Paul-Ernst Straehle

Paul-Ernst Strähle in the 1963 Porsche Carrera Abarth at the 1000 km race on the Nürburgring in the Hatzenbach section. Together with Gerhard Koch , he finished tenth in the overall standings and won the GT class with a displacement of up to 1.6 liters.

Paul-Ernst Strähle (born September 20, 1927 in Schorndorf ; † October 27, 2010 there ) was a German entrepreneur and racing driver .

life and career

Paul-Ernst Strähle was the son of the aircraft pioneer and motor vehicle dealer Paul Strähle . In his parents' business he did a technical and commercial training. As a teenager, he wanted to become a mountaineer, but instead came to motorsport on his father's advice. His first competition, which he drove together with his father in a VW Beetle on April 22, 1951, was the Württemberg ADAC Gau Orientierungsfahrt.

In the further course of his career, Strähle took part in many rallies and reliability drives and won the Adria Rally in 1956, the 10 Hours of Messina in 1958, Liège – Rome – Liège in 1959 and the Marathon de la Route in 1960. In 1958, he was German rally champion . One of his early successes was a class win in a VW Beetle with a Porsche engine in the Mille Miglia in 1954 , which he drove two more times. Other stations were the 1000 km race on the Nürburgring and the Targa Florio . In 1955 he became German GT Champion in a Porsche. He drove all races with a Porsche; he had turned down an offer from Alfred Neubauer to switch to Mercedes-Benz .

In 1963, Strähle ended his career as an active racing driver in order to devote more time to his automobile trade. In 1966 he founded the “Strähle Autosport” team, which had been successful with Porsche vehicles for almost 30 years, and since 1977 he has dedicated himself to historic motorsport and in 2001 was one of the eight former racing drivers with whom Tobias Aichele, Managing Director of Solitude GmbH , founded the Solitude Revival association . Strähle Autosport drivers included Herbert Linge , Günter Steckkönig and Leopold Prince of Bavaria .

In 1977 Paul-Ernst Straehle was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit and in 2008 the Daimler Medal of the city of Schorndorf. He died in 2010 after a brief illness at the age of 83.

Straehle was a wine connoisseur who collected rarities. Four years after his death, the community of heirs had the wines, some of which were up to 80 years old, auctioned for charitable purposes.

statistics

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1962	Porsche System Engineering	Porsche 356 B Carrera Abarth GTL	Edgar Barth	Rank 9

Nürburgring results (1000 km race)

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1956	Erich Hoffmann	Porsche 356	Paul Denk	failure
1957	Paul-Ernst Straehle	Porsche 356 A Carrera	Paul Denk	Rank 24 and class win
1958	Paul-Ernst Straehle	Porsche 356 A Carrera	Hans-Joachim Walter	17th place and class win
1959	Hans-Joachim Walter	Porsche 356 A Carrera	Hans-Joachim Walter	Rank 10 and class win
1960	Paul-Ernst Straehle	Porsche 356 B Carrera Abarth GTL	Hans-Joachim Walter	Rank 10 and class win
1962	Paul-Ernst Straehle	Porsche 356 B	Fritz Hahnl Jr.	Rank 13
1963	Paul-Ernst Straehle	Porsche 356 B Carrera Abarth GTL	Gerhard Koch	Rank 10 and class win

Individual results in the sports car world championship

season	team	race car	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13	14th	15th	16	17th	18th	19th	20th	21st	22nd
1954		VW 1300	BUA	SEB	MIM	LEM	RTT	CAP
					43
1955		Porsche 356	BUA	SEB	MIM	LEM	RTT	TAR
					DNF
1956	Erich Hofmann	Porsche 356	BUA	SEB	MIM	ONLY	KRI
					23	DNF
1957	Paul-Ernst Straehle	Porsche 356	BUA	SEB	MIM	ONLY	LEM	KRI	CAR
					14th	24
1958	Paul-Ernst Straehle	Porsche 356	BUA	SEB	TAR	ONLY	LEM	RTT
						16
1959	Porsche Hans-Joachim Walter	Porsche 550 Porsche 356	SEB	TAR	ONLY	LEM	RTT
				2	10
1960	Paul-Ernst Straehle	Porsche 356	BUA	SEB	TAR	ONLY	LEM
					6th	10
1961	Porsche	Porsche 356	SEB	TAR	ONLY	LEM	PES
				6th
1962	Porsche Scuderia Serenissima Paul-Ernst Strähle	Porsche 356	DAY	SEB	SEB	MAY	TAR	BER	ONLY	LEM	TAV	CCA	RTT	ONLY	BRI	BRI	PAR
					9		DNF		12
1963	Porsche	Porsche 356	DAY	SEB	SEB	TAR	SPA	MAY	ONLY	CON	ROS	LEM	MON	WIS	TAV	FRE	CCE	RTT	OVI	ONLY	MON	MON	TDF	BRI
						5			10

Web links

Commons : Paul-Ernst Strähle  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Waiblinger Kreiszeitung. On the death of Paul-Ernst Strähle . Retrieved July 26, 2016.
2. ^ Oldtimer friends Tiefenbronn . Retrieved August 16, 2016.
3. ↑ ^{a b c} auto-motor-und-sport.de. Obituary Paul-Ernst Straehle . Retrieved July 26, 2016.
4. ↑ ^{a b} Program for the ADAC 1000 km race 1964. Page 12.
5. ^ Solitude GmbH. About us . ( Memento of the original from July 27, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved July 27, 2016. 
6. ↑ Stuttgarter Zeitung . Retrieved July 26, 2016.
7. ↑ Stuttgarter Zeitung. Auction from the Strähle estate . Retrieved July 26, 2016.