Despite a victory rate of an incredible 71.4 percent, Eberhard Mahle, who died in December 2021, is one of the lesser-known German racing drivers of the past. Yet the heir to the Stuttgart cylinder-piston empire made a name for himself on the racing and rally circuits of Europe as early as the 1950s. Tobias Aichele took care of preserving his memory just in time and had Mahle personally recount his motorsport career in detail shortly before his death. The book "Eberhard Mahle - 150 victories in 210 races", now published by Motorbuch-Verlag, tells of the beginnings in the DKW in 1954 and traces the path to the high point and final point in the Porsche in 1966.
A racing driver tells
Before you can tackle the 1954 Solitude Rally together with Eberhard Mahle, you first have to get through four (!) prefaces. Half of them, however, could easily be dispensed with. Only the author's and that of Mahle's racing driver colleague Hans Hermann show interest in and, above all, a personal connection to the subject. The other two introductions read more like advertising texts for two large Stuttgart-based companies, whose authors can hardly say anything about Eberhard Mahle as a person.
After a summary of the early Mahle company history and thus an introduction to the starting point for what follows, Eberhard Mahle's motorsport career begins on page 40. The prehistory also includes the means by which "Ebs" obtained his driver's license in Brazil in 1951. Such little anecdotes about the "bureaucratic simplifications" that were still common and possible at the time can be found several times in the book and make the reader smile.
The small additions away from the pure racing career also seem so authentic because Mahle mostly tells them himself. Instead of paraphrasing what he has heard and summarizing it in his own words, Aichele often reproduces longer excerpts from his numerous conversations with "Ebs", which means that the book is written in the first person for long stretches and the reader likes to feel as if they have been part of the audience themselves.
As the text often reproduces the wording of Eberhard Mahles and Aichele chooses the same calm, matter-of-fact tone, there is nothing to criticize about the book in terms of language. The only minor criticism is that the editor has adopted the now common bad habit of no longer (or only inconsistently) combining compound nouns with brand names. The automotive history pedant would also like to point out that "Mercedes" and "Mercedes-Benz" are two different brands.
"Ebs" in action
Almost more than the text, the focus of the book is on the many historical photos that Aichele has collected from various archives. Most of them, of course, show Eberhard Mahle at the wheel of a car in more or less wild driving, but also "Ebs" in conversation with fellow drivers, at the award ceremony or during a track inspection. Of course, there is also what is probably the most famous photo of Mahle at work, as he madly turns his Porsche 911 sideways at Rossfeld in 1966. Mahle never liked the photo. For him, it was simply the documentation of a driving mistake. The consistent separation of old and new images makes the black and white pages from the early years particularly atmospheric.
A separate chapter is devoted to Mahle's time as a Mercedes-Benz works driver, as well as the 1966 European Hillclimb Championship. Eberhard Mahle's last year as an active racing driver is reappraised race by race up to the championship title. In addition to historical photos, contemporary newspaper clippings, results and timesheets as well as Mahle's handwritten championship table and his route notes from Mont Ventoux serve as illustrative material. Even a pulse diagram recorded during the Schauninsland race has survived to this day.
For fans of statistics, there is a six-page table in the middle of the book that lists all of Mahles' race and rally participations between 1954 and 1966 with date, vehicle and result. To conclude the story, "Ebs" was reunited with his former Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Roadster and Porsche 911 racing cars shortly before his death.
Conclusion
With "Eberhard Mahle - 150 victories in 210 races", one of the best of the unknown German racing drivers finally receives the recognition he deserves. Hearing Mahle's stories from virtually first hand is just as fascinating as the historical recordings of drifting Volvos, dust-raising Mercedes-Benzes and dented DKWs. Anyone who already knows everything there is to know about Hans Hermann, Karl Kling and Rudolf Caracciola and is thirsty for new motorsport reading will find Aichele's Mahle biography interesting and satisfying new reading material. The book from the Porsche Museum Edition is available now for 49.90 euros.
Bibliographical details
- Title: "Eberhard Mahle - 150 victories in 210 races"
- Author: Tobias Aichele
- Publisher: Motorbuch-Verlag
- Edition: 1st edition June 2022
- Format: Hardcover, 235 x 265 mm
- Scope: 256 pages, approx. 500 photos
- ISBN: 978-3-613-32073-4
- Price: EUR 49.90, CHF 62.90
- Buy/order: Online at Motorbuch-Verlag, online at Amazon or in relevant bookstores
