Background
Szisz was born in the small town of Szeghalom in Békés county of the Hungarian part the former Austro-Hungarian Empire on September 20, 1873.
Szisz was born in the small town of Szeghalom in Békés county of the Hungarian part the former Austro-Hungarian Empire on September 20, 1873.
He was trained to be a locksmith and a coppersmith but in his early twenties the growing proliferation of automobiles fascinated Szisz and he studied engineering along with car design. In 1905, he finished fifth in the Gordon Bennett Cup elimination race on the Circuit d"Auvergne at Clermont-Ferrand.
After time spent in several Austrian and German cities, in the spring of 1900 he ended up in Paris, France where he found work at the new Renault automobile company. Grand Prix At Renault, Szisz"s engineering talent made him an integral part of the testing department, and when the company became involved in racing in 1902 he was chosen as the riding mechanic for Louis Renault. Following the death of Marcel Renault in the 1903 Paris-Madrid race, Szisz took over as a driver.
Szisz"s primary duties as the head of testing at Renault limited the number of races he could compete in.
He averaged 101.2 kilometres per hour (629 mph). His victory in the French Grand Prix and the commercial success of the race soon led to the establishing of other Grand Prix races throughout Europe.
The following year, Italy"s Felice Nazzaro, who had finished second behind Szisz, captured the second French Grand Prix. Szisz competed in the 1908 race but did not finish and suffered a similar fate following mechanical problems in Savannah, Georgia at an American Grand Prize race organized by the Automobile Club of America.
In early 1909, Szisz left Renault to open his own garage in Neuilly-sur-Seine.
In July 1914, Fernand Charron lured him out of retirement to drive an Alda in the French Grand Prix at Lyon. European automobile racing ended in September with the onset of World War I and Szisz joined the French army, serving as head of the transport troops in Algeria until being hospitalized with typhoid fever. At war"s end, he went to work for an aircraft company until his retirement to a cottage in the country at Auffargis not far from Paris, where he died in 1944.
The Szisz Museum is part of the Renault Museum located near the Le Mans racetrack.