Sponsors and road approval

Through the Geneva salon, I had received a lot of contacts. Many compliments, many reports, many enquiries and many addresses. I and the whole team were very motivated - and we needed this motivation. There was still a lot to do before Cheetah would ride its first metres and we only had about 3 months until the Tour de Sol, for which I had registered. In addition, the financing for the further work was still missing at that time...

The work on Cheetah became so intense - I simply could no longer manage my job as a development engineer at Rieter and my hobby satisfactorily. I had to make a decision. The decision was made easier by the fact that I was not particularly fulfilled in my job. Lots of rules, lots of meetings, lots of discussions that, from my point of view as a developer, were not goal-oriented and certainly not constructive. At home, I had to work on my vehicle, for which I was on fire. I put all my eggs in one basket and said goodbye to my job at Rieter with the statement that I wanted to develop electric vehicles in the future. The questioning faces of my work colleagues spoke volumes.

The components were organised, but there was still more to do before the start of the race than I and my small team consisting of Gerd Gschliesser and Christian Ent could manage. My father was a teacher at the secondary school and without my knowledge he asked his students if anyone would be interested in helping me build the electric vehicle. Since my parents' house was right next to the school, some students would often come by during the morning or lunch break and watch the action from a safe distance. Confidence grew, some students came closer and asked if they could help. Help was welcome and the first thing I asked the students was if they would sort all the screws for me into the various jars and bins that could be found in the garage. The students diligently went to work, although I had to spend more time after the sorting action to find the really matching screws than before. But what was the big gain for me was that I could see which student was doing how well in the task and the screw sorting test was to be used a few more times when I recruited more helpers or even later my first assistants. Pierre-Ives Val stood out in particular. From then on, he came regularly. He had younger brothers: Jean Daniel, Denis and Jean Mark, who also dropped in and soon became part of the team. Their father dropped by - curious from his children's stories. He was a trained electrician and very experienced. It was exactly his skills that we lacked at that time and André Val was very welcome in our team. If we were not supplied with food and drinks by my family, André's wife would drop by to take care of her family and us. Cheetah's team was complete.
Nevertheless, time was running out. The road registration was indispensable to be able to officially move Cheetah on the road. Without the registration, it was also not possible to participate in the race.

A first appointment about 1 month before the start date of the Tour de Sol had to be postponed. Two weeks before the start of the race, Cheetah was still not ready to ride and the only available appointment was on a Thursday morning, 2 days before the race started. Me, Gerd, my family and the Val family worked through the weekends. The dates were approaching and Cheetah still hadn't moved. The nervousness was rising. On the eve before the demonstration date, the engines turned for the first time - unfortunately in the wrong direction. We could not find the solution. My extensive test-driving programme, which I wanted to complete before the actual approval date, was cut down more and more. Testing didn't really make sense either. The engines did not turn smoothly and undefined voltages could be measured everywhere in the carbon components of Cheetah, which did not hold out the prospect of safe operation of the vehicle.
On Wednesday evening, André and the whole family had a private party that could not be postponed, and André was the organiser. He was terribly sorry, but around 7 p.m. the whole Val family had to say goodbye as helpers. Me and Gerd kept searching, we couldn't find the mistake. The project seemed hopeless.
I was completely unexpected and surprised when André and his whole family were standing in the entrance of the garage door again at about 10.00 p.m. after their party. With cumulative expertise, they dismantled and rebuilt the entire electrical system together once again. By dawn, the wheels were turning in the correct direction, the dangerous voltage potentials had disappeared and there was only a lot of detail work to be done to put Cheetah together properly. I had urged my team to hurry on the grounds that I wanted to at least use the drive from Andelfingen to Winterthur to the road traffic office as a test drive - in vain. All team members were already doing everything they could and time was running out. Christian Ent organised a car transporter from a friendly garage owner. In the morning, Cheetah was assembled and carefully pushed onto the transporter. André and his family said goodbye, completely overtired, and were allowed to sleep in. Christian, Gerd and I drove the van to the road traffic office and unloaded Cheetah. Only: The van had to go back and Christian and Gerd, equally overtired, said goodbye.
So I was alone with Cheetah just before the demonstration appointment. My extensively planned test drive was reduced to driving at walking pace from the car park to the hall, my expert in charge was already waiting.

My expert greeted me happily: he already knew Cheetah from the press and was very much looking forward to the test. First we looked for the chassis number, the type plate and measured the technical data together. This part went well. Now it was the turn of the test drive: The expert sat down, had all the controls explained to him and wanted to start the acceptance drive. I tried to explain to him that he should approach the tests with a certain amount of caution. Puzzled, he asked why...? I tried to explain to him that due to the lack of approval, the test programme had not yet been fully completed. He only asked: Does the vehicle drive now or not...? I said that theoretically the answer to this question was yes, but in practice... He asked again: Yes or no...? So: Yes!!!
And before I could get another word out, the expert stepped on the accelerator and with a frighteningly high acceleration he sped off with Cheetah and disappeared behind the scrutineering building. For endless minutes I heard and saw nothing more. Behind the house was the test circle to check the steering and handling.
I was about to set off to see why I no longer heard or saw anything from the expert or Cheetah. My mind was already searching for possible explanations. Endless what could have gone wrong at that moment. Then Cheetah and the Expert came around the corner of the house onto the straight and to my horror he accelerated to full speed. With a wide grin, he shot past me towards the end of the testing area and just wouldn't slow down. At the last moment he stepped on the brakes, the brake calipers gripped and with 3 wheels locking, he stumbled across the asphalt to stop just before the wall. Still grinning broadly, he drove back to me and congratulated me on Cheetah's performance. He issued me with the documents to fill in the insurance number, wished me good luck for the upcoming race and assured me he would follow all the newspaper articles about the race to see how I did.