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Austro Daimler – 120 years of heritage
Automotive history is full of beautiful and long stories signifying birth of great talents, amazing models and heritage. However, just a few companies have a history of even 120 years. Austro Daimler is one of them!
Austro Daimler is a long forgotten name of one of the oldest and most glorious automobile manufacturers from Austria. It was established in Wiener-Neustadt in 1899* by Eduard Fischer to make German Daimler cars under license. Important fact is that since 1905 technical director of the company was Ferdinand Porsche who worked here until 1923. Already in 1911 Austro Daimler was an independent company and their cars had gained success in races thanks to Porsche’s engineering and aerodynamic designs of Ernst Neumann-Neander who also created Austro Daimler logotype featuring two-headed eagle. Once Porsche left to join Mercedes, his position was given to his assistant Karl Rabe. This person was responsible for all larger Austro Daimler models until the end of company’s existence. Probably most notable of them is the last passenger car – the luxurious Bergmeister. Its 3614cc 6-cylinder engine developed 120hp and was capable of 145km/h top speed. Unfortunately, it was not the best time for this flamboyant model to appear. The production quickly ended in 1934 and not more than 50 examples of the Bergmeister have been produced. During the same year, Austro Daimler merged with the largest Austrian car company Steyr. This resulted in the fact that the name was only used on some military vehicles until 1942. During postwar time the Austro Daimler name re-appeared on some bicycles made in the ‘70s and ‘80s, however, no passenger car has carried the historical badge for the last 85 years!
Project Austro Daimler revives the brand, celebrates anniversary
The marque would have been left in the history books forever if not Roland Stagl who in 2002 sketched first ideas of a modern day Gran Turismo automobile inspired by timeless designs of interwar cars. Being a huge fan of the legendary brand, he saw an opportunity to revive Austro Daimler name. It is easy to understand that this could not be done in a moment.
In the last few years, Mr Stagl was busy with different projects as well as developing a completely new hybrid system named SERIPA. It combines an internal 6-cylinder combustion engine with three high-performance electric motors.
The result of several years of work was ready in 2018 and Project Austro Daimler was formed to build a concept vehicle using the SERIPA system. Lucky chance, the idea has been realized thanks to a passionate and supportive enthusiast who financed the project and bought the car. This success created an opportunity to finish the model just right before the 120th anniversary of Austro Daimler company!
Unique styling combines two designs
One-of-a-kind car requires unique design and equally unordinary name. The styling of the new Austro Daimler fuses luxury Gran Turismo and Shooting Brake designs into one. The result of this fusion got an extravagant name – ADR 630 Bergmeister Shooting Grand – interestingly balancing both old and modern name.
21st century Bergmeister features a much sophisticated design. A long front end with beautifully incorporated front lights houses a large but tasteful front grille with Austro Daimler logotype on the bonnet and big text logotype. No exaggerated aggressiveness here. The rear end of the car is especially beautiful. Interestingly looking central exhaust is well placed and the strong line going through its top emphasizes powerful and muscular stance of the car. Unforgettable elongated red break light with Bergmeister name inside is a fantastic styling decision. It gives a clean and decent look for a coupe with large rear glass. Remember, this car is half shooting break, yes?
An extra special feature of the car is definitely the gull-wing doors which open upwards providing a large entrance space to the cockpit. It is not the most comfortable technical decision, but it indeed looks much impressive.
Finally, the profile view of the Bergmeister is where you can best see the uniqueness of the car. It is a very hard task to think of any other car which looks something similar to it. It could be said that the ADR 630 Bergmeister Shooting Grand is a pioneer of its own original niche. Strong stance, clean but emphasized design, no unnecessary spoilers, details, vents, etc. which are so typical to most of the modern sportscars and supercars. The new Austro Daimler is not to brag about the amount of carbon fiber or uncountable number of curves. The new Austro Daimler is a haute couture automobile where beauty and power are well combined together and none of two are sacrificed for the other.
Two-seater GT hiding hypercar performance.
Mounted under the aluminum spaceframe, the hybrid SERIPA system provides decent performance figures for the Bergmeister. The automobile with total power of 1198hp can accelerate from zero to 100 km/h in just 2.5 seconds reach a top speed of 330 km/h. The new Austro Daimler is said to be capable of going 250km only on electricity and has a total driving range of 1000km. Bergmeister is indeed a pureblooded Gran Turismo automobile with typical hypercar specifications!
Project Austro Daimler. Small group, big dream.
Having presented the car at Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este where many car enthusiasts, collectors and customers could watch and touch the model, Project Austro Daimler has introduced themselves for the global audience. The open-air event gave an opportunity not only to have the car on a static display but also to show it being driven. A truly spectacular moment is to see such an exotic car passing by the jury on the red carpet. The small team behind the car should be much proud of their achievement since only few supercar builders can have such a privilege.
For this moment Project Austro Daimler is not a company . It is small group of enthusiasts who support Mr Stagl with his dream and vision. This much dedicated group has not only realized a tremendous work of creating a supercar but they also sold it successfully and they are looking forward to building other unique projects for passionate customers who appreciate exclusiveness and centenary heritage.
The Austro Daimler is back and the Bergmeister is the car celebrating brand‘s heritage and bringing state-of-the-art technology. Huge effort that Mr Roland Stagl and his team has demonstrated, brings Austria to the map of most special automobile manufacturers and we are defintely sure that we will hear about the new projects very soon again. The legend is reborn!
*Original company name was Österreichische Daimler Motoren Gesselshaft Bierenz, Fischer & Co. Company name Austro-Daimler-Puch AG was used since 1928.