Almost everything is known about the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne in Sarajevo, but very little is known about the car in which he and his wife were driving.
The text about one of the most famous cars is brought to you thanks to the courtesy of the author of the book “Fragments of the history of automobiles in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) from the beginning of the 20th century”, Sefik Braco Emric. In his book, this car lover and motorist from Sarajevo collected and described details about this car from archival documents and texts. This data on the car’s ownership, technical specifications, history as well as colorized photos have so far only been published in his book.
Car with registration number AIII-118 driven by the driver Leopold Lojka (1886-1926) and in which the assassination of the Austro-Hungarian heir to the throne Franz Ferdinand d’Este (1863-1914) and his wife Sofia Hoenberg (1869) was carried out while driving in a convoy of six cars. -1914), on June 28th, 1914 in Sarajevo, became one of the most famous cars in the world throughout history.
This event, known as the Sarajevo assassination, was the reason for the beginning of World War I. The car of the respected Austrian car factory Gräf und Stift, model 28/32 HP Doppel Phaeton, was distinguished by a number of then advanced technical solutions and was very rare and exclusive, and today is known as a car from Sarajevo.
An imposing double phaeton with two acetylene headlights, two side and one taillight, spare tire carrier and horn, this six-seater car, 3,700mm long and suspended on longitudinal semi-elliptical wishbones with rigid axles, was powered by a two-block in-line four-cylinder engine and T head (two blocks with two cylinders each), working volume 5,880 cc and maximum power 32 HP at 1,400 rpm and serial number 287am15.
Aleks Friedman’s patent was applied for the lubrication of this engine, and for water cooling a centrifugal pump with a cooler manufactured under Mercedes license was used. The engine was fueled by a carburetor with a latch (Gräf und Stift patent), and for starting a cold engine, specially designed containers were placed from which gasoline was poured directly into the combustion chambers (sizzling faucets). Ignition is magnetic with spark plugs located in the combustion chamber above the valves.
Transmission of power to the rear wheels was made possible by a conical clutch with friction fiber linings in oil, then a four-speed manual gearbox with reverse gear and a cardan shaft. As another advanced solution, the car is equipped with a mechanical contracting brake on the cardan shaft cooled by liquid and a manual expander on the rear wheels. Advanced technical solutions are a feature of this car because the whole thing was extremely well constructed. For lighting the road, this double phaeton had two Carl Zeiss and at that time particularly advanced acetylene headlights (carbide lamps).
After the Sarajevo assassination, the fate of this car became the subject of a series of fascinating cursed car stories interpreted by many researchers, but its history began on December 15th, 1910, when it was delivered to a member of the Royal AutomobileClub Volunteer Force (Kaiserliche und Königliche Freiwilligen-Automobil -Corps), to Count Franz Harrach (Franz Maria Alfred Graf von Harrach 1870-1937). In 1914, Count Harrach was ordered to participate in military maneuvers in BiH and to make this car and driver Leopold Lojka (1886-1926) available to the Inspector General of the Monarchy’s Armed Forces and heir to the throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand d’Este, to supervise the two-day military maneuvers in the vicinity of Sarajevo. The lack of familiarity with the cars and streets that Lojka drove through Sarajevo contributed to the assassination.
Count Harrach paid 15,500 kroner (about 40,000 EUR) for the car, tires and instruments, and although most Gräf und Stift carbodywork were made by Armbruster K&K Hofwagenfabrik, count Harrach chose the Czerny & Co workshop from Vienna and paid between 2,800 and 3,800 crown for the beautiful and luxurious bodywork made primarily of aluminum whose passenger compartment is equipped with the finest leather. According to the regulations that were applied in Austria until 1938, the driver’s seat and controls were located on the right side. The driver had to be the master of this car, since he controlled it with five foot controls. The first control is the gas pedal, the next two are the brake pedals (cardan shaft brake and rear brake), then the clutch pedal and the far left is the engine start pedal. On the right side there is a continuous wall on which the handbrake and gear lever are placed.
On the edge of the wooden steering wheel with four parts (arms) there is a handle for opening the valve for the inflow of compressed air into the horn. At the very bottom of the space above the control pedals, the control instruments consisting of the speedometer are placed consisting of a speedometer with a scale that showed up to 100 km/h, then an engine oil pressure gauge and an opening for a clock, which is missing in this car.
Even though it covered the first kilometers in the Alps and in Sarajevo, this Gräf und Stift did not cover more than 8,596 kilometers. It stopped after the assassination in Sarajevo and remained preserved. In August of the same year, Count Harrach donated it to the Military History Museum in Vienna, where in 1957 it was restored and exhibited as physical evidence of an event that changed the world forever, Klix.ba reports.
E.Dz.
