with excellent pace in the final test.
Another longtime supporter of Ferdinand Porsche’s work,
Count Heinrich Schönfeld, was offered the wheel of the third
works car, officially the property of Vienna’s Fritz Hamburger. In
the first speed test his engine suffered from a misfire, later traced
to water in its fuel. Schönfeld praised his mount’s flexibility, saying
that he drove for hours at speeds as low as 15 to 20 miles per hour
in top gear. He finished third with a good points margin over the
fourth-place Opel and a Benz in fifth. The two chief rivals were
decisively beaten back.
Count Schönfeld’s team also collected the prize offered by the
King of Württemberg, lending substance to the joking comment
of Opel’s Fritz Erle, “Do you Austrians really have to come to
Germany and take the prizes from us?” Of the 16 prizes on offer,
the Austrian cars went home with half.11 Packing them all up for
shipment home was no small task.
As the business partners hoped and planned, Eduard Fischer
placed second overall to the winner, Ferdinand Porsche. By
sweeping the top three places the “Iron Team” put the team prize
far out of reach. Although Porsche’s motoring ménage was not the
most robust, comprising his wife Aloisia and his injured chauffeur,
he made few demands on it during the Trial. He received the
prize of the Emperor’s Automobile Club. To rub it in, he also
won outright Prince Heinrich’s magnificent perpetual trophy, a
11. Other prizes were awarded for the speed trials. In the first one at
Genthin, Eduard Fischer collected Princess Heinrich’s award while
Ferdinand Porsche won the prize offered by Princess Charlotte of Sachsen-
Meiningen. In the second speed trial near Colmar Porsche’s reward was the
prize of the Grand Duke of Hesse while Fischer was honored by the prize of
his Excellency the Governor Count von Wedel.
 175

FACING PAGE: On the

beach at Fanø, Denmark’s
answer to Daytona,
Ferdinand Porsche took
part in speed trials with
a two-seater version of the
22/86.
THIS PAGE: Prince Elias of
Parma, here a passenger,
ordered this magnificent
coachwork from Jacob
Lohner for his series-built
shaft-drive 22/86 Austro-
Daimler. With its cycle
fenders, tapered tail and
huge exhaust pipes it was
one of the most stunning
sporting cars of its era.
 176
What Winner Director Porsche Had to Say
Allgemeine Automobil-Zeitung, 19 June 1910
I’m happy to admit it: I made a huge effort with the Austrian
Prince Heinrich car. But all that effort wasn’t in vain. It wasn’t
easy getting the vehicle ready in time, as I normally have plenty
to do. Just before the journey to Berlin I had to attend the first
lift-off by the Lebaudy airship in Fischamend, because a first
attempt always makes demands on the designer of the engine,
even if everything goes well. My car had already been sent to
Berlin in advance by rail. On the day before the weigh-in I
tested the Lebaudy airship and then had just enough time to
rush to the train.
I arrived in Berlin at 8:05 A.M. and then had to be at the
weigh-in at 8:40 A.M. I was there in good time and was able,
for the first time, to observe the first success of my design: we
were feared competitors. They were saying that the Austrian
Daimlers did 140 km/h [87 mph]. I think that other competitors
were saying that, but in fact they had no idea how near they
were to the truth. Toward the end of the second race I did
indeed travel at 140 km/h.
Inspection of the car went smoothly. There were no
complaints. Everything was perfect. We had kept strictly to the
dimensions. After it had been inspected, I made another test run
in the Berlin area. Just before departure from Wiener Neustadt
I had made a small adjustment to the carburetor which I could
only test once I had arrived in Berlin.
On the day before the start I fetched my independent
observer, Lieutenant Count Bopp, a nephew of Count Bopp
von Oberstadt. He was a strict but impeccable controller,
and that was fine with me. I didn’t want any leniency; in
such a competition that’s absolutely inadmissible. But I was
pleased to have a controller with unquestionable integrity. My
wife accompanied me on the whole journey. I also had my
chauffeur, Mr. Henschel, with me, although I couldn’t rely
on his help, because a little earlier he’d broken his arm. He
couldn’t even crank the engine, and I was obliged to carry out
all the heavy work for him. But I was happy to do it, because he
had conducted himself valiantly on the previous year’s Prince
Heinrich trial.
Just beyond Berlin the roads were poor and the cars were
very badly shaken in all directions. Whatever wasn’t firmly
secured went astray. People said to me that the choice of these
roads was a special request of Prince Heinrich of Prussia. He
wanted to separate the good vehicles from the poor ones during
the first stage. The pace wasn’t very rapid. We had to dawdle
so slowly that it was a cause for concern, as our cars were built
for speed. It was in fact a very harsh test for the cooling system
and the lubrication.
When we reached the race section, the cars were weighed.
The Austrian Daimlers were heavy enough and they needed no
ballast. I didn’t want to expose my wife to the dangers of the
race. She got out at the start and traveled on by train.
The race went well. I drove the car flat out and it went
like “greased lightning.” I found the road to be poor; in fact it
seemed very bumpy. Remarkably my view didn’t conform with
the view of many of the other competitors. They thought that
the roads were very good, but then they did find the second flat
race poor, whereas I thought it was good.
Both my chauffeur and I kept our times during the race. And
after the race I was very disappointed. I thought the distance
was only 5 kilometers, and when I calculated the time I found
that I had driven miserably. But soon afterward disappointment
turned to surprise, when I discovered that the distance was
actually 5½ kilometers. My time was excellent. But there was
an unpleasant surprise at the end of the stage. Because of a
miscalculation some competitors were given a time 10 seconds
faster, and according to that I seemed to be third or fourth. Of
course that would have been quite good but I did really want
to be first and, based on the facts, that didn’t seem impossible.
But after the unpleasant surprise came a pleasant one when the
calculation error was discovered. To quote Goethe, it was a case
of “Longing and anxious in constant anguish.”
The second day took us from Braunschweig to Kassel. This
time Prince Heinrich was at the front. He set the pace and as a
result it was much more lively. On this day I saw many cars that
had broken down, usually with tire failures. The organization
was absolutely superb. The spectators formed a guard of honor
and we were generally received with great enthusiasm. My car
covered this stage without any breakdowns.
The third day was Kassel to Nuremberg. The leading group
traveled at an ambling pace that drove me almost to desperation.
We didn’t know why we weren’t making good progress. The
average speed we’d been promised was approximately 50 km/h
[31 mph]. Instead, we were covering only 20 to 25 kilometers
per hour [12.5–15.5 mph]. As I said earlier, we didn’t know why
that was. Was it the leading guide vehicle or was one of the
contestants for some reason going slowly so all those behind
were being held up?
I left a considerable interval between myself and the car
in front because it can be very harmful for a car to be tailing a
cloud of whipped-up dust. The carburetor sucks dust through
the valves into the interior of the engine, where it does no
good to the cylinder walls or the valves. Some competitors
were pushing from behind. They wanted to get in front. I let
them pass. Usually it was only those contestants whose cars had
suffered faults on the first day, so they were keeping up with the
competition albeit without any expectations.
During the journey I followed the underlying principle
of almost all serious contestants: to cover the stages from start
to finish without a stop. We ate en route, but that’s the usual
procedure on such journeys. On the run from Kassel to
Nuremburg, chance would have it that I completed the stage
precisely with the contents of my gasoline tank. My car came to
a standstill beneath the yellow finishing tape in Nuremberg. I
had used up the very last drop of gasoline. But in addition to the
main reservoir I also had a reserve tank, so I wasn’t embarrassed
and suffered no penalties, because the gasoline could be topped
up from the containers we carried with us.
The reception in Nuremberg was, as everywhere, grand.
The general view was that my prospects were by far the best.
We had a rest day in Nuremberg and that did me good, because
I was actually very tired going into the competition.
The fourth day covered the section from Nuremberg to
Strasbourg. The roads were magnificent. If only the pace had
 177
Partners in life, Ferdinand and Aloisia Porsche were partners as well in the tests of Austro-Daimlers and even in competitions like the Prince Heinrich and Alpine trials.
been a little faster. In Stuttgart I tried to find my acquaintances
from the Daimler motor company in the crowd, but in vain.
I wasn’t able to wave to any of them as I drove by. I really
didn’t see them and I didn’t pass by “proudly,” as one of the
gentlemen said. In any case, my victory was at this stage still
not at all certain.
It was much appreciated that Bosch had set up a food
station. In Stuttgart a card was passed to us in the car stating that
a basket with food and drink would be given us 20 kilometers
farther on−for better ignition! The present was actually a gift
from the Bosch company. Herr Bosch was, of course, very
interested in the ignition system on my car. I had only the best
news for him.
Our route took us through some beautiful sections of the
Black Forest. I knew some of the area quite well from a test
run that I’d made there. The inclines were considerable, but
they didn’t pose the same difficulties for an Austrian used to
the mountains as they did to most Germans. Up by Kniebis,
the leader brought us to a stop. The cars formed a tailback and
then began the most disgraceful dawdle in the world. I made a
voluntary stop and started again later, when the air was clear,
clear of the dust that almost choked us.
My prospects of victory and my standing with the other
competitors rose as we approached the finish. Opel’s Herr
Erle said jokingly: “Do you Austrians really have to come to
Germany and take the prizes from us?” I was still not at all sure
of victory. After all, anything could happen on the long journey
ahead. Victory or defeat can depend on something so small. A
tiny, insignificant fault to a trivial part—and all is lost. But I was
lucky. I had better luck than I could have hoped for.
In the first flat race Director Fischer went faster than me,
despite the fact that both vehicles were the same. I put the
difference in speed down to the fact that Director Fischer’s
car had a somewhat lower final-drive ratio and, as a headwind
was blowing, he was better able to fight it than I. But Director
Fischer was a loyal competitor. He explained immediately that
he preferred to see me in the lead rather than himself, so I
saw to it that I obliged him in this respect. I was faster in the
second speed competition than he was. Furthermore, I was
also the only competitor who improved his chances there. I
finished the second flat race under exactly the same conditions
as the first one. Our vehicles were weighed and everything
was fine.
I do not really need to emphasize just how badly all the
competitors were affected by the terrible accident that occurred
on this section. As we all know now Herr Heine, an otherwise
good driver, turned his car over and the independent observer
and his chauffeur were killed. Heine himself suffered serious
injuries. There was plenty of discussion during the Trial and
also in the newspapers about the cause of the accident, and it
was said that a puncture was to blame. This certainly isn’t true,
because all four tires were fully inflated after the accident.
I believe that the cause of the accident was something
else. While driving past the stands Herr Heine looked at the
spectators to see what impression he was making. That is a
failing in very many drivers. As the road was heavily cambered,
he left the crown of the road, the car started to skid and in the
end he lost control. Many other drivers had complained that
the road had too much camber and I believe that at such a
speed and in a car with a degree of play in the steering, these
circumstances can have a detrimental effect.
I had asked my wife to alight from the car before the race.
As fate would have it she was traveling in the train with the wife
of the driver, Herr Heine, who was involved in the accident.
 178

Frau Heine had been in a most cheerful mood at the time she could be checked.1 This inspection was not just restricted
learned the devastating news about the accident. to one cylinder, but involved all four. On engines where
I had arranged with Director Fischer that after each race the valve train is operated from above, such dismantling
we would stop and tell each other our times. By comparing means a good deal of work. Once again I missed lunch,
times, we were easily able to tell that our prospects were and when the commission met afterwards to inspect the
extremely good. We were then seen by some other contestants, engine I had finished the job. The stated bore was correct.
who stopped immediately. All of them would have liked to In fact it was a little less: we had said 105 mm, in fact it was
know the times recorded by rivals. The other competitors 104.95 mm.
were also willing to pass on information, but they didn’t want Prince Heinrich, who honored me with a speech at the
to tell the truth. I did things differently. I told them my times prizegiving ceremony, was extremely kind. When he found
and I could tell from their long faces that I had performed out that the prize had to be drawn at the dinner from among
significantly better than they had. the claimants, i.e., from among the three winners over three
So victory was ours—as long as nothing else happened. It is years, he said that it was his wish that, like Herr Erle and
easy to imagine the agreeable position we were in. A secure Kommerzienrat Opel, I kept the prize for one year. But then
victory within our grasp and one last stage to go. But a little the man from the committee came over with the last ticket
too much water in the gasoline and all hope of victory would in the pot. Erle and Opel had already drawn. They had left
be gone. And this was very likely, because every morning I left the lucky ticket behind, so the valuable prize finally became
the moisture trap, which was full of water, to drain off, and also mine.
I always obtained the gasoline in sealed cans. Next year I’ll
make the moisture trap five times bigger. What Director Fischer Had to Say
The last section was the toughest. There were some difficult
climbs and I saw many good cars parked by the roadside with I am genuinely pleased that Director Porsche came first. I
a serious defect of one kind or another. It happened quite can assure you that I’d rather he won. Because in the end
frequently that we saw people gesticulating on mountain I did nothing other than drive the car, whereas Director
sections from a long way off, urging us to drive up to them at Porsche designed the vehicle and also painstakingly carried
speed to their cheers. But I was cautious about doing such things out its testing. Almost every day he was in the factory from
if the section were not clearly visible. In one such incident I morning until night, supervising proceedings, and then when
drove carefully up to the curve and then after that smartly the vehicles were ready, he was out early in the morning when
onwards, which often earned me warm applause. Despite the the Neunkirchner Allee was free of traffic, carrying out tests
steep inclines, the first gear on our car was superfluous. I made on the highway.
it up all the hills in second gear. But I’m happy to admit it: this As far as my journey is concerned, there is really no story
section was about brakes and engine. to tell. Everything went ahead without the slightest trouble,
We then had a magnificent journey on to Koblenz and then without any difficulties, without any breakdowns. I filled it with
from there we turned on to the Taunus racecourse. I knew the water, oil and gasoline and then just drove off. I didn’t need
Taunus from the Kaiserpreis. Just before Weilburg, my vehicle to exert myself filling the water, despite the often very slow
developed a tire fault caused by a nail. This didn’t count as a driving which heated up the engine. I only added water once
penalty point and was really just a source of amusement for in three days.
us, as you can imagine the looks on the faces of the passing The trust we placed in our motorcars was repaid in
competitors when they saw the “hot favorites” carrying out full. If I’d had one wish, it would have been a faster pace
repairs by the roadside. I’m convinced
that 90 percent of them were thinking as
they drove by: what a pity it’s only a tire
fault. But I was thinking: thank God, it’s
only a tire fault.
On the way up the Saalburg I showed
my impartial observer once again that
my car hadn’t suffered from the journey.
I covered the climb at a speed of 100
km/h [62 mph]. When I drove into
Homburg, the main question to answer
was whether I’d covered the section
without a breakdown. As I was able to
answer this question in the affirmative,
my victory was now unquestioned. I
then received congratulations from all
sides. One of those well-wishers was
Prince Isenburg.
On the next day another rather
tough mechanical job awaited me. As
During preparations for the 1910 Prince Heinrich that included aerodynamic testing on the Neunkirschner Allee, Austro-
the winner I had to dismantle my
Daimler’s Chief Eduard Fischer also took the wheel. His skill was attested to by his fastest time in one of the event’s two
engine so that its cylinder dimensions speed tests.
 179

throughout the Prince Heinrich trial and also during the the race he stopped more frequently and learned how to start.
speed competitions. I drove the car to its full extent during And this to the great displeasure of his independent observer,
the race and achieved speeds of 140 km/h [87 mph]. I found whose head was nearly torn off with every sudden start.
both racing sections good and really do not know which I I’d also like to recall my independent observer. Herr Bavak
preferred. I even won the first race. The second race section was a senior medical officer in the Prussian army and was
was won by Director Porsche. In theory he had to win. Both Prussian correctness personified. Usually, during the course of
cars were equally fast, but Director Porsche is smaller than me, such a journey, a friendly relationship develops between the
so he is lighter and offers less air resistance. And according observer and the contestants, and it can then be hard for an
to the theories of Director Porsche, air resistance is the most observer to penalize his driver. But my observer was really
dangerous antagonist of high speeds. incorruptible—I mean, of course, in a good-natured sort of
Our cars were therefore under strain because we had to way. When on the last day but one I opened the hood, he
travel too slowly. For others the reverse is often the case. For immediately took out his notebook and wrote “Hood opened.”
them, it is speed that wrecks their chances. Soon I became so “Because,” he said, “someone could have seen it.” Fortunately
anxious about the slow tempo that I asked the car in front to the opening of the hood is not penalized.
let me go on ahead, as I was entitled to under the regulations. Finally, may I just say with regard to the organization that
A car that didn’t travel at least at 45 km/h [28 mph] had to it left absolutely nothing to be desired.
let those behind pass. Of course the man in front pointed out
that the vehicle in front of him was traveling equally slowly,
but he still let me pass him. In this way I pushed my way
forward from driver to driver, because I really had to find
out the reason for this snail’s pace. After two hours I passed
another car and suddenly there was a large gap in the convoy
of vehicles. I was now able to travel for about an hour at a
speed of 90 km/h [56 mph] before I reached the next smoothly
running contestants. One single dawdling driver was holding
up a whole series of vehicles.
Of the contestants driving Austro-Daimler vehicles I must,
of course, highlight Count Schönfeld. He was third behind me.
As is well-known, Count Schönfeld is a cavalry officer and
he has all the brusqueness of someone from that walk of life.
Perhaps it was his many years of study at Mittweida Technical
College that enabled the Count to qualify so outstandingly. 1. There’s a conflict between this statement and the observation of a
German engineer, who said, “As a result of the special design of the
The other users of Austro-Daimlers drove bravely. Perhaps
cylinder heads of the Austrian Daimler cars a very simple dismantling
it was stage fright that prevented them from reaching a higher of the exhaust valve presented a large opening for the introduction of
position. I know, for example, from one of our drivers that a measuring instrument, without the need for the cylinder itself to be
he was very anxious before the race. Nevertheless, he was dismantled.” He was correct in this, but failed to note that in the case of the
Austro-Daimler of winner Porsche the officials decided that they wanted to
accustomed to driving a powerful vehicle. Starting, in particular,
check its dimensions in more detail.
was a serious headache for him and that’s why on his journey to
 180
solid silver model of a touring car. In a drawing at the prizegiving
dinner, Porsche trumped his rival first-place winners from Benz
and Opel (from the previous two years). Porsche thus added good
luck to his formidable panoply of attributes.
Eduard Fischer could be proud of his contribution to an epic
success. Thanks to his fine performance during the event he’d
been tipped as a possible winner. Placing second, he won the prize
of the Bavarian Automobile Club. The sharp-nosed, mustachioed
engineer-manager, a former military man, more than manifested
his mettle as an imperturbable, reliable and shrewd competitor.
On June 9 the Trial’s awards were presented at a gala banquet
in Homburg. The 500 guests “applauded again and again” as
Porsche and Fischer strolled again and again to the head table
to collect their winnings. Afterward the 34-year-old winner was
besieged not only by the press but also by well-wishers. “Almost
engulfed by his awards,” reported AAZ, “he had to shake the hands
of his congratulators over and over and respond to their questions.
It wasn’t easy to fight a path to him and exchange a few quiet
words. Here as well, however, Director Porsche knew how to find
the most practical solution and declared, in a kindly and modest
manner, ‘Please compose the interview yourselves. You already
know what I’m thinking.’ And one indeed did know or could read
it in his eyes gleaming with happiness: he’d figured on victory, but
hadn’t hoped for such a sensational and comprehensive success
for his cars.”
At a private dinner in Homburg’s Savoy Hotel that evening
Eduard Fischer eulogized his colleague. “In the Prince Heinrich
Trial,” he said, “Director Ferdinand Porsche has celebrated a
PREVIOUS PAGE: British motor dealer C. J. Bendall offered this
magnificent open tourer on the 27/80 chassis, as the Austro-Daimlers
derived from the 1910 Prince Heinrich winners were known in Britain.
THIS PAGE AND FACING PAGE: Original Austro-Daimler document
describes the sale and registration of a 22/86 model.
 181
double victory, for he is driver and designer of the Austrian
Daimlers in one person. Such a double success is not granted to
many designers, for it presupposes a versatility which is seldom
united in a single person, namely high technical knowledge, a fine
mechanical understanding, ample energy and physical skill.
“Not many designers were granted this rare success,” Fischer
continued. “If we go back into the annals of automotive history,
we find only Levassor, the late designer for the house of Panhard
& Levassor, Amédée Bollée, Renault and our domestic designer
Otto Hieronimus. They’re the only ones who design and who,
with their designs, are also able to walk off with victory. Ferdinand
Porsche is now worthy to be ranked among them.” It was indeed
an elite cadre to which surprisingly few engineers would be added
in the years to come.
The AAZ’s man reflected on Porsche’s demeanor a year
earlier after his cars were also-rans in the Prince’s Trial. “The 1909
model wasn’t fast enough,” the reporter recalled, “and thus inter-
ested him no longer. But for 1910, Porsche said, he would build
a Prince Heinrich car for which success would be assured. And
he said that in the calm, quiet manner that is characteristic of this
intelligent, uncomplicated man; he said it like someone who has
an absolute conviction that he’d find the right answer, and one
wanted to believe him, although it seemed improbable. Yet here
once again the improbable has become reality.”
The timing of the Trial couldn’t have been better for Austro-
Daimler. Only a week after it finished, Vienna’s annual automo-
bile show opened. Amongst the Dual Monarchy’s auto producers,
the Iron Team’s achievements in Germany put Austro-Daimler at
 182
the top of a very tall pedestal. The winning car was in pride of
place on Thursday, June 16, when Austria-Hungary’s Emperor
Franz Joseph made the rounds. With Austro-Daimler’s President
Hugo Marcus, who was also a director of the Vienna Bankverein,
Ferdinand Porsche was on the stand to greet the noble visitor.
“This car won the Prince Heinrich Trial?” queried the
Emperor.
“Yes indeed, Majesty,” answered Marcus. “This is the car and
here”—gesturing to the engineer—“is Director Porsche, whose skill
succeeded in gaining the victory. He was not only the driver but
also the designer of the car.”
“That’s a wonderful achievement,” said the monarch. Turning
to Porsche, he said, “And I heartily congratulate you on it. It gave
me great pleasure that our domestic production cut such a fine
figure in this international competition. The car stood up to a lot.”
Apprised that the cars not only had to complete the Trial but
also were driven back to Vienna on the road, the Emperor said,
“That’s a quite exceptional achievement, and it’s very gratifying
that our industry is so proficient.” Before leaving the stand he
added, “I congratulate you most heartily once again.”
On the evening of the following day the Austrian Automo-
bile Club fêted the successful team. With Ferdinand Porsche
sitting on his right, the club’s President Alexander Pallavicini
saluted their accomplishment:
Such a success is unique in the history of automobilism.
If among 121 competitors one achieves the first, the second and
the third places and brings two more cars home as well, that is
a success that no other company has hitherto achieved.12 That is
not only a victory for these outstanding drivers and the outstand-
ing design of the cars that are here in question, but also a victory
for the entire industry of our Austrian fatherland.
Responding, on Pallavicini’s left, Austro-Daimler’s Hugo
Marcus graciously said that he could only speak of a success, not
a victory, for none was seen to be defeated in an event like the
Prince Heinrich in which all cars and drivers had performed
12. Even allowing for the hubris of the moment, this seems a fair appraisal.
On five occasions from 1898 to 1900 Panhards placed one-two-three in
French races ranging in length from 126 to 1,424 miles. Entries were much
smaller, on the order of two dozen cars, and competition much less. In no
major event on the level of the Prince Heinrich Trial had such a success
been achieved. Later in 1910, using its Prince Heinrich models, Mercedes
would place one-two-three in Russia’s 1,790-mile Emperor Nikolaus Trial
against less challenging opposition.
 183

in an exemplary manner. Marcus revealed the extent of their
expectations before the start:
“When our drivers departed, with their cars built by
Director Porsche, we had a positive feeling and the strong
sensation that a success must come our way. In any event we
anticipated success only in modest measure. We hoped that one
or another of our cars would be well-placed, and possibly even
reach the finish as the winner.”
Like Pallavicini, Marcus struck a nationalistic note in his per-
oration: “We’ve shown the world that we need have no fear of
those abroad.” Viewed by the world as a far more fragile entity
than its bellicose German neighbor, Austria-Hungary could now
hold up its head with pride thanks to the shrewdness and determi-
nation of the man of the hour, Ferdinand Porsche.
Recognition of Porsche’s achievement wasn’t limited to his
espousers at home. In Germany’s der Motorwagen an engineer
noted the effort that had been made in perfecting the Austro-
Daimler’s shape: “A very comprehensive and highly superior
effort was shown by the Austrian Daimler cars, whose bodywork
gave perhaps the most spirited impression of all. It was to be
observed quite clearly that the Austro-Daimler bodies were
prepared with the most meticulous thoroughness.” In Britain The
Car said, “First—second—third! What a sweeping triumph! The
car reflects the greatest credit on Herr Porsche and the Austrian
Daimler Company.13
“It is no exaggeration to say also that the standard produc-
tions of the company could scarcely be bettered,” added The Car.
Here was the crux of the matter for the men of Wiener Neustadt,
who hoped that their great success would enliven sales of all their
products. Interest in export markets was prized, of course, and
bound to be stimulated by their victory in Germany, but greater
respect was also hoped for at home, where the “prophet without
honor” syndrome seemed to apply. “Are there really such people?”
was the surprised reaction of the Emperor at Vienna’s auto show
when he was told that customers didn’t always show preference to
the home-grown product.
SPECIALLY BUILT FOR THE JOB though it was, Porsche’s Prince
Heinrich entry was obviously a very competent road car. Count
Wimpffen was one of the first to prove this. He drove his car
back from Homburg to Vienna and then added it to his fleet.
By September he’d clocked up 2,500 more miles with complete
satisfaction. This, plus general interest in what they’d wrought,
convinced Austro-Daimler to lay down a series of 100 produc-
tion cars.
This was a key decision in the history of Austro-Daimler
and indeed of the career of Ferdinand Porsche. Had only the ten
1910 cars been made, the model would still deserve its fame. By
producing a series of road cars, however, Wiener Neustadt laid
claim to an historic honor: creation of the world’s first sports car.
Not an out-and-out racing car, yet a superb road car capable of fine
competition performance, the Prince Heinrich Austro-Daimler
eminently qualified as a sports car.
Said one historian, it “was a milestone in sports-car history,
and it’s no exaggeration to maintain that it represents one of the
first production high-performance and sports cars in the history of
13. These great cars were never raced by the factory again. Austro-
Daimler considered competing with them in the 1912 French Grand Prix,
but abjured on the grounds that smaller 3-liter cars would be running in
the same race, but in a different class, which the company thought beneath
its dignity.

PAGE PRECEDING COLOR

FOLD-OUT: Bodied as a
two-seater, the production
22/86 of 1911–1914 was
a formidable sports car, one
of the first of its kind. This
Austro-Daimler or one like
it was raced on the beach
at Denmark’s Fanø by
Ferdinand Porsche.
RIGHT: A high-angle view
depicted a version of the
Austro-Daimler 22/86 four
that used magneto ignition
for one set of spark plugs
and a high-tension coil and
distributor for the other set.
Porsche chose dual ignition for
these engines with reliability
in mind.
184

ABOVE: New York’s Healey body

company, claiming exclusivity in Austro-
Daimler sales, bodied this artillery-
wheeled 22/86 as a roadster with
spectacles-style windscreen. At least one
car of this type survives.
LEFT: Ferdinand Porsche’s reputation
as one of the outstanding automotive
engineers of his day was exploited and
indeed enhanced by Austro-Daimler’s
British distributor in its advertising of
the success of the Iron Team in the 1911
Alpine Trials. Readers were reminded of
the Prince Heinrich sweep of 1910.
 185
the automobile, setting entirely new standards.” “Without actually
being a racing car,” stated The Autocar at the time, “it gives that high
efficiency which those who appreciate life, and life in abundance,
are only too willing to pay for.” That’s been a good definition of
the best sports cars ever since.
For the production model, named the 22/86 (27/80 in Britain),
Porsche gave up chains in favor of shaft drive to a live rear axle.14
This allowed some sharing of components with Austro-Daimler’s
other big car, the 27/60. It continued the use of a separate four-
speed gearbox, under the front floorboards, with two huge foot-
operated brakes at its output shaft. Behind them was the pivot for
the rear axle’s torque tube. Porsche’s unique two-piece pressing
housed the axle with its 2.52:1 final-drive ratio.
The road car kept the wheelbase of the competition model,
with a track of 52.2 inches. Its chassis alone weighed 2,315 pounds.
Ferdinand Porsche’s masterpiece of an engine remained essen-
tially unchanged, although its valves and ports were reduced in
size from those of the team cars. Standardized for the production
car was the simpler log-style inlet manifold used for some of the
Prince Heinrich entries.
By the autumn of 1911 the new model was on display at
Europe’s motor shows, where it deservedly drew admirers. In
the UK the 22/86 was priced at 875 crowns, equivalent to 4,260
dollars. Jacob Lohner & Co. was among those companies that
bodied it, including among its efforts a magnificent tourer that
was a gift from Austro-Hungary’s Emperor to his German coun-
terpart. Several were bodied as two-seaters, including a chassis
that Ferdinand Porsche drove in speed trials on the beach at
Denmark’s Fanø. Other two-seaters were made by New York’s
Healey body company. Presenting itself as the marque’s exclusive
American agent, Healey brought a number of 22/86 chassis to the
New World. The model was offered by Wiener Neustadt through
1914; it is thought that some 50 were completed.
In Italy Parma’s arch-enthusiast, Prince Elias, naturally
became a 22/86 owner. He commissioned a body from Jacob
Lohner that was the most spectacular ever mounted on this chassis
and indeed one of the most dramatic in automotive history. A
four-seated open tourer, its doors were flush with its sheer sides,
which tapered inward to a peak at the rear. Its radiator was cowled
in the style of a medieval jousting helmet with a sharp peak above
its opening. All four wheels had cycle-type fenders carried by
the axles, not the body. Completing Elias of Parma’s stunning
ensemble were four huge, shiny, black exhaust pipes curving
down to a horizontal exhaust.
The 22/86 owner had the satisfaction of driving one of the
fastest road cars of its day. Indeed, it doesn’t hold up today’s
traffic. “Blipping the throttle pedal produces an instant response
from the engine and the whole car heaves and rocks on its
springs,” said Eddie Berrisford, who restored a 22/86. “The
exhaust emits a deep rumble as we pick up the revs, accompa-
nied by the rhythmic clatter of the exposed valve gear. We’re
running on just a whiff of throttle, but already modern cars
are beginning to get in the way. It occurs to me that they are
doing the legal speed limit of 60, and my estimated 1,500 revs
is probably nearer 70 mph. The car feels uncannily stable; the
steering is tight and quick without being twitchy. Using the hand
brake is the normal way to slow the car, and this has a very
controlled and reassuring bite.
“Very occasionally you know that a particular car has a certain
something which makes it special,” Berrisford continued, “and
this Prince Henry Austro-Daimler is very special indeed.” There
were many contenders, he said, for the honor of being judged the
first sports car. “To stand out from this crowd you really had to be
different, or do something very special. With the Austro-Daimler
Prince Henry, Porsche achieved both of these goals. I believe he
should be thought of, and remembered as, the Father of the Sports
Car.” This quarter offers no argument to the contrary.
14. Making full use of the available materiel, the cars that competed in
Germany were ultimately converted from chain drive to shaft drive to
be sold.
 2008 IA
Award MA
established 1950 Winner
Automotive Reference™

BentleyPublishers
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Ferdinand Porsche — Genesis of Genius

Road, Racing and Aviation Innovation 1900 to 1933

by Karl Ludvigsen

Winner of three International Automotive Media Awards, including:

• 2008 Best of the Year
• 2008 Best of Books
• Best Design of 2008

Price: $99.95
Bentley Stock Number: GPET
Publication date: 2009.oct.1
ISBN: 978-0-8376-1557-8
Hardcover, 9.5in. x 12 in.
In Ferdinand Porsche—Genesis of Genius, author Karl Ludvigsen Case quantity: 1
reveals a dynamic young innovator who helped to chart the course 496 pages
of the automobile through the first decades of the twentieth century. 570 B/W and color photos & illustrations, including:
As early as 1900, at the age of 25, Ferdinand Porsche pioneered • 7 specially-commissioned 18.5 in. x 12 in. full color foldout draw-
hybrid technology to power his automobile designs. Once gasoline ings of some of the most important early car designs of Ferdinand
Porsche by renowned Swiss automotive artist Wolfgang Franke
gained dominance as the power-source of choice, Porsche became
• 9.5 in. x 12 in. full color plate insert showing engine detail from the
relentless in his goal to design the fastest and most durable 1910 Prince Heinrich car
automobiles in Europe. • Reproductions of original pages from Ferdinand Porsche’s original
handwritten notes
Porsche’s engineering brilliance did not stop at the automobile. He • Many previously unpublished photos from the Porsche family
also made significant contributions to the early development of archives
airplane engines and military transport vehicles. And in addition to
his hands-on style of engineering, Ferdinand Porsche was a tireless
managing executive in the automotive industry.

Ferdinand Porsche—Genesis of Genius explores in depth the

Chapter 8 Opportunity in the
unique combination of ambition, determination and genius that Air 1909-1918:
were the genesis of an automotive dynasty which has In his characteristic bowler,
Porsche observed a flight test
continued to thrive and expand for over a century. with one of his engines on the
Steinfeld in 1911.

So, the man who had such influence on our abiding passion is brought
vividly to life, thanks in no small part to the huge amount of new material
that Karl Ludvigsen has so painstakingly unearthed through sheer hard
slog and weighty research. . . . This book meets all the criteria of written Chapter 10: Sascha to the
greatness and is without parallel. — Porsche Post Rescue 1921-1923
Cutaway drawing of the 1922
Austro-Daimler “Sascha”
Table of contents: ADS-R. The ADS-R Sascha
pictured here is the car driven
1. Twentieth-Century Debut 1900 by Alfred Neubauer in the 1922
2. Bohemian Beginnings 1875–1900 Targa Florio.
3. Electrifying Automobiles 1900–1905
4. Jellinek’s Dream 1906–1908
5. Viva Austro-Daimler 1906–1914
6. Racing in Their Blood 1909–1911
7. Creativity in Conflict 1910–1918
Chapter 3: Electrifying Automobiles
8. Opportunity in the Air 1909–1918
1900-1905
9. Stellar Sixes 1918–1923 In neat sketches in his own notebook,
10. Sascha to the Rescue 1921–1923 Porsche worked out the electrical
11. Stuttgart Calling 1919–1926 connections that would be needed to
12. Shooting Stars 1923–1928 control the forward speeds of his powerful
13. Interregnum in Steyr 1928–1930 Panhard-powered Mixtes of 1905.
14. Genius for Sale 1930–1934

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