31-3. ELECTRIC CARS IN MONACO

Early in the morning we drove to Monaco to rehearse the second special stage of the Rally, without a spare tire. We went more slowly on the hair-raising curves. In Monaco all the parking-garages have charging points and Green Car was hooked up. We then walked along the harbor to the Grimaldi Forum where Monaco stages a very fine exhibition of electric cars, the EVER 2011. Many new ones from European companies that did not exhibit in Detroit. Hjalte in particular was intrigued by the Active Wheel from Michelin, electric motor, active suspension and brakes all inside the wheel. The fruit of 12 years of development. In the afternoon we went to Antibes to get the new tire. The boss and the people were very friendly. But behold! The tire sent from the central warehouse was wrong size. Green Car now has to compete using the spare wheel (which is a real wheel). On the way back to Nice we had to charge clandestinely from the yacht harbor for an hour. Back in the hotel-bed Nina got real car-sick from watching the video Hjalte had shot in the morning from the special stage.

Nina and Hjalte