THE TASTE OF PERFECTION Written by Jan Leek, photo by Thomas Mielke
Among the green hills of a desolate area in central Europe, Öhlins, in May 2008, opened up a service centre for its European customers. There are many reasons why the location is the perfect place for the new operation. ou can almost taste it, or at least smell the green forests stretching as far as the horizon in all directions. The greenery has a soft touch to it, a rich, undulating landscape, seemingly undisturbed by humans, a landscape better suited as a frame for some medieval tale of heroes, dragons and, yes, fittingly, a castle, which is to our left as we leave the building that is now home to Öhlins European distribution. When the windows are open in the newly-erected building in the industrial area at Meuspath, in the middle of Germany, another element enters the picture, as the roar of a big car engine at high speed rushes past, shaking the trees on the other side of the public road. It is the final straight of the legendary racing circuit Nürburgring and one of the reasons that the Swedish chassis specialist chose this venue for their new operation. When the Nürburgring company, with the help of local authorities some ten years ago, decided to open an industrial park nearby, one prerequisite was to make the various lots available exclusively to companies with close connections to the motor industry. This is the reason why so many of the super-modern buildings have blacked-out windows and some even lack major brand graphics on their façades. At various times of the year, these buildings house prototypes of future models, disguised cars, entering and leaving the testing ground made up of the legendary racing circuit which opened in 1927 for the
dual purpose of racing and testing. The current offering of computer games is in no way pioneering laps of the Nordschleife – the northern loop, the 20.6km still existing of the hallowed ground. This role falls to the major car manufacturers, who decades ago developed the first simulations of a lap here, and later with the help of computers fine-tuned the system for laboratory tests at home. BMW, for instance, has one rig devoted only to car steering and front suspension, to allow the tech...THE PRODUCTS ARE HIGH-QUALITY ITEMS nicians to drive AND IN SOME CASES CARRY PRICE TAGS as many laps USUALLY FOUND IN FASHION SHOPS IN MILAN... of the ‘Ring as they wish, at any speed they want. the original plan”, he tells us and makes a When Öhlins decided to set up a Eu- gesture towards east, where in the distance ropean operational base, the area was the only thing sticking out of the landscape more or less a foregone conclusion, being is a small white dot, possibly indicating a known to the marketing department in Up- television mast. “The nature”, he adds. plands Väsby since the days of Yamaha’s “The possibility we have here, not only of Advanced Training courses, run here in the resting our eyes on a beautiful landscape, ‘90s. but actually taking our mountain bikes, if The importance of a motor-friendly en- only for half an hour, and going for a ride. It vironment is another factor and also the simply gives us peace of mind.” synergies resulting from a neighbourhood “Us”, in this case, is a staff of five, mostdedicated to one thing only – development ly coming from the German motorcycle of future motoring. This synergy is made up branch, all of them well versed in anything of three factors: Germany is a big – and im- to do with motorcycles, including the only portant – market, Nürburgring and the sur- lady in the house, Josy, having worked all rounding area is a geographical point with her life in the same position in other comalmost mythical qualities and it is all placed panies, such as Ducati Germany. But very central in continental Europe. there are more activities on the premises Dutchman Wim Peters is general man- than just administration. The first visitors ager of the German subsidiary and smiles have already received their first information when the subject of synergy comes up. days, notably the car club Ring Runners “Synergy is not all, there is a bonus for eve- from Sweden, a field where the Swedryone working here, which was not part of ish company is gaining more acceptance
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