Johansson wanted diesel for his Mercedes

Tobias Johansson made his first Swedish Touring Car Championship 2008 appearance during the test at Gelleråsen on friday. The Mercedes C-Class was painted in new colors and Johansson was happy.
“It is nice that we got everything ready and can take part this year. The car is good looking, but we have to get it up to speed as well,” said Johansson.

The speculations on what car Johansson would drive for this season were many during the off-season. Johansson was in contact with Mercedes for a co-operation with them to build a brand new diesel-engine to be used in the new C-Class.

“They wanted 10 million kronor (1.000.000 €) and we could not afford that. That was partly a co-operation with my previous sponsor Bosch,” said Johansson to STCC.se.

For this year Bosch has left his team, instead Miele is the new main sponsor for him.