Whereas Porsche as a sports activities automobile firm dates again to the registration of the first Porsche 356 in 1948, the corporate’s roots return additional, to the Porsche engineering firm based by Ferdinand Porsche in 1931.

Nonetheless, Porsche was already in his 50s when he based his eponymous firm, and thus he already designed a number of vehicles whereas working at different firms. A type of was when Porsche was working because the managing director of an Austrian automobile firm often called Austro Daimler.

It was there the place, on the age of 45, he began work on the Austro Daimler ADS-R race automobile, a Targa Florio class champion nicknamed Sascha and in the present day the oldest drivable automobile on the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart, Germany. It lately returned to Wiener Neustadt in Austria, the place Austro Daimler was situated. The corporate was ultimately merged in 1934 with Steyr Daimler Puch, which in the present day operates as Magna Steyr.

Whereas working at Austro Daimler, Porsche wished to construct a small, light-weight, and inexpensive automobile with 4 seats, which may be simply produced in excessive volumes, a aim that he additionally envisioned for the Volkswagen Beetle that may come later. Nonetheless, to construct sufficient curiosity to get the inexperienced gentle for manufacturing from Austro Daimler’s board, he additionally designed a race automobile based mostly on the street automobile’s operating gear. The ensuing ADS-R shared the water-cooled 1.1-liter inline-4 of the street automobile, however skipped the complete physique and solely featured a single seat for the motive force. The engine was rated at near 50 hp and had simply 1,318 kilos to hold.

1922 Austro Daimler ADS-R race automobile “Sascha”

The above picture exhibits Alexander Joseph Graf Kolowrat-Krakowsk to the left of an ADS-R, and Ferdinand Porsche and a younger Ferry Porsche to the best

The Sascha nickname got here from Alexander Joseph Graf Kolowrat-Krakowsky, who funded the undertaking and whose personal nickname was Sascha. 4 prototypes have been constructed, and all 4 celebrated their premiere on the 1922 Targa Florio. To make them straightforward to determine from afar, Kolowrat-Krakowsky got here up with the thought to color taking part in card symbols on the our bodies.

The ADS-R managed a one-two end on the race. However regardless of that and plenty of extra racing successes, the manufacturing inexperienced gentle was by no means given, due principally to the extreme inflation bother Austria and neighboring Germany have been going via on the time.

To mark the one centesimal anniversary of the ADS-R, Porsche and its official journal, “Christophorus,” had employees on the Porsche Museum put together the automobile for a return to Wiener Neustadt. Whereas the Austro Daimler manufacturing unit is not there, streets like Ferdinand-Porsche-Ring remind guests of the city’s heritage.