Per Eklund + other things

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Per Eklund

Feast your eyes on Per Eklund’s record breaking ascent of Pikes Peak back in 2001 in a car that looked superficially like a Saab 93. It weighed just 1,000Kg and had 850BHP and four wheel drive. Eklund was 55 when he did this and still drives today alongside peers like Stig Blomqvist.

Per Eklund trained originally as a driving instructor with fellow classmate Stig Blomqvist. He then went be a Saab factor team driver from 1970 to 1979. He was Swedish champion in 1978, ahead of Stig Blomqvist. Eklund won a World Rally Champion ship event in a privately entered Saab 99 Turbo in 1982, three years after Saab shuttered its works team.

Per Eklund drove on selected events for Toyota Team Europe, focusing on African events of the World Rally Championship like fellow Swede Björn Waldegård.

Like Waldegård, Per Eklund has had a long and successful career in rallycross. Probably his crowning achievement was setting a records on the Pikes Peak climb that wasn’t bettered for another ten years. Per Eklund beat best times set by fellow rally champions Michèle Mouton, Ari Vatanen and Walter Rohl

Here’s a documentary (mostly in Swedish) about how they did it. It’s a surprisingly basic effort. More related content here.

Back To The Future with pugs

Winston and C-Milk currently live in Southern China and put out regular content on live in China. Their video discussing China’s ecosystem of fake Nintendo Famicom (NES) machines. Video games were banned for 15 years in China, so piracy stepped in to fill the vacuum. Check out the clone of Nokia’s Snake but with NES vibes.

Or Super Mario 10 featuring Confucius

I’d also recommend their perspective on China’s role in VR. President Xi Jin Ping said that VR was the cornerstone of development, and that China would pursue VR with everything it’s got. Gadget makers have piled in to make Samsung Gear-like googles.

Social Cooling – really interesting hypothesis on how social platforms are changing consumer behaviour over time.