Interview [Interview Automotive Technology]

FOR A ´proof of concept´ car it received a lot of attention. Resplendent in its high-visibility orange livery, this startlingly original wooden station wagon took centre stage in a Channel 4 documentary series in the early 1980s. With publicity this good, Africar´s success seemed guaranteed. But in a story as bumpy and rutted as the African thoroughfares this lightweight all-terrain vehicle was supposed to make passable, intrigue and accusations of financial irregularity delivered its designer into the hands of the Serious Fraud Office and subsequently prison.