Gräf und Stift

Austria, 1907 – 1938

(1) Gräf & Stift, Vienna, 1907 – 1908

(2) Wiener Automobilfabrik AG vorm. Gräf & Stift, Vienna, 1908 – 1938

The three Gräf brothers, who had a bicycle business, built their first Gräff motor car during the years 1895 – 1897 to a design of Josef Kainz. Although no more of this model were made, it had some interesting details. It used a single-cylinder De Dion engine – placed in the front – and had front drive. This car can claim to be the first in the world to follow this principle.

In 1902 the Gräf brothers founded the firm of Gräf und Stift with Willy Stift, who had earlier built the Celeritas cars. They next built Gräf und Stift Spitz cars to the order of Arnold Spitz. This cooperation ended in 1907, when Gräf und Stift started production under their own Gräf und Stift name, specializing in the heavier type of private car. They made T-head 4-cylinder Gräf und Stift types of Gräf und Stift 16/22ps and 4.2-litres, Gräf und Stift 18/32ps and 5.9-litres, Gräf und Stift 28/45ps and 7.3-litres and Gräf und Stift 35/65ps and 10 litres. De Dion rear axles were found on some Gräf und Stift models from 1913. Gräf und Stift cars were used by the Austrian Imperial Court and played a part in this make in 1914; the Gräf und Stift vehicle is now in the Military Museum in Vienna. The last Austrian Emperor went into Swiss exile in another Gräf und Stift after World War 1.

The post-World War 1 Gräf und Stift models werethe Gräf & Stift VK (4-cylinder, 1.940cc), Gräf und Stift SR4 (6-cylinder, 7.745cc), Gräf und Stift SP5 (6-cylinder, 3.895cc) and Gräf und Stift SP8 (8-cylinder, 5.923cc). The SP8 with an in-line ohc engine headed the range and was known as the Austrian Rolls-Royce. It was available with various bodies, chiefly as an open tourer, as a 4-door four-seater sports coupé, or as a six-seater saloon. These Gräf und Stift cars carried a distinctive silver lion mascot. Two Gräf und Stift prototypes of 1938 market the end of private-car manufacture: the Gräf und Stift G36, a 4.7-litre single-ohc straight-8, and the Gräf und Stift C12, a 3.9-litre sv V12. Before World War 2 Gräf und Stift built the 6-cylinder Citroën and the German Ford V8 (Gräfford) under licence. After the war the Czech Aero Minor was produced under licence from 1949 to 1950, but only on a small scale. Gräf und Stift still build trucks and buses today.

Source: Georgano, encyclopedia of motorcar; HON

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