from Kassel to Berlin
Cheetah is made fit
At home, I examined the entire vehicle in detail. The weak points in the drive area were fixed. The charger was repaired, but the biggest problem was in the battery area. I had pushed the entire 3000 cells into a large, self-made holder. Pressure was built up with springs to press the cells together. Between the battery poles I spread a contact paste consisting of copper powder and grease. The vibration had now vibrated this copper powder away from the poles, leaving behind the poorly conducting grease. This solved the problem of the constantly increasing energy consumption. How should I connect the individual battery cells? After several experiments, I built a device to solder the whole cells together with special solder and flux. The whole reworking of the battery packs took several weeks. The Val family helped me with this reworking, as they did with the preparation for the Tour de Sol.
Preparing for the next race: Kassel Berlin
Over the next few months, Cheetah was due for an intensive overhaul and many test drives. I had registered for the next race, which would take place in autumn 92: The race led from Kassel through the ex-GDR to Berlin. Only two years before, the FRG and the GDR had been reunited. I knew Berlin from the time of separation and had spent several holidays there. I also spent a short time in the GDR. The inner-German border had been very frightening. The GDR guards with their helmets, weapons and stern, probing looks. The barbed wire, the guard dogs: woe betide anyone who let them loose. The directly visible mined area and, above all, the memorial plaques for all the people who were killed during the escape. All this was only a few years ago. At the race, I was to have the opportunity to drive through this same well-secured area and see the former GDR shortly after the fall of the Wall as I passed through.
This time I wanted to ride Cheetah myself. Tina was the driver in the escort vehicle. We had had a trailer hitch fitted to our small car for this purpose and rented a trailer.
I was well equipped and Cheetah ran absolutely smoothly, which also earned me first place at the end.
Unforgettable for me were the trips with the electric car through the vast countryside and the villages, which seemed to be from another time. Much was still very urban. Many buildings were dilapidated, the roads in poor condition. Magdeburg was a special experience. We were loading our vehicles. An older woman dressed very strangely approached me. She wanted to know if it was a car. I answered in the affirmative. She asked again, "A car for one person?" I answered again in the affirmative. She remarked in amazement, "Oh, is that what cars from the West look like nowadays?" She lived in the country and had come to the city today to see what a city looked like. What great cars there were today was unbelievable. She had experienced a lot of history. Reunification must have been a great miracle for her, so she also believed that cars from the West looked like Cheetahs.
On our final leg in Berlin, we were the first vehicles ever to be allowed to drive through the Brandenburg Gate in a parade under police escort. A few years before, I had seen the Wall from the West that went through in front of the gate and all the barbed wire. I could never have dreamt of being one of the first vehicles to drive through this walled-up, barbed-wire gate with my self-built electric car.
What I learned was this:
- Cheetah runs and is really good. It's fun to drive
- Projects are only finished when they have survived a thorough testing phase unscathed.
- Real life writes stories that surpass any TV series.
