Three men in a DIY hybrid

The little Matis that could.

"... so the diff ratio is basically 1 to 1, which gives us a theoretical top speed of 230 km/h, not calculating the rolling circumference of the tyres of course..."

This was Jens Denk, his baby blues red-rimmed after he had spent three nights building the world's first hybrid Daewoo Matis 4x4, using a forklift motor, motorcycle sprockets, an old Corolla rear axle, bits of a Geladenwagon's exhaust, and four made-in-SA batteries from Battery Centre.

The batteries were connected in parallel, the forklift motor was whining away and the enormous sprocket was a blur of teeth. If we were not so tired and dirty, this would have been the high five moment. Instead, happy smiles cracked our oily faces.

Mine snapped shut suddenly. "Did you just say TWO hundred and thirty!?

There goes the floor pan to make space for the electric motor.

"Well, that's the theory, in practice it would be a lot slower," said Denk.

Under the oil, my face was pallid. No way was I going to drive my Matis faster than even 100 km/h over the flat surface of Hakskeenpan. One wind-blown sand riffle hitting those tiny front wheels askew and the first thing to flash through my mind would be the little car's tail lights.

It turns out I need not have feared, but that knowledge came only a day later on the first test run.

Technical challenges to surmount had already made us a day late for the annual Kalahari Speed Week, which now urgently waited at the end of a 17-hour road-trip past the sun set.

A forklift motor and deep cycle batteries linked in parallel drives the rear axle of an old Corolla through a motorbike chain. 

Meanwhile there were the last rush jobs, sealing the lid over the rear motor against the dust, refitting the back seats and adding the activation lever with its little "nuclear button" red cap.

First test

The first test run was a disaster -- the bolts on the sprocket touched a side, making a noise between the rolling echo of an explosion and one about to happen. "IT JUST NEEDS A LITTLE ADJUSTMENT!" shouted Denk over the racket. 

The "little adjustment" was first tried with a foot-long tyre lever, which was discarded as too short. At the end, a two-metre long nyala did the job.

The second test run was a beaut -- right up to the point were the bridging wire on the forklift motor started to melt, filling the car with acrid smoke.

Ashley Webb marvels as Jens Denk prepares to make "a little adjustment" to the hybrid Matis with a 2-metre-long nyala.

"Still too thin," muttered Denk.

The turd third run

The third test run showed there lurks a genius a Denk's Motors. The old forklift motor spinning at top revs, the little Daewoo whispered along, a smaller sprocket making less ambitious speed but giving the batteries a range of at least 40 km. 

This would be more than enough for our record-attempt at the Speed Week and good for anyone driving less than 40 km a day in the city commute.

The hybrid Matis was eager on tar roads, but laden to the roof line with camping gear and tools, its three-cylinder engine was never going to cover the 1700 kilometres to Hakskeenpan in time for the racing. 

Jens measuring the bigger wheels that will add more torque to the little Matis hybrid.

My suggestion to hook up the Matis on an A-frame was dismissed. "What's the point of building a car that you have to tow?," scoffed Denk. (Sorry all you F1 and WRC fans, your towed cars just don't cut it in the real world.)

A pile of "not really necessary stuff" formed on the floor, comprising of the weekend's food, cooking gear, clothes, guitar and tent, but still the little car hunkered too low when three men added their weight to that of the four, deep-cycle batteries.

"She ain't gonna, ain't gonna make it from Maritzburra to Mier, to Mee-hirr," sang Armand van Aswegen, the guitar/camera man roped in to film this historic moment in transport history.

The troubadour was right. Our attempt to set a speed record on the pan near the distant Mier had failed. 

Update: Matiz back to ICE engine and rallying

But it had failed heroically and in the process, proved that it is possible for a good mechanic working on a journalist's budget to add an electric drive-train to any car, so as to avoid using fuel during the week's commute; and still have a long-range engine for visits over weekends.

Apart from taking the running costs of a typical car down from about R1,50 per kilometre to less than 40c/km just in fuel, electric drive trains have fewer moving parts, allowing its owners to amortise the initial outlay of about R20,000 with service costs saved.  

* For more detail on installing a hybrid engine in your car anywhere in South Africa, e-mail your questions to denkjm@ gmail. com.

The author all huffy at not being able to get to Hakskeenpan in time. 

Watch the space

Witness Wheels editor Alwyn Viljoen will next point the nose of his made-in-Maritzburra hybrid to follow the tracks of former Witness editor, Horace Rose, who had in 1904 driven a little 25 km/h, four-horsepower Orient Buckboard "eastwards towards the horizon where the dawn marched gloriously", to record the first car journey between Pietermaritzburg and Durban. Viljoen's journey will be the first in a hybrid to celebrate 110 years of transport history, made fresh every week in Wheels.