One of Dr. Ferdinand Porsche's creations returns to its roots
Jan Heidak, vehicle service attendant at the Porsche Museum workshop, Austro-Daimler ADS-R “Sascha”, Austria, 2023, Porsche AG
Over a hundred years ago, Ferdinand Porsche designed an extraordinary race car, the Austro-Daimler ADS-R, in Wiener Neustadt, Austria. Today, Christophorus and 9:11 Magazine brings the former Targa Florio class champion, whose nickname is Sascha, back home. Following a vigorous turn of the crank, the gas pedal is applied ever so gently, producing the sound that everyone’s been waiting for. Passersby reach for their smartphones, cafe owners step out onto their terraces, and curious faces appear in the windows of the old, historical buildings. Everyone knows that’s not the roar of an everyday car. And they’re right!
Sascha and its creators: One of the four Sascha prototypes at the Riesrennen race in Graz, Austria, in 1922. To the left of the car is Alexander Graf Kolowrat, to the right a young Ferry Porsche, and behind him his father, Ferdinand.
The powerful litany of sounds stems from the water-cooled 1.1-liter four-cylinder engine of an Austro-Daimler ADS-R, a race car designed by Ferdinand Porsche more than a hundred years ago. It’s currently the oldest drivable model at the Porsche Museum – and the man at the crank is Jan Heidak, vehicle service attendant and the youngest employee at the museum workshop. He and his boss, Kuno Werner, spent months working on the antique car to get it up and running again. Today they’re bringing it back home to its place of birth in Wiener Neustadt, Austria – at the request of Christophorus.
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