2007-10-31

We had been invited by the Swedish Television to participate in a race between environmental friendly cars down in Mantorp - the home of racing in Sweden. I was going to be the racing driver in our car, but of course I needed my team. I drove down to Stockholm and stayed in Mickes apartment over the night. Martin came next morning and we started the trip down to Mantorp. It was the first time since the “Around Sweden trip” that we all were gathered in the car. It felt really good and it was going to be a lot of fun.

The 250 km trip down to Mantorp was no problem. Everybody quickly adapted to the old wood gas routines. I drove the first bit and Martin took over the steering wheel later on the highway. We stayed in a hotel in Mjölby and we didn’t want to leave the chainsaw outside over the night, because we were afraid that someone would steal it. The only thing I could think of was to smuggle it in to the hotel room. I put the chainsaw in my bag and covered the blade with a pair of underpants. It worked great but there was a distinct smell of two-stroke and wood in the hotel room.

We spent the evening in the Relax and took a walk in town to find a pair of racing-glasses. I found a shop that sold skiing-glasses, which would do the job just fine.

Click here to see a film when we drive down to Mantorp

Next day we participated in the race. Unfortunately we didn’t have time to take any pictures but the race can be seen on this link: http://www.svt.se/content/1/c6/98/38/59/VETENSKAPSMAGASINET071127.asx

The race was between an ethanol, electric, biogas, bio-diesel and wood-gas car. The ethanol car won in speed followed by the biogas and electric car. However the end judging cared more about environmental friendliness, which put our car in third place - nicking the bronze medal.

/Johan