Swebe

Sven Andersson and Bengt Peterson built a series of racing cars, the name Swebe comes from the first two letters of each of their names, Sven and Bengt, but that the spelling with W instead of V is because they ran out of letter V among the heap of chromed metal letters they had to hand! As a result, the cars may be referred to as both Svebe and Swebe.

The first car, for 1947, was based on the remains of a DKW and rather a failure due to limited power, excessive weight and front wheel drive. For 1948, they built a pair of cars based based on the Håkansson brothers' Effyh, though with out their combined spring & wishbone arrangement. These were also mid engined, much lighter and used JAP engines and so were a much more competitive proposition with the pair dominating the Swedish races that year:

Solvalla 12th May 1948, Peterson, 2nd, Andersson DNF

Strängnäs 23rd May 1948, 2nd Andersson, 3rd Peterson

Gislaved 13th June 1948, 1st Andersson

Österäng 13th June 1948, 1st Peterson

Gävle Travbana 1st August 1948, 2nd Peterson, 3rd Andersson

Hedemora 7th August 1948, 1st Andersson, 2nd Peterson

Lindalsbacken, Laxå 16th August 1948, 1st Andersson

Österäng Örebro 21st August 1948, 1st Andersson, 2nd Peterson

Röforsloppet 29th August 1948, 1st Andersson, 2nd Peterson

Eskilstuna 3rd September 1948, 1st Andersson, 2nd Peterson

Norlingsbergsbacken 26th September 1948, 1st Andersson, 2nd Peterson

Östermalm, Stockholm 10th October 1948, 3rd Andersson, DNF Peterson

 

Bengt Peterson

The Swebe DKW

Sven and Bengt in their Mk II cars.

at the Jägersro trotting track, Malmö September 1948

The pair continued for 1949 with two new lighter chassis cars but don't have things all their own way now, as Coopers and production Effyhs started to appear. Bengt quit the cockpit during 1951 but he continues to mechanic for Sven. Eventually, Sven gave up on the Swebe and moved to a Cooper. Later, the pair also built a Formula Junior Swebe using a Renault Dauphin engine