Why drive a car made out of linen?

Tony Gillet has a passion for racing and for innovative technologies. “I started racing all by myself and I even built my own racing car.” In 1992 he pioneered in the car making industry by introducing the first car with a chassis made entirely out of carbon. In 2018, 25 years later, he brings another game-changing innovation to the racing world.

Vanina Ickx will be racing to the clouds on June 24 at Pikes Peak in a brand-new Vertigo with a body work made out of line.

Tony Gillet, the famous Belgian carmaker, and the Swiss company Bcomp pooled their strengths and have developed the world’s first car with bodywork made out of linen. In addition to saving weight, the specially designed fabric using woven flax does not explode into bits and pieces in the event of a crash. This hugely increases safety for the driver but also for the other racers on the circuit.

Today carbon is widely used in bodywork because of its lightweight and high-strength properties. The downside of carbon however is that it shatters into pieces that are so sharp they could tear tires apart or damage other parts of the car.

Woven flax is also an extremely light, natural fiber composite, reinforced material that demonstrates outstanding performance in a sustainable way. Natural fiber composites are expected to play a key role in substituting standard engineering and resource-thirsty materials in the coming years.

In 1992 already Tony Gillet was the first to introduce a car with a chassis made entirely out of carbon, long before the well-known formula 1 brands started to use it. Today the company pioneers once more using advanced materials made out of natural fibers and brings – as a small Belgian carmaker – innovative ideas to the racing industry dominated by world players.

The linen bodywork will not be the only new feature on the Vertigo that Vanina will be driving right to the top of Pikes Peak. For this legendary race to the clouds, Automobiles Gillet called upon delaware to harness all the potential of the 'cloud' and of the IoT (Internet of Things) to beef up the performance of the Vertigo.

Stay tuned for next week’s episode if you want to find out what hi-tech know-how in IoT delaware put in the Vertigo.

Learn more about the linen car