Edgar Morawitz

26/4/1892 - 2/9/1945

Record updated 26-Apr-17

Edgar Morawitz was a wealthy newspaper and magazine publisher in Prague. Morawitz had his greatest racing success in the twenties.

Edgar Morawitz was tall, dark haired and elegant and led the life style of a playboy. He was not only a racing driver but was also a good tennis player. In his native Czechoslovakia he had a publishing company in Prague. His sister was married to Hugo Urban-Emmerich another racing driver who achieved some success in the 1920's.

Morawitz started out competing in Czechoslovakian and German hill climbs, and won the 1.5-liter sports car class at the first running of Solitude on May 17, 1925. He also took third place with his “Brescia” Bugatti at the 1925 Eifel-Rundfahrt and Taunusrennen in August 1925.

In March 1926 he purchased a Bugatti T39 racing car, with 8-cylinder 1500 cc normally aspirated engine. In March of that year he finished seventh overall and second in the 1.5-liter class in the Royal Grand Prix of Rome.

The next month in the Targa Florio he retired on the third of five laps then, in May, he won the 2-liter touring class at the Zbraslav-Jiloviste Hill Climb.

In 1927 he moved to Spain and was involved in the 1.5-liter 8-cylinder Ricart twin-ohc racing cars under the Ricart-España name in Barcelona. Morawitz drove the Ricart-España car at some minor Spanish hill climbs events but the car was not very sucessful and in 1928 Ricart-España folded.

In Spain he also drove Bugatti's racing cars of the Type 37A, 35B and 51.

In 1929 he bought the Autodromo Nacional at Sitges and racing returned in 1932 for the Spanish Motorcycling Championship. The outbreak of civil war finally did for the kidney-shaped circuit, however, with Morawitz signing up to fight Franco and the Autodromo left to its own devices.

Morawitz died in Spain in 1945.