The Successful Porsche Racing Career of Richard Attwood

Attwood developed a passion for motorsports at an early age – inspired by the car dealership run by his parents. After racing in formula sport with Triumph and BRM, he first came into contact with the Porsche brand in 1967. Together with William Bradley, he finished second in Zeltweg driving a private Porsche 906 Carrera 6. Porsche engaged Attwood for the World Sportscar Championship two years later in 1969, and from then on he was retained under contract as a works driver. He raced in the World Championship for Makes in a Porsche 908/02, and came second in both Brands Hatch and Watkins Glen together with Vic Elford. In the season finale in Zeltweg, he finished third with Brian Redman in the 917. Together with Hans Herrmann, he took part in the Nürburgring 1,000 km driving a Porsche 908/03 in 1970 – finishing in 2nd place.

Richard Attwood celebrates the first overall victory in Le Mans in 1970

The first overall victory in the most important endurance race in the world is considered to be one of the greatest racing successes of the sports car manufacturer from Zuffenhausen. On 14 June 1970, Porsche achieved the first of a total of 19 overall victories at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. After exactly 4,607.811 kilometres or 343 laps, Richard Attwood and Hans Herrmann crossed the finishing line first in the legendary Porsche 917 KH from Porsche Salzburg with the start number 23. “Unlike what many people may think, I never did any testing in the 917. I drove a 917 for the first time in a qualifying race in 1969,” says Attwood looking back. “In 1970 I did not believe for a minute that we had even the slightest hope of winning.”

Together with Hans Herrmann Attwood raced in the legendary Porsche 917 KH with the start number 23

In 1971, he achieved another first place in the 1,000 kilometre race at the Österreichring. Richard Attwood retired from active motor racing at the end of the season at the age of just 31. His last podium finish was in 1971 together with Derek Bell in the 917 KH at the season finale of the World Sportscar Championship in Watkins Glen (3rd place). However, the now 80 year-old was not quite ready to fully enjoy his retirement. In 1984, he finished 15th in Daytona in a Porsche 928. Today, Attwood still accompanies the Porsche Museum to its driving events at renowned classic car meets all over the world. Among other things, he can be seen at the Festival of Speed in Goodwood, the Sound Night as well as at various historic motorsports events.

Richard Attwood at the Festival of Speed in Goodwood 2019

Richard Attwood's most important Porsche racing successes

1967
2nd place	500 km Zeltweg, Porsche 906 Carrera 6
1969
7th place	12h Sebring, Porsche 908/02
2nd place	6h Brands Hatch, Porsche 908/02
4th place	1,000 km Spa, Porsche 908 LH
4th place	1,000 km Nürburgring, Porsche 908/02
2nd place	6h Watkins Glen, Porsche 908/02
3rd place	1,000 km Österreichring, Porsche 917
1st place	9h Kyalami, Porsche 908/02
1970
3rd place	1,000 km Brands Hatch, Porsche 917 KH
5th place	Targa Florio, Porsche 908/03
9th place	1,000 km Spa, Porsche 908/02
6th place	1,000 km Spa, Porsche 917 KH
2nd place	1,000 km Nürburgring, Porsche 908/03
1st place	24h Le Mans, Porsche 917
3rd place	CanAm Watkins Glen, Porsche 917 KH
4th place	1,000 km Österreichring, Porsche 917 KH
1971
2nd place	24h Le Mans, Porsche 917 KH
1st place	1,000 km Österreichring, Porsche 917 KH
3rd place	6h Watkins Glen, Porsche 917 KH

The Mercedes-Simplex

Mercedes-Simplex 40 PS from 1903, photographed on the road from Nice to La Turbie at the start of the 20th century, the destination of the hillclimb in Nice Week. April, 2017.

At the beginning of April 1900, businessman and motorcar enthusiast Emil Jellinek, concluded an agreement with Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (DMG) in Nice on the distribution of Daimler cars and engines. Emil Jellinek, who lived in Baden near Vienna and in Nice, insisted on greater performance and more innovative technology from Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft in the closing years of the 19th century, which resulted in the development of the modern motorcar. From 1899 on, he competed in car races on the Côte d’Azur in high-performance Daimler cars under the pseudonym “Monsieur Mercedes”, the first name of his daughter, who was born in 1889.

The decision to develop a new engine, which was to bear the name Daimler-Mercedes, was a further ground-breaking step: it meant that the name that Jellinek had been using as a pseudonym for several years became the product name. On 22 December 1900, DMG delivered the first car equipped with the new engine to Nice, a 35 PS racing car.

The vehicle was not only the newest and most powerful model produced by DMG – it has since come to be recognized as the very first modern motorcar. The Mercedes 35 PS was systematically designed for performance, weight savings and safety, its key features including a lightweight high-performance engine, a long wheelbase and a low center of gravity. With these attributes and the honeycomb radiator organically integrated into the front, it gave the motorcar its own distinct form: it was a new construction which had been systematically designed from scratch for the innovative new type of drive. Experts were immediately aware that this vehicle marked a profound change in the field of automotive engineering. Paul Meyan, the founding member and secretary-general of the motorcar Club de France (A.C.F.), is on record as having commented: “We have entered the Mercédès era.”

During Nice Week (“Semaine de Nice”) in March 1901, at that time arguably the most important international motorsport event, the Mercedes cars entered were unbeatable. This helped Jellinek and Mercedes to achieve exceptional publicity. “Clearly, French designers have nothing comparable to offer at present,” wrote the “La Presse” newspaper on 30 March 1901. In March and August 1901, the sister models, the 12/16 PS and 8/11 PS, were launched. Jellinek's business was booming: in society’s most exclusive circles, it was the done thing to drive a Mercedes or, even better, to be driven in one. The Daimler plant in Cannstatt was hardly able to keep up with the production demand.

Following the ground-breaking motorsport and market successes of Mercedes cars, the name “Mercédès” was applied for as a trademark on 23 June, 1902 and legally registered on 26 September. Emil Jellinek took this a step further one year later, and in June 1903 he received permission to change his name to Jellinek-Mercedes from then on. He commented on the decision thus: “This must in all probability be the first time that a father has borne the name of his daughter.”

Easy operability: the Simplex model family

Even in France, where the motorcar enjoyed particularly early success, cars remained conspicuous by their absence in everyday life at the turn of the 20th century. The registration statistics for France nevertheless show 4,427 luxury passenger cars in 1901, plus 959 motorcars for commercial use. However, the product was continuously being developed and was becoming more widespread.

The first Mercedes and its less powerful sister models designed according to the same principles gave rise in 1902 to the Mercedes-Simplex model family, which initially comprised three models. The "Simplex" designation alluded to the vehicles' ease of operation by the standards of the day. The most powerful variant in 1902 was the Mercedes-Simplex 40 PS, the direct successor to the Mercedes 35 PS. The Mercedes-Simplex vehicles were equally successful as innovative racing cars and as sporty everyday luxury motorcars.

They also triumphed at Nice Week: in 1902 the Mercedes-Simplex 40 PS won the Nice-La Turbie race, followed in 1903 by the 60 PS model which set a new record time. A particularly memorable feat was the victory by Camille Jenatzy in a Mercedes-Simplex 60 PS in the 1903 Gordon Bennett race, which was the leading international motorsport event of the day. The original plan was to field the markedly more powerful 90 hp racing cars, but these were destroyed in a fire at the DMG factory in Cannstatt three weeks before the race. DMG thus raced the privately owned near-series Mercedes-Simplex 60 PS. The vehicle belonging to American millionaire Clarence Gray Dinsmore won the race with Jenatzy behind the wheel.

The final models bearing the Mercedes-Simplex designation appeared in 1904. These included the 28/32 PS model, a more advanced variant of the 28 PS model from 1902. The “Simplex” designation disappeared from the model names of the Mercedes motorcars in 1905. but the unique, global success story of the series production vehicles and racing cars which began with the Mercedes 35 PS in 1901 continues to this day.

Covid-19 and the End of the Automobile Age in America

Yesterday I was interviewed in the Dayton Daily News about layoffs at the Ohio Honda plant and I stated this may well be "The End of the Automobile Age" in America. So let me explain a bit further what I mean.

Much of the future is up to speculation. However, it seems clear that any return to "normalcy" is closely connected to the widespread availability of a vaccine to counter the Covid-19 virus. Until that happens, life will not even approach what it was before early March, 2020 in the USA. Will large numbers of folks buy new cars when one does not know if they will live beyond a few weeks? And beyond that, will the impact of the virus upend our recent orgy in self-gratification and materialism? Perhaps the new society will center on very different values that the automobile no longer represents.

I have been struck recently by how the lockdown has changed my community and neighborhood. Now when one walks or bikes it is common to get greetings from neighbors also on the road or working on lawns and gardens. In the early evening our neighborhood roads are filled with walkers and families on bicycles. Automotive traffic is minimal, and I think that is a good thing. And this is in a suburban neighborhood that does not have sidewalks. Community seems to be now more a way of life than anytime I have experienced  in my 35 years living in Washington Township.

Certainly until there is a vaccine there will be very little air and highway travel. With an economy in tatters, who can afford a 70k SUV? Between job losses and stock market decline, our wealth has dropped significantly. And the cost for things of necessity has risen -- check local food prices.

Will students return to residential colleges for a "social experience," or learn online? To add to this complexity,  can one learn laboratory skills online, or will there be other accommodations for engineering and science students? Clearly our social entropy will slow down from past patterns.

And then we have the global automotive industry. Given China's rather quick recovery, will the "virus experience" shift the focus of automobile manufacturing from the US to China in even more pronounced ways that we have already witnessed? The West -- US and Europe --  has taken a disproportional hit and the long-term consequences will be profound. Given the huge amount of government monetary infusion and long term debt, perhaps Oswald Spengler's Decline of the West (1922) was about 100 years premature.

All we can do now is see how it all unfolds, while continuing to stay safe.   

Pleasure Driving during the Lockdown?

Yesterday, unlike today, was glorious in terms of sun and temperature. As a break from working around the house -- and knowing that rain was in the forecast -- I decided to take the Porsche out for brief spin. There were two reasons in my mind for doing this: 1) the car has not been out much and needs to be run -- keep the seals fresh, the brake calipers operable, the machine moving; 2) because I have been house-bound, doesn't mean I can't enjoy life to the fullest. Given my age and pre-exsiting conditions, including congestive heart failure, AFIB, and high blood pressure, any day could well be my last with Corona seemingly everywhere I touch and turn.
I drive solo -- far removed from anyone else. I noticed at least one old guy on the other side of the neighborhood gave me a grimaced, non-approving look. I don't care! But should I?

What do you think? With no cruise-ins, car events, etc., should we still take out cars out occasionally to exercise them and exorcise ourselves?

When Mercedes Became One of the Most Famous Brands in the World!

Mercedes Jellinek aged 11. Emil Jellinek initially chose the first name of his daughter as a pseudonym for his own involvement in racing with vehicles from Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft; it later became the brand name.

120 years ago, the name of an eleven-year-old girl became the epitome of cars and the first luxury car brand in the world. On April 2, 1900, Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft decided to call its automobiles Mercédès, after the daughter of Emil Jellinek. The Austrian businessman, who lived in Nice, traded in Daimler vehicles and registered them for racing events. The first vehicle with this melodious Spanish name – the Mercedes 35 PS – caused a sensation at the Nice race week as early as March 1901. This was not only because of its highly advanced technology – allowing it to win several races there – but also because of its exceptionally elegant design. The Mercedes 35 hp is regarded as the prototype of the modern automobile and, with its progressive vehicle architecture, has become a model for the entire automobile industry. Paul Meyan, then Secretary General of the Automobile Club of France, said after the race week: “We have entered the Mercedes era.”

From then on, the curved “Mercédès” lettering adorned the radiators of Daimler passenger cars. The name was registered as a trademark on June 23, 1902 and legally protected on September 26, 1902. Since then, the brand name – which was changed to Mercedes-Benz after the merger of the Daimler and Benz companies in June 1926 – has been both an expression of and a commitment to luxury and innovation. Like no other automotive company, Mercedes-Benz knows how to combine beauty and elegance with performance and technology. Moreover, the secret to the success of the current Mercedes-Benz design is the combination of intelligence and emotion.

The Nash "Glass Tower" at the Chicago Century of Progress Fair, 1933

Hi folks -- Mary Carlson just sent me a post from a Chicagopedia Facebook site that caught my interest. This Nash marketing effort was just remarkable for 1933 and actually any day! It reminded me of the VW "Glass Factory" in Dresden, Germany.