Austro-Daimler
Born: 1899 Nationality: Austrian
Developed from a company set up to build Daimlers under licence, Austro-Daimler was initially a subsidiary of the German car-maker. Its story is essentially that of three designers.
Gottleib Daimler's son Paul, technical director from 1901-1905, developed the PD-Wagen from a Daimler design, with a 90hp engine. When he left, his position was taken by Ferdinand Porsche, just out of military service.
An early Porsche innovations was the Electrique Mixte. Arguably the forerunner of the Toyota Prius, it had a Daimler engine operating a dynamo to power electric motors driving two wheels. It was quite successful and Porsche himself raced it.
A car commissioned by Nice dealer Emile Jellineck, the Maja named after his daughter, was produced after the firm became independent in 1906. With a 4.5-litre engine, it was available with both drive forms of the era - chain or shaft. Its official designation was the 24/28, the second number indicating horsepower
It became the 28/36 in 1909, and was the firm's mainstay until 1914, though several other models were produced during the same time with engines of 22hp, 30hp and 60hp.
Porsche, a racing enthusiast, knew the value of sports prowess in selling cars. For the 1910 Prince Henry Trials he developed a new 5.7-litre with aerodynamic body by Ernst Neumann-Neander. Five of the cars dominated the Berlin to Budapest race, giving the team the first three overall places. The car went into production as the Prinz Heinrich. The 9/30 and 14/32 were also important, winning the Alpine Trials of 1911 and 1912 respectively. Most of the cars were quite large, but a small 2-litre 6/25 appeared just before the war.
A fire tender designed by Porsche in 1910 was the first motorised equipment used by London's Fire Brigade. The company got into military vehicles, including a 4WD armoured car with rotating turret.
Austro-Daimler produced air-cooled aero engines during the war, but after the Treaty of Versailles it was barred from building anything with military applications. The 6/25 car was reintroduced, and Porsche was already envisaging a small "people's car" for the brand.
In the early 1920s, the 4.4-litre sports-bodied AD617, became popular abroad and provided valuable foreign currency. The ADM19/100, its innovative engine evolved from experience in aero engines, promoted the brand well with hill-climb successes.
About this time, Porsche produced voiturette-class racing cars. The 1-litre Sascha won its class in the 1922 Targa Florio. Porsche wanted the Sascha to be the basis for his "people's car", but the board preferred to build big - and more profitable - prestige cars. In 1923 he left Austro-Daimler, a decision partly due to the ending of the works racing programme after a fatal crash in a 2-litre Sascha at Monza killed one of the team drivers.
Under new technical director Karl Rabe, the AD617 became the ADV. He also produced the smaller ADM series in the mid-1920s, with 2.5-, 2.7- and 3-litres engines. In 1927, he made the advanced 3-litre ADR - it was very successful in races and sold well until 1931.
In 1928, Austro-Daimler merged with Puch. Into the 1930s, the firm produced high-quality 3.6- and 4.6-litre cars, notably the 120hp Bergmeister. But the Depression took a heavy toll on sales of big, expensive cars and in 1934, the company's bankers forced a merger with Steyr, Austria's largest car-maker. This ended the Austro-Daimler brand in passenger cars, though Steyr made military vehicles with the name until the middle of the second World War.
BEST CAR: Widely considered to be the ADM19/100, both for the engineering of the power unit and the chassis
WORST CAR: Nobody is on record as complaining, especially the owner of chassis number 11026, who got almost £363,000 for it at Christie's in 2004.
WEIRDEST CAR: We'd have said the Mixte, but after Prius . . .?