50 years Spiess: Company foundation

On the occasion of our 50th anniversary we would like to take a look backwards, and of course we dedicate the first contribution to our company founder Siegfried Spiess and the founding of our company.

Siegfried Spiess started to smell gasoline at his parents' business and gain his first racing experience at the “soapbox race”. He decides against a training in economics and starts an apprenticeship as a car mechanic and gains experience at Mercedes and NSU.

At the age of only 18, he tries to become successful as a motorcycle racer, and at the same time on four wheels in hillclimb races. He starts with a small NSU. He wins his first title as „Deutscher Tourenwagern Bergmeister“ in 1963. The second championship follows in 1965 with an NSU 1000 and self-modified engine. In 1967 he wins his third championship title as a factory pilot of NSU with an NSU Wankelspider. He repeats the success in 1968. In 1967 he marks his first international success. In Spa-Franchorchamps, Siegfried Spiess and his team manage to take the class win in the 24 Hours of Spa and win the King’s Cup.

 

The decision to turn the hobby into profession comes in 1971 and therefore Spiess Tuning is founded on March 22nd of 1972. The beginnings of Spiess Tuning take place in rented rooms behind a petrol station in Stuttgart-Weilimdorf. As the demand for Spiess products increases, the company has to move. Two hobby rooms and a living room in Germersheimer Straße, also in Stuttgart-Weilimdorf, serve as a garage and office.

 

After the success with Willi Bergmeister and Helmut Henzler and the entry into Formula 3, Siegfried Spiess and Spiess Tuning move to a new building in Ditzingen in 1981. The new company headquarters represents more than 20 years of successful company history with great results in Formula 3 with VW and Opel, in the Formula 3 Grand Prix Macau and Monaco as well as in many other racing series.  With the entry into the DTM in 2000 follows the move to the new company building, which is the headquarters of Siegfried Spiess GmbH in Dieselstraße 11 in Ditzingen until today.

 

All these successes were and are possible because Siegfried Spiess worked according to the motto “You have to do something that others don’t.” From the very beginning, he defined a motto that we still follow today and in the future.

 

XLLGMDSMXS