Otto Salzer

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Otto Salzer 1914

Otto Salzer (born April 4, 1874 in Möglingen ; † January 7, 1944 in Obertürkheim ) was a German mechanic and automobile racing driver .

Salzer is considered one of the first professional racing drivers in Germany and was a pioneer of his sport.

Life

Otto Salzer at the French Grand Prix in 1914
Salzer in a Mercedes at the Targa Florio 1922

After an apprenticeship as a locksmith , Otto Salzer came to Daimler in Untertürkheim on October 5, 1896 , where he worked in vehicle inspection until 1899. On January 1, 1900, he became a master of racing and passenger car construction and was therefore responsible for assembling racing cars and prototypes, running them in and testing them. As was customary at the time, Salzer also drove the cars himself in the races. As a driver, he had already won a reliability drive in Turin in 1898 .

From 1903 Otto Salzer was "Fuhrmeister" or racing manager and responsible for most matters in the DMG racing department. He continued to compete himself and in 1906 in the Ardennes race for the Belgian Bastogne with his co-driver Christian Friedrich Lautenschlager achieved eighth place after tire problems. In 1907 Salzer contested the Kaiserpreis im Taunus and finished in ninth place in the final. He also competed with his teammates Camille Jenatzy and Victor Hémery for the DMG at the 1907 French Grand Prix and retired in the last lap. With this race he became the first German driver in a Grand Prix.

In the third edition of the French Grand Prix the following year , Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft competed with a new 12.8-liter car and the drivers Salzer, Christian Friedrich Lautenschlager and Willy Pöge . Otto Salzer dropped out again due to a puncture. Nevertheless, he drove the fastest race lap on the 76.8 km Circuit de Dieppe with a time of 36:31 minutes, which corresponds to an average speed of 127.03 km / h . His team mate Christian Friedrich Lautenschlager won the race after almost 700 km and seven hours. In 1908 and 1909, he achieved overall victory in the Semmering hill climb , each in new record times . At the French Grand Prix in Lyon in 1914 , Salzer took third place behind his teammates Lautenschlager and Louis Wagner and was thus involved in the triple success. In third place, Salzer drove the 20 laps or 752.620 kilometers in 7:13:15 hours and an average speed of 104.2 km / h from 35th on the grid. The car, on the construction of which Salzer had worked on with a cardan shaft , reached a top speed of around 180 km / h on a level stretch. On a downhill section of the route the speed was over 190 km / h.

After the end of the First World War , Salzer intervened again in racing from 1921 and was particularly successful in hill climbs in Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia . He won the Zbraslav – Jíloviště hill climb in 1921, 1922 and 1924 , the Solitude Mountain Prize in Stuttgart in 1923 and the Ecce Homo in 1924 .

Otto Salzer, winner of the Zbraslav - Jíloviště 1924 hill climb

After more than 25 years as a racing driver, Salzer wanted to retire from active racing in 1924. Ferdinand Porsche , who had been chief designer at DMG since 1923, built him a special racing car as he left, which went down in company history as the “grandmother” . The vehicle had a 4.5 liter supercharged engine from the 1914 Grand Prix car and the same chassis as the 2 liter racing car of the time. Otto Salzer broke the record at the Semmering hill climb once again. The racing car was driven by Rudolf Caracciola and Adolf Rosenberger with great success in hill climbs until 1929 .

Salzer worked as a foreman until his retirement after around 40 years at Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft or Daimler-Benz . Over the years he drove all sports and racing cars built by Daimler-Benz and contributed to their further development.

Otto Salzer lived on Unteruhlbacher Strasse in Obertürkheim until his death, where he had built a house in 1914. He died on January 7, 1944 at the age of 69 in Obertürkheim.

memories

In his memoirs, Salzer reported, among other things, how Daimler sent him on an eight-day long-distance journey to Vienna in a truck in 1898 in order to prove the superiority of the automobile in comparison to horse-drawn vehicles. After only 30 kilometers he had an accident because a front spring broke. But the journey continued anyway and he and his co-driver reached the destination alone, as all ten horse-drawn vehicles involved had to give up on the third day due to fatigue and overexertion of the animals.

Salzer also talked about Gottlieb Daimler's attitude towards his employees, whom he also wanted to give the opportunity to experience an automobile trip. Among other things, he invited the company's officials to a Sunday company outing in an omnibus. The trip was supposed to go to Schorndorf , just under 30 kilometers away , the birthplace of Daimler. Salzer was the driver who was at the factory hours before the start to get the vehicle ready to go. Shortly before Fellbach (and after a considerable increase) he had to stop, remove a gear shaft, walk it about five kilometers to the factory on the Neckar and pick up a spare part, while Daimler and his guests spend the afternoon at the “Traube” inn. let go well in Fellbach . After the repair, the trip was shortened and it was only possible to get to the “Hirschen” in Grunbach before starting the return journey in the evening. The next day Daimler apologized to Salzer, who, unlike the passengers, had hardly come for a coffee.

As Daimler's personal chauffeur, Salzer traveled with him in a car in Tyrol for eight days in 1898. The uphill and mountain passes showed clear weaknesses in the brakes and propulsion of the vehicle. Salzer was often busy repairing and cleaning for hours; Cooling water had to be laboriously searched for with a canvas bucket .

literature

  • Michael Behrndt, Jörg-Thomas Födisch, Matthias Behrndt: German racing drivers . Heel Verlag, Königswinter 2008, ISBN 978-3-86852-042-2 , pp. 22-23.
  • HU Wieselmann: The biggest Grand Prix . In: Motor Revue, issue 50, summer edition 1964, Vereinigte Motor-Verlage, Stuttgart.

Web links

Commons : Otto Salzer  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
  • Salzer, Otto. In: M @ RS. Mercedes-Benz Classic, accessed on March 30, 2015 (photo with comment): "From 1906 he was also active as a racing driver and was one of the most outstanding Mercedes drivers of the old school."

Individual evidence and note

  1. ^ I Kaiser Prize. (No longer available online.) Www.teamdan.com, archived from the original on September 28, 2011 ; accessed on June 15, 2017 (English).
  2. ^ Grand Prix de l'Automobile Club de France. (No longer available online.) Www.teamdan.com, archived from the original on September 28, 2011 ; accessed on June 15, 2017 (English).
  3. ^ XI Grand Prix de l'ACF (No longer available online.) Www.teamdan.com, archived from the original on August 21, 2008 ; accessed on June 15, 2017 (English).
  4. ↑ List of winners of the Semmering hill climb . Retrieved February 4, 2016.
  5. ↑ The Mercedes Grand Prix car had a 4-cylinder engine with an overhead camshaft, 4483 cm³ displacement, output 105 hp at 3100 rpm.
  6. ↑ Hans Etzrodt: HILL CLIMB WINNERS 1897-1949, Part 2 (1915-1923). www.kolumbus.fi, accessed on June 15, 2017 (English).
  7. ↑ Hans Etzrodt: HILL CLIMB WINNERS 1897-1949, Part 3 (1924-1926). www.kolumbus.fi, accessed on June 15, 2017 (English).
  8. ↑ a b c d e Otto Salzer: From the memories of a racing driver from Möglingen. In: Chronicle. Heimatverein Möglingen, accessed on March 6, 2016 .
personal data
SURNAME Salzer, Otto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German mechanic and automobile racing driver
DATE OF BIRTH April 4, 1874
PLACE OF BIRTH Possible
DATE OF DEATH January 7, 1944
Place of death Obertürkheim