Eberan von Eberhorst

Professor Dr. Robert Eberan von Eberhorst (23 October 1902 – 14 March 1982), later known as Robert Eberan-Eberhorst, was a noted Austrian engineer, who designed the Auto Union Type D Grand Prix motor racing car.

Born into Austrian nobility, the family shortened its name when the nobility was abolished in Austria in 1918. He studied at the Vienna Technical University until in 1927, where he earned an engineering master's degree. Later that year he joined the Institute for Automotive Engineering at Dresden Technical University as a research assistant and Ph.D. candidate. In 1933 Dr Ferdinand Porsche persuaded him to join Auto Union.

Eberan-Eberhorst initially served as a development engineer within the Auto Union racing department at Horch works in Zwickau, and was responsible for turning Chief Engineer Porsche's ideas in physical reality. His early contributions to Auto Union's successes included development of side skirts and aerodynamic bodywork along the belly of the record breaking streamliner car, additions that were some of the earliest experiments with ground effect downforce to have been applied to a car.

When Porsche left Auto Union in 1938 Eberan-Eberhorst was promoted in his stead. His first full car design was for the Auto Union Type D Grand Prix car. With a swept volume of three litres, in accordance with the contemporary Grand Prix regulations, the supercharged V12 rear-mounted engine could develop 480 bhp (360 kW) and provided Grand Prix victories for Tazio Nuvolari and Hermann Paul Müller.

Eberan-Eberhorst was heavily involved in the initial testing of each new racing car, developing an on-board recording instrument to plot parameters such as car speed, engine speed, gear change and braking points.

He gained his doctorate in 1940 and from 1941 was appointed to a full professorship at Dresden Technical University. During World War II he was involved in the design of the Tiger tank, initial testing of the V1/V2 rockets, and provided much research data on improving fuel consumption.

...
Wikipedia