Victory Vee

We investigate the power behind Scanias V8 throne and why next year will be a cause for celebration

- Michael Phillips

As any Lappish reindeer herder will tell you, the fastest way to the Arctic Circle is via the E4, that 1000-mile-long strip of blacktop stretching from southern Sweden to the Finnish border at Tornio. The E4 should be called the E55, according to Wikipedia, but in true Euro fiasco style some committee or other ultimately decided it would cost too much to change all the road signs pointing to the E4, so E4 it remains.

The reason there are so many signs is that the E4 is Sweden’s most important road, passing through or by half of the country’s largest towns and cities – hence, there’s an awful lot of signposts along the way directing motorists to this major tarmac artery.

The particular point on the route we are interested in sits 20 miles south-west of Stockholm. Södertälje – a place you might consider bypassing on the basis that it’s impossible to ask directions to somewhere whose name you can’t pronounce – is home to 71,000 inhabitants, which makes it about the size of Lowestoft. And, in common with Lowestoft, it’s near the sea and has famous sporting connections; tennis superstar Björn Borg grew up in the town. Of course, former F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone’s dad was a Lowestoft trawlerman.

But for readers of T&D there is an even more important point that puts Södertälje firmly on the must-visit map – it’s the home of Scania.

So, for that reason alone, it’s probably worth learning how to say it. Happily, it’s easy enough: ‘Soda-tellyer’ does the trick.

Swedish pioneer