Freddy Kottulinsky
Encyclopedia
Racing
A sport race is a competition of speed, against an objective criterion, usually a clock or to a specific point. The competitors in a race try to complete a given task in the shortest amount of time...
and rallying
Rallying
Rallying, also known as rally racing, is a form of auto racing that takes place on public or private roads with modified production or specially built road-legal cars...
driver who won the Paris-Dakar Rally
Dakar Rally
The Dakar Rally is an annual rally raid type of off-road automobile race, organised by the Amaury Sport Organisation...
in 1980. He was born in München.
Biography
A member of old Austrian-Silesian nobility, in 1953 he went to SwedenSweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
, where he set up a repair shop. In the 1960s and mostly with a Swedish racing licence, Kottulinsky competed in Formula 3, Formula V
Formula V
For the motor racing class, see Formula VeeFórmula V is a Spanish pop musical quintet founded in 1965 in Spain. The musical style is very much in the style of 60's rock similar to the Beatles and Monkees. In the late 1960s the band experienced enormous popularity in Spain and Latin America.The...
and Formula 2. In F3 he became Swedish champion in 1966 on a Lotus 35 Cosworth. Together with Ronnie Peterson
Ronnie Peterson
Bengt Ronnie Peterson was a Swedish racing driver. He was a two-time runner-up in the FIA Formula One World Drivers' Championship.Peterson began his motor racing career in kart racing, traditionally the discipline where the majority of race drivers begin their careers in open-wheel racing...
and Torsten Palm
Torsten Palm
Torsten Palm is a former racing driver from Sweden.Palm participated in two Formula One World Championship Grands Prix with a rented Hesketh in 1975, failing to qualify for the first and then running out of fuel two laps before the end of the second - for which he was awarded tenth place. As a...
he in 1970 scored a Swedish win in the F3 European Cup for nations. In 1974 he won Formel Super V's European Gold Cup on a Lola T320.
He also entered rally
Rallying
Rallying, also known as rally racing, is a form of auto racing that takes place on public or private roads with modified production or specially built road-legal cars...
s, as did his daughter Susanne Kottulinsky who had been born in 1960. In 1980 he won the Paris-Dakar Rally
Dakar Rally
The Dakar Rally is an annual rally raid type of off-road automobile race, organised by the Amaury Sport Organisation...
together with Gerd Löffelmann in a 4WD VW Iltis prepared by Audi
Audi
Audi AG is a German automobile manufacturer, from supermini to crossover SUVs in various body styles and price ranges that are marketed under the Audi brand , positioned as the premium brand within the Volkswagen Group....
. When asked for the first time to drive one of three cars that were supposed to support Jean Ragnotti
Jean Ragnotti
Jean "Jeannot" Ragnotti , is a French former rally driver for Renault in the World Rally Championship....
, Kottulinsky, who had neither experience nor desire to race in a desert, declined indirectly by asking for a high salary. Shortly before the race began, the team hired him anyway, and Kottulinsky entered the race with hardly any preparation. He did not have tent nor sleeping bag, but enough spare parts to keep the car running without having to wait for support. The design of this four wheel drive system provided the basis for Audi's Quattro
Quattro
quattro is the name used by Audi AG to indicate that four-wheel drive technologies or systems are used on specific models of the Audi automobiles....
system, which debuted later in 1980 on the original Audi Quattro
Audi Quattro
The Audi Quattro is a road and rally car, produced by the German automobile manufacturer Audi, now part of the Volkswagen Group. It was first shown at the 1980 Geneva Motor Show on 3 March.The word quattro is derived from the Italian word for "four"...
. In that time, Kottulinsky also trained the mechanics to drive the team's service vehicles quickly and safely. This developed into Audi Fahrsicherheitstraining (driving safety lessons), for which Kottulinsky worked 25 years until retirement.
Kottulinsky lived in Görkwitz
Görkwitz
Görkwitz is a municipality in the district Saale-Orla-Kreis, in Thuringia, Germany....
in Thüringen
Thuringia
The Free State of Thuringia is a state of Germany, located in the central part of the country.It has an area of and 2.29 million inhabitants, making it the sixth smallest by area and the fifth smallest by population of Germany's sixteen states....
for several years, promoting the local race track Schleizer Dreieck. At over 70 years of age, he was still entering motorsport events, e.g. on 11 August 2006 with a Datsun 240Z in the AvD
AVD
AVD may refer to:* Academy of Veterinary Dentistry* Alviri-Vidari language, an Iranian language * Android Virtual Device, an emulator configuration that lets you model an actual device by defining hardware and software options to be emulated by the Android Emulator* Audio, Video, Disco, 2011 album...
-Historic-Marathon-400 on the Nordschleife of the Nürburgring
Nürburgring
The Nürburgring is a motorsport complex around the village of Nürburg, Germany. It features a modern Grand Prix race track built in 1984, and a much longer old North loop track which was built in the 1920s around the village and medieval castle of Nürburg in the Eifel mountains. It is located about...
. He died in May 2010 in Karlstad
Karlstad
Karlstad is a city, the seat of Karlstad Municipality, the capital of Värmland County, and the largest city in the province Värmland in Sweden. The city had 61,685 inhabitants in 2010 out of a municipal total that during the first quarter 2010 was 84,885 inhabitants...
.