The 19-100 Austro-Daimler

The 19-100 hp Austro-Daimler was a comparatively rare sports car so far as this country was concerned; one writer has described it as “the most forgotten of the successful teams to compete at Ards (in the TT)”. Yet it merits a firm place in sports car history, being a most effective vintage model with a fine pedigree, for was not the pre-Kaiser War overhead-camshaft, 5.7-litre Prince Henry Austro-Daimler one of the most impressive high-performance cars of its era, dominating convincingly the 1910 Prince Henry Trials? It is regarded by many authorities as the forefather of all subsequent sporting cars.

The make was kept before the motor racing fraternity after the war by a series of competition models of varying engine sizes, all with twin-cam engines, designed by none other than Dr Ferdinand Porsche, which achieved fame on the Continent and to a lesser extent at Brooklands and sprint speed-events in Britain. The 19-100 hp sports Austro-Daimler derived from the 19-70 hp model, which was in its turn a development of the cars Dr Porsche had designed while he was with the Austro-Daimler Company, where Karl Rabe was in charge of the drawing office. After Porsche left to join Daimler-Benz Rabe (who years later was to unite with Porsche and help with the Porsche sports cars) produced new models based on the original 2.6-litre Porsche design, one of which was this 19-70 hp model, of which three examples were brought to the 1926 Olympia Show from the Great Portland Street premises of Austro-Dannler (England) Ltd. (Incidentally, at that time the famous “Street-of-Cars” housed more new-car companies than in later days, when it was more the location for used-car motor copers — in 1926 Beardmore, Chenard-Walcker, Panhard-Levassor, R., Senechal, and Studebaker also had addresses there.)

The 19-70 hp Austro-Daimler was a sports car in its own right, at least in twin-carburetter short-chassis form, this ADM model gaining a great many competition successes on the Continent. One of these Alpine sports models was shown on the A-D stand at Olympia in 1925, with one of the first of the open Weymann four-seater bodies to be seen at the Show. It is interesting that it bore many likenesses to the splendid range of sports model Mercedes-Benz cars that Porsche was to be responsible for, up to the great 36/220 and 38/250 models. This Austro-Daimler had a very neat six-cylinder engine with an overhead camshaft driven by a vertical shaft at the front, the enclosure of which, within an aluminium casting, was very neatly contrived, a linered light-alloy cylinder block, the crankshaft was balanced and, like the camshaft, had a vibration damper, the engine auxiliaries were positively driven, dynamo and magneto by skew gears from the vertical shaft, water-pump at the rear, and oil-pressure was indicated to the driver by electrical means. Brake and gear levers were central, with a unit gearbox and specification included twin Zeal carburetters and Bosch magneto. The front axle ends were tubular, and strengthened accept front brakes and these four-wheel brakes, with very neat operating-gear running within the axle, with wedges in lieu of cams, were fully compensated. The front axle was a single forging. The wheelbase was 11 ft and the petrol tank held 22 gallons. Without passengers this 2,650 cc Alpine Sports Austro-Daimler weighed nearly 29¾ cwt. It sold for £850 and one of them tested at Brooklands exceeded the claim maximum speed of 75 mph over half-mile against a strong breeze, by three mph. From 10-30 in top gear took only 13 sec, good for a sports car, or 7.4 sec in 3rd gear, 5.0 sec in 2nd gear. The speedometer was found to be commendably accurate and a clutch stop assisted in making rapid changes on the well-designed gearbox. The Brooklands Test Hill was climbed in 14.8 sec, four up in 2nd gear, equal to an average speed of 16.23 mph. This was done with gear ratios of 19.2, 10.62, 7.86 and 4.28 to 1. This Alpine Sports Austro-Daimler was well sprung, its spring leaves having ground surfaces and the rear cantilevers possessing longitudinal ribs to control their lateral movement when cornering. It was on this fine chassis that the celebrated, if little known, 19-100 hp Austro-Daimler was based.

The changes were few. The cylinder bore was increased by 5 mm, to 76 mm, the stroke remaining at 110 mm, to give a capacity of 2,994 cc. In spite of the specification remaining almost identical to that of the 19-70 hp model, with the ohc-and-rockers six-cylinder power unit, the chassis price was nearly double, at £1,050, when announced here for 1927, the open-bodied car being priced at £1,250, while a saloon was listed at £1,325. At the 1926 Olympia Show, on Stand No 21, the 19-100 A-D made its English debut as a very rakish red fabric-bodied four-seater with vee-windscreen, disappearing hood and flared mudguards separate from the running boards. This Alpine 19-100, which had non-cared centre-lock hub-caps to its wire wheels, cost £50 more than the ordinary open model. The front friction shock-absorbers were anchored so that their arms acted as brake-torque resisters.

Inevitably the 3-litre Austro-Daimler will be compared to the 3-litre Bentley. The latter, however, had a by-now-dated, long-stroke, four-cylinder 1.6-valve ohc engine allied to a cone clutch whereas the A-D used a light-alloy six-cylinder 12-valve ohc engine and a plate clutch. Its power output was quoted as 90 bhp at 3,000 rpm, 100 bhp at 4,000 rpm, and 110 bhp at 4,500 rpm, compared to 87 bhp at 3,500 rpm from the most highly developed 3-litre Bentley engine, while the 100 mph and Speed Model Bentleys of 1926, the year of the 19400 A-D’s release, were down by some 15 bhp on A-D’s claimed power-output. On the other hand, by the end of the vintage period six 3-litre Bentley drivers, in specially-prepared cars, had lapped Brooklands in excess of 100 mph, but I can trace only one 19-100 hp A-D which accomplished this, as these Austrian cars were used there in sports form. Which is not to belittle the racing merit of the sports car from Wiener-Neustadt… Incidentally, in 1927 the Bentley cost £200 less than the more modern A-D, in chassis form.

These sports 19-100s had the short chassis, with a wheelbase of fractionally over nine feet, while the vacuum fuel-feed was changed for a pressure-feed to obviate drying-up of the carburetters at sustained high speed. Road speed was said to be guaranteed to exceed 100 mph. This exciting sports car was ready for delivery in England by March 1927, and much interest was aroused when one was seen at the Inter-Varsity hill-climb at Ewelme Down, near Benson that month, where, incidentally, T. G. Moore, then-owner of Motor Sport, drove his 3-litre Bentley.

A driver who regarded this specification as attractive was Philip Turner, motor dealer and racing motor-boat exponent, who raced as “R. Wilson” or “J. Taylor” for domestic or business reasons, his Austro-Daimler being entered by Alan Hess and other gentlemen, presumably to further this disguise. His black four-seater with red chassis made its debut at the 1927 Whits. Brooklands Meeting, when it won the 100 mph Long Handicap units first appearance, from Densham’s Bugatti and Dutoit’s 3-litre Bentley, lapping at 93.72 mph. This led to a re-handicap and although Turner improved his lap speed to just under 100 mph, it was to no avail. However, in its third race that day Turner now lapped at just over 100 mph and, in spite of having been put on scratch with a couple of racing Bugattis, the Austro-Daimler won this 90 mph Long Handicap from Oats’ OM and Dr Benjafield’s Salmson.

Now appearing as “J. Taylor”, Turner’s 19-100 stripped A-D ran next in the “Sporting Life & Sportsman Brooklands Meeting, rehandicapped when Hess elected not to drive it, but taking second place in the Drivers’ Race, beaten only by Malcolm Campbell’s 2-litre GP Bugatti. In a later race, rehandicapped and unplaced, the A-D lapped at 105.52 mph, the fastest lap for a 19-100 in a Brooklands race and, incidentally, only 2.75 mph slower than the faster of the two special racing 3-litre Bentleys aforementioned, Fray’s streamlined car in the following year…

By 1928 Turner was occupied racing Deluge H, but he used his A-D for the longer (150-mile) Surbiton MC Fuel Consumption Sports Car Race, which it won at 72.24 mph, averaging 13.47 mpg, from Viscount Curzon’s slower Type 43 Bugatti. Philip Turner also used it for that year’s Essex MC Six Hour Sports-Car Race, when it won its class, with Cyril Paul as co-driver, at 68.18 mph. Alas, entered for the Boulogne Cup Race, his elder brother broke the A-D’s engine with a hammer to prevent it starting, so that was that…

By this time this handsome, efficient A-D was attracting the interest of other drivers, and Hugh Mason had acquired one. The 19-100 was to score its greatest success in the 1928 RAC TT. The Ulster sports-car contest, the first of the series and a complete innovation, caused enormous interest and for it a team of Austro-Daimlers was entered. F. M. Luther, who imported those twin-cam racing A-Ds through his Beardmore Company, put in Leslie Callingham, the Shell competition rep, in a short-chassis car with acroscrcens behind its fold-fiat windscreen, Turner ran his car, again partnered by Paul, and Mason completed the team with his car. The result was very convincing, Mason’s car finishing 3rd overall, at 64.65 mph, Paul in Turner’s car 4th overall, at 64.31 mph, and Callingham’s 10th overall, at 61.49 mph. So, in this much-publicised race, Austro-Daimler took the coveted Team Prize, along with the Daily Mail and Wakefield cups to Mason as entrant and driver of the class-winning 3-litre car. “My car never had its bonnet lifted”, proudly declared Mason after the race, bathe had to drive it hard to overtake on handicap the only Type 43 Bugatti to finish. The A-D’s average speed in this genuine road race lasting for more than six hours was bettered only be Sir Henry Birkin’s 4½-litre Bentley, and then by a mere 1.11 mph. The A-D’s were 1st, 2nd and 4th in Class D, separated only be the misfiring Bugatti, the other two Type 43s having retired.

Mason also used his A-D to good effect in the Southport sand races, winning several of them and cutting a corner so fiercely in one of them at the end of 1927 that he collided with Jackson’s Sunbeam, which skidded round and tore its front axle off, the race having to be stopped. By 1929 Kenneth Eggar had got hold of one of these useful 19-100 A-Ds. He entered it for the JCC Double-Twelve Hour Race but retired after four hours with engine trouble. (I believe his co-driver was Head, presumably Sammy Davis’ usual riding mechanic.) Eggar concentrated on the longer races, retiring from the BARC Six Hour Race after 88 minutes, with bearing trouble. He even entered for the 1929 TT, with H. Donaldson as co-driver, and for the purely track BRDC 500 Mile Race, but retired from both. W. B. Scott and S. Pays ran an A-D in the 1930 “Double Twelve” but the gasket went after 20 minutes. By now the competition heyday of the A-D in this country was over, although abroad it still did well, notably in the prestigious Alpine Trial. Austro-Daimler then brought out their backbone-chassis, all-independently-sprung ADR model and the 19-100 sports-car was dropped. There was one great swan-song, though, when Hans von Stuck used a light-weight Austro-Daimler to win the 1930 European Hill-Climbing Championship, which included breaking the Shelsley Walsh record with a climb in 42.8 sec, which remained unbroken until Whitney Straight went 1.6 sec faster in the supercharged 2½-litre Maserati in 1933. The car used is thought to have had the 1921 Targa Florio chassis but its 3½-litre engine was developed from that of the 19-100, a car which in its final form gave some 110 bhp.

The 19-100 Austro-Daimler was, of course, essentially a sports-car, emphasised by its best-ever Brooklands’ lap being bettered by 3.7 mph by an eight-year-old twin-cam racing car of the same make and engine size. The ADM Austen-Daimler never achieved the acclaim of cars like the Bentley, in this country, but David Scott-Moncrieff has gone on record as saying, of his TT A-D: “I liked it better than any 3-litre Bentley I ever owned, and I have had a good many, including ‘Old No 7’. It was faster and I think it handled infinitely better.” Today this 3-litre A-D is a forgotten car but Peter Gamier, one-time Sports Editor of The Autocar, enjoyed driving his, in later years. If the 19-100 AD had a weakness this may have lain in the use of a plunger instead of a gear-type oil pump, which could have been the cause of retirements from some races, with well-used cars. But it is certainly a sports car which deserves to be remembered. — W.B.