Motoring for the hardy: a sports model and a Danish winter

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Every country has its motoring pioneers and in Denmark Alfred Nervø was certainly among the earliest adopters. He is the moustachioed and begoggled man seen here behind the wheel of that big car—a Grégoire with phaeton or speedster-style body, we think. Next to him sits Count Knuth of Knuthenborg, who is likely to have been the car’s owner.

Nervø was a journalist who authored a number of books on motoring subjects as well as some film scripts with names such as The Poor Millionaire and The Battle for a Rembrandt, but he was a sports enthusiast who’d driven a car from Frederikshavn to Copenhagen in just thirty-eight hours. For a journey of about three hundred miles (five hundred kilometres) in length, that doesn’t seem too impressive nowadays, but one must consider the fact that he had to cross a few waters, too. With sponsorship from the Danish newspaper Politiken, for which he had become a correspondent, Nervø also organised a motor race from Copenhagen to Skagen and back in 1913, 1914 and 1915, while after the First World War he became the driving force for a number of races held on the beaches of Fanø.

Apart from motor cars, he had a real penchant for aviation and became the first man to circle over Copenhagen’s town hall at 660ft. (two hundred metres) in 1910. Together with two backers, he had managed to buy a plane in 1909. This ended up being a Voisin. He had set his eyes upon a Blériot initially, but when Louis Blériot gave Mr. Nervø a particularly unpleasant reception, he turned his back on the aeroplane maker.

What struck us in the picture above is the car's massive centrally mounted light, very useful for Scandinavia’s short days and long nights, just like the snow chains on the back and the one studded tyre on the front left. The lack of a windscreen must have made it a harsh drive on winter days, though…

Words: Jeroen Booij; picture: archive
 

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