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.

[5] 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.

In October of that same year, along with other French and Italian automobile manufacturers, Renault sent a team to the United States to compete in the Vanderbilt Cup on Long Island, New York.

In a race won by Christian Lautenschlager in a Mercedes, Szisz was honored with the number 1 for his car, but an injury forced him out just past half the distance.

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.