Car Engineer of the Century - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Car Engineer of the Century was an international award given to the most influential car engineer of the twentieth century. The election process was overseen by the Global Automotive Elections Foundation.

The winner, Ferdinand Porsche

Ferdinand Porsche

Ferdinand Porsche was an Austrian automotive engineer and honorary Doctor of Engineering. He is best known for creating the first hybrid vehicle , the Volkswagen Beetle, and the Mercedes-Benz SS/SSK, as well as the first of many Porsche automobiles...

, was announced at an awards gala on December 18, 1999 in Las Vegas.

The selection process

The process for deciding the Car Engineer of the Century started with the list of candidates below.

The candidates
Name	Notable for
Béla Barényi Bela Barenyi Béla Barényi was a Hungarian-Austrian engineer, regarded as the father of passive safety in automobiles. He was born in Hirtenberg near Vienna during the Austro-Hungarian Empire...	Daimler-Benz Daimler-Benz Daimler-Benz AG was a German manufacturer of automobiles, motor vehicles, and internal combustion engines; founded in 1926. An Agreement of Mutual Interest - which was valid until year 2000 - was signed on 1 May 1924 between Karl Benz's Benz & Cie., and Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft, which had... passive safety work
Walter Owen Bentley W. O. Bentley Walter Owen Bentley, MBE engineer; designer of aero engines, designer and racer of motor cars, founder of Bentley Motors Limited in Cricklewood near London.He was known as "W.O." without any need to add the word Bentley....	Innovative solutions
Karl Benz Karl Benz Karl Friedrich Benz, was a German engine designer and car engineer, generally regarded as the inventor of the gasoline-powered car, and together with Bertha Benz pioneering founder of the automobile manufacturer Mercedes-Benz...	Credited with creating the world's first purpose-built motor car in 1886
Marc Birkigt Marc Birkigt Marc Birkigt was a Swiss engineer who moved to Barcelona, Spain when he was hired as an engineer by Emilio de la Cuadra, founder of Hispano-Suiza automobiles. He created the Dewoitine company along with Émile Dewoitine. Birkigt was nominated for the Car Engineer of the Century prize for the...	Hispano-Suiza H6 Hispano-Suiza H6 The Hispano-Suiza H6 was a luxury automobile from the 1920s. Introduced at the 1919 Paris Motor Show, the H6 was produced until 1933. Roughly 2,350 H6, H6B, and H6C cars were produced in total....
Ettore Bugatti Ettore Bugatti right\|thumb\|Ettore Bugatti in 1932Ettore Arco Isidoro Bugatti was an Italian-born and French naturalized citizen automobile designer and manufacturer....	Bugatti cars Bugatti Automobiles E. Bugatti was a French car manufacturer founded in 1909 in Molsheim, Alsace, as a manufacturer of high-performance automobiles by Italian-born Ettore Bugatti....
Colin Chapman Colin Chapman Anthony Colin Bruce Chapman CBE was an influential British designer, inventor, and builder in the automotive industry, and founder of Lotus Cars....	Lotus Cars Lotus Cars Lotus Cars is a British manufacturer of sports and racing cars based at the former site of RAF Hethel, a World War II airfield in Norfolk. The company designs and builds race and production automobiles of light weight and fine handling characteristics... radical and innovative technical solutions
Gottlieb Daimler Gottlieb Daimler Gottlieb Daimler was an engineer, industrial designer and industrialist born in Schorndorf , in what is now Germany. He was a pioneer of internal-combustion engines and automobile development...	Pioneer of internal-combustion engines
Rudolf Diesel Rudolf Diesel Rudolf Christian Karl Diesel was a German inventor and mechanical engineer, famous for the invention of the diesel engine.-Early life:Diesel was born in Paris, France in 1858 the second of three children of Theodor and Elise Diesel. His parents were Bavarian immigrants living in Paris. Theodor...	The diesel engine Diesel engine A diesel engine is an internal combustion engine that uses the heat of compression to initiate ignition to burn the fuel, which is injected into the combustion chamber...
William Edwards Deming	Revolutionised car production with statistical process control Statistical process control Statistical process control is the application of statistical methods to the monitoring and control of a process to ensure that it operates at its full potential to produce conforming product. Under SPC, a process behaves predictably to produce as much conforming product as possible with the least...
Henry Ford I	Motor car pioneer, entrepreneur and industrial visionary
Dante Giacosa Dante Giacosa Dante Giacosa was an Italian car designer. His work covered a large range from minicars to sports cars, using all the different layouts as and when they were the best solution at the time to meet the design parameters....	Fiat Fiat FIAT, an acronym for Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino , is an Italian automobile manufacturer, engine manufacturer, financial, and industrial group based in Turin in the Italian region of Piedmont. Fiat was founded in 1899 by a group of investors including Giovanni Agnelli... innovator
Walter Hassan Walter Hassan Walter Hassan OBE, C.Eng., M.I. Mech.E. was a distinguished UK automotive engineer who took part in the design and development of three very successful engines: Jaguar XK, Coventry Climax and Jaguar V12 as well as the ERA racing car....	Engine innovator at Coventry Climax Coventry Climax Coventry Climax was a British forklift truck, fire pump, and speciality engine manufacturer.-History:The company was started in 1903 as Lee Stroyer, but two years later, following the departure of Stroyer, it was relocated to Paynes Lane, Coventry, and renamed to Coventry-Simplex by H... and Jaguar Jaguar (car) Jaguar Cars Ltd, known simply as Jaguar , is a British luxury car manufacturer, headquartered in Whitley, Coventry, England. It is part of the Jaguar Land Rover business, a subsidiary of the Indian company Tata Motors....
Nicolas Hayek Nicolas Hayek Nicolas George Hayek , was a Swiss-Lebanese entrepreneur, co-founder, CEO and Chairman of the Board of the Swatch Group, with principal headquarters in Biel/Bienne.-Life and background:...	Father of the MCC Smart Smart (automobile) Smart is an automotive branch of Daimler AG. Smart is a German manufacturer of microcars produced in Hambach, France, and Böblingen, Germany... car concept.
Alec Issigonis Alec Issigonis Sir Alexander Arnold Constantine Issigonis, CBE, FRS was a Greek-British designer of cars, now remembered chiefly for the groundbreaking and influential development of the Mini, launched by the British Motor Corporation in 1959.- Early life:Issigonis was born into the Greek community of Smyrna ...	The innovative packaging of the Mini Mini The Mini is a small car that was made by the British Motor Corporation and its successors from 1959 until 2000. The original is considered a British icon of the 1960s, and its space-saving front-wheel-drive layout influenced a generation of car-makers...
Vittorio Jano Vittorio Jano Vittorio Jano was an Italian automobile designer of Hungarian descent from the 1920s through 1960s.Jano was born Viktor János in San Giorgio Canavese, in Piedmont, to Hungarian immigrants, who arrived there several years before the birth of Jano. He began his career at the car and truck company...	Motor car innovator
Spencer King Charles Spencer King Charles Spencer “Spen” King was a significant figure in the Rover Company and, after their takeover, in the British Leyland Motor Corporation.After leaving school in 1942, he was first apprenticed to Rolls-Royce...	Conceived the luxury all wheel drive SUV concept with the Range Rover Range Rover The Range Rover is a large luxury four-wheel drive sport utility vehicle produced by British car maker Land Rover. The model, launched in 1970, is now in its third generation...
Frederick Lanchester Frederick Lanchester Frederick William Lanchester, Hon FRAeS was an English polymath and engineer who made important contributions to automotive engineering, aerodynamics and co-invented the field of operations research....	Car pioneer founder of the Lanchester Motor Company Lanchester Motor Company The Lanchester Motor Company Limited was a car manufacturer based until 1930 at Armourer Mills, Montgomery Street, Sparkbrook, Birmingham, England. It operated from 1895 to 1955....
Hans Ledwinka Hans Ledwinka Hans Ledwinka was an Austrian automobile designer.- Youth :Ledwinka was born was born in Klosterneuburg , near Vienna, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire....	Pioneered an advanced backbone chassis configuration and paved the way for the Volkswagen Beetle Volkswagen Beetle The Volkswagen Type 1, widely known as the Volkswagen Beetle or Volkswagen Bug, is an economy car produced by the German auto maker Volkswagen from 1938 until 2003... with Tatra Tatra (car) Tatra is a vehicle manufacturer in Kopřivnice, Czech Republic. The company was founded in 1850 as Schustala & Company later renamed Nesselsdorfer Wagenbau-Fabriksgesellschaft, a wagon and carriage manufacturer, and in 1897 produced the first motor car in central Europe, the Präsident. In 1918, it...
André Lefèbvre André Lefèbvre André Lefèbvre was a French automobile engineer.André, René Lefèbvre was born in Louvres, France . He began his career as an aviation engineer working to Gabriel Voisin Company...
Harry Mundy Harry Mundy Harry Mundy was a British car engine designer and motoring magazine editor.He was educated at King Henry VIII School in Coventry and went on to serve his apprenticeship with Alvis. He left them in 1936 to join English Racing Automobiles in Bourne, Lincolnshire as a draughtsman...	Engine innovator with Coventry Climax Coventry Climax Coventry Climax was a British forklift truck, fire pump, and speciality engine manufacturer.-History:The company was started in 1903 as Lee Stroyer, but two years later, following the departure of Stroyer, it was relocated to Paynes Lane, Coventry, and renamed to Coventry-Simplex by H... , Lotus Lotus Cars Lotus Cars is a British manufacturer of sports and racing cars based at the former site of RAF Hethel, a World War II airfield in Norfolk. The company designs and builds race and production automobiles of light weight and fine handling characteristics... and Jaguar Jaguar (car) Jaguar Cars Ltd, known simply as Jaguar , is a British luxury car manufacturer, headquartered in Whitley, Coventry, England. It is part of the Jaguar Land Rover business, a subsidiary of the Indian company Tata Motors....
August Otto	Credited with creating the first useful four stroke engine
Ferdinand Porsche Ferdinand Porsche Ferdinand Porsche was an Austrian automotive engineer and honorary Doctor of Engineering. He is best known for creating the first hybrid vehicle , the Volkswagen Beetle, and the Mercedes-Benz SS/SSK, as well as the first of many Porsche automobiles...	Automotive innovator and creator of Volkswagen Volkswagen Volkswagen is a German automobile manufacturer and is the original and biggest-selling marque of the Volkswagen Group, which now also owns the Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, SEAT, and Škoda marques and the truck manufacturer Scania.Volkswagen means "people's car" in German, where it is...
Frederick Henry Royce	The engineering genius behind Rolls-Royce Rolls-Royce Limited Rolls-Royce Limited was a renowned British car and, from 1914 on, aero-engine manufacturing company founded by Charles Stewart Rolls and Henry Royce on 15 March 1906 as the result of a partnership formed in 1904....
Rudolf Uhlenhaut Rudolf Uhlenhaut Rudolf Uhlenhaut , was an Anglo-German engineer and executive for Mercedes-Benz...
Gabriel Voisin Gabriel Voisin Gabriel Voisin was an aviation pioneer and the creator of Europe's first manned, engine-powered, heavier-than-air aircraft capable of a sustained , circular, controlled flight, including take-off and landing. It was flown by Henry Farman on January 13, 1908 near Paris, France...	Automotive and engine innovator
Felix Wankel Felix Wankel Felix Heinrich Wankel was a German mechanical engineer and inventor after whom the Wankel engine was named. He is the only twentieth century engineer to have designed an internal combustion engine which went into production.-Early life:Wankel was born in Lahr, Baden, in the upper Rhine Valley...	Perfected the rotary piston engine Wankel engine The Wankel engine is a type of internal combustion engine using an eccentric rotary design to convert pressure into a rotating motion instead of using reciprocating pistons. Its four-stroke cycle takes place in a space between the inside of an oval-like epitrochoid-shaped housing and a rotor that... concept with NSU NSU Motorenwerke AG NSU Motorenwerke AG, normally just NSU, was a German manufacturer of automobiles, motorcycles and pedal cycles, founded in 1873. It was acquired by Volkswagen Group in 1969...

The next step was for a jury of 132 professional automotive journalists, from 33 different countries, under the presidency of Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, to reduce the list to 5, which they did, and the result was announced in November 1999. Finally the 5 were ranked by the jury and the overall winner was selected.

The selection process

See also