At Porsche, there has always been a tradition of building small, lightweight sports cars with innovative technology. Another common thread that weaves through the company’s history is the sports car manufacturer’s custom of proving its innovations in motor racing before they go into series production. It was exactly one hundred years ago that Ferdinand Porsche, then Head of Development and Production at Austro-Daimler, used the extreme demands of motorsport to demonstrate his ideas. And with success: the Austro-Daimler ADS R won the Targa Florio on 2 April 1922 against strong competition in the smallest displacement class, taking class victory in the mountains of Sicily.

With the Austro-Daimler ADS R, the then 46-year-old Ferdinand Porsche placed his faith in the principle of the power-to-weight ratio, to this day a defining feature of all sports cars from Zuffenhausen. A century later, a team from the Porsche Heritage and Museum department undertook the restoration of this historic car.

Related Content

Out of the box: photography by René Staud
History

Out of the box: photography by René Staud

There’s hardly a Porsche model left that hasn’t been photographed by René Staud, whose studio in the German town of Leonberg is the catwalk of the car industry. And while many photographic studios have disappeared in the wake of digitalization, Staud Studios continues to boom.

The Porsche crest: birth of a quality seal
History

The Porsche crest: birth of a quality seal

Today, the Porsche crest is one of the most popular trademarks in the world. Since 1952, it has adorned every sports car from Zuffenhausen. But how did the idea for it come about? The traces lead back to New York City in the early 1950s.