Friedrich Huber (entrepreneur)
Friedrich Huber (born June 13, 1913 in Wimpassing an der Pielach , † December 8, 2010 in St. Pölten ) was an Austrian entrepreneur, racing car designer , and motorcycle and car racing driver .
Education and family
Friedrich Huber was born in 1913, one year before the start of the First World War , as the child of a farming family in what was then the Austro-Hungarian Habsburg Crown Land, Archduchy of Austria under the Enns . Today his birthplace is Wimpassing an der Pielach in the Austrian state of Lower Austria . After the end of the war he started school, attended the five-class elementary school in his hometown and then the three-class community school in St. Pölten, where he subsequently became at home.
In 1928 he began an apprenticeship as a car mechanic ; after his apprenticeship, he passed the master craftsman's examination in 1939. His participation as a soldier in World War II prevented a motorcycle accident in which he sustained serious leg injuries. Five times he was from the army to muster charged, but each time was declared unfit for service. It was not until the last weeks of the war, in April 1945, that he was drafted into the Volkssturm and was supposed to be sent to Burgenland for military service . In the confusion of the last days of the war he did not take part in any combat operations.
Friedrich Huber was married to Hildegard Huber, née Putz (1917–1999) from August 3, 1941 . The couple had three sons, all of whom studied automotive engineering at the HTL Mödling . The eldest son, Günther Huber (* 1942) was a successful racing car driver in the 1960s and 1970s. In addition, there were sons Wolfgang (* 1943) (later a motor vehicle expert) and Peter (* 1944), who was Austrian general importer of Kawasaki from 1971 to 2019 .
Entrepreneur
In June 1945 Friedrich Huber rented a workshop with a gas station on Linzer Strasse in St. Pölten and began repairing motorcycles and automobiles. In order to be able to work on the electrics of motor vehicles, he also passed the master's examination as a motor vehicle electrician in 1952. In 1951 he was awarded a Volkswagen workshop contract, in 1958 he became a Porsche , 1961 Volkswagen and 1972 Audi dealership. When the Seat brand was added in 1993 , the company had locations in St. Pölten, Melk and Vienna-Hietzing and was the second largest Volkswagen customer service in Austria. In 1981 he received the Silver Medal of Honor for Services to the Republic of Austria and retired in 1984.
Racing career
In the 1930s, motorcycle races were very popular in Austria . Spectators came en masse to the dirt track and road races. Friedrich Huber took part in these races from 1933 on with a Puch 250 and competed in national championship races. The serious motorcycle accident in 1936, which had also prevented his active participation in the hostilities of World War II, ended these activities.
At the beginning of the 1950s, he took up racing again, this time on four wheels. After his first races with a BMW 327/28 , he started his own construction with a Porsche engine in sports car races in Austria and West Germany . In 1954 he ran his own production in Rhineland-Palatinate price on the Nordschleife of the Nürburgring . The race won three plant - Porsche 550 , led by Hans Herrmann , before Richard von Frankenberg and Helmut Polensky . Between well-known drivers such as Fritz Huschke von Hanstein , Edgar Barth , Karl-Günther Bechem , Helmut Niedermayr , Richard Trenkel and Wolfgang Seidel , Huber was fourteenth. Another self-made Porsche that Otto Mathé drove was classified behind him . In 1955 he finished second behind Ernst Vogel in two sports car races in Baden near Vienna .
It had its last international start at the Vienna-Aspern airfield race in 1957 . The race was known by the participation of three plant - Ferrari . It won Willy Daetwyler in a Ferrari 750 Monza . Friedrich Huber failed with his own construction. Another road accident ended the racing activities. Huber had avoided a motorcyclist overtaking a truck in a Porsche 356 Carrera and collided with the oncoming truck. The result was seven broken bones and the end of active racing.
The Huber Porsche
In 1953 Friedrich Huber built a racing car with a Porsche engine. The chassis was a welded frame with a front axle from a VW Beetle . The Beetle also supplied the gearbox and the rear axle, a Fiat the braking system. The car was powered by the 1.1-liter engine of the Porsche 356. First the car was given a monoposto body, which was soon removed because the racing car with the 1.1-liter engine did not fit into a common monoposto. Racing formula . The chassis was then clad with a hammered and screwed aluminum body at a body shop . As a special feature, the car had a spare wheel in the rear. In 1955 it received a new body, an improved lighting system and quick-release fasteners for the engine cover.
The vehicle is not preserved. At the end of the 1950s, the chassis was scrapped together with the remains of the 356 accident car because Friedrich Huber wanted to prevent one of his sons from starting racing. He did not succeed with his son Günther.
Friedrich Huber and Fritz Dirtl
The Huber family had a special connection with the motorcycle racer Fritz Dirtl and his brother Walter. When the two drivers drove to the numerous racing events in the West, they stopped by the Huber workshop on Linzer Straße with their motorcycles on trailers. Since something was always repaired and often asked for gasoline at two o'clock in the night, a friendly relationship developed between Friedrich Huber and Fritz Dirtl. Dirtl became the idol of the Huber boys, for whom their father had built a Speedway sidecar in 1950. 1954 Friedrich Huber Fritz Dirtl had asked Günther for his son godfather to be. Dirtl gladly accepted the request, but had not yet been confirmed and, according to canon law, would not have been able to take office. Father Frederick managed to remedy by a day of Confirmation as Göd served by Fritz Dirtl who could then compete now received Confirmation, his position as the godfather of Guenther Huber.
The Huber motorcycle team
1950 constructed Friedrich Huber for his sons a Speedway - sidecar . Huber made a frame with a telescopic fork at the front and telescopic suspension at the rear. With a saddle height of 55 cm and a track width of 65 cm, the motorcycle had a total length of one meter and 40 cm. The vehicle, which had both front and rear brakes, was powered by a 98 cc Sachs engine and had a two-speed gearbox with foot shift. The 2.3 hp engine brought the combination to a top speed of 50 km / h.
Günther and Peter Huber drove the team at the dirt track races in St. Pölten, Wels and Baden near Vienna and were the attraction there during the breaks. Austria's speedway champion Fritz Dirtl did his lap of honor on the team after his victory in St. Pölten in 1950. At the Lower Austrian provincial exhibition , which took place in St. Pölten in 1950, the team was presented to the visitors at Friedrich Huber's stand.
photos
Friedrich Huber at a track race in St-Pölten in 1935
Huber (kneeling) with his Puch 250
Friedrich Huber with the motorcycle team for his sons
The Huber team at the Lower Austrian State Exhibition in 1950
Friedrich Huber in his BMW 327 in St. Pölten in 1953
The Huber Porsche with a monoposto body in 1954
Friedrich Huber with the self-made 1954 on the Nürburgring
1957 at the Aspern airfield race
Friedrich Huber 1973
Friedrich Huber 1992
Documents
Folder 50 years of the Huber car dealership
Press release 50 years of the Huber car dealership
CV Friedrich Huber
Report on the 91st birthday in the Niederösterreichische Nachrichten
The Dirtl Huber confirmation in the Wiener Illustrierte
literature
- Martin Pfundner: From Semmering to Grand Prix. The automobile sport in Austria and its history. Böhlau Verlag, Vienna 2003, ISBN 3-205-771-621 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Friedrich Huber's biography
- ↑ Niederösterreichische Nachrichten 35/2004
- ↑ Peter Huber retires as a Kawasaki importer
- ↑ Flyer 50 Years Autohaus Huber
- ^ List of decorations of the Republic of Austria
- ^ Rhineland-Palatinate Prize 1954
- ^ Sports car race Baden 1954
- ^ Sports car race Baden 1954 S-F3
- ↑ Niederösterreichische Nachrichten 35/2004
- ^ Wiener Illustrierte June 19, 1954 Report on Confirmation
- ↑ Anton Öckher (ed.): Lower Austrian exhibition Sankt Pölten from 26 August to 3 September 1950 . Sn, Sankt Pölten 1950.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Huber, Friedrich |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Austrian entrepreneur and racing driver |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 13, 1913 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Wimpassing on the Pielach |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 8, 2010 |
| Place of death | St. Polten |