It's a damn shame so much great automotive history has been lost throughout the past century to wars and other ravages of time. Happily that doesn't include Dr. Ferdinand Porsche's first vehicle, which has spent the past 112 years in a shed in Austria. The relic from 1899 is now at home in Porsche's factory museum in Stuttgart.
You may have thought Porsches motivated by electricity were something new, but you'd be wrong. If you go back 116 years ago, the Ferdinand Porsche–designed, electric-powered Egger-Lohner C.2 Phaeton first took to Viennese streets. The electric drive system weighed 286 pounds and could provide as much as 5 horsepower. Such power was regulated by way of a 12-speed controller, and the solid-rim-wheeled vehicle could reach 22 mph. If you dialed power back to 3 horsepower, a max range of 50 miles could conceivably be achieved.
Establishing the first day any Porsche raced, the 23-year-old engineer entered the machine in a competition for electric vehicles on September 28, 1899 at a Berlin exhibition. Race distance was 24 miles and Porsche won by 18 minutes, taking three passengers along for the ride. His C.2 Phaeton won the crown for lowest energy consumption in urban traffic, a test half the field failed to finish.
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Porsche's C.2 design was so effective it was developed into the production Lohner-Porsche. The story goes that all those cars have been lost, so about a decade ago Ferdinand Piëch, Dr. Porsche's grandson and the chairman of the Volkswagen Group, had a replica made.
from Car and Driver Blog http://ift.tt/nSHy27
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