A look back over a hundred years of the automobile
09/17/2013
On April 22, 1907, Fiat celebrated a double victory at the Targa Florio. Felice Nazzaro won the three-lap race ahead of his teammate Vincenzo Lancia.
The Automobile Review, founded in 1906, was just one year old.
A competition called "In a car from Peking to Paris" was one of the first officially advertised "racing events" in 1907. A thirst for adventure, the urge for technical progress and sporting motivation were the driving forces behind the first motor sports enthusiasts. This 16,000 km marathon was won by the Italian Scipione Borghese from the Borghese family in Itala. Second place went to a Dutch Spyker with Charles Goddard at the wheel.
Of course, all the people mentioned above have long since passed away. But there are still contemporary witnesses. For example, Mrs. Marie Abächerli-Imfeld recently celebrated her 100th birthday. She was born in 1913, exactly six years after the events mentioned.
Her first well-wisher was Mrs. Josefine Berchtold, who was 106 years old and on the counter. She witnessed the beginnings of motorsport. Whether carriages, motor cars, supercharged racing cars, turbos, Quattros or hybrid-powered vehicles, she has seen it all in her lifetime. It is almost unimaginable to rewind 106 years back in time and see how many names of Nazzaro, Varzi, Rosemeyer, Caracciola, Nuvolari, Ascari, Fangio, Moss, Brabham, Surtees, Clark, Stewart, Lauda, Senna, Schumacher and Vettel she has seen come and go. She has actually seen them all.
Congratulations and all the best from Zwischengas to the two young-at-heart women in the "dr`Heimä" retirement home in Giswil with this blog, a format that was only invented a good 15 years ago ...
