By JEW
Apr 19, 2002, 4:54pm

What a load for the poor Lambda! says Bill Jamieson, photo courtesy Poldi Killmeyer

Lopold Killmeyer is one of the most ardent Lancisti in Central Europe. He used to drive his Lambda from Vienna to Paris through the night, doing the speedway race in the morning. For the long journey the cycle was mounted to the running board.
Killmeyer went on to drive Aprilia and worked for the Lancia concessionaire in Central Europe during the late 30's. He is still around nowadays at the age of roughly 90!

Killmeyers' way to Lancia is bound to game-cards and a Lambda. The qualities of the Lambda Killmeyer recognized at a test ride in the 1030's with the game-card manufacturer Piatnik. When they met, Piatnik asked Killmeyer if he would like to join him in a short visit at his factory. Down the Breitenseer road, around the corner with a smooth line, the Lambda did that as running on rails. This led to Killmeyers conclusion: I must have a Lambda. The first car he bought from a car sale in the Dampfschiffgasse.

Vienna, Prag, Budapest, Warschau, Paris

Which city? Photo courtesy Poldi Killmeyer

Killmeyer participated in speedway races regularly. The Lambda was a perfect car for his trips to Paris, London, Bukarest and Warsaw. The frame of the motorcycle was stored on the left platform, the wheels on the right platform. Vienna-Paris was done during one night. For the distance Vienna-Prag he normally used to drive 4 hours. With the Lambda this was done in only 3 hours. This time can not be reached today, we have to accept that Killmeyer drove during the night when no traffic or people were on the roads and that the brakes were never used. He left at 11 PM and arrived when the bells at the Sankt-Veit-Domes rang at 3 AM.
Not only his motorcycle was transported with the Lambda. The Lambda carried the meet to his butcher store in the Breitenseerstraße. For this purpose, Killmeyer had a special metal box which was mounted instead of the rear seats. A friend of him who sold chicken used to carry eggs with the Lambda too.
End of the thirties Killmeyer bought an Aprilia from Smoliner & Kratky. The Lambda burned down and the repair would have been too expensive. (The damaged Lambda he sold to a salesman at the Floridsdorfer bridge; Who wants to take a look in the Danube?). The new Aprilia was rather cheap, the price was only 4.750 Reichsmark. During a service, Smoliner's sales manager Anton Jaksch asked Killmeyer if he knew a new salesman. After a short break Killmeyer suggested: "Yes - me!".

Lancia opens a shop in Preßburg

Killmeyers first job was to build up a Lancia representation near the Danube in Preßburg. He took every chance to show the Aprilia to potential customers. To deliver the cars from Turin he hired race colleagues. They drove by train to Turin and took some new Aprilias back to Vienna. Sometimes damaged cars were brought back to Turin for a major overhaul (for some jobs this was cheaper than to do it at Smoliner). He sold several cars, one of it to a reporter who delivered the newspaper »Morgenpost« with the Aprilia from Vienna to Budapest during the war.
After the war Killmeyer sold Citroen at Smoliner & Kratky, mostly for the regions Lower Austria, Burgenland and Styria. Many of the cheap 2CV were sold. Killmeyer used this car for driving the champions around at speedway races, the drivers popped like compressed air bottles through the roof of the 2CV.
In the fifties Killmeyer worked for Denzel at the Vienna Parkring. Although he wanted to change his life, he did not want to change the driving position to left-hand drive. Due to safety reasons he preferred to »drive near the edge of the road«. He convinced several buyers to by a right-hand drive Flavia Sedan.
At the end of his Lancia carrier a circle closed for him. He started with the Lambda V4, drove Aprilia after the war and stopped selling Lancia with the last V4 car, the Fulvia.

Words by Leopold Killmeyers, gathered at the »right-hand drive room« (previously »race driver room«) and in the coffee shop Westend, the residence of the »race driver union«.