AutoCult continues its mission to model history's more obscure machines with this smashing little likeness of the car that won the 1954 Rallye des Alpes - an event run in July of that year but in conditions that were sometimes downright hostile. Driven by its creator, Wolfgang Denzel, the speedster zipped along mountain passes still partially covered in snow, besting Porsches, Renaults,Triumphs and even a Sunbeam Alpine piloted by Stirling Moss.
Sporting Success
Wolfgang Denzel, supplier of the cars of the same
name, achieved over 300 successes at sporting events in his career – on two and
four wheels – and the greatest success of his career was the overall victory at
the “XVII Rallye international des Alpes” in 1954.
On July 8, 1954, the riders started in Marseille and
covered over 3,000 kilometers in the winding and mountainous roads of France
and Italy before the racers finally finished their marathon ride in Cannes on
July 13, 1954. 46-year-old Wolfgang Denzel was sitting behind the steering
wheel and his companion Stroinigg guided him the way from the passenger seat.
From today’s perspective, the fact that the duo chose a 1300cc Denzel
convertible for the rally is unusual, because in the still snow-covered heights
of the French and Italian Alps, temperatures were anything but summerly.
With the numbers of their starting number 228 painted
in bold on the two doors, the two Austrians confidently dominated the
“1001-1300” displacement class, so that they were rated as the fastest in their
class at the finish line in Cannes. For Wolfgang Denzel, this was the greatest
motorsport success, not least in his own car, which underlined his myth in the
scene as the feared opponent of the Porsche drivers.
Of course, the victory was an enormous proof of the
performance of the Denzel engine and the Denzel 1300, so that it not only
increased aware....