Driving 250km over Alpine cols in a 1912 car

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The energetic St Moritz Automobile Week takes place this week in the beautiful Swiss Alps. The event includes the Kilometre Lancé (a one-mile sprint at the airport), the Mobility Forum, Super Stick Shift (a rally for post-war supercars), Motorsport Rendezvous (a Concours de Elégance in the garden of the stunning Kempinski Hotel), the RM Sotheby's auction (check out the cars here), the Bernina Gran Turismo (arguably the most beautiful hill climb in the world) and the Targa Poschiavo Engiadina, a rally for PreWarCars that your editor participated in and which we will now focus on.

To explain the Targa Poschiavo Engiadina in brief; it is a rally with time trials in the beautiful Swiss Alps, only for PreWarCars in a friendly atmosphere.
The rally itself takes place over two days and covers a distance of 250km. There are several challenging Alpine cols that demand the utmost from both driver and car. The views throughout the route are simply stunning.

The participating cars are a variety of pre-war cars. The oldest was a 1903 Simplex Mercedes, a 1913 Cadillac, the PreWarCar.com team's 1912 Hudson, a Lea Francis Hyper, Alvis racing car #1, Bentley 3-4 1/2L, Aston Martin LM2, 1913 Vauxhall 30/98, Lagonda M45R, and a mighty supercharged Mercedes 710 SS.

Braking is the hardest part

This must have been the most beautiful area we have ever driven in. We were surrounded by awe-inspiring mountains and drove alongside creeks, forests and lakes. Explaining what it was like is almost impossible.

Driving the 1912 Hudson was more challenging than we initially thought, it wasn't the climbs that were the most demanding, it was the descents that were the hardest. Even though we tried to brake on engine compression, we had to use the brakes to the max (rear brakes only) and had to take our time to get into the valley before climbing up the next mountain pass. The car performed really well and we made it to the finishing line in one piece (although we took off the bonnet and roof beforehand to save weight and avoid overheating the engine).

St. Moritz Automobile Week is here all week and you will be able to see a variety of cars driving around the town, some of which will be participating in multiple events. For example, the Blitzen Benz took part in the Kilometre Lancé and then received a different bodywork for the Hill Climb on the Bernina Pass.
The participants come from all over the world, but still it seems like one big group of friends. 

The event really exceeded our expectations. The friendly atmosphere, the passion of the organisation and the routes made us wish we didn't have to wait another 12 months for the next one. Fortunately, we can still enjoy the photos. 

Text by Laurens Klein, photos by organisation/ LK

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