DON PHILP | DAVE CHARLTON | KEVIN TEBBUTT

R46.95 incl VAT • April/May 2013 • Issue 02

27-LITRES, 12-CYLINDERS AND 1550Nm OF FLAMETHROWING METAL

BMC Ant Volvo P1800S Pontiac Strato Chief Mercedes-Benz W114

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TOP GEAR FESTIVAL MOSES MABHIDA STADIUM, DURBAN | 15-16 JUNE 2013

The Protea Hotel Edward is a historical landmark, known as the ‘Grand Dame’, Knysna is home to some of South Africa’s most celebrated situated on Durban’s famous Golden motoring festivals in May. Renowned as the perfect holiday Mile and in very close proximately to the destination, Protea Hotel Knysna Quays is set on the Knysna Quays Moses Mabhida Stadium where the Top Waterfront with the lagoon at your doorstep. Gear Festival will take place. * * R449.50 R625.00 per person sharing per night per person sharing per night Includes breakfast, secure parking and Includes breakfast and 100MB 200MB complimentary Wi-Fi per day. complimentary Wi-Fi per day.

*Terms and conditions apply. PHDS 26974/13 CONTENTS April/May 2013

CLASSIC PERSONALITIES PASSION PERSONIFIED 04 Talking to Don Philp 78 2013 Passion for Speed Festivals

HIGH OCTANE GEARBOX 08 Coucher goes sideways on ice 90 Classifi ed adverts

NEWS & EVENTS LETTERS 12 The latest from the classic world 92 Reader correspondence

WELCOME ON BOARD BOOK REVIEWS 20 Bristol 403 driven 96 The latest motor books

PEDIGREED PERFORMER 24 The tale of Cooper Bristol CB-3-52

WOOLLEY MAMMOTH 28 ‘Lucy’ the 27-litre Rolls Royce

CANADA SPRY 34 Pontiac Strato Chief

ANT-I-CLIMAX 40 BMC’s 4x4 Ant

ONE HIT WONDER 48 A saintly Volvo P1800S 28 HONDA’S SPORTING HERITAGE 52 S800, S2000 and on to the NSX 08 34 A PAINFUL ACQUISITION WITH A 56 HAPPY ENDING Life with a W114 Mercedes-Benz

SUPER COOL 62 Suzuki GT750

LIVING FLAT OUT 66 Double 500cc Champ Kevin Tebbutt 48

SO LONG CHARLIE 70 Saying farewell to Dave Charlton

LONG TIME PASSING 74 2013 Welkom 6-Hour

www.cpca.co.za | April/May 2013 | 1

EDITOR’S POINT OF VIEW

Publisher Fred Phillips [email protected]

Editor Stuart Grant [email protected]

Sub-Editor Thora Paver

Art Director Ronel van Heerden www.nineninetynine.co.za

Contributors Greg Mills, Robert Coucher, Mike Monk, outh African motorsport historic cars like the fast flowing old- Wendy Monk, Dave Hastie, Gavin Foster, Oliver Hirtenfelder, Christopher Van, Karen facilities are an endangered school circuit. van der Merwe, Bob Hopkin. species. Not a week goes Classic competitors like Zwartkops by without stories about and Kyalami too. Have a look at our Business Manager Derek Hulse the fine line Kyalami is Zwartkops and Kyalami Passion for [email protected] walking. Every second week there Speed festival gallery on page 78. 082 451 3899 S is mention of how sad Lichtenberg Multiply the number of pictures by 20 Marketing/Subscriptions & Accounts is with its track lying dormant, and or 30 and you’ll get a mental image as to Allison Phillips somebody whispered that Syringa how many competitors took part. Then [email protected] Spa MX track was on thin ice too. add in the largest crowd you’ll see at a Northern Regions Marketing Thankfully this month there was local race meeting and you get the idea. Dave Hastie some good news from East London, Welkom, another track with a topsy- [email protected] 083 418 0372 and the historic fraternity have put in turvy past and future, also came to the some decent support. party with the first real South African Subscriptions, Advertising & Editorial The famed track is putting in endurance race in two decades this [email protected] Stuart: 082 921 4583 a massive effort to secure long February. Fred Phillips competed and Fred: 082 772 1909 term tenure and show sustainable reports on page 74. Fax: 021 790 5183 development. The Eastern Cape MEC We are not all racing though, with PO Box 26961 has shown an interest, as have a few Mike Monk getting behind the wheel Hout Bay potential investors and Mercedes-Benz of a Pontiac Strato Chief and Bristol 403. 7872 South Africa has promised to assist. In Gavin Foster talks Suzuki GT750, Bob order to sweeten the deals numerous Hopkin Honda S2000 and there are tales upgrades like safety items, electrical, of Mercedes-Benz W114 ownership, fencing, painting and maintenance BMC’s attempt to make a small 4x4 and were required, which deplete cash the queen of insanity - ‘Lucy’ a 27-litre reserves quickly. An estimate of R60 tank engine monster with personality 000 was determined and the word on page 28. Greg Mills talks to legendary spread via social media and emails. driver Don Philp, we say goodbye to The publishers makes every effort to ensure this magazine’s Within a few days cash started rolling the great Dave Charlton, and Robert contents are correct. All material published in Classic and Performance Car Africa is copyright and unauthorised in from both private individuals and Coucher drives sideways in the snow. reproduction is forbidden. The opinion of contributors, as published, are not necessarily the opinions held by the clubs. The target was met. So upgrades Hope you enjoy, and feel free to drop publishers or editors of Classic and Performance Car Africa. The publishers and editors make no representations, nor do can be completed and deals brokered. me an email or letter sharing any of your they give any warranties, guarantees or assurances, for any It looks likely that we will continue classic motoring exploits. goods or services advertised herein. to compete on the historic track. And Stuart

www.cpca.co.za | April/May 2013 | 3 CLASSIC PERSONALITIES THE DON

A rare shot. Don Philp in the Quadro during the 1961 Rand Grand Prix. (Image: Andrew Embleton)

Don, in his Singer Special, avoids the haybales Philp seated in the ‘Mighty Atom’ prior to the start of the 1955 during the 1948 Van Riebeeck Trophy. False Bay 100 at Gunners Circle in Epping, Cape Town. (Image: Rob Young Collection) Donald Philp stands tall. At over 6’2”, he is a giant of his generation. In his 90th year, he has outlasted most of his World War Two contemporaries. And not making his job any easier was racing through one of the most dangerous Grand Prix eras in the process, with his bright red ‘Mighty Atom’ and Cooper-Climax becoming fast fi xtures on the SA scene. By Greg Mills & Robert Young, who spoke to Don over a ‘late’ Xmas lunch at Pringle Bay

rom very humble origins, he Victoria, after which he moved to business, comprising “a small office, and his father built up one Rhodesian Motor Service “driving showroom, a yard for repairing cars of the largest private motor Thorneycroft trucks”. After his father and a sledgehammer mechanic, for dealerships countrywide, fell ill, his mother, Joan, packed the £100”. To fund the purchase Wallace which is still going strong, children into the train back to the Cape borrowed the money from his father, Flike him, today. And in all of this, he in 1935. After pounding the streets, his though still “I had no cars to sell, with has retained a humility and generosity father, now recovered, finally managed petrol pumps on the pavement, fed by to serve as an example to all. to get a job with Holmes Motors selling 44-gallon drums brought from the BP Born in Green Point on 25 November cars, being transferred to Stellenbosch station in Maitland by ox-waggon”. 1923, Don’s schooling and early the following year. Don left school in 1942, and “realising upbringing was, by his own admission, And so was born an association that I needed some trade to secure discombobulated. By Standard Five with the town and its motor-trade that my future”, joined De Beers where he his mother and the four children continues today. qualified as a Health Inspector. Then, in had followed his father, Wallace, Soon after, Holmes decided to close an era when selflessness and sacrifice who had a job “in the shunting yard” its operation in the university town, were not the uncommon qualities of with Rhodesian Railways, up to Fort however, and offered Wallace the today, Don volunteered for military

4 | April/May 2013 | www.cpca.co.za Don’s Cooper-Climax leads Bill Jennings’ Porsche powered mount at Fisantekraal, 1960. (Image: Koos Swanepoel)

The ‘Mighty Atom’ without its Cooper-Climax at the 1960 The Dick Gibson Cooper-Climax The ‘Mighty Atom’ during the 1954 East London SAGP. that became the Quadro. East London Handicap. Maserati 4CL grille. (Image: Denis Mills) (Image: Peter Little) (Image: Denis Mills) (Image: Rob Young Collection) service “to help my country”. As a point By the time Wallace retired in Don had by then befriended the Paarl- of history, 400 000 South Africans 1954 the business had grown to a based Hoffie and his brother Dave and signed up in the Second World War, the Stellenbosch sub-dealership for Ford, other race-enthusiasts, Ren Malan in highest per capita turnout of any all- going under the name ‘Selford’, with nearby Wellington along with Paarl’s volunteer force, of whom 12 000 paid spanking new premises. “They said Willie Mostert and the Costa brothers the ultimate price. that Englishmen who came to live in Nino and Philip. Don’s time in uniform saw him, first, the heart of Afrikanerdom were mad, In 1952 Don was married and in Tabora in central Tanganyika, a as the town was then a long journey out honeymooned in England. As befits grim, tented staging post for the troops from Cape Town,” chuckles Don. all petrolheads, even on honeymoon, going north where “we spent much of His taste for competition had been “while sitting above the engines in our time fighting mosquitoes, the real provided in 1947 in a Singer Le Mans steerage class on the Cape Town Castle, enemy”. Then it was onwards to Wadi at the Camps Bay and Tygerberg Hill I dreamt of building a new car”. Once Halfa in the Western Desert and to Climbs. He then pleaded with his father back in the Cape in September 1952, Cairo where he was demobbed, arriving for a loan of £150 to buy “a Singer Special Don took the Singer apart in a corner back in Cape Town in 1946 where he from Hoffie le Roux, who wanted to sell of the garage, putting in a narrowed joined his father in business. it to build a -based successor”. Valiant back-axle, a Riley engine (soon

www.cpca.co.za | April/May 2013 | 5 CLASSIC PERSONALITIES

Don and Piet van Niekerk drove the twin- Philp’s Cooper-Climax during the cam Flamingo to second in the 1964 Roy Bill Jennings and Donald Philp, Cape Town, 2008. Hesketh 6 Hour. (Image: Rob Young) 1960 East London SAGP. (Image: David Greer/Rob Young Collection) (Image: Ann White)

replaced by a Morris however), and a at Gunner’s Circle, Elsies Rivier, the 1957-vintage F2 car which had come Riley close-ratio box, cloaking the car Fisantekraal airfield track northeast out to South Africa as part of the in a body rolled by Wareings, with a of Durbanville (built originally in overseas contingent in 1958 and 1959. Maserati 4CLT-type grille. 1943 to operate Lockheed Ventura “I realized that these new, rear-engined Then, on 2 January 1953, the new bombers), and on the very dangerous cars were a step up from anything we car, resplendent in red, Don’s racing Esplanade Circuit on East London’s had. We did a deal at the Newlands colour, and nicknamed the ‘Mighty waterfront. This track was infamous Hotel. He wanted £2 000 for it. The Atom’, debuted at Gunner’s Circle, for its unforgiving and deadly problem was that we could not get a distinguishing itself and its driver combination of telegraph poles, steel permit to import racing cars at that in a “hectic dice” with acknowledged railings, kerbs and concrete bollards. time, so he had to take the car back frontrunner Les Miller in his MG The Esplanade street-track claimed to the UK and we had to re-import it special. Roddy Turner competed the lives of Tex Kingdon in the ex- as ‘Dart parts’ (under the permit Bob against Don in the early 1950s in Mario Maserati in 1955, and in 1956 of van Niekerk kindly afforded), which his own Austin Special, based on a both Doug Duff (the first SA Driver’s is why it was entered ultimately as canted-over Austin A40 engine, so Champion in 1953) in his Cooper the ‘Dart Cooper Climax’. Gibson that the plugs were nearly vertical. In 500-based but front-engined ‘Sartor promised to strip it down into small the self-help, can-do spirit of the time, Special’ and Alan Shiers (driving the parts and send it back to meet these Turner fabricated his own dry-sump ex-Frank Brodie 1955 Championship- requirements. But when we collected system, “though I was probably too winning MG Special). The same year the car in our second-hand truck from clever for my own good in that regard Cape Town’s Edgar Hoal was seriously the Queen’s Warehouse at the Cape – I still am not sure why I did that!” It injured when his Riley overturned. Town docks and took it back to Bob’s was an era, reflects Turner (who will Don has the distinction of being in Paarden Eiland, we discovered turn a sprightly 90 in 2013) where the one of the first South Africans to Gibson had only stripped the car into challenges were, first, “money, or the have driven a in a major two bits: the engine and gearbox in lack of it, second that you had to do competition. On 15 November 1958, one, the chassis and suspension as everything yourself, and third, that equipped with what was reputed to be another. It was a good thing customs there were no parts available off the the ex-Count Vittorio Marzotto 1952 never opened that box!” Gibson, who shelf even if you had the money to -winning Ferrari was from Bourne in Lincolnshire, the buy them.” 225S Spyder Vignale, he teamed up home of ERA, BRM and Pilbeam, and On Don selling the ‘Mighty Atom’ with his great friend Bill Jennings to who died in 2010 at the ripe age of 92, in 1959, “it was at ‘Stage One’, with take part in South Africa’s first 9 Hour had used the Formula Two T43 in two twin SU carbs, 9.3:1 compression endurance test at Grand Central. The German GPs in 1957 and ’58. ratio, and an exhaust system made 2.7-litre sports-racer was ill-suited to Armed with the Cooper, equipped by Slabber, which was worth at least the tight and bumpy circuit, but after with a 1660cc F2 Climax engine 500 revs”. The ‘Atom’ went to “a Mr several pit stops and “adventures” for Tasman rules, Don became a Nel” in Stellenbosch then onto Koos caused by various problems, they serious championship contender. Swanepoel before disappearing into soldiered on to finish the race in In the 1960 SAGP, Don finished a the “scrapyard in the sky”. thirteenth spot. commendable fifth behind Paul With it, Don had established a The ‘Atom’ made way for the ex- Frere’s Cooper-Climax, ’ reputation as one of the men to beat Dick Gibson Mk II Cooper (T43) Cooper-Borgward, Syd van der Vyver’s

6 | April/May 2013 | www.cpca.co.za Don blasting a 1172cc Ford Anglia 100E side valve around Epping in 1955. Cooper-Alfa and Lucian Bianchi’s Mule’ by its drivers, who included John the equally lanky Piet van Niekerk (in Cooper-Climax on the East London Love, Trevor Blokdyk and Serrurier. which they finished second behind track, just ahead of Ian Fraser Jones’ A more, modern, independently- the Henri le Roux/GertCoetzer Lola- Porsche RS. “The MG was a lovely, sprung Cooper variant was in the Climax Mk. 1), he retired from driving. balanced car to drive,” recalls Don, works. “Martin Slabber, by then The Cape pair was denied victory “but the Cooper was much more lecturing at Stellenbosch, but who when the Flamingo’s brakes failed in difficult, being quick, but in a tail-out, had also been building Zephyrs the closing stages of the race at the end power-on, oversteer style.” Regardless, with V8s, said that we should build of the main straight at over 120 mph! he finished second in the 1960 SA a new car, with coil springs rather But Don was not done with Driver’s Championship behind van than the Cooper’s leaves,” recalls motorsport altogether. By 1971 Der Vyver, a man he rates, along with Don . “The new car, using the Cooper Selford, which had grown into a major driver-constructor Doug Serrurier, as running gear and christened the Cape Ford dealer, was sponsoring the toughest he competed against. ‘Quadro’ after the four of us - Slabber Peter Gough in his V8 Capri Perana, A few days later he followed up this (Team Manager), Chris Herbst (from fettled by Willie Meissner. “Willie fine performance with a great drive Selford’s Panel Shop), Frans Beyleveld modified the rear springs in a way,” in the False Bay 100. After a thrilling (Stellenbosch University Engineering recalls Gough, “which permitted the wheel-to-wheel duel with Syd van der Department) and myself (handlanger) - use of 11-inch wheels rather than Vyver’s similar car around the tricky working on it, and having four wheels the standard seven-inch, though the and somewhat dangerous Sacks Circle, and four cylinders, was ready for locating points of the axle remained he narrowly ousted his rival to finish the 1962 Springbok Series. But we did the same, and thus within the rules.” second behind the modern Cooper- not have enough time or personally Along with the use of Formula 5000 Borgward of Britain’s ‘coming man’, enough mechanical knowledge, and brakes, these modifications meant Chris Bristow. (Considered a ‘wild- the car was plagued by wheel-bearing the Capri was able to get down to 1:26 man’, Bristow was killed aged just 22 and braking problems.” at Killarney, three seconds under the in grisly circumstances in the 1960 Although it had not disgraced itself times of the famous 151Y Meissner Belgian GP when his Yeoman Credit for pace, the ‘Quadro’ was converted Escort. Then, when the Capetonian Cooper rolled through a barbed- back into the Cooper for the rest of the suffered his (first) career-ending fire in wire fence. The same race and corner 1962 and 1963 seasons, Don finishing the works Mazda in Bulawayo in 1971, claimed his great friend seventh in the Daily Dispatch support Don took him in. “Peter’s incredible only laps later, apparently when he race to the 1962 SAGP, with the main personality made him a top salesman” was hit in the face by a bird.) event being won by Graham Hill’s at the Selford and Donford franchises, In 1961 Don was given the BRM. More importantly, Don’s wife in spite of his burns. opportunity to drive a more modern Barbara, who had been a pillar of Don Philp stepped back from an and rather unique Cooper – the support, by that time had decided not active role in his motor businesses Scuderia Lupini Mk IV with its 150S to attend the races anymore. in 1990, handing over the reins, as Maserati engine. The heavy twin-plug It was time. Apart from a few his father had done before, to his son sportscar engine was heavy, however, endurance races, including the 6 Mark. He still, however, maintains and suffered from various electronics Hour at Pietermaritzburg in a special a regular presence on the motoring maladies. Don was not alone in having lightweight twin-cam Flamingo in scene, always a gentle giant of the little luck with what was called ‘The March 1964 sharing the driving with sport.

www.cpca.co.za | April/May 2013 | 7 High octane

aving grown up in in a VW Beetle then won the event in northern Sweden where the frozen lake Slaap Stad I have little 1983 in a Porsche 911. Since then he’s is located. Åre is Sweden’s largest ski experience of driving been rally preparing 911s for events resort and is picture perfect. The place is on snow and ice. And like the East Africa Safari Classic Rally, completely covered in thick snow and is I have never been and Tuthill Porsche is at the forefront seemingly deserted. Hentirely happy getting to grips with of preparing these great sports cars for Richard Tuthill feels that 911s are the the counter-intuitive Porsche 911. the most gruelling rallies. Francis’ son, best weapons for use on his ice driving So an invitation to Sweden to drive Richard, is an international rally ace course because they are a challenge a rally-prepared 911 on a frozen and who finished third in the East Africa but effective once you get to grips with snow-covered lake was met with a in 2003 driving a 911. Retired from them, and are much more exciting than degree of trepidation. professional rallying he now runs rear-wheel-drive cars. Francis Tuthill has been involved Tuthill Porsche as well as Below Zero So, we are going to blast a bunch of in motorsport for over 35 years. He Ice Driving. old 911s around a frozen lake as fast as competed in the 1977 London-Sydney We arrive in the town of Åre in we can. Hmm, that leads to a restless

8 | April/May 2013 | www.cpca.co.za Robert Coucher was born in Cape Town but has lived in London since 1988. Previously the editor of Classic Cars and the Bentley magazine, Robert started Octane magazine eight years ago and it now sells around the world to discerning motoring enthusiasts and racers. www.octane-magazine.com Ice Robert Coucher goes fully sideways in a rally-prepared Porsche 911 on a frozen lake in Sweden.

night at the superbly modernistic Kall Auto Lodge hotel built by rally drivers Colin McRae and Staffan Parmander in 2005. Next morning we arrive at the lake and are met by the Below Zero rig and a line-up of half a dozen classic 911s. The cars are stripped He fires up the chainsaw- out 1978 911SCs, their 3-litre carburettored engines producing about 260bhp and featuring close ratio gearboxes and limited-slip diffs. The sounding engine, whacks interiors include race seats, harnesses and sturdy roll cages. Simple it into gear and we wheel and effective classic 911s. What you do notice is that the cars are set fairly high on their suspension and the tyres are studded. spin off in a flurry of snow. With no messing about, Richard leaps into a blue 911 and I strap into the passenger seat. He fires up the chainsaw-sounding engine, whacks it into gear and we wheel spin off in a flurry of snow. Instantly I am comfortable as he aims the fast charging Porsche at the first practice slalom pole. Tuthill is incredible on the loose. His

www.cpca.co.za | April/May 2013 | 9 High octane

analogy is skiing: it’s about balance wheel is cranked fully over on the stop are soon attacking the corners at about and control, moving weight and grip with a rooster tail of snow churning 140km/h on the steering stop, which to where it is needed. out behind. Tuthill gets back in and gets your full attention. “You have to work a 911; you must continues the lesson, gently bursting Richard has brought along his tell it what to do. Drive it like you stole my bubble by pointing out my lovely personal project car. It started life as an it,” he laughs as he sets the Porsche into slides are slow and I am being too early 912, meaning it is a light, short- a series of stomach flipping slides, pin- throttle heavy. “With a 911 there are wheelbase car. He has shoehorned point perfect down the long slalom test. three stages to a corner: aggression, a 2.2-litre six-pot 911 engine into “Be positive and proactive. The rear followed by a degree of patience, then the back producing around 140bhp. of a 911 is the best bit; it’s getting the power out.” Richard takes me out for a last blast in front end to grip that is the challenge,” After lunch in the nearby hunting this diminutive weapon. The car is not Richard says adding a dab of left-foot lodge it is time to attack the long ice overly powerful but it is taut and eager braking and lifting off to and is wearing thinner tyres change direction. “Now with even bigger studs. His you have a go,” and I have The fun of sliding about takes on commitment is astonishing. that horrible split-second a harder edge as you are soon He gets the front wing realisation that I cannot buried right into the apex even begin to slide a tail- attacking the corners at about of each bend on full throttle happy 911 about anything and dances the car around like he has just done… 140km/h on the steering stop, the circuit at impossible Trying to remember which gets your full attention. speed, sideways all the way. instructions, I wind it up in Initially I never thought second gear, aim at the first pole, lift the circuit with this newfound confidence. I’d find myself capable of doing this. throttle, brake, turn in, flick the steering What an absolute pleasure to hold a But after a full two days of tuition the opposite direction and the 911 is 911 in long, long slides on the throttle your confidence and skill improve instantly sliding. Hold the slide on the at these ludicrous angles of attack. enormously, to the point where you throttle then lift, brake, swing the other With the basics learnt the support find yourself in a full drift in a Porsche way for the next slalom. Exhilarating! team swaps the studded tyres for 911 doing 140km/h with the rev Within seconds I am sliding a 911 about ones with more pronounced studs needle pointing at six thou’. Novice with abandon because there is nowhere and the difference is immense. Now or pro, you really must experience the to have an ‘off’. Get it wrong and the car the 911s have 50 percent more grip, thrill of this Below Zero Ice Driving just doofs into a soft snow bank. which equates to more control and before you die. Confidence builds quickly and soon much more speed. The fun of sliding Consult www.belowzeroicedriving.com. I am at such acute angles, the steering about takes on a harder edge as you

10 | April/May 2013 | www.cpca.co.za

CLASSIC CAR AUCTION

GARDEN ROUTE MOTOR CLUB SHOW KNYSNA HIGH SCHOOL GROUNDS, WATERFRONT DRIVE, KNYSNA SATURDAY, 4 MAY, 2013 AT 1.00 P.M.

Following the success of their Vintage, Classic & auction at the Midas George Old Car Show in February, the HOUSE OF CLASSIC & SPORTS CARS in Knysna is proud to be hosting another auction at the Garden Route Motor Club Show on 4 May, 2013.

There will be ±25 exceptional vehicles available to the highest bidder.

Only Vintage, Classic & Sports Cars in superior condition will be considered for this Auction. If you have such a vehicle that you would like to place on auction, please contact us on 044-382 1000 or 082 566 7897 or email [email protected] before entries close on 17 April, 2013.

With some of the world’s most collectable cars crossing the auction block, don’t miss out on this high-energy auction action, the proceeds of which will go to deserving charities.

70, Main Street, Knysna Tel. 044-382 1000 / Cell: 082 566 7897 email [email protected] www.hocasc.co.za news & eVents

lotUs Flowers The National Botanical Gardens in Pretoria played host to a Concours de Elegance organised by The Lotus Register of South Africa in February. A stunning turnout of some fi fty cars that ranged from a pair of 1968 genuine Lotus 7 models through variations of Élan, A pair of genuine Sevens. Esprit Turbo, Elise and Exige, were parked in the gardens in four different categories. In the Classic Lotus category top scores were level on 94% so the oldest model, the 1984 Esprit Turbo of Dawie Olivier, took top honours. The Birkin and Caterham category was won by Ken Goodenough on 97.5%, with the S3 version of Alan Keevy coming in a close second on 94%. The Homebuilt category honour was awarded to the Millenium 7 of Roger Houghton with a score of 77% and Ron Liddiard won the Spectator Appeal with his Lotus 51. Old and new Elise and Elans. - Dave Hastie

old wheelers, new hoMe The Old Wheelers Club of Namibia recently held the ceremonial breaking of the ground for the new club house in Stadium Street in Windhoek.Stage One is the building of the club house with a perimeter fence followed by an offi ce, garages and a caretaker’s fl at. A museum is planned on the western perimeter in the not-too-distant future. Construction commences toward the end of April 2013. The Old Wheelers Club is selling bricks in N$100, N$1 000 and N$5 000 denominations to assist with the fi nancing of the building and the interior fi nishes. To be part of the future please buy your brick at either Mr Hans-Gerd Roeschlau at African Building Supplies, Rolf Redecker at Nirosta or in the afternoons at the current club house in MacAdam Street. Old Wheelers Club of Namibia breaking ground for their new clubhouse complex.

12 | April/May 2013 | www.cpca.co.za Petrolheads in Paradise The annual charity Garden Route Classic Car Show will take place in Knysna on Saturday 4 May 2013 at the Knysna High School sports field located on Waterfront Drive. The Show has become a magnet for local and national petrolheads, featuring a wide spectrum of classics including displays from some of the most famous names such as , Austin-Healey, Jaguar, Lotus, Mercedes-Benz, MG, Morgan, Porsche and Triumph as well as golden oldies from the USA and elsewhere. The emphasis is on showing interesting cars and to pay tribute to these cars while bringing together people who share a passion for automobiles. The Garden Route Motor Club has committed to a vision for its annual Show to emulate and become the ‘Pebble Beach’ of South Africa. Knysna is ideally located in the heart of the Garden Route with much to see and do. This year they have formed a partnership with The House of Classic and Sports Cars to offer a trading platform for a classic car auction, with some of the proceeds being donated to charities including Hospice, Animal Welfare and E-Pap (child feeding scheme). The Show will feature a number of themed displays including Great Collector Cars parked in a VIP area, the evolution of certain car marques, supercars and car clubs to mention a few. Negotiations are well under way with a number of the country’s most valuable collections to send along a few of their prized possessions. Classic & Performance Car Africa will sponsor two Concours d’Elegance trophies, one awarded by a panel of experienced judges and the other determined by public voting. To add to the garden fete atmosphere, there will be variety of quality food and refreshments stands and entertainment for the kids. The entrance fee is R20 for adults and R10 for children, with under-10s free. As 1 May is a public holiday, the opportunity arises for an extended weekend visit to Knysna to participate in and/or visit the Show and take in some of Knysna’s many other attractions. Accommodation is plentiful and there are numerous good restaurants to suit all pockets. The Protea Knysna Quays Hotel is adjacent to the Waterfront and is only a couple of minutes away from the venue. The hotel is offering a special rate for participants. For further details contact Garden Route Motor Club chairman and Show co-ordinator Peter Pretorius on 082 321 4724 or 044 533 5114 or e-mail [email protected].

www.cpca.co.za | April/May 2013 | 13 Franschhoek Motor Museum News

MMMagic A group of MG Triple-M owners will come together in April in the picturesque Franschhoek region to celebrate these pre-war classics that were built between 1929 and 1936. The name derives from the three main MG model classifications of the time: Midget, Magna and Magnette. The gathering starts off with a ‘meet and greet’ on Friday 5 April at the FMM before settling-in at the town’s four-star Protea Hotel. The serious proceedings commence on the Saturday with a rally from the hotel to the Zorgvliet Estate in the Banghoek Valley. The rally will conclude back at the Protea with a sophisticated commemorative dinner. Another rally takes place on the Sunday, terminating at FMM where the MGs will be put on display as the participants enjoy a luncheon at the Museum’s delicatessen. This occasion will also be a tribute to the late Phillip Costa, his family and his MGs. A highlight of the weekend will be the display of Phillip’s well-known MG race car known as Hoodoo. This car is one of a few survivors of the early Camps Bay Hill Climb events.

New displays

More on the web For more information about the Franschhoek Motor Museum, view galleries of the collection and learn Four new displays have been set up more about forthcoming events, logon in the Museum’s halls. Apart from a to www.fmm.co.za handful of MGs ranging from a 1932 The Franschhoek Motor Museum J2 to a 1969 C set ready to welcome is situated on the L’Ormarins Estate the Triple-M visit mentioned above, along the R45 in the Franschhoek there is a line-up of five Studebakers starting with a 1936 Dictator and ending Valley in the Western Cape. The with a 1964 Avanti. Then to celebrate 60 years of the DKW Sonderklasse, opening hours are Monday to Friday a rare Six Club Coupe model is the star of a display of other Deeks and 10h00 to 17h00 (last admittance Auto-Unions. And finally, as a build-up to Henry Ford’s 150th birthday, a 16h00), Saturday and Sunday 10h00 1903 Model A, a 1911 Model T Roadster, a 1915 T Woody Wagon, a 1922 to 16h00 (last admittance 15h00), and T Panel Van and a 1926 T illustrate Henry’s pioneering days of the Museum is open on most public automobile manufacture. These displays will soon be joined by a collection holidays. Admission prices are R60 of Aston Martins to celebrate 100 years of the marque. adults, R50 pensioners, R30 children.

14 | April/May 2013 | www.cpca.co.za 1955 300SL Gullwing sitting alongside its modern SLS equivalent. thoroUghbred horsePower As an integral part of the L’Ormarins Estate, each year the Franschhoek Motor Museum supports the annual L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate, the Cape’s most prestigious horse racing event. The weight-for-age race held at the Kenilworth Racecourse in Cape Town sees the best 16 thoroughbred horses in the country compete for the R1 million purse. This year, attendees 1938 540K partnered with the latest CLS63 AMG. were also able to view some horsepower of a different kind with some of the latest Mercedes-Benz automobiles displayed with a number of classic, rare examples courtesy of the Franschhoek Motor Museum. Three Mercedes-Benz displays added appreciable style to the occasion with FMM’s 1929 S-Type providing a stark contrast with the 1955 300SL Gullwing and 1957 300SL Roadster displayed alongside the new SLS-based equivalents. On another stand, the Museum’s 1938 540K was partnered with the latest CLS63 AMG and the all-new Shooting Brake. On the lawn just before the fi nishing post, the 1971 280SE Cabriolet, 1980 450SEL 6.9 Saloon and 2003 DTM Coupé lined up with other new Mercedes models in an impressive display set against the backdrop of some of the country’s fi nest race horses. The Queen’s Plate has become one of the Cape’s acclaimed social gatherings where art and passion are captured not only in equestrian endeavours but also in the ancient wine-making skills evident in the Anthonij Rupert Wines on offer – and not to forget the Three-pointed Star cars. - Mike Monk 1957 300SL and 2013 SLS Roadster.

www.cpca.co.za | April/May 2013 | 15 news & eVents

gale Force For the past 17 years the Southern Cape Old Car Club’s George Old Car Show has always attracted a large and eclectic mix of cars, commercials, motor cycles, tractors and associated machinery, and rates as one the biggest such annual automotive gatherings in the country. The two-day affair is traditionally held in early February and usually under baking sun conditions, but recently the rain gods have thrown in a few showers and this year storm clouds hovered over the Saturday’s proceedings. The drive past is a good way to view the cars. But the blackening skies failed to dampen the enthusiasm of extremes, as were the horizontal blades on Jan du Rand’s collection the near-11 000 attendees who walked the sports fi elds of the PW of 1959 Chevrolets. Botha College to view the exhibits that had entered from all over Other attractions included a neat example of the SA-specifi c Glas- the country. nosed BMW 1800SA (belonging to Russell Osner); Mike Bailey’s Well over 900 exhibits were on display with Ali van Jaarsveld’s 1963 Ford Fairlane two-door/pick-up conversion that resulted from 1903 curved dash Oldsmobile the oldest on view. Its diminutive size a tree crashing onto the rear of the original saloon bod; a pair of certainly contrasted with Nick Middlemann’s 1907 Nordenfelt and spotless Rapiers – Abie Fullard’s 1965 Series IV and Jan Miller’s Rudi Greyvenstein’s 1928 Packard Roadster. 1966 Series V – proudly representing Sunbeam; and the two 1960 Lots of anniversary cars were on view, among them: Waldo Mercedes-Benz light trucks (Rene and Waldo Scribante’s). Of the Scribante’s Benz Tourenwagen - 100 years old; Heinz Koncki’s motor cycles, Ray Kretschmann’s 1946 BSA and sidecar had lots replica record-breaker 1953 Jabbeke Special represented the of period appeal. 60th birthday of the Triumph TR2; Brian Bruce’s Austin-Healey Apart from the continual drive-pasts of all the vehicles in groups 100 represented the BN1 model’s six decades of existence; and of age, type and make a recent addition to the programme has been a number of /DKWs celebrated 60 years of the popular the Protea Hotels Classic Car Auction. Facilitated by the House of Sonderklasse. Also part of the two-stroke exhibits were a trio of Classic & Sports Cars, 50 potential buyers registered for the auction Goggomobils. There was the usual strong turn-out of Darts and and under the gaze of a large crowd, 25 cars came under the Flamingos from the very active GSM club while of the muscle cars hammer with bids ranging from R30 000 for a 1979 Mercury Cougar on view, Desmond Peine’s 1970 Dodge Coronet Super Bee stood to R350 000 for a 2007 Jaguar XK. A restored 1929 Chevrolet out. Not many big fi ns to ogle over, although Gerhard de Jager’s Roadster went for R115 000 and although not all lots reached their 1970 Chrysler New Yorker was a prime example of the art of reserve, after some after-auction negotiations, 13 cars were sold. The buyer’s premium (six% on all sales) was given to the SCOCC, of which a portion will be donated to charity. A spokesperson from House of Classic & Sports Cars commented, “Vintage cars will always be a draw-card for enthusiasts from all sectors and income groups. It’s encouraging to know that their collective interest can help deserving charitable institutions to achieve their goals and aspirations.” Beverage stands kept spectators fed and watered while a craft market and a well-supported toy fair provided alternative viewing along with a trade area with new cars and aftermarket products. The proceeds of the Show went to local charities with the main recipient being ‘Reach for a Dream … Inspiring Hope’. Studebaker line-up with a mass of people and marques in the background. - Mike Monk

16 | April/May 2013 | www.cpca.co.za Veterans on the rUn

1903 Curved dash Oldsmobile of Ali van Jaarsveld. Boetie van Zyl’s 1914 Hupmobile. Pre-1918 cars and motor cycles revelled in the Crankhandle joined 17 vehicles at the Crankhandle clubhouse but sadly Club’s Kalk Bay Run, from the clubhouse to Kalk Bay Harbour two did not progress much further. The club’s own 1902 and beyond. This year some up-country and foreign nationals Wolseley and Swiss Martin Hirs’ ex-Greyvenstein 1913 took part as a trial run for the SAVVA National Edwardian and Talbot became hors de combat almost immediately - the Veteran Tour that was to start in George on the following Tuesday. Wolseley when the crank handle broke in the dog (!) and Starting from Wynberg, participants had a choice of either a short the Talbot with an ignition malady. But for the rest the half- route along Main Road to Lakeside or a longer drive through the day outing was a pleasure, the weather varying from cloudy Tokai Forest before gathering for a stop at the harbour. Resuming to sunny but thankfully without the strong south-easterly. the Run, the less powerful vehicles headed out on the coastal Oldest car on the Run was UCT’s 1901 Benz Ideal that route to Millers Point while the powerful machines charged over is cared for by the Crankhandle Club and driven on this Red Hill and along to Millers Point. From there, for all it was to occasion by the Run’s organiser Harvey Metcalf. At the Jubilee Square in Simon’s Town for lunch at the Seven Seas Club, other end of the spectrum were the giants – Len Ward’s appropriately the oldest such establishment in the Cape. Count Labia’s 1905 De Dietrich Phaeton, Hans Zwets’1912 Gauteng-based Ali van Jaarsveld’s 1903 curved dash Rover 12 Colonial, Van Zyl’s Hupmobile and Mike Watson’s Oldsmobile needed some fi ne tuning to run properly at the coast. 1915 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost, which is said to be the Ali only started driving the car three weeks before the event oldest Rolls in SA. following the passing of her husband Kobus, and proved adept at The motor cycles – Adrian Dennis’ 1912 BAT, Adrian piloting the tiller-steered car. The other lady driver taking part was Woodley’s 1913 Royal Enfield, Brian Wallace’s 1914 the Southern Cape Old Car Club’s PRO Karen van der Merwe, Douglas and Bruce Kirby’s 1914 New Hudson – revelled and she was faced with replacing the right-front tyre of her bright in the conditions and set a brisk pace on each of the red 1911 Ford Model T. Karl Reitz brought his 1914 Maxwell from legs. The nature of the event allowed for some freedom the Wilderness, and Kevin Casey travelled from Harrismith with of travel and a number of vehicles took the opportunity to two 1915 Model Ts – his own and the one belonging to Swiss- extend their routes a little, much to the pleasure of owners, based Ockert van der Berg. passengers and general public alike. Four motor cycles from the Cape Vintage Motorcycle Club - Mike Monk shows to Visit The Scottburgh Classic Car Club hosts its annual Car Vryheid Vintage Car Club holds its annual Car Show on 15 June. Show on Sunday 21 July at the Scottburgh Country Club. This is by far the largest vintage car show in the Northern KZN Last year the event, which caters for cars and bikes older region with 280 entries displayed in 2012. All vintage, classic, than 1975, saw 375 classic vehicles on show, and 2013 hotrod and motor-cycle clubs are welcome and so are the vintage promises to be even bigger. tractor and stationary engine fans. For information visit www.scottburghclassiccarshow.co.za. Details can be found on. www.thevvcc.com.

www.cpca.co.za | April/May 2013 | 17 news & eVents

charitable FUn in the sUn The usual eclectic mix of very old and fairly old vehicles fi lled the grounds of Cape Town’s historic Timour Hall Villa in January for the annual Classic Car and Bike Show. Saturday was devoted to hot rods, street rods and sports/racing cars and performance-minded clubs while Sunday fi lled the grounds with classic cars and bikes and cycles dating from the turn of the last century to the 1980s. Of the few hundred cars that were displayed over the weekend, the long-established Crankhandle Club, as ever, lent considerable support with its members bringing along a diverse number of vehicles Believe it or not but this is a modern 3-wheel Morgan. In front of a row of four-wheeled models from the same factory. for public viewing. Of the participating one-make car clubs, Triumph impressed with a big turn-out including my eye, while from a rarity point of view, a ‘work in progress’ 1934 Raleigh Safety an unusual Californian-built Devin model. Of the Seven – one of only six known worldwide – was the event’s surprise package. many Jaguars on show, a 1977 Coupé-based Flip Top The show also featured a number of working stationary engines, and this year an Conversions XJ6 convertible was also a rare fi nd. Other auto jumble was included attracting many enthusiasts seeking that elusive ‘widget’ well-represented marques included Austin-Healey, MG, for their restoration project. Model car trading was also seen to be brisk. Morris Minor, Cobra, Dart, Citroën, Renault and Peugeot, Timour Hall dates back to 1796, with the Villa currently leased to the International the latter enthusiasts’ club displaying a 1928 Type 190S Police Association. The Show is the Association’s main fund-raiser with money that boasted no shock absorbers and brakes on the shared between the IPA’s and another charity, which this year was the Village Care rear wheels only. In the elegance stakes, a 1936 Jaguar and Aged Centre situated in the Cape Flats. Over the years, this event has raised SS100, a 1954 Bentley R-Type, a 1949 Mercedes-Benz more than R120 000 for various charities. S170 and a 1960 Studebaker Lark VIII convertible took - Mike Monk

harley-daVidson celebrates William J. “Bill” Davidson, Vice-President of the Harley-Davidson sPeedweeK Museum, will visit South Africa for the fi rst time to join the iconic brand’s 110th Anniversary celebration at Africa Bike Week from 26 to 29 April 2013. The iconic goes blacK American brand is celebrating 110 Due to the success of the Kalahari Desert years of freedom, self-expression SpeedWeek, many have asked if a tar SpeedWeek and epic adventures. South Africans could be arranged as an additional annual event. will have an opportunity, for the And organizers have obliged. Upington All Tar first time, to meet the current face SpeedWeek will take place at Upington Airport of the Harley-Davidson legacy, Bill from 28 to 30 April 2013. Many of you may know Davidson. Davidson said, “I am that the Upington Airport has 2 runways, the fi rst looking forward to Africa Bike Week being for the daily air traffi c and the second [very and joining our fans in South Africa in long] one for really big cargo planes and the celebrating Harley-Davidson’s 110th space shuttle. It was partly funded by NASA as a Anniversary. It’s always a pleasure to backup landing strip should the shuttle blow off meet, speak with and ride alongside course. It measures an impressive 5.5km and is Harley-Davidson enthusiasts.” the longest runway in the southern hemisphere. For more information visit www.upingtonspeedweek.com.

18 | April/May 2013 | www.cpca.co.za 70, Main Road, Knysna (N2) Telephone 044 382 1000 Cell 082 566 7897 email [email protected] www.hocasc.co.za

Our new Showroom and Workshop now open at 70, Main Road, Knysna (Next to Total) We buy and sell all classic, sports and vintage cars. Consignment sales welcome.

1972 Peugeot 504 Cabriolet 1929 Chevrolet Phaeton 2001 Volvo Cabriolet

1948 Buick 1957 Rover 90 1991 Ferrari 348TS

2007 Jaguar XK Convertible 1948 Plymouth 1940 Packard

2002 Mercedes 320 CLK 2007 Mercedes 350 CLK 1934 Plymouth 4 Door

1964 Cadillac Series 62 Convertible 1930 Ford Model A 1937 Plymouth Coupe ______

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The 403 is a true with rear passenger seats, two doors and a sloping rear roof line. WELCOME • ON BOARD • From Bavaria to Bristol – not a fl ight of fancy. Mike Monk drives one of Britain’s more individualistic Grand Tourers built by an aircraft company. Pictures: Mike and Wendy Monk

20 | April/May 2013 | www.cpca.co.za The 400’s styling differed slightly from the BMW 327, even sporting a kidney grille and close-set headlamps.

n the aftermath of World War design, Bristol was able to draw on the 1955 to 1956 before retiring in 1966. So Two, The Bristol Aeroplane BMW 326 (chassis), 327 (body) and 328 little wonder then that the Bristol was Company (founded in 1910) (engine) models to create the 400. a success from the outset. decided to diversify and began In 1947 BMW’s talented engineer The 400’s styling differed only manufacturing automobiles, Fritz Friedler – the man behind the six- slightly from that of its Bavarian- Iand towards the end of 1946 announced cylinder 326/327/328 cars that paved built donor designs, the kidney grille its first car, the 400, with production the road to success for BMW – left his and close-set headlamps doing little slated for the following year. In fact, senior post at the company to join H to disguise the fact. Either way, they it was one of Britain’s very first post- J Aldington’s AFN (Frazer Nash) Ltd are all handsome designs that have war new cars. Its short gestation period but was almost immediately loaned stood the test of time and today are was down to the fact that the company to Bristol as a consultant for the 400’s all considered classics. The car was obtained a licence from Frazer Nash to development. After three years with immediately recognisable as a Grand build BMW-based cars, which, in turn, AFN he returned to BMW where he Tourer, its long 114-inch (2 896mm) had acquired the right as part of war was responsible for the new V8 engine wheelbase, centralised chassis reparation from Germany. So rather and the 501/503/507 series of cars. He lubrication, transverse independent than having to start with a ground-up became chairman of BMW AG from front suspension and precise rack-

www.cpca.co.za | April/May 2013 | 21 2-litre Bristol engine with triple carbs made 100bhp and was good for 167.4km/h. Pillar hinged indicators.

and-pinion steering endowing it with but only 23 were ever built and were excellent road manners for its time, bought mainly by the rich and famous, and brakes were well up to their task, including actress Jean Simmons. too. It is perhaps a testament to both Twin-carbs pushed power up to companies’ aircraft industry roots that 85bhp (63.4kW) that helped reduce aerodynamics figure in each model’s the 0-60mph time to 15.1 seconds and flowing, low-drag design and quality raise top speed to 98mph (157.7km/h). build standards are evident throughout. Respected English motoring weekly Part of the licensing deal included use The Motor said the 401 was ‘a car in a of BMW’s superb 1 971cm3 straight-six class of its own’. overhead-valve engine Building on such accolades, the 403 It is perhaps a testament that with a single was introduced in May 1953, being carburettor delivered effectively a tweaked version of the to both companies’ 80bhp (59.6kW). 401 identifiable by four headlamps, Acceleration to a silver grille and 403 badging on the aircraft industry roots that 60mph (96km/h) sides of the sideways-hinged bonnet. aerodynamics fi gure in took a leisurely 19.1 The engine received bigger valves, seconds, which belies larger main bearings and triple each model’s fl owing, low- its sporty nature, and carburettors that contributed towards drag design and quality top speed was 90mph a power increase to 100bhp (74.6kW), (144.8km/h), a gait which dropped the 0-60mph time to build standards are evident that the 400 could 13.4 seconds and lifted top speed to maintain all day long, 104mph (167.4km/h) – making it a throughout. suggesting overall genuine ‘ton up’ GT although no road gearing was chosen for tests appeared to substantiate this cruising rather than sprinting. claim. Alfin (aluminium finned) drum The 400 was joined in 1949 by brakes were used all round and a front the 401 that featured an even more anti-roll bar was fitted. Incidentally, aerodynamic (no door handles, for 20 years after the 403 appeared it was instance) full-width body, still with reported that only four cars of the day headlamps flanking the now shortened had a better aerodynamic drag figure kidney grille. The Aerodyne design, than its 0.4Cd, which accounted for the with its teardrop tail, was constructed model’s characteristic low wind noise. using Carrozzeria Touring of Milan’s The 403 is a striking car, the deep Superleggera principle of lightweight blue paintwork of the Franschhoek aluminium panels attached to a steel Motor Museum’s example emphasising tubular space-frame. This allowed for the flowing lines, the two-door body a convertible to be made – the 402 – disguising the fact that it is a practical

22 | April/May 2013 | www.cpca.co.za A classy cabin with full width wood and conscious style elements like Rear seating is plush and spacious. square dials and moustache-like steering wheel. four-seater – five at a pinch. It is a big through the fairly shallow split steering is a little heavy and the turning car – 4 864mm long, 1 702mm wide and windscreen and down that distinctive circle of just over 11.4 metres makes for 1 524mm high – but the proportions bonnet heightens expectations. I can arm-rippling manoeuvring but on the are so good that it does not appear imagine owners blasting through open road its stability, engine pulling cumbersome, the sloping rear and the twisting English countryside power and well-tuned suspension, large side-glass area helping to balance to an early-morning cross-channel allied with excellent brakes, make for the long bonnet. (By comparison, ferry and emerging in Europe for a highly composed progress – the 403 a BMW 3 Series Coupé – a modern flat-out inter-continental run along defines Grand Touring and represented 403 equivalent, perhaps? – measures unrestricted motorways to a luxury a bespoke alternative to rivals such as 4 260 x 1 783 x 1 374mm, respectively.) leisure destination, arriving relaxed the Aston Martin DB2/4. Step inside – the 403 retains The 403 was only in a slightly vintage ‘sit on’ Today, the 403 is still a production for two years rather than ‘sit down’ seat and was the last Bristol to height – and relax on the rewarding car to drive. Accept carry the kidney grille. The generous leather-upholstered subsequent 404 boasted chairs, and take in the full- that it will be out-performed a new body style but the width wood dashboard – but not out-run – by even earlier cars’ attributes and that carries a full range accolades continued. The 400 of instruments – with the modest family transport. to 403s were built at a rate of square-ish rev counter in front between 100-150 units per of the driver and the matching speedo and unruffled, the car taking it all in year – no more than 300 403s were facing the passenger, the needles of its stride. made – and were expensive, but soon both rotating counter-clockwise. The Today, the 403 is still a rewarding established a loyal following that steering wheel’s two spokes droop car to drive. Accept that it will be out- continues amongst active enthusiast like a moustache but overall it is a performed – but not out-run – by even clubs. It was a marque favoured – and welcoming and comfortable cabin. modest family transport, but the Bristol long kept in the public limelight – by A synchromesh gearbox with a long has an undiminished elegance about that charismatic and learned motoring lever was carried over from the 401 it both inside and out that makes any journalist Leonard Setright. Now I can but during the 403’s life a remote shift journey a pleasurable task. Sure, the understand why... with a shorter, more precise lever was employed, as fitted to this car. A Bristol Motor Company existed from 1902 to 1908 but it was a half-hearted effort and only Twist the key, press the starter 24 cars were built. The motor manufacturing division of The Bristol Aeroplane Company was and that classic straight-six crackles renamed Ltd in 1960 and the independent company survived troubled times into life and somehow immediately until April 2011 when the Kamkorp Autokraft, part of the Frazer-Nash Group of Companies, awakens the senses. Engage first, pull acquired the assets and goodwill of Bristol Cars from its administrators. A new generation away and the sensation heightens. of Bristol is currently in development in conjunction with Frazer-Nash, ‘a group of seven organisations involved in the research development and productionisation of the Frazer-Nash None of the controls are heavy to Range-Extended Electric Powertrain (REEP)’. operate and looking at the road ahead

www.cpca.co.za | April/May 2013 | 23 CB-3-52 in action at the 1960 SA Grand Prix.

CB-3-52 damaged at Crystal Palace in 1955. The chance to race in a Historic Single Seater Association field, a series for South Africa’s most historic cars, is one Stuart Grant could not turn down. Even more so when the chassis plate reads CB-3-52, a Cooper Bristol with some Grand Prix events under its belt.

harles Cooper formed the 2 catered for cars of 2-litre capacity and as the name suggests, the Cooper in 1946. With his son got its power from a Bristol engine – in John and friend Eric essence a race-prepped version of the Brandon they initially Bristol 2-litre straight-6 lump like that Cbuilt rear-engined JAP twin-cylinder of the Bristol 403 – this derived from 500cc Formula 3 cars and shot to the pre-war BMW unit. In race trim the prominence with the likes of Stirling power number quoted between 165 Moss, Peter Collins, Jim Russell, and 175bhp. Ivor Bueb, Ken Tyrrell and Bernie In 1952 CB-3-52 competed in the Ecclestone at the wheels. Swiss Grand Prix (Berne), Italian Grand With competition success and decent Prix (Monza), (Spa cash inflow Cooper looked to move up Francorchamps), Marne Grand Prix the motorsport ranks. They modified a (Reims) and the British Grand Prix 500 chassis and completed (Silverstone). Still under the Ecurie a single lap of the 1950 Monaco Grand Richmond banner, in ’53 it entered Prix before being sidelined with a the Syracuse Grand Prix (Sicily) and mechanical failure. The sight of a rear- Goodwood’s Lavant Cup. It then engined Grand Prix machine was the moved on to the famed Scottish race first since World War 2 broke out and team of Border Rievers and suffered signalled the way of the future. some damage in a crash at Crystal Despite the rear-engine promise, in Palace during 1955. Border Rievers 1952 Cooper went front-engined for repaired the vehicle before selling it its assault on the Formula 2 category, off to South Africa. which was also the rule set followed for Records show that in January 1956 Grand Prix at the time. Names like Juan Cape Town’s Gordon Lindsay entered Manuel Fangio and Mike Hawthorn the Cooper in the Cape Grand Prix and spent time behind Cooper Bristol kicked off the car’s local career. CB-3-52 steering wheels. remained competitive until 1961, when CB-3-52 was one of two works-backed George ‘Curly’ Cannell raced it with a entries run by the Cooper Car Company Chevrolet Corvette V8 engine under through 1952 and ’53, more often than the hood. Event programmes along the not in the hands of long time Cooper way show the Cooper’s South African driver Eric Brandon, and entered under pedigree includes the 1956 Cape Grand the Ecurie Richmond banner. Formula Prix and False Bay 100, 1957 False Bay

www.cpca.co.za | April/May 2013 | 25 CB-3-52 on track in 2013, competing at Zwartkops under the Piri-Piri Racing Team banner.

100, 1960 Coronation 100, Rhodesian shin bone, so requires the occupant qualifying cars. ‘Mixing it’ with the Grand Prix, Cape Grand Prix, South to thread the right leg between it more modern rear-engined machinery African Grand Prix and then in 1961 and the floorboard. Once inside it’s a and the chance of an upstage quickly the Rhodesian Grand Prix and Rand comfortable arrangement with steering makes one forget the Cooper has no Winter Races. wheel in good reach, pedals well spaced seatbelt or roll over bar. The trail goes a little quiet until 1986 to heel-and-toe and the gearlever next Braking from the large finned drums when legendary Zimbabwean racer and to the right thigh. Gauges, in true race is sharp and remained consistent historian Ivan Glasby got stuck into fashion only giving the vitals, sit on a throughout the various race heats. returning the car to its former glory. By flat dash in perfect line of sight. Turn in is good but made even better 1996 CB-3-52 was back on track taking With ignition switched on the start by entering early, ‘upsetting the car’ a in the odd event in Europe. Dickon procedure is to prime the triple Solex touch and then applying power before Daggit acquired the Cooper, re-homed it carbs and push the start button. What the corner mid-point. The car reacts in Cape Town but kept its competition results is one of the most emotive by lightening up and skimming across history going with numerous racing exhaust notes – a deep bark. This is how the surface with beautiful balance, a appearances. Current owner, Rodney a 1950s race car should sound! feeling I can only liken to a motorboat Green, purchased the Cooper from The 4-speed H-pattern gear selection hydroplaning. It becomes light but Daggit a few years back and, together is surprisingly direct for a car of the delivers a bucketload of feedback, giving with his son Edwin, stretch its legs on vintage and thankfully the clutch perfectly predictable oversteer and the tracks throughout South Africa under doesn’t require a horse-sized leg to odd drift. Add in the sound and it is the Piri-Piri Racing team banner. operate. Ideal pull-off revs seem to be picture perfect motorsport. Although the cockpit is relatively in the region of 3000rpm. When the For the record, the car, now 61-years- spacious, climbing into it takes some lights went green and I slipped my foot old, recorded a 1:19 at Zwartkops and getting used to as the centrally-mounted off the clutch the Bristol came into its 2:12 at Kyalami. CB-3-52 makes the gearbox features a linkage that puts own, delivering a touch of wheel spin driver look good but the real thrill is the gear knob to the right-hand side of on its period style Dunlops, squatting driving a car with such pedigree and the driver. This linkage runs over the and rocketing past a few of the faster showing it in action for all to see.

26 | April/May 2013 | www.cpca.co.za Classic and Performance Car Africa is the only bring back the memories of motoring times gone by. dedicated historic motoring magazine in the Whether your heart fl utters for pre-war engineering, country. From racing, to personalities, to some of or brute-force muscle, gentle drives in scenic places the most special vehicles ever produced, we are or screaming tyres and a whiff of Castrol R, we have continually unearthing great stories, illustrating them something in every issue that will appeal. Subscribe, with a mixture of old photos and new, and helping and never miss another issue.

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BANKING DETAILS FOR EFT: ZigZag Publishing; Nedbank, Hout Bay Branch Branch Code: 167 609; Account Number 1676040021 UNIVERSAL EFT CODE: 198765 What do you do when an 8-litre Bentley or Grand Prix Bugatti isn’t enough? As Stuart Grant finds out, if you are Clive and Bruce Woolley you build a 27-litre tank-engined Monster in the spirit of an early 1900s land speed or Brooklands racer and call it ‘Lucy’. Images shot at Zwartkops Raceway by Oliver Hirtenfelder Standing close to ‘Lucy’ could get you burnt.

hat’s correct: 27-litre or 1647 cubic inches. If that number doesn’t jump at you, then try a 12-cylinders, 24 spark plugs, 1850kg and whopping 1550Nm of torque.Top speed with current ratios is 160km/h anda it’ll get there in Ta flash of exhaust flames and smoking rubber. Clive Woolley is well known in the vintage car scene, having owned and even raced vintage Bentleys and Bugattis both here and abroad. He’s a member of our Vintage and Veteran Club and just recently notched up 50 years of membership with the Vintage Sport Car Club of England. It would appear that spending time amongst this machinery and like-minded people gets the creative juices flowing. For Woolley, the aero-engined machine bug bit decades

External valve springs bring the car to life. www.cpca.co.za | April/May 2013 | 29 Front view dominated by the custom made radiator With no bodywork ‘Lucy’ is a working display of mechanical beauty. and medieval looking cowling.

The extra engine length meant the steering set up Local craftsman manufactured the seats from scratch. had to move 900mm rearward.

back. He scoured around for a suitable dream form. Until 2008 that is, when a son projects to date and seeing Clive’s power plant for years, before, in 1980, 1933 Rolls Royce 20/25 saloon rolling eyes beam as Bruce powered the beast stumbling across a 1943 Liberty engine chassis cropped up for sale by fellow around the old Zwartkops Raceway at Beaulieu Auto Jumble. The deal was Johannesburg vintage stalwart Peter Drive-in section brought this home. The done and the hulking great lump sent Hall. A search of the chassis number list of skilled craftsman that eagerly lent down to South Africa. (GTZ55) revealed that the donor car a hand throughout the build is a feather Initially the Liberty V12-type engine was in fact the show car used at the in the cap for the local car fraternity was used in World War 1 aircraft but 1933 Olympia Motorshow. and a magnificent display case for the by the Second World War expertise still lurking locally. it had evolved into a tank Working from the front unit. Being a 1943 unit the He scoured around for a suitable to back the Woolleys Woolleys’ lump originated didn’t have an exact plan from a tank. In essence it power plant for years, before, of action, as they stumbled was the same thing but across engineering issues, accessories differed between in 1980, stumbling across a produced countless the tank and plane variants 1943 Liberty engine at Beaulieu drawings and ideas for to suit application. In ‘Lucy’ custom manufacturing. format the Liberty thumps Auto Jumble. Sometimes it was only out 1550Nm of torque and the fourth or fifth design redlines at 1650rpm. Fuel is fed to the With the body long-lost it was the that became a workable solution. A chambers, which are topped by a pair ideal base for making that dream a new 3-piece subframe/crossmember of spark plugs each, by a brace of Solex reality. Working with his mechanically structure had to be made up from 2.5 inch carbs. inclined (and useful racing driver) son 100mm x 50mm square tubing to With nothing to put it in and not Bruce, Clive set the wheels of the four- accommodate the massive 620kg wanting to sacrifice a perfectly good year project in motion. This must go engine and custom made flywheel car, the project lay dormant in only down as one of the most exciting father/ combination. Bespoke engine

30 | April/May 2013 | www.cpca.co.za THE NAMING GAME So why call such a monster ‘Lucy’? Simple – something with such character becomes a living, breathing thing. And we all name living things. ‘Lucy’ was Clive’s mother’s middle name. Famed mechanical monster names include ‘Babs’ and ‘Chitty-Bang-Bangs’. While the name ‘Chitty-Bang-Bang’ rings a movie or theatre bell in the head it actually hails from a number of racing cars, built and raced by Count Louis Zborowski during the 1920s. From the driver seat you can watch fuel pouring down the massive Solex carbs. Some say the title stems from a war song about troops in India paying a chit (an IOU slip) to the ladies of ill repute. In car terms the Chittys were built at Zborowski’s house near Canterbury, Kent and were so loud that reportedly a by-law was passed prohibiting them from entering within the city walls. Chitty 1 got power from a 23-litre 6-cylinder Maybach aero-engine and won at Brooklands while Chitty 2 made use of an 18.8-litre Benz Bz.IV aero- Recycled truck tank is now the dry sump tank. The engine alone weighs in at 620kg. engine to compete in the likes of the 1922 Sahara Desert expedition. Number 3 saw a 160hp Mercedes single- mountings (using technology learned came from a truck scrapyard. Silverton overhead-camshaft six-cylinder aero- engine, worked to 180hp and lapped from pre-war Bugatti though) hold the Radiators made up the imposing Brooklands at 112.68mph. Zborowski power house in place. Surprisingly the radiator and topped it with a hand- used this for personal transport too. loss of the bodywork and the addition beaten shroud. Chitty 4 (also known as the Higham of the extra engine weight has kept Creature comforts are minimal Special) was the Count’s largest, using a the vehicle at almost the same 1820kg with some recycled wood making 450hp V12 Liberty, with a gearbox and mass as it was in Olympia show car up the cockpit and dash. Seat frames, chain-drive from a pre-war Blitzen Benz. form. Even more surprising is the car’s although inspired by international It was the largest capacity racing car ever near 50/50 weight distribution. cars of the period, were made by a run at Brooklands. Zborowski joined the Mercedes team in 1924 but died in one The added length of the block saw carpenter in Tarlton, the rattan side of their cars, after hitting a tree during to it that the steering box and pedal and back supports constructed by the the Italian Grand Prix at Monza. arrangement had to be moved back Johannesburg School for the Blind and John Parry-Thomas purchased Chitty 900mm while the handbrake moved the leather came from a tannery in 4, re-christened the car ‘Babs’ and further back by 1200mm. Rear axle Springs – but distressed to look aged. rebuilt it with four Zenith carburettors location remained the same but One approaches ‘Lucy’ with and his own design of pistons. In April combining a Bedford truck gearbox, trepidation, like a kid looking for a 1926, Parry-Thomas used the car to win the Land speed record at 171.02mph. Mercedes-Benz 9-tonne commercial monster under the bed. Matt black However, during a later record attempt gearbox and a Leyland Eland diff paintwork is highlighted by the odd at Pendine Sands, Wales on 3 March (with a suitable ratio of 1.7:1) glint of copper pipe work, chromed 1927, ‘Babs’ rolled and Parry-Thomas resulted in the need to shorten the exhausts and wheel centres, looking was killed. Following the inquest into propshaft substantially and modify like the bright eyes of the bedtime his death, ‘Babs’ was buried in the sand the sideshafts. Brakes remained as monster. And then in an instant dunes at Pendine. After 40 years, the car per the original Rolls Royce 20/25 but (without so much a whirring starter was excavated and restored to running were converted from a cable set up to motor) the beast barks into life with an order over several years by Owen Wyn Owen and is on display at the Museum hydraulic. Rear fuel tank is Rolls Royce almighty bang and shoots out foot-long of Speed. but the cylindrical dry sump oil tank flames. It is a scary beast.

www.cpca.co.za | April/May 2013 | 31 The use of copper keep ‘Lucy’ looking the part of a prewar record breaker.

But then you notice the mechanicals coming from sawn-off-shotgun-styled frightened all the kids. An appreciation at work and it transforms into a thing exhausts. Acceleration is brutally strong of the early land speed record pilots of beauty. From the cockpit you see and thanks to the low rev limit ‘Lucy’ sinks in. Even more kudos must go to the external valve springs working hits fourth gear in a flash. Once in fourth the guys that flew around the bumpy furiously, the flywheel spinning there are not many hills on the planet tracks in this sort of machinery. Here below your feet and the massive carb that’ll offer any resistance. Bumps upset we are on the newly surfaced R55 and butterflies opening as fuel it is frightening. Imagine shoots (in serious quantity) From the cockpit you see the bombing along a beach like down towards the spark. Pendine or flying round With steering-mounted external valve springs working Brooklands with nothing advance/retard levers set, but a steering wheel and ‘Lucy’ pulls off effortlessly furiously, the fl ywheel spinning wicker chair to hold you in. in second gear. With ample below your feet and the massive ‘Lucy’ is a nightmarish torque first gear is never monster but for Clive needed. With so much carb butterfl ies opening as fuel and Bruce Woolley it was going on around one can shoots (in serious quantity) down the realisation of a long- be thankful that the pedal held dream. With visible arrangement is ‘normal’ towards the spark. moving parts it brings out with clutch on left, brake a tactile side to engineering in the middle and the loud pedal on the chassis and stopping close to two and the jaw-dropping moments it the right. Gear lever pattern is also the tons at speed isn’t what a modern driver creates from onlookers mean you can norm with an H-pattern gate. would feel comfortable with. bet your bottom dollar it has already As the butterfly opens and the Before you realise it ‘Lucy’ has left got other madmen dreaming of their velocity increases so too does the heat all the modern day traffic for dead and own insane concoction.

32 | April/May 2013 | www.cpca.co.za 70, Main Road, Knysna [email protected] www.hocasc.co.za

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ome cars have it, some do not and when it comes to mid- to late-’50s American automobiles, the ‘it’ means ‘lots of everything’ – size, sheet metal, chrome, styling excesses and often cubic inch Sdisplacement. It was a period rich in design overkill that today you either revel in its audaciousness or cringe at such blatant overindulgence. Me, definitely the former and when something as eye-poppingly alluring as this 1958 Pontiac Strato Chief beckons, I simply drool at the prospect of a ride on the Yankee side. Except the Strato Chief is not American – it is actually Canadian although the Pontiac name relates to an American Indian. Confused? Read on – it gets even better... The Pontiac name first appeared in 1907 on a two- seat high-wheeler made by the Pontiac Spring and Wagon Works in Pontiac, Michigan. The company lasted only a year. The Pontiac Chassis Company produced a – surprise! – chassis in 1915 but it was in 1926 that Oakland (which was part of General Motors) revived the name for one of its model lines that was so successful that Oakland ceased production in 1932 in favour of the formation of the Pontiac Motor Company the following year. The name Pontiac was linked to Obwandiyag (1720-1769), a chief of the Ottawa tribe who became famous for his role in Pontiac’s Rebellion (1763-1766), an American Indian struggle against the British military occupation of the Great Lakes region following the British victory in the French and Indian war. An Indian head-dress was used as a logo until 1956 then updated to a Native American red arrowhead design. Besides the logo, another identifying feature of Pontiacs was their ‘silver streaks’, one or more narrow strips of stainless steel which extended from the grille along the centre of the bonnet. Later, further streaks reached from the rear window to the rear bumper,

34 | April/May 2013 | www.cpca.co.za www.cpca.co.za | April/May 2013 | 35 and finally along the tops of the fins. more affordable) and, of course, they Although initially a single band, were right-hand drive. These RHD this stylistic trademark doubled for Chevrolets and Pontiacs shared the 1955/1956 but was discontinued at the same dashboard design. same time as the head-dress emblem. So much for the background, what In the early-1950s, General Motors about the cars – in particular this of Canada offered a unique line-up of gleaming two-tone 1958 Strato Chief Pontiacs that differed from their home- belonging to classic car enthusiast and market equivalents. Rather than being retiree Ronnie Grace? The car is used a medium-priced brand as in the US, regularly and always attracts admiring Canadian Pontiacs were also marketed attention at motor shows all over as low-priced cars and offered the the Western Cape. Prior to Ronnie’s Strato Chief, Laurentian ownership, the car was bought in 1996 In the early-1950s, General and Parisienne that by fellow Langebaan resident Danie were actually based on Marnewick, himself a well-known Motors of Canada offered Chevrolet’s Biscayne, restorer of (particularly American) Bel Air and Impala classic cars. A Vereeniging farmer a unique line-up of Pontiacs chassis, drivetrains and offered the Pontiac to Danie as he ‘did that differed from their home- other parts. The bodies not want the car to land up in the hands were similar to, but of his children’... It was then painted market equivalents. not interchangeable black and white but when Danie used with, the comparable US Pontiacs – a the car to transport a couple to a Matric right old mix ’n match. The Canadian dance in Vredenburg, some students nameplates were never sold in America damaged the car by jumping on the and were built to be exported in bonnet and boot, which necessitated CKD (completely knocked down) or repair and a respray. SKD (semi-knocked down) form to Stripping the car for the respray, facilities in Australia, New Zealand, Danie found signs of turquoise the Netherlands and South Africa. paint under some of the rubber There were advantages with import mouldings and after researching duties, the economies of parts sourcing colour schemes on the Internet, he two separate GM lines (Chevrolet found that turquoise and white was a and Pontiac) from the same parts standard Pontiac colour combination, bin, pricing (Canadian Pontiacs were so he decided to restore the car in its

36 | April/May 2013 | www.cpca.co.za original colours. The whole interior, indicator plate replaced with a piece how the ends of the wraparound including the upholstery and door of Perspex engraved with the familiar windscreen protrude into the door panels, was re-done to match and the P R N 3 2 1 gear position sequence. An opening – a popular styling quirk of result was stunning to say the least. Edelbrock carb was fitted that helped the time – puts an instant smile on Ronnie regularly helps out in Danie’s liberate a bit more performance, and the your face. Mercedes-Benz may have a workshop and was so taken by the generator was replaced by an alternator. three-pointed star as its ‘sight’, but the car’s new look that he purchased it in One other significant change that Strato Chief’s arrowheads mounted November 2006. was made was to the wheels. American on the flat-topped fenders are just This car’s original engine was a 261 cars of this era always looked – and as alluring. With around 145kW on cubic inch (4.3-litre) big-six GM truck usually were – far too big and heavy tap, the motor pulls without stress or motor fed by a Rochester carburettor for the wheels that appeared lost strain and such is the torque that gear but featuring hydraulic lifters. The under apartment-sized fenders. Danie’s shifts are as infrequent as they are motor was coupled with a three- answer to this was to widen the rims barely noticeable. Steering requires speed manual gearbox but Ronnie on the inside by 50mm so the car’s some arm twirling and the brakes soon discovered that this set-up was looks were not changed – and did need a respectful firm push to provide extremely thirsty: on a road trip to not interfere with the fitment of rear adequate retardation, but everything Robertson alongside a ’48 Chev Master spats, as on this car – but helped lend on this car works properly and it is a DeLuxe, a ’57 Studebaker Silver Hawk noticeable stability and ride comfort sheer delight to drive. There is not a and a ’59 Chev Bel Air, the Strato on the road. The recent fitment of four squeak, groan or rattle anywhere. Pipe- Chief was by far the heaviest on fuel new shock absorbers has improved in the Everly Brothers’ All I Have To Do by some 15-20 litres – ‘something had matters even further. Is Dream hit single and that would just to be done’. Ronnie has no qualms about driving about sum it up... So, in 2008 Ronnie decided to fit a the car long distances – trips from home Sad to think that GM dropped the 283ci (4.6-litre) small-block Chevrolet to the Addo National Park outside Port Pontiac brand in 2009 but as long as V8 coupled with a GM Turbo 350 Elizabeth have been undertaken with there are examples of the marque three-speed auto transmission. The no problems, and the car appears at such as Ronnie’s Strato Chief to conversion turned out to be relatively the George Old Car Show. In 2009 at admire – or better still drive if you are straightforward as the car was also the Parow Car Show, the Strato Chief lucky enough – we can all look back offered with a V8, meaning the chassis walked away with the Ladies’ Choice and enjoy the fruits of a landmark required little fettling. The manual’s prize for being ‘the most beautiful car era in automobile history. The Strato ‘three on the tree’ column shift was at the Show’ out of more than 1 000 Chief may be an amalgam of GM retained with a marine outboard vehicles on display. components rather than a ‘pure’ motor-like cable connecting with the Slipping onto the three-abreast Pontiac, but just look at it – without transmission and the blanked-off gear bench front seat and marvelling at doubt, a Dream Machine.

www.cpca.co.za | April/May 2013 | 37 www.cpca.co.za | Feb/March 2013 | 1

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Untitled - Page: 1 2013-02-15 09:11:42 +0000 Mini-like 4-speed and central gauge cluster. Basic center consul showing lever for high and low ratios.

Sliding windows showing only the bare essentials. ANT-i-CLIMAX BMC attempted to secure the cheap go-anywhere military vehicle market for the British with the Mini Moke, but while it quickly became a cult hit, its lack of 4-wheel drive and poor ground clearance limited its desirability with the armed forces. Stuart Grant discovers that there was another possibility built between 1966 and ‘68 – the Ant.

40 | April/May 2013 | www.cpca.co.za Don’t let the Land Rover-like lines fool you, this is a small vehicle. It does however punch above its fi ghting weight in the 4x4 world.

esigned by the man rigorous testing, including Cape Town’s who penned the Mini, Blackheath plant. Alec Issigonis, and Hard testing resulted in the majority codenamed ADO 19 being scrapped but a half-dozen are the Ant looked the part said to have survived in Australia, New Dand promised lots thanks to 4-wheel Zealand, the UK and here. South Africa drive, larger 12-inch wheels, and got a pair of test mules and surprisingly increased ground clearance and, by both survive. One in pickup form and borrowing from the BMC parts bin, a the other a station wagon body style. good bottom line. So promising it was Both are still in working order making that six experimental prototypes and for the largest density of operational another 24 fully functioning prototypes Ants in the world. were manufactured. These were sent Like so many British products of the to various corners of the world for time the Ant employed revolutionary

www.cpca.co.za | April/May 2013 | 41 12-inch wheels and backward tilted Small front and rear overhang helps Pickup version sported a canvas roof, rear engine improved the ground clearance. approach and departure angles. window and small but usable load-bin.

Interior is sparsely appointed. Note lack of door panels -Deluxe versions would have had some form of trim. Famed A-Series engine mounted transversely.

design that has now become the norm. However it upped the game somewhat Sadly these weren’t capitalised on as with a monocoque construction using the Ant died a premature death thanks a galvanised steel body. Inside the cabin to typical British Automotive Industry it is simple and functional without politics and buyouts so prevalent even the slightest concern for comfort. at the time. Leyland came on board Seats are small, hard and offer no side and, not wanting support. A ‘deluxe’ version was looked Sadly these weren’t capitalised conflicting products at, which would have included grille in the same market, bars, floor mats, interior door panels, on as the Ant died a premature decided to ditch the wood-panelled rear load area and Ant and go with chrome rear bumpers. The pictured death thanks to typical British the Land Rover. bakkie Ant exemplifies this simplicity Automotive Industry politics The rest they say with a canvas roof section, sliding side is history but with windows and a flat metal dash panel and buyouts so prevalent at the success of completed by a single speedometer and the time. diminutive Suzuki two switches (for wipers and lights). 4x4s in recent times The windscreen does fold forward and one wonders if the Ant focus had rather flat like a Jeep’s. been civilian-based it could have run But the really smart stuff happened alongside, and complemented the Land in the drive train department. The Rover as the British off-road heroes. famed 1100/1300 A-Series engine Smaller but similar in aesthetics to found its way into the Ant. Mounted Land Rover, the Ant is slab-sided with transversely atop the gearbox and little front and rear overhangs for tilted backwards to raise ground good approach and departure angle. clearance, and it lowered the bonnet

42 | April/May 2013 | www.cpca.co.za Road closure behind the Blackheath plant offered Ant station wagon approaching a steep incline at little resistance to the Ant in 1967. Blackheath test area.

Pedal angle allows for upright seating position and 1967 image shows the rearward slanting engine. space for taller drivers. line. Transverse positioning posed a developing a clever drive system, colour, this blue bakkie is in fact the problem when it came to traditional Issigonis tackled the suspension. pickup seen in the attached Blackheath four-wheel drive though. The solution Instead of the Mini Hydrolastic setup test session photos. With the project came by fitting a new housing onto he went the way of a wishbone lower canned the vehicle fell off the radar the diff existing casing. Inside the arm and single upper arm system at until Ralph Clarke (Blackheath addition a bevel gear driven by an the front. In order to give the Ant the Engineering Plant Manager at the time) idler from the standard diff solved the needed suspension travel, these arms tracked it down to a local golf course. issue. This bevel drove a propshaft to pivoted as close to the monocoque’s Seemingly the vehicle had been used the rear axle differential. This new centre-line as possible and each as course and maintenance runabout. housing also held another idler gear corner received a longitudinal torsion Clarke acquired and rebuilt the car to for selecting direction of rotation bar spring worked on by the single the condition seen today. and two extra gears for high and low upper arms. The rear wheels kept In theory, Issigonis and BMC’s Ant ratios. A dog clutch meant the rear traction thanks to trailing arms and had all the requirements to fit the diff could be engaged or disengaged again sprung by means of torsion military bill and perhaps with a bit from within the cabin. The result was bars. However this time the torsion of fine tuning even the recreational that the Ant could make use of three bars ran transversely. off-roader market. In yet another false different drive setups without having It goes without saying that the Ant start or anticlimax the merger with to climb out from behind the steering isn’t the fastest machine off the line Leyland killed what would more than wheel – front-wheel drive, four- but its relatively small mass and usable likely have been a leading light in the wheel drive and either high or low torque in the right spot meant it did small recreational workhorse vehicle ratio. Testing on the dunes behind the required off-road duties admirably. sector. BMC got off to a flying start but the Blackheath plant showed the Steering and gear selection took a bit followed with disillusionment again. outstanding abilities of this system. of getting used to but for the most Would we be seeing so many small And lots of fun potential. part the Ant proved a usable tool and Japanese, Korean and Chinese 4x4s if it Having put the effort into a heap of fun. Although not the correct hadn’t been for the Ant?

www.cpca.co.za | April/May 2013 | 43

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Cayenne S Tiptronic Cayenne S Tiptronic Cayenne S Tiptronic 2007, 92,000 km, meteor grey metallic, black leather, 2007, 83,500 km, basalt black, black leather, 2011, 30,000 km, sand white, black all leather, R479 000 R479 000 R825 000 48 | April/May 2013 | www.cpca.co.za ONE HIT WONDER Since its inception in 1927, Volvo has been regarded as a leader in reliability and a forerunner in development safety, but not many would include the Swedish firm on any list of motoring style gurus. Although recognised as rugged, the Volvo aesthetics tend toward the boring but as Stuart Grant finds out, the P1800 broke the square mould for a while. – Photography Oliver Hirtenfelder –

www.cpca.co.za | April/May 2013 | 49 f course stereotypes bodies to the PV444 in time to debut at Petterson and at the time worked at aren’t always true, as the 1955 Brussels Motorshow. Looking Frua. Out of a handful of proposals his the curved lines of the rather odd, sales of the car badged was chosen and put into production PV444, PV544 and 122S ‘Sport’ weren’t as expected and only 67 but Volvo saw the benefit in selling Amazon show. One were made and sold before execs cut the model as an Italian design so only Ocan even argue that the dynamics the model from the line-up in 1957. came clean with an acknowledgement were anything but dreary if you note Undeterred, and seeing the explosion in 2009. Whatever the story, with a how successful these models were on of the sportscar market in America, sleek design, reasonable performance, track with the likes of Arnold Chatz Volvo kept the idea of a sporty Volvo. large boot, luggage straps and class- steering them. Despite this, Volvo felt Eventually the original PV444 designer leading ventilation/heating, the P1800 the need to shake off its sober image Helmer Petterson convinced the board cemented its place as a brilliant tourer. with a sportscar and boost sales in the to take another dabble. Petterson’s It wasn’t the fastest vehicle in lucrative American market. So serious key factor was that the car would town but had enough oomph not to was the idea that Volvo founder Assar succeed if styled in Italy. Volvo’s newly embarrass, with power coming from Gabrielsson headed to the States during appointed boss Gunnar Engellau bit at the Amazon-derived 1.8-litre four- the early ‘50s to investigate high-tech the idea with Italian studio Ghia and cylinder engine fed by twin-SU inch fibreglass body structure and the much its subsidiary, Frua cracking the nod and three-quarter carburettors and praised Chevrolet Corvette. for clothing it. a slightly warmer camshaft. In fact A deal was done with Californian- Released at the 1960 New York in a wise move, Volvo dug all major based Glasspar to fit fibreglass sportscar and Brussels motor shows the result mechanicals from the Amazon parts was a thing of beauty, featuring a bin, which meant reliability and cost Ferrari-esque grille, plenty of curved cutting. That meant the 100 horse RECORD SETTING A 1966 Volvo 1800S owned by New York panels, a low-drag roof line and some power was transferred to the rear resident Irv Gordon since new currently noticeable but not in-your-face tail fins. wheels via 4-speed manual gearbox holds the Guinness world record for Interestingly, fibreglass technology and overdrive, the rubber was kept in highest mileage in the same car. Gordon, was ditched in favour of good old- contact with a coil sprung solid rear a retired school teacher, bought the car fashioned steel. Inside the cabin the axle and coil-sprung front end, while new for $4 150 and when last measured sporting theme continued with some stopping abilities came thanks to discs officially, in June 2012, had a whopping 2 orthopaedically designed bucket seats, up front and drums at the rear. 947 442 miles on the clock. His plan is to a plethora of gauges, and although With the American market in mind, hit 3 million miles during 2013. Gordon’s mileage comes from frequent a back seat was fitted, its minute Italian styling and Swedish sturdiness road trips and he boasts he’s had a cup dimensions meant the car was seen and at the fore the P1800 was a global of coffee in every state of America. His marketed as a 2-seater. car. Even more so when you see that boot is full of every spare part he thinks While the design house was Italian- production was initially undertaken he’ll ever need but to date has hardly had based and the car smacked of Italian at the Jensen Motors factory in the UK. to use anything. He averages 85 000 to GT charm, the final appearance can The reason given for the outsourcing 100 000 miles a year, mostly visiting car be tracked down to a Swede, Pelle was that the Swedish Volvo plant was shows and experiencing his homeland. Petterson. Pelle was the son of Helmer crammed to capacity with 544 and

50 | April/May 2013 | www.cpca.co.za Amazon assembly. Karmann was the course the number plate TS-1 alluded Bond Aston Martins – Roger Moore first choice but Volkswagen baulked at to ‘Templar Saint 1’. stamped his name in the history books the idea, leaving not much choice other The first was a Jensen-built 1962 as James Bond from 1973 to 1985. than Jensen. By late 1964 production P1800 and used in 26 episodes before By 1972 the styling had dated moved home to Sweden. Some say being replaced by a ’64 1800S. Unlike somewhat and Volvo once again this was because Volvo expanded its modern movies where the cars are turned to Frua. Frua’s response was to facilities while others cite the poor disposable the ’62 car was kept in use cut the rear roof line and add an all- quality control and finish at Jensen as with the roof cut off to allow for better glass shooting-brake or station wagon- the reason. Whatever the situation, interior shots. The ’64 1800S remained type backend. This was adjudged to be Volvo rebadged the P1800 as 1800S (S in use for 59 shows before being replaced too futuristic so in-house designer Jan supposedly symbolising Sweden), Wilsgaard’s more toned down gave it another 8 horses and a few station wagon got the go-ahead in minor cosmetic alterations. 1966 In total TV time The Saint the form of the 1800ES. ES power saw a few tweaks to the engine Volvos featured more than was down to 125bhp (the addition resulting in 115bhp and a top of a thicker head gasket reduced speed of 175km/h. A 2-litre engine any of the James Bond compression) but surprisingly the found its way in from 1967 but the Aston Martins – Roger real life performance improved. name remained P1800S. The ES also saw the introduction By 1970 Volvo started feeling Moore stamped his name of a 3-speed automatic option. Just market and technological pressure under 40 000 P1800, 1800S and from the rivals, resulting in the in the history books as 1800E units were manufactured addition of a Bosch D-Jetronic James Bond from 1973 while at only 8077 the 1800ES is a fuel injection (badged 1800E) relatively rare beast. model that churned out 130bhp to 1985. Production wound up in 1973, and was claimed to be good for with the 1800 looking a little long 190km/h without upsetting the fuel in ’67 by a car sporting the latest facelift, in the tooth and battling to compete consumption. In addition the ‘E’ Minilite wheels, two-spoke woodrim with the likes of Jaguar’s E-Type in received discs on all corners. steering wheel and some spot lights. the value for money and performance While the 544 and 122S models made Unfortunately this car was crashed department. Volvo’s design house inroads into the market with sporting heavily soon after delivery so the seemingly lost its French Curves at achievements, the P1800 can thank the production house cobbled the new bits the same time and reverted back to the television divine intervention for some into the old ’64 car to keep it looking up straight edge. But thankfully recent good PR, as Simon Templar (Roger to date. Later that year Volvo supplied attempts have shown nod toward the Moore) chased around the roads in two more cars with one being used for past – one look at the back of the C30 the cold-war mystery spy thriller The shooting until the show’s end in 1969 hatch and memories of the 1800ES Saint. Volvo supplied four P1800s for and the other as Moore’s personal overwhelm. Here’s hoping the trend of use in the TV series for the dapper car. In total TV time The Saint Volvos looking back continues and the P1800 British ladies’ man, Templar. And of featured more than any of the James isn’t a one hit wonder.

www.cpca.co.za | April/May 2013 | 51 HONDA’S

SPORTINGHERITAGE

Bob Hopkin traces the history of the Japanese company’s most groundbreaking cars.

Honda’s NSX Concept revealed in 2012 with production hopefully set for 2015. 1963 Honda S500

ince the humble beginning of technical showpieces stand out as exceed 100mph! Not only that, but the Honda Motor Company being the jaw-dropping, spotlight- little time was spent gear changing in 1946 as a manufacturer earning examples of their eras. The as the gearlever felt like a switch. of crude motorcycles 1965 S800, the 1990 NSX and the 1999 Unlike most ‘boxes of the day, where using modified military S 2000 were masterpieces that pushed a leisurely pause in neutral between Sgenerator engines, the company has the envelope of what was possible at each change to let the ‘synchro’ catch grown to become the second largest the time and some of these reached up was obligatory, this little screamer Japanese motor company. Although South Africa. My first encounter with could be swapped between gears as fast Japanese product philosophy remains the Honda image cars was in 1969 as you could move your hand. A real conservative, in general making when, employed as a Development wake- up call for the time. reliable but unexciting cars, Honda Engineer at Rootes Motors in the UK, Although not part of the ‘S’ branded tends to be closest to the edge with its we were loaned an S800 for assessment. Honda sports car range, Honda took long involvement in Formula 1 and a Although too tiny to be a threat to another ‘Walk on the wild side’ with tradition of always having at least one the contemporary entry level sports the launch of the NSX in 1990. This advanced and sporty product in the cars of the time – the Austin Healey time aimed squarely at the Supercar range. These may well not be profitable Sprite and the Triumph Spitfire – the competitors, the NSX boasted a mid- and sales may not be record breaking Honda was an amazing vehicle thanks mounted aluminium electronic fuel- but they produce what marketing men to its powertrain. When a redline of injected 3-litre V6 in an all alloy body call a ‘Halo’ effect on the rest of the 6000rpm was considered exceptional with load bearing chassis built from range in their clear demonstration of in contemporary sports cars, along aluminium extrusions. With forged the firm’s technical abilities. came this diminutive challenger from pistons, titanium conrods and very low In my view, three of these radical Japan that would rev to 10 grand and mass components, the motor would rev

www.cpca.co.za | April/May 2013 | 53 Honda S2000 launched in 1999. 1991 Honda NSX.

Honda’s naturally aspirated S2000 engine. 1965 Honda S800.

to 8000 and produce almost 300bhp was priced well above the best-selling for its groundbreaking engine design. (216kW) and mated to a six-speed Mazda MX 5 and was again intended With just 1997cc the 4-cylinder motor gearbox, propelling the car to 100km/h as a low volume showpiece of Honda’s produced almost 250bhp (184kW) – an in just 5.2 seconds, beating its chosen technical abilities. In production until extraordinary figure for a production, benchmark, the contemporary Ferrari 2009, local examples are still few and road-going vehicle – and a specific output 348, in the process. Two Formula 1 far between. With sales of just 308 close to 125bhp/litre, which would have drivers of the time, Satoro Nakajima units in the whole of the Middle East been at race car levels just a decade and the legendary Ayrton Senna, were and Africa during its 12-year sales life, before. The 9 000 rpm redline encouraged involved in the development of spirited driving although limited the NSX and, perhaps, were too low speed torque gave the car a tolerant of the snap oversteering This little screamer could be reputation for awkward driving trait of the production cars. swapped between gears as in traffic. The designers were Apart perhaps from a slightly eager to achieve a 50:50 weight too large rear overhang, the car fast as you could move your distribution so the compact had a timeless low and wide hand. A real wake- up call motor was mounted behind style which, along with its most the front axle line, which un-supercar and legendary for the time. compromises interior space to reliability, gave rise to dozens of some extent, although it does classic NSX Owners’ Clubs which are it is indeed a rare bird. With only 122 retain a spare wheel, unlike the MX 5. keeping hundreds of examples of this 000 built over its 10-year production Although Honda don’t have an ‘S’ most desirable car on the road all over life, compared to the MX 5’s 900 000 model available at the moment, no the world. plus, it was never going to break any doubt one is in the pipeline to astonish Until the next generation, the latest production records, but, as a range us in a year or two. A new NSX is in the Honda ‘S’ brand sports cars topping flagship, it did the job nicely. rumoured to be launched in 2015 and, came along in 1999 in the shape of the When launched, to celebrate the judging by the performance of the first S2000. With few direct competitors, 50th anniversary of Honda Motor, model, Porsche and Ferrari had better except perhaps the BMW Z cars, it the S2000 gained immediate celebrity look to their laurels.

54 | April/May 2013 | www.cpca.co.za

A PAINFUL ACQUISITION, WITH A HAPPY ENDING…

I don’t think I’m the fi rst person to wonder if the reason we covet the classic cars we do, has a lot to do with our childhood impressions… By Christopher Van with images from Grahame Hall.

s a car-crazy kid in the keep me in check, I decided to find a man who’d inherited the car from his early 1970s, I remember 1969 Mercedes-Benz 230 (Teuton Code: uncle, but wanted to buy a car that one of my dad’s W114). I’ve since discovered that the was ‘nie so swaar op brandstof nie’. He friends, Dr. Goldberg W114 was penned by Frenchman Paul mailed me a whole bunch of pics, we - a millionaire mielie- Bracq, who also happened to design spoke at length on the phone, but of Afarmer from the Western Transvaal the exquisite ‘Pagoda’ Mercedes SL course I only heard what I wanted to. I - arriving in a cream, 1969 Mercedes- (Sehr Leicht, or ‘super light’). Is it only couldn’t wait to buy my one-way ticket Benz 230 – the chrome three-pointed me, or does the SL have a resemblance down to Port Elizabeth. star spearheading its arrival and the to the W114? Hennie fetched me from the airport in silver propellers embossed on the One night, in the ostensible Collector’s his mom’s battered Jetta. The first words matching cream hubcaps twirling Items section of Junk Mail, I found what I that I and the Benz exchanged were in concert. What an impression that was looking for: A 1969 W114, cream in “Crikey Moses” – an Anglo-Saxon fib for spectacle made on me! The compact, colour, red seats, column-shift manual, ‘Pleased to meet you’, followed by his softly- chamfered body shape, the with flat tail lights instead of the later reply, “Zeitgeist Silence”. The bumpers subtle brightwork, the red seats. The ribbed ones and the thin ‘deco’ steering had broken rubbers, the body had dents stolid ‘thunk’ of the driver’s door as wheel (before the thick, padded wheel and chips and graunches galore. our visitor closed it, before removing of the safe seventies arrived). Trouble The test drive commenced with a his pocket-watch from his burgundy was, the car lived in Despatch, exactly clutch judder. And the Benz ran on waistcoat and giving it a wind after the one thousand kilometres from my eighty-three percent of its cylinders, long trip from Potchefstroom. Blairgowrie cottage. which malady, Schweinsteiger (as he is Anno Domini 2010: With nobody to The seller – Hennie – was a young now called, named after the striker for

56 | April/May 2013 | www.cpca.co.za The dash sourced from a race car has no cracks. the German national soccer team, you Mannie – he who designed and built more. I produced my envelope of may remember from the World Cup?!) the fabulous Redline Alfa, has since ammo, and that was that. was going to bless me with for another offered to turn me some new knobs, It still being daylight, I went straight three excruciating years. in aluminium. Music to my ears. Well, to the nearest gas station and set off to But the body was ‘straight’. This was it will be, when I get them…! Mannie?! Johannesburg. Or so I thought. a Schweinsteiger that had been lovingly Still, though, a tough call. We went While doing my National Service, owned but maintained on a shoestring. back to take another look at the car, the one of the guys had joked that there is And had lived outside. Still, the seats whole family following materfamilias “niks so duur as ‘n goedkoop Mercedes were perfect … but faded. The dash Ouma – clearly the brains of the outfit – nie”. Well, at exactly midnight, in King was cracked. The back window was out of the kitchen. They all stared at me. Williamstown, as I was departing from mercifully still clear. The proverbial I suppose, with hindsight, I didn’t really a stop street, the column shift gear lever Curate’s Egg. stand a chance, did I? jammed. In third. I tried to wrench it In the kitchen, over mugs of Ricoffy, The asking was 25. I pointed out down into neutral, but it was locked. with the whole family looking on all the shortcomings on the car, and Solid. I got out and looked underneath (I got the mug that wasn’t chipped), how costly they would be to repair. I the car and saw a great puddle of black with pride Hennie the Inheritor said that I could afford no more than treacle on the tarmac. produced a cardboard box with 21 - which I knew was still stiff for Driving in third, and aware that the original Panasonic radio (right the goods on offer. They all looked at the ‘box must have been nice and hand side knobs missing of course) the Ouma. “Jy moet doen wat jy moet dry, I found a nearby B&B. Gepetto- and the original M-B Service Books doen,” she said, believing that her like, the proprietor came out in his and Owner’s Manual. My old friend brother’s car was worth much, much dressing gown, and opened the gate.

www.cpca.co.za | April/May 2013 | 57 Tidy front end capped by the three-pointed star. Kiwi Tony Red shoe polish livened up the seats.

Brave Schweinsteiger clambered up from which to build two, right? Well, One of his staff members, Keith, is a the driveway, in third gear and on not exactly. Those Zeniths didn’t earn gifted trimsmith. He has the fingers of five cylinders. Next morning, I took their reputation by being wusses. an orthodontist and the temperament a chance and called my Insurance. So, again I flew back to PE (can you of a saint. Eventually, Schweinsteiger Within an hour Schweinsteiger was see that this whole episode was starting emerged with the entire interior looking on a flatbed and being hauled back to become, shall we say, somewhat and working like new – from heater to to PE. I called Hennie, who expressed uneconomical? I mean, this was not clock to original temperature gauge. his sorrow at my plight. I confess to exactly a Gull Wing we are talking And zero rattles. (idiotically) having asked him for a about, right?). During one of my frequent visits refund but he said they had already Even with its replacement engine, to CarCol, I’d noticed a W114 race spent the money. Of course he had. He nothing that Louis could do could get car – with a perfect dash. And original gave me the phone number of the local the car onto six cylinders. Just before stainless steel windscreen wipers. If ever mechanic. His name was Louis, and a he was about to pop two cyanide you see the Carcol racer at the track you fine fellow he turned out to be. capsules, I told him I was really will notice its black wipers and crack in I booked the car into his shop, and he happy with what he’d done, and that, the dash. Must say, Colin didn’t tear the invited me to overnight at his ring out of it. There’s something house. We had a braai and drank I tried to wrench it down into called ‘repeat business’ which some Castle Lagers in his Blue this motoring gentleman seems Bulls pub. Next day, I flew back neutral, but it was locked. to get lots of. to Johannesburg. Schweinsteiger was now It took four months, but Solid. I got out and looked starting to look respectable. Louis fixed the box, stuck in a underneath the car and saw However… we were not done new clutch, and even swapped with the Matter of the Misfire. engines – with a strong second- a great puddle of black Schweinsteiger was obsessed hand unit that I’d freighted treacle on the tarmac. with Beethoven’s Fifth. It down to him, obtained from took yet some months, but Colin at CarCol Executive Auto in no worry, I’d get the carbs fixed in full credit… eventually those Zenith/ Greenside (referred to me by vintage Johannesburg. I began the long crawl Solex monstrosities conducted car expert, Paul Koski). Colin had home in my five- cylinder Mercedes, themselves properly. advised me that the ‘new’ engine’s with its inoperative speedo, brakes Realizing that I was not going to carburettors were clogged. What was diving to the left and Marti Feldman part with Schweinzy anytime soon, I clear, though, was that the bottom end headlights. I wore sunglasses and thought that it would be a fine idea to of the motor was strong: it was quiet pulled the brim of my hat down low. optimize the fuel consumption. So, off and there was very little ‘blow-by’ out Schweinsteiger made it up to Jo’burg I went to legendary road and race car of the cam cover (compared to the without using a drop of oil. Over the tuner Maurice Rosenberg for ‘dynamic original engine’s breather pipe, which next two years Colin replaced the tuning’. He asked me to open the smoked like a Tarlton Tyre). Also, bad bits with better bits found in his bonnet, and said, “Zenith/Solex 35/40s”. I figured that I now had four carbs Aladdin’s cave and via his network. “I believe they are not very good,” said I.

58 | April/May 2013 | www.cpca.co.za W114 features smooth rear lights while the later On the Auto Rosen dyno. W115 has ribbed units.

He smiled and asked me to drive the car needed paint and both valences were torque and the new ratio is in sync with onto the dynameter, stuck some wires graunched. And there were holes in the the gear-changes of the traffic. Miles into the exhaust pipe, more wires into two front doors from the plastic wing per gallon is one thing, but ‘smiles per the engine and put a big fan in front of mirrors that had been removed. gallon’ is also important. And right now the grille, chocked the wheels, and fired Schweinzy came out of Autohaus I am getting plenty of both. On a recent it up. Maurice watched the dynameter looking – incredibly - like new. At trip from Joeys to Klerksdorp, at a steady dials and the gauges. He switched off the gas station I continually get folk 100km/h (according to my Garmin stuck the engine, looked at his expectant complimenting me on “How well on the windscreen), Schweinzy delivered customer and said, “We can get more you’ve looked after it.” That is exactly a thrifty 10.5 litres per 100km. power and more economy. You will what you want – not “Wow, it’s been Plus, I don’t have a monthly have to leave the car here for a few nicely restored!” installment, on what remains a serious days, though. We’re going to have to And those faded seats? Well, my motoring machine by any standards. open the carbs.” friend Don Smith (Cobra man) showed And no hectic monthly insurance. When I collected Schweinzy a week me how the simple application of And no depreciation. later, I could not believe it was the Kiwi Tony Red and lots of elbow grease Over the next decade, thanks to same machine. Smooth as silk, the wonders of inflation and Schweinzy pulled like a train And so, an aspirant Township the relative scarcity of clean, from 15 miles an hour in top, cream, six cylinder W114s… with no stutter. And when I Special W114 has instead with red seats and column put my foot down something shift manual gear changes… happened. Combined with become a fantastic daily Schweinzy is going to become the correct ratio second-hand driver that can mix in any a valuable Cinderella Classic differential (3.69:1 versus the that will pay me back every previous tow-car -like 3.92:1) company. cent. Kof kof. that Colin had recommended, sourced, can bring ‘em back to life! (I would Classic cars – as I have come to and installed – and now with optimized have preferred it had he done more realize – is all about choosing the tuning, all of a sudden I had a car that ‘demonstrating’, but hey, you can’t have right model for your proclivities, and had come alive. everything.) knowing the right people to help take Except for the paintwork… I recalled And so, an aspirant Township Special care of it. Yes, maybe there is nothing as how my mechanic friend Clive Frans W114 has instead become a fantastic expensive as a cheap Mercedes. But few from Loots Street, in Bordeaux, had had daily driver that can mix in any cars are more pleasurable to own and a colleague with a panel shop - Chris company. Even the fuel consumption drive than a classic Benz – once it has from Autohaus (ironically just a chip is not what the naysayers had said found itself in the hands of the people and a touch-up from Maurice’s Auto (Shell V-Power 95 with the Wynn’s lead who are passionate about their work Rosen). Chris didn’t shoot the breeze. additive). The manual gear shift I am and know what they are doing. He checked each panel. The bowed sure helps a lot, and the optimized By the way, I’ve found me a burgundy bonnet could be fixed by replacing a tuning invites a light foot on the loud waistcoat. Anybody know where I can missing rubber but the front mudguards pedal. The straight six develops good find a silver pocket watch?

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AUTOMOTIVE TECHNOLOGY SPECIALISTS (PTY) LTD Business tel: +27 (0)11 670 8400 Website: www.ats-motorsport.co.za Street Address: 30 Schoongezicht Rd, Bergbron (off Gordon Rd), Johannesburg GPS Positions: S 26.16813 E 27.95805 Our shop is situated at 117 Strand Street, Cape Town. For more information on any of these cars, please contact Jason on +27722296967 or JB on +27834602228, or email us at [email protected]. For a selection of more cars for sale, please visit www.motostars.com Unique cars for the individual

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Back in the late ‘60s and onda kicked off That sounds slow today but wasn’t too early ‘70s motorcycle design with their 750 Four far off the pace of the Suzuki’s 750cc at the 1968 Tokyo rivals, including the later versions of shifted from being a leisurely Motorcycle Show, the evil-handling Kawasaki 750 triple. affair where everybody leaving the rest to On the downside, there wasn’t enough coasted along doing more or Hplay catch up. Suzuki, traditionally ground clearance for spirited riding less the same thing, to an era a manufacturer of two stroke along winding roads, and the bike of fast-developing technology motorcycles, decided to stick with was heavy. It was also bulbous and it what they knew, and came up with a didn’t really help sales that the factory catering for a market that 750cc three-cylinder two-stroke water- elected to paint the first models an demanded speed, reliability cooled motorcycle that had all the extraordinary garish purple colour. and comfort. As Gavin Foster virtues of a four-stroke without the The Suzuki GT750, affectionately writes, Suzuki led the way complexity. It was powerful, torquey, called the ‘Kettle’ or the ‘Water with water-cooling. economical, smooth and quiet, and as a Buffalo’, was a big lump of a bike bonus it had a gorgeous three-cylinder that weighed about 20kg more than burble. Standard, the bikes were good the Honda that was at that time the for 180km/h or so and covered the yardstick by which all superbikes were standing quarter in about 13.3 seconds. measured. Its 67bhp output matched

62 | April/May 2013 | www.cpca.co.za Badges showing all the Suzuki tricks - water cooling and CCI SUPER (Controlled Crankshaft Injection). Glorious triple sound track is broadcast by triple pipes.

During the ‘70s Suzuki GT 750’s liquid cooling was a most Factory purple paintwork tends toward garish. unusual feature.

that of the Honda Four, but its weight Two-stroke engines go off the boil Crankshaft Injection) lubrication and poor ground clearance earned it (hah!) when they get hot, and water- system that pumped two-stroke oil credence as a superbly smooth and cooling solved that problem. It was directly to the crankshaft bearings and comfortable sports-tourer rather than not, as some claim, the first such beast the pistons, giving the engine precisely a pure performance machine. Still, the though. Alfred Angas Scott built water- what it needed without much in the motor had lots of potential for tuning. cooled two-stroke twins that won races way of wastage - oil consumption of A factory-developed TR750 racing from as early as 1908, and in the years about 1000km/l was extraordinarily version affectionately called the ‘Flexy preceding WW11 unveiled 750 and good for a 750cc two-stroke engine. Its Flier’ because of its frightful handling 1000cc liquid-cooled Scott two-stroke thirst - or the lack of it - for petrol was was good for well over 100bhp and it triples. Hitler’s War unfortunately also remarkable for such a design, at was one of these beasts that brought brought development to an end and around 7.4 litres/100km ridden slowly, Barry Sheene the FIM 750 Cup the Scott Motorcycle Company folded or 9.1 when the bike was ridden like championship before spitting him off in 1950. Only eight of their triples God intended it to be. at 280km/h when the rear tyre cried were ever built, and Suzuki’s project Suzuki missed the bus sadly in the “enough” on the banking at Daytona leader Etsuo Yokochi no doubt read braking department though, because in 1975. everything he could about them. the first GT 750 came with a 200mm The Suzuki GT 750’s most unusual Suzuki headed the two-stroke pack four-leading-shoe drum rather than feature in the ‘70s was its liquid cooling. in the ‘70s with its CCI (Controlled the discs that were by 1971 de rigueur. If

www.cpca.co.za | April/May 2013 | 63 Speedo reads max of 160mph but in reality top speed is around 180km/h. Note the water temperature gauge.

A brilliant sports-tourer but the lack of ground clearance Early versions with a 200mm four-leading-shoe drum hampers spirited riding on twisty roads. are now hugely desirable.

you have a drum-braked version lying to sit on the pillion during his test ride first of its kind, with the drum front around (or even a front brake from one) after reassembly to make sure he didn’t brake, and when Willy bought it from hang onto it though. The so-equipped get lost. the St Louis Car Museum in the USA GT750 J from the first production year, The GT750 was never a great seller the bike had less than 2 900 miles (4 1972, is the most collectable. in this country, but at the 1975 Buffalo 700km) on the clock. The big Suzuki is I was a newcomer on the motorcycle Rally I was taken aback by the number very original - the wheels were all that scene working at Motorcycle Mecca of ‘Water Buffaloes’ in Bloemfontein needed restoration, and new tyres were in Port Elizabeth during my school - Suzuki must have had a good dealer of course necessary. “When I was in holidays when the Suzuki GT 750 arrived in the Orange Free State. I was tickled matric a friend’s brother had one and in South Africa. The dealership had sold pink to see that the GT had its own we took it for a ride one day. I loved it just two of the bikes when, one day, an concours de elegance at the rally, and it and always wanted one.” Today Willy Englishman arrived brandishing tools - was won by a very clean local bike that employs a full-time mechanic to work I’m not sure if he was sent from the UK had been customised by the addition on his 40-odd classic motorcycles in a or the importers in Johannesburg. Both of a pair of ‘750 Four’ badges lifted dedicated 400m3 workshop. GT750 owners were asked to bring their from a Honda 750. The cherry on top, There aren’t many Suzuki GT750s bikes in on consecutive days for ‘free though, was a very large, very heavy floating around in South Africa, but services’ and when the machines were brass fire extinguisher bolted atop the they do pop up for sale occasionally, safely behind closed doors, I watched front mudguard. So much for reducing and parts are available - at a price. in awe as the pom mechanic removed unsprung weight! “For the ones I restored I bought the brand-new bikes’ engines, stripped The 1972 Suzuki GT750 shown everything brand new off eBay,” says them down to replace something in on these pages belongs to Durban Willy. “You have to be dedicated and the gearboxes, then reassembled them businessman Willy McGibbon, who know where to look though. I got for delivery back to their unsuspecting also owns two immaculately restored brand new exhausts from the UK for owners. The two bikes took him the later examples. This one is special R16 000, and crank seals were the better part of a day each, and my job was though, because it’s one of the very hardest things to find.”

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www.executivecars.co.za | Cnr Orchard & Jan Smuts Ave, Randburg Sean Feeney 083 258 8129 | Lance Applegate 082 685 7204 (011) 781 0300 mam/See T’s & C’s on contents page He won the second off-road race he ever entered – a National, nogal - and invented the famous Wobblelator. He once negotiated with a traffic cop to have his speeding fine raised, and, in Mozambique, took another as a prisoner. He’s also been known to pitch up at the local pub perched atop his 1941 John Deere tractor. Gavin Foster interviews double 500cc champ Kevin Tebbutt.

was 24 when I entered road motorcycle championships in my first off-road race,” ’87 and ’91, and, after being selected remembers the now to represent South Africa in the 49-year-old Pinetown International Six Day Trial (ISDT) in rider. “I had a Honda the Czech Republic, was awarded his “I50 at school, which I rode sometimes Springbok colours. “I lost my clock card in the bush, and I raced speedway for on the fifth day and earned a penalty. about five years, but I’d never really I would have got a gold, but ended up ridden off-road. Then with a silver because of this.” I had a Honda 50 at I heard about the We’re sitting in Kevin’s truly Roof of Africa Rally. wondrous garage while we talk about school, which I rode I had a Yamaha TT his career. Hanging on the wall is so I entered. It was a 1960s Honda 50cc C110, a BSA sometimes in the bush, and 1 200km of pure Winged Wheel, a couple of other very I raced speedway for about adventure, and the unusual old machines, and a motley bug bit. A friend lent assortment of memorabilia, including five years, but I’d never me his IT490 for my a WW2 Lancaster bomber radio, a gas second race, the Swazi mask dating back to the same conflict, really ridden off-road Enduro, and I won. an ancient sewing machine, and a Suddenly the offers started arriving and flat-four two-stroke Italian aircraft I raced for the next 14 years as a fully engine. On the garage floor stands sponsored rider. I guess I was lucky.” the Wobblelator – a Honda stationary Kevin won the SA 500cc national off- engine mounted on a stand built from

66 | April/May 2013 | www.cpca.co.za Tebbutt and his Wobblelator in his wondrous garage fi lled with everthing from a 1960s Honda 50cc C110 to a WW2 Lancaster bomber radio. a dozen or so rear sprockets separated broke down,” he says. “Once we were clashes with the cops, most of which by valve springs. The Wobblelator, driving at night, and the lights from have worked out pretty well for him. like most things in Kevin’s life, is all the instrument cluster were bugging “We went through a trap in the Free about fun – fire it up and it wobbles us, so we covered the gauges with duct State and the cop told me the fine was away merrily without performing tape. We had a ghetto blaster and we R250. I asked him if he could make it any useful function. On a platform had beer, so we were happy. Then the R300, and he asked why. I told him that along one wall stand about a dozen bakkie stopped, so we took the sound there were three of us in the bakkie and old motorcycles of varying pedigrees, system and the beer out and had a we weren’t good at sums. He let us off.” while a lean-to behind the garage roadside repair party for a couple of Somewhere in Mozambique there’s contains another 50 or so old bikes. hours. We stripped the ignition system, also a traffic cop who’s still no doubt Kevin stays with his parents, and took out the distributor, the points, wondering what happened. “We were their cars have lived outside for over the coil, and found nothing wrong. riding through Maputo, and he stopped 20 years. Finally, we peeled the duct tape off the us for some reason or other. I asked him Kevin reckons that when he was instruments panel and discovered that for directions to the pub, and he agreed racing, it was just as important to win the fuel gauge showed empty. We had to come with on the back of my bike to the prizegiving as the race. “It was petrol in the back, plus three bikes full show us the way. I rode down a flight of very important to do well there, to of fuel, so we got going pretty quickly stairs to the beachfront, which worried put on a good show,” he remembers. after that. About two hours later we him a bit, and we took him into the pub This, of course, involved drinking lots decided to stick on another tape, and with us. He ended up handcuffed to of beer, for which nature equipped that’s when we discovered we’d left the the bar with his own cuffs, but he was Kevin with another huge talent. The ghetto-blaster on the side of the road.” happy, as long as we kept buying him trips to and from the races were also Kevin’s racing and biking adventures beer. He was our bodyguard – we had not without adventure. “We always have led to a couple of interesting our own personal cop!”

www.cpca.co.za | April/May 2013 | 67 Kevin makes off-road biking look easy. Conquering a technical section on the Roof of Africa.

Kevin reckons he got off lightly in kept going, riding with bent handlebars. tyres on a Saturday. When the meeting terms of injuries during 15 years of off- “When I reached my service point I was was over we’d pack everything up and road racing, and acting, generally, like a trying to get the guys to change my bars set off for the next race.” hooligan. He’s lost his spleen, broken his so I could get going without losing my Kevin’s been back for more than jaw and an arm, and each collarbone has place. They pointed out that the race a decade now, and doesn’t have a been broken at least three times. “You was long over – I’d concussed myself ‘normal’ job. “ I do anything, as long have to accept that if you race seriously and lost three laps.” That’s quite an as it’s not the same thing every day. week after week for years on end, you’re achievement when you consider that I fix people’s dirt bikes, I cart rubble going to break bones and end up in each lap was about 125km. in my bakkie, I move scrap metal – hospital every two or three years. I limp From about ’93 Kevin spent eight whatever, just as long as it’s not always a bit now, and my back hurts, but I don’t months of every year in the USA, the same.” Some things are regular as know how much of that’s from racing working for FMF on the motocross clockwork, though. Every Wednesday – I’ve fallen off trail riding, and done circuit. “We’d get the rig to each track, he and a bunch of his mates have a stupid things like jumping off roofs and set up the awnings and banners, get ‘sports parade’ – a ride in the bush – somersaulting off walls. I’m not sure the water tanks filled and the toilets and Monday evenings are prizegiving that that helped much.” emptied, maintain the generators, and, at the Tebbutt house. These involve tall During one race he fell off on the first once the weekend started, change tyres stories, beer, and meat. Tebbutt usually lap while lying third, remounted, and and fix bikes – I personally would fit 50 wins those, too.

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AllAn Friend 082 557 1317 • SirAAj MohAMed 082 466 4543 [email protected] • www.MillStockcArS.co.zA SO LONG Legendary racer and household name, Dave Charlton, passed away in Johannesburg on 24 February. He was 76. Images: www.motoprint.co.za

harlie won the first race he ever competed in (appropriately at the historic East London Grand Prix circuit in 1960) Cand also won his last (a charity celebrity race at Zwartkops Raceway in 1990). He competed in 13 World Championship Grand Prix and was South African Champion for six successive years, from 1970 to 1975. David William Charlton – or Charlie, as he was affectionately known by his friends – was born in Yorkshire, England and emigrated to South Africa at the age of 10. He was brought up in Springs, a town he was proud to associate himself with, although he

70 | April/May 2013 | www.cpca.co.za Dave in the BT11. Killarney, 1967. Lola T140 with custom brake ducts. Bulawayo, 1968.

Lucky Strike . Welkom, 1973. Mazda Capella Dave shared with Nols Nieman in the 1975 Wynns 1000.

did not have fond memories of his at the age of 24, a late start for a racing schooling there. “I hated school. I didn’t driver, at the wheel of his own Austin like being told what to do. Still don’t!” Healey 100/6 in a supporting race for he once said. the 1960 South African Grand Prix at A loyal friend, who in turn had many East London. He went on to take over loyal friends, Charlie was known for from his great rival, Rhodesian John his definite opinions, Love, as South African Champion in Charlie’s fi rst World no-nonsense approach the days when the Championship to life and a famous was contested by Formula One cars. Championship GP (he was fastidiousness that He won the first of his six successive knew no boundaries. He titles (emulating Love’s performance one of 20 South Africans loved cats, at one time between 1963 and 1969) in an ex-Jo to race in Formula One) owning as many as 21, Bonnier Lotus 49C. The same year he and several were named finished 12th in the SA GP at Kyalami was at the wheel of an after people he knew, in the same car. including one of his Charlie’s first World Championship Ecurie Tomahawk motor racing rivals. GP (he was one of 20 South Africans to in SA in 1965 He won his first race race in Formula One) was at the wheel

www.cpca.co.za | April/May 2013 | 71 Manufacturer Challenge Fiat Mirafi ori during the 1980 Kyalami Highveld 100.

On the limit in a Group 1 Mazda. Kyalami, 1976. At the wheel of the Maurer MM82. Kyalami, 1985.

of an Ecurie Tomahawk Lotus 20 in SA in prevented him from performing 1965 and thereafter he competed in the at his best, but he will always be SA round of the World Championship remembered for not only taking his on another six occasions in an ex-Jack own car to Europe, but also his own Brabham BT 11 (1967 and 1968), the petrol (44-gallon drums of Sasol from Lotus 49C (1970), a works Brabham Sasolburg flown over by South African BT33 (1971), the Scuderia Scribante Airways) as well as his own mechanics Lotus 72D (1972 and 1973) and McLaren and media officers. M23 (1974 and 1975). He Such was his dominance at Kyalami also competed in the British that the famous Rand Daily Mail He competed in 13 GP in 1971 in the ex-Reine cartoonist, Bob Connolly, penned one of World Championship Wissell works Lotus 72D, his topical ‘Breakfast Quips’ on a Monday which was subsequently morning after yet another Charlton Formula One Grand bought by his patron, win the previous weekend, referring to Aldo Scribante, for him Kyalami as the ‘Charlton Centre’. Prix and was South to race. On his 70th birthday he was asked African Champion for six It was in the Scribante what made the top drivers different? Lotus 72D, sponsored by “Their brain is properly connected to successive years, from Lucky Strike and Sasol (the their arms and legs,” he replied. “They 1970 to 1975. oil company’s first venture understand and feel what the car is into motorsport), that doing. The top drivers just have an Charlie, as the reigning South African inherent skill and ability.” Champion, contested the French, He is survived by his daughters, German and British rounds of the 1972 Amanda Vermaak and Michelle F1 World Championship. Charlton, and a month-old grand- A mysterious inner ear infection daughter, Anna Vermaak.

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2002 Ferrari 360 Spider (M) 2002 Ferrari Spider F1 1974 Ferrari 365 GT/4 2+2 (M) 1995 Ferrari 456 (M) 38 000km, red with black, fender 37 000km, red with beige interior, red 102 000km, maroon with black, totally 34 000km, silver blue with grey badges, Tubi exhaust. piping, fender badges, FSH with agents. original, a rare collector’s item. leather, Full service history. R1 399 990 R1 499 990 R549 990 R749 990 Due to great sales in february we are desperately looking for Ferrari & Maserati stock, to buy or to consign. Call Keith on 083 251 4637 If it’s Ferris, old or new, we’ll love it as much as you do! Shop 41 Broadacres Shopping Centre, Cedar Road, Tel: (011) 021 3340/1 LONG TIME PASSING By Fred Phillips Images: Oliver Hirtenfelder The calm before the 6-Hour storm. Pillbeam leads Juno, Lola, Cobra, Porsche and a mixed bag of saloons and sportscars.

he African 6 Hour statement of mine, but I am sticking the much shorter 500 kilometre races endurance race which to my guns here. Motorsport in this which followed were still the real thing was staged at Phakisa country has wandered in the endurance and so I give them a mention here. on 23 February ended wilderness for more than half the Southern Sun sponsored the first a long drought for fans period Moses spent there, but at last the of these 500 races at Kyalami and this Tand teams alike where this type of promised land has been rediscovered. distance was to be used for 1987 and racing is concerned. Roger Pearce and The 9 Hour races, which are so 1988. Then, the party was really over. The his dedicated support group are to synonymous with long distance motor- cash to lure overseas competitors was be congratulated for firstly, having racing in this country, were first held not available and from a political point the courage to stage the event and at Grand Central in 1958, ‘59 and 1960. of view we were no longer considered to secondly for the organization which Then came the move to the new circuit be socially acceptable. seems to have been first class. No at Kyalami and for the next 13 wonderful Of the 29 major endurance events doubt Roger and his colleagues could years the 9 Hour was right up there which had taken place, an amazing 11 tell a tale or two regarding the pitfalls with the most iconic endurance races were won by Porsche and these cars have they experienced and it is clear that anywhere in the world. become synonymous with marathon our national controlling body (MSA) In 1974 the race was shortened to the racing in this country and indeed all over were scarcely on-side when it came to Kyalami 6 Hour and in 1975 the first of the world. No wonder then that there putting their shoulder to the wheel of 5 Wynns 1000s was staged. There was were no less than 9 of these iconic rear- this venture. no race in 1980 but 1981 and ‘82 saw a engined machines running at Phakisa By my reckoning, it is some 24 years return to the 9 hour format. with 7 of them finishing. since we last staged a comparable, In 1983 we had the Castrol 1000 and While one definitely races for position multi-discipline, endurance event over 1984 the Kyalami 1000. But in 1985 there as always, the real goal in this type of 6 hours or more. I am sure that Letters was again no race. In my view this was event is to finish. Not just finish, but to the Editor will hasten to correct this game-over, but many would argue that respectably so. I had the good fortune

74 | April/May 2013 | www.cpca.co.za Heartbreak: Frankie’s Soft Drinks Toyota Fuel strategy and safety were paramount - Kevin Jenkins Porche 911. retired with only minutes left.

The victorious Ecurie Zoo crew. An iconic endurance machine - Steve Pickering’s Porsche 910.

to be invited by Dave Alhadeff to share team won by 10 laps. This car had first Racing and their Lotus 7 Rep with a drive with him and Jaco Lambert in shown what it could do when Greg Mills Derek van der Merwe, John Glover and his beautifully prepared Panoz GTLM. and Eddie Keizan drove it to victory in Jeff Gable driving. I mention this only to share some first- last year’s Border 100 in East London. With a total of 34 entries, 31 starters hand experience with you, as our steed Clearly that was no flash–in-the-pan and and a commendable 15 finishers, the was both quite handy where speed the car, drivers and support crew were all event was clearly a success, but as is was concerned, and it highlighted the a class act on the day. Having run a total the norm with this type of racing, there extremely hot conditions on the day of 191 laps or 810 kilometres, highlights were hard-luck stories aplenty. The by par-boiling its drivers. Everyone the fact that this was a ‘Proper’ long major heartbreak award has to go to the struggled with the heat in one way or distance event - the type of race that tests Frankie’s Soft Drinks team who drove another, but then, this is just one of both man and machine to the absolute their Toyota Corolla so splendidly for 5 the many factors such as driver fatigue, limits of endurance. hours and 57 minutes. This car, as well fuel consumption, tyre wear, lap time, The Cape Town Harp team were as providing the best sounding exhaust mechanical longevity etc. that the teams worthy second place winners with note that I have heard in years, caused have to constantly consider and hold Francis Carruthers and Nick Adcock groans of dismay as it failed with a in balance. The last 20 minutes of this battling overheating issues to finish just minute to go, but this team can really race were absolutely true to the ethos half a lap ahead of the Kidscape Racing hold their heads high for what was a of endurance racing and the teams were 993 RSR driven by Andre Bezuidenhout magnificent effort. glued to the pit-wall as twilight replaced and Theo du Toit. This Porsche posted a The big winner on the day though the Free State blazing sun. best lap time of 1minute 48.6 seconds, must be motorsport as a whole. I have The works Pilbeam-Cosworth run by which is blisteringly quick for this type listened to much talk from serious Ecurie Zoo was victorious on the day, of car. people who are already committing to having led from start to finish. Driven by The coveted Index of Performance next year’s event and we say to Roger brothers Graham and Duncan Vos, this trophy was taken by team Signkor Pearce and all concerned, Bring It On!

www.cpca.co.za | April/May 2013 | 75 Toyota Zone 86 Advert 2_Layout 1 2012/08/24 7:42 AM Page 1

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ITEM Part Number PUSH START BUTTON SHIFT KNOB (MT) SHIFT KNOB (AT) Front Spoiler MS3411800200 Side Skirts MS34418002 Rear Boot Spoiler MS34218002 Rear Under/Bumper Spoiler MS34318002 High Response Muffler MS15318001 Muffler Garnish MS34318003 Rear Diffuser (to be ordered in conjunction with High Response Muffler) MS34218003 TRD Push Start Button* MS42200003 Shift Knob (MT) MS20418001 Shift Knob (AT)* MS20418002 Security Film PZN55X3036 Model shown is an accessorised Toyota 86 High 2.0 MT. A full range of Toyota * Only applicable on 86 High Grade Accessories are available from your Toyota dealer or visit www.toyota.co.za for more information. PASSIONPERSONIFIED Each year South Africa kicks off its motorsport calendar with the land’s biggest race meeting, the Zwartkops Passion For Speed Festival. And 2013 was no different with around 450 competitors, both local and international, piling into varied two- and four-wheeled machinery and doing battle in front of a monstrous crowd. So great was the anticipation that spectators rolled in the day before the Zwartkops affair to put up tents and lay claim to their preferred spot for the weekend. And who wouldn’t want to make it an all-weekend affair, with serious historic cars and bikes being put through their paces. Mention an historic marque or type of vehicle you’d like to see, and the chances are high it was on the Zwartkops menu. So too were a number of past and present big name South African drivers, so the action was hard-fought and nail-biting. And if you hadn’t had enough Ford, Lola, Cooper, Lotus, McLaren, Norton, Honda, BSA, Sarel, Scheckter, Redman moments by the end of the weekend, you could do it all again the following week at Kyalami. A number of the bike brigade showed their stamina with three weekends of racing starting with Port Elizabeth before migrating to Zwartkops and Kyalami. Photography: Zwartkops by Oliver Hirtenfelder | Kyalami by Dave Hastie ZWARTKOPS

Brian Algar, 1974 Porsche 911 RS.

Mick Grant’s world championship square four from the early’ 80s. Image: Jay Groat. Ferdi van Niekerk Junior, 1965 Ford Galaxie.

78 | April/May 2013 | www.cpca.co.za Robyn Kruger/Jeffrey Kruger, 1967 Chevron B8. Oliver Dalais/Rui Campos, 1965 Ford GT40 Type.

Dick Sorenson’s 1961 Nemesis Ford. Sarel van der Merwe, 1965 Chevelle.

Brian Esterhuysen, 1933 Alfa Romeo Monza Type. Mike Knight, 1960 Cooper Maserati.

Classic bikes with Jim Redman in the middle. (Image: Jay Groat) Brian Tyler, 1952 Ford Cooper MK6.

www.cpca.co.za | April/May 2013 | 79 KYALAMI

Shawn Cabrita, 1966 Mini Marcos chasing the 1963 GSM Dart of Matt Taylor/Ryan Quan Chai.

Graeme Nathan, 1968 BMW 3.0 CSL.

Georg Stummeijer’s ex-Alan Mann1965 Ford GT40. Darren Lobb, 1974 Fiat 131 Abarth.

80 | April/May 2013 | www.cpca.co.za Mark du Toit/Jonathan du Toit, 1965 Lola T70 Spider Type chased by Daytona Cobras and GT40.

Paolo Cavalieri’s 1974 BMW 3.5CSL hounded by Andre Diedericks’ 1970 Chevy Camaro and the Porsche 911RSRs of Brian Algar and Franz Pretorius.

Tim Boles, 1967 Chevrolet Camaro. Nick Sheward, 1984 Ford Sierra XR8.

Bill Watt, 1961 Lotus Elan. Dave Kopke,Mazda R100.

www.cpca.co.za | April/May 2013 | 81 Richard Sorenson powering his beautiful D-Type ‘Type’ car around Zwartkops.

C- and D-Type Jaguars brought performance innovation to the circuit in the 1950s, a Ddynamic trait Jaguar- continued throughDAY the E-Type and the imminent arrival in South Africa of the F-Type.

he iconic Jaguar D-Type central monocoque tub construction Grand Prix, which was a Formula Libre has taken its place in with sub-frames front and rear, which race – the D-Type was the second sports sports car history mostly was cutting edge in 1954. car home. Neville Austin took it over because of its distinctive Just 87 D-Types were produced at and raced it in Bulawayo, Salisbury, aerodynamics. That finned Jaguar’s Coventry works, 16 of which the 1961 Border 100 at East London Thead fairing was supposed to keep it were road-going XKSS models. One (finishing sixth), Lourenco Marques stable down the Mulsanne straight, of the most famous of them arrived in and the first Kyalami Nine Hour where where the Jaguars won the legendary 24 South Africa in 1959 for one John Love. it was crashed. The Rondalia Touring Hour of Le Mans in 1955, 1956 and 1957. OKV3 was the third team car for the Club began its restoration before Paul But more to the point was Jaguar’s 1954 Le Mans 24 Hour and continued Hawkins shipped the car to the UK in continuing innovation, which had to be driven by all the D-Type greats of 1966 where its rebuild was completed. already started with the C-Type. That the period, including Peter Whitehead, Today, South Africa is blessed with car’s use of disc brakes – adopted from Mike Hawthorn, Duncan Hamilton and a number of ‘type’ cars like Keith the aviation industry – gave it the edge Tony Rolt – even Norman Dewis had a van Heerden and Dick Sorenson’s in endurance races, including two Le go in OKV3 at the Brighton Speed Trials. D-Types that regularly participate on Mans victories. In John Love’s hands, chassis XKC404 the Historic Tour. This is especially Perhaps more revolutionary than its won the Luanda GP and was placed satisfying considering the rich D-Type fabled aerodynamics was the D-Type’s seventh in the 1960 South African history Jaguar enjoys here.

82 | April/May 2013 | www.cpca.co.za Rear shot showing the characteristic D-Type fi n.

John Love and OKV3 after victory in Neville Austin in OKV3, leads Dawie Gouws the 1960 Luanda Grand Prix1960. Porsche at Grand central in 1961.

THE STORY CONTINUES… Jaguar’s F-Type returns the iconic British brand to its performance roots and continues the C-, D-, and E-Type story. Due to arrive in South Africa towards the middle of the year, the F-Type Convertible will make a Jaguar sportscar more attainable than ever, while appealing to a much younger audience. For more information, visit www.jaguar.co.za.

www.cpca.co.za | April/May 2013 | 83 1967 Mercedes-Benz 230S Fintail (M) 1997 Mercedes-Benz SLK 230K AMG Very sought after classic R16000 was spent Beautiful convertible, ready for summer on full brake overall & major service the car topless days. 2.3-litre supercharged with is mechanically excellent. R69 000. AMG body kit. 149 000km. R139 500.

Tel: 011 440 7082 Cell: 082 416 9584 E-mail: [email protected] 1970 Mercedes-Benz 280 SE W108 (M) 1982 Mercedes-Benz 450SL (A). A Grand old dame. She makes an occasion Fast appreciating classic W107 series SL. Website: www.oldcars.co.za out of every journey and gets a smile Hard top, soft top, electric windows. Very wherever she goes. R69 500. We have three good condition in the desirable metallic blue – Independent broker of Vintage, Veteran & Classic cars – W108s to choose from. with tan interior. R139 500. CARCOL EXECUTIVE AUTO Mercedes-Benz Sales & Service Specialists We also stock used spares for classic Mercedes-Benz Contact Colin on 082 895 6186 011 646 0177/8152 - 011 646 0177/8152 [email protected], www.carcol.co.za 120 Green Way Greenside, Johannesburg

Professional personalised photography of your most prized possession. – Modern, Classic, Vintage and Race cars –

Email Oliver on BUSInESS fOR SAlE [email protected] for a quote. www.ohphoto.co.za Established in the Cape Winelands 6 years ago by a retired “petrol head”. Unrestricted Transportation Permits for the Western Cape. Showroom & Office on a beautiful Wine Estate near Stellenbosch. Superb Web Site and Marketing Brochure - Appreciating assets Opportunity to turn this hobby into a highly profitable classic car hire company.

Offered for sale at the net value of cars.R950000 Info: 0837755600

84 | April/May 2013 | www.cpca.co.za www.cpca.co.za | April/May 2013 | 85 AllAn Y Brink Automotive Engineering

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86 | April/May 2013 | www.cpca.co.za Racing Slicks All-new range now available

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www.cpca.co.za | April/May 2013 | 87 88 | April/May 2013 | www.cpca.co.za www.cpca.co.za | April/May 2013 | 89 Gearbox

Ford GT 40 Recreation. 850 km, Bailey Cars recreation of the 1966 Le Mans winning GT 40. Black with silver stripes, 530BHP dry sump V8 Ford engine, QZF BMW M535i. 1986. Automatic. Electric Johan Rabe Motorsport Art. For original 5-speed gearbox, full race specifications. seats, electric windows. 15 inch BMW paintings, commissions and limited edition Road registered with personalized number BBS alloy wheels. Nice presentable car prints, contact me on 082 906 2825 or GT FORTY GP. R950 000. in everyday use with ‘classic’ demand for [email protected]. Call O82 567 9318 or 011 463 6993. them on the increase. R35 000 or swap VW Golf Mk1. Race car. Recently For more information email for 100E Ford Prefect/Anglia or 105E completed, tidy and fast. R 75 000. Call [email protected]. Ford Anglia in good original and running condition. Contact Stuart: 082 921 4583. Bob during office hours on 011 615 3492

Jaguar 420. Pale green automatic. Very Alfa Spider. 1972. 2-litre engine. Very good runner with new paint. nice car with RWC. R85 000. Phone Bob R50 000. Contact Bob Osborn on during working hours on 011 615 3492. 011 615 3492.

Triumph TR6. Mileage is 77k miles. The asking price is R130 000. After 3 years of storage I have just recommissioned Pilbeam MP58, with Rover 3.9 motor the car and she runs well with everything and FGC. R270 000. Contact Greg Mills working like it should. Please contact me on [email protected]. The car can be on 082 508 0910 for further details and/ viewed in Johannesburg. or a test drive. Mercedes-Benz SL60 AMG. Extremely rare, being one of only 48 RHD examples 2 x Bell Sport Mag Helmets. Brand new, worldwide. 49 000 miles. The best, most never used and still in original boxes. Size: desirable model of the R129 series. An Large. R3 000 each Contact: Thomas everyday supercar. A previous concours Dicker No: 082 333 4497 winner in the UK. Car is detailed to an extremely high level of excellence. R400 000. Contact: 082 834 7681.

Jaguar E-Type 2+2. 1968. Brand new tyres, shocks. 123 Electronic distributor plus high capacity coil. Bonnet completely refurbished otherwise car is very original. Just had a full service, ready for any trip. Datsun 1200 GX. Class C winning One of the cleanest and best driving championship car 2010. 3rd overall in E-Types in the country for the price. Championship 2010. 1:13 times around No rust. Sold with RWC. R475 000. Zwartkops, engine been rebuilt, new Contact Graham 083 297 6677 or email custom radiator, 8” mini light wheels. [email protected] Renault Gordini. 1961. Interior totally R120 000 as is. Contact Desmond 082 original. Great patina. Current licence. 654 2598 or Mark 082 443 6755 MGB GT. 1968. In good condition. Body very good. Ideal project classic rally Currently used as a daily driver. R65 000. car / race car or club events. Rover 90. 1957. Red with black interior. Contact Bob on 011 615 3492 – during R25 000. Brian 083 9555 843 or Manual with overdrive. Good condition office hours. [email protected] R35 000. Contact Bob on 011 615 3492.

90 | April/May 2013 | www.cpca.co.za Car radio. Old valve set car radio assumed to fit an early Ford, since a “Custom”chrome badge was also found. It seems to fit vertically in the dash and I suspect a late 30s to late 40s Ford Cus- tom was the previous proud owner, but that’s just a guess. It’s yours for R600 + courier costs to get to you. Contact Johan on 0825701896 or e-mail [email protected] VW Golf Mk 1. 2-door Racing Car. Car is SANA F5000. Eligible for Tasman series. 1973 Chevy Corvette C3. Matching fitted with 1.8L 8 Valve MP9 Fuel Injection As raced competitively at 2011 Oz GP numbers V8, Munchie 4-speed manual, Dictator Management System. 5-Speed curtain-raiser. Not for the faint-hearted. very original down to the original radio, Close Ratio Velocity Gearbox, Competition With John Eales 400+bhp V8, and sparewheel, black leather etc. R375 000 Clutch & Disc Brakes all round. Old spec Hewland FG. R550 000. Contact| Greg neg. or part swap for a ‘60s American Class A VW Challenge Car. Ready to race. Mills, [email protected]. The car can be convertible or well built streetrod. Contact R 60 000-00 Neg. viewed in Johannesburg. Leon on 083 273 4067 Contact: Les Rowe 072 478 0308 or email: [email protected] Getrag 262/5. Close ratio dog leg gear- box and Borg Warner 75% Limited Slip Diff (3.45 Ratio) for sale. Both come from a 1976 BMM E12 530mle and are scarce. R10 000 for both. Nick 082 414 5377

1975 Alfa Spider RHD, Ideal project car, engine blown head gasket1967 Pontiac and removed Firebird from Convertible. car. Good soft top. R33 000.00 delivered to any major city.Collectable classic . V8, 5 speed manual 1971/2 Chevy Camaro SS. Absolutely Contact Brian 082 9555 843 or [email protected], brand new quality leather seats, new beautiful condition. New paint, new tyres and mags, new soft top. 327cc V8 quality leather seats, stainless exhaust, chevy engine needs a rebuild. R 285 000 mechanically perfect. Done less than “Make me an offer” sale neg for hard cash only. 500km since complete refurbishment. Many brand new spares, still in their boxesLeon such 083 as disc273 4067brake pads, brake shoes, R325 000 neg. points, condensors, spark plugs, oil filters, air filters, radiator caps, thermostats and Contact Leon on 083 273 4067 manyReynard more. 863-VW. Engines, Ex-Perry gearboxes McCarthy. and diffs. RaceSaturday Programmes. 1 December, Over2012 100starting South at 11- 00am.As raced The by venue Graham is a farmVos atjust inaugural outside LangebaanAfrican race on programme the R27 Westcovers Coast reproduced highway Jaguar MkII. 1963. Very good condition. withWAS a races.notice boardR200 at000. the Contact| farm entrance Greg whichand printedreads. “Saldanhaon A3 paper. Bulk Perfect Storage for the Sup - R120 000. Contact Bob on 011 615 3492 ply”.whereMills, [email protected]. Danie rents premisses The car can for behis oldpub cars or andgarage for wall.the spares.R100 each Drive excluding along the (office hours). Westviewed Coast in Johannesburg. Road, the R27, past the Langebaanpostage. turnoff, Contact past Stuart the on Saldanha 082 921 turnoff4583 on your left and just a 100 meters or so further on, the entrance to the farm is on WANTED the right. There is about 150 meters of good gravel road to the farm buildings. It takes about an hour and a half to drive from Cape. Should anybody want any further BMW 2002/2002ti or 2002tii wanted informationBMW 2002 orspares confirm. I’m iflooking the clearance for BMW saleFormula is still on Fordbefore or1 December,Vee. Must 2012, be call in original condition, LHD or RHD. Danie2002 trim, at 083 both interior257 6925. and exterior to fit from late 1960s or early ‘70s vintage. Please contact Naeem 082 441 9146 or my right-hand-drive model. Call Oliver on Complete or incomplete car. Call Alan on [email protected] 082 662 3313. 083 325 2938.

Morgan 3 wheeler. Must be Jap- or WANTEDCitroen 2CV. late model, Dolly, Ford 100E/107E or 105E. Complete, Matchless-engined. Phone Dickon 083 ProteaCharleston, Sports Bamboo Car or body Special. or carPlease in any originalcondition. running Any carinformation, to swap for memories my E28 or 625 8678. photographscontact Robin about on 079 the 880 locally 0871. built cars wouldBMW also M535i be (goodappreciated. daily runner). Contact Stuart: Ian on 082 219 6930 or Alan on 083 325082 921 2938. 4583

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THE PREFERRED ACCOMMODATION SUPPLIER TO CLASSIC & PERFORMANCE CAR AFRICA MAGAZINE Letters

ELVA MEMORIES I read with great interest your article in it was a Lotus. The second from a later CPCA on the rebuilding of Dr Dawie Gous’ date shows Hagen in the ex- Bobby Scott Elva Porsche. In my youth I remember the March 77, so it must be presumed that the car being raced at East London where I Chevron Special had by then passed on to grew up. I was also a friend of Hagen someone else. Wulff whom you mention in the article. Hope the above can “fix/peg” some After I left the Eastern Cape and moved dates regarding the Elva Porsche’s history. to Johannesburg my mother used to I in fact saw the restored car standing in send me the East London Daily Dispatch the pits at Zwartkops some months ago newspaper if there was anything that she looking absolutely superb. thought would be of interest to me. Kind Regards, Knowing my friendship with Hagen John Hampson this would include anything to do with his Springbok surf life saving or motor Hi John sport. Digging through some of these One of the most exciting aspects to owning newspapers, which I still have, I found a car such as the Elva is uncovering all the following which may be of interest its past activities and owners. I will pass regarding the history of the Elva Porsche. on your snippets to the current owner to Unfortunately the picture quality is not add to his ever-increasing scrap book. It’s great being from newspapers. amazing how many people remember the The first was from the Daily Dispatch cars of yesteryear and has me wondering dated Monday 21 May 1979 which shows how many of the current race cars will be Hagen competing in a Chevron Special. remembered with such fondness in the From my memory the car at the time had future. a Lotus motor as some people thought - Stuart

CADDY CONNECTION Firstly let me say how much I look articles on the Cadillac brand. Laubscher. He also used the car to forward to and enjoy reading the Our next major event is to be a do drag racing. At one stage of the magazine. I have been a subscriber Concours de Elegance on 5 May 2013 vehicle’s life it was fitted with a V8 for several years and it keeps getting at the Auckland Park Country Club motor and Anglia diff. Apparently a better with each edition. Congrats. Johannesburg, featuring rare and 100kg cement block was fitted to the I read the articles by Jake Venter on pristine GM vehicles. diff for better traction. how Cadillac was born with interest Kind regards, Mr Laubscher died in the late and wondered whether Jake was Chris Palk seventies and the vehicle was sold aware of the Buick Club of South to Mr Joe DoSantos. Mr Laubscher Africa and in particular our Cadillac Thanks for the information Chris. We apparently owned a garage in and Oldsmobile chapters. will be sure to attend the Concours in Johannesburg. I bought the vehicle Rudolph Nicholson our Vice- May and make contact with Rudolph from Mr DoSantos in 2010. I am Chairman heads up the Cadillac for some insightful stories and imagery. looking for any photos or any additional Chapter. Rudolph not only owns Look forward to it. information on the car. My contact several pristine and highly collectible - Stuart number is 0824484996. modern Cadillacs but is also a fountain Regards, of knowledge on the brand. He is also LOTUS NOTES Rudi Botha a member of the Cadillac La Salle I wonder if you can help me. I am busy Club of America. I mention this as restoring a Lotus 7 S2 (1961 model). Hi Rudi you may wish to contact him and I am According to some people this car An interesting and historical project. sure he would be delighted to provide has an extensive drag racing history. Keep us in the loop as to how it goes information, high quality pictures and The car was owned and raced during and what information comes up. could also contribute in the form of the sixties and seventies by Mr Errol - Stuart

92 | April/May 2013 | www.cpca.co.za Nowadays they need turbos to provide better performance from 1100cc! Regards, John Rabe

Hi John The Alconi appears to be one of the most loved saloons in South African history and helped convert a number of motorists into lifelong Renault fans. The ALCONI CONVERT years and 100 000km of pleasure and after sales service you got must have Thanks for the Alconi article in the latest frustration. Although Alconi fitted a sealed the deal for you and I would issue. My Mom had an R8 1100 in which different diameter crankshaft pulley to guess is unheard of today. I learned to drive. After the exploits of reduce the generator’s revs due to the - Stuart Scamp Porter and Geoff Mortimer in red line of 7000rpm, I had to replace the the Gordini 1300 I resolved to buy one. dynamo around 6 times not counting ALCONI CONVERTER Towards the end of my military service replacement of bushes and brushes. I enjoyed your article on the R10 Alconi. I was offered an immaculate 6-month- The Gordini was fitted with an alternator. It brought back many memories for me. old one with around 10 000km on the On one occasion the engine cut out I had been a race mechanic for both clock for R1 800. A new one cost R2 while pottering at urban speeds. After John Conchie and Puddles Adler in the 230. After battling for a weekend pass, all attempts at tracing the problem had early days of purely amateur racing with I hitchhiked from Bloemfontein to Jhb, proved fruitless, the car was towed Ecurie Aquila. only to be let down the next day when to Alconi Developments’ workshops When Puddles and John developed the seller reneged. in Jhb, where removal of the cylinder the Alconi R8, Phil and Scamp Porter, I immediately visited Rand Renault’s head revealed that all the valves had who both worked at Renault SA, showrooms only to be told that a long bent. Alconi’s engineers indicated that persuaded Renault to put the Alconi waiting list existed for the Gordini and I would have had to have revved the into production to offer a cheaper that only 20 to 30 were likely to be motor to over 8000rpm to have caused alternative performance car to the imported over the next 12 to 24 months. such damage in view of the double imported Gordini. Disappointed, I placed an order for a red valve springs fitted. I continued to plead The Alconi conversion kit consisted R10 Alconi, as my first choice – blue - innocence whereupon Alconi offered to of a branch manifold and silencer with was not a standard Renault R10 colour carry out one final check to tick off a a 36DCD Weber carb, skimmed head, and would have to be a special order. remote possibility at my risk/cost. The reground cam, smaller crankshaft pulley I was not interested in the third colour Alconi-supplied pulley was removed to to prevent over-revving of the fan and - white with a red flash. The R8 Alconi find that a part of the locating flange had generator and a Smiths rev-counter (a had previously been painted an unusual broken away allowing the crankshaft luxury in those days) mounted in the purplish blue which was nothing like securing key to be displaced and the driver’s side air vent. The kit was sold to French blue. timing to slip. DIY enthusiasts for R197.68. Other differences between the Alconi rebuilt the motor at their cost Renault Africa decided to build a standard R10 and the Alconi included and I was able to continue running rings prototype batch of 50 R8 Alconis at the suspension lowered by 382mm and a around larger-engined Ford Cortina GTs CDA assembly plant in East London. We Smiths rev-counter in the right hand and the like. With its 1108cc motor the duly collected 50 kits together, loaded airvent. The bullet racing mirror and Alconi was able to give the Alfa Spider them into our tow truck (a Renault door handle scratch protector were not a ‘hard time’ over a 500m sprint before Manoir station wagon) and Puddles, standard fitment, although the latter was the latter’s 5-speed gearbox came into John, another friend and I set off for an R10 accessory. A third Alconi badge play. I still believe that the owner of a East London. was fitted below the right hand tail light 5-speed 1608cc Fiat 125S traded It was a long weekend in December assembly. Your test car also has non- his car in the day after I overtook him 1964, so the factory was closed. Renault standard wide rims. with the Alconi’s speedo needle ‘off the had arranged to have 50 imported After taking delivery in November clock’. Oh for the days of very few cars R8 engines laid out on pallets on the 1967, this car gave me almost 3 on the open road and no speed limit! factory floor. On our arrival, the four of

www.cpca.co.za | April/May 2013 | 93 Letters

us set about removing 50 manifolds, taking me to Gunners Circle to watch magazine a world class effort in terms heads, camshafts and crank pulleys a New Year’s race (can’t remember the of content, imagery and layout. Once using only hand tools (no air wrenches details though but guess it would have we are happy with that who knows… in those days). The heads were duly been January 1957). As you’ll have noticed in the last two sent to a local machine shop to skim Thereafter it was regular visits to issues, mention of the Cape Town- 73 thou off each, while we set about Killarney as a young kid with clear based specials opens up a serious can fitting camshafts and crank pulleys. memory of watching Stirling Moss in of worms. I’m sure a reader out there As the heads came back in batches, a Porsche winning in 1961/2. Then knows of the whereabouts of the Pfeiffer we refitted them, set the tappets and in my late teens, performing as a APM Special. So keep your eyes on the bolted on the manifolds. At the end marshal at the self-same Killarney for letters section in future issues. of a 3-day weekend we left 50 Alconi a number of years which included the engines ready to be fitted into 50 new 3 Hour endurance races as part of the R8s specially painted a bright purple, to Springbok Series - great memories. distinguish them from the blue Gordinis. During that time I enjoyed watching The conversion on the 1108cc engine all the local heroes, e.g the Kosie improved the performance of the R8 Swanepoels, the Dennis Jouberts, the substantially: 0 to 60mph down from Adrian Pfeiffers and of course many, 19.8 to 12.4 sec, top speed up from 132 many others. Talking of which, having to 151km/h. My own 1108cc Alconi did seen a tribute to Frank Hoal by the said a just over 12-hour trip to Cape Town at Adrian Pfeiffer, is there any knowledge 6000rpm plus all the way. There were of the whereabouts of Pfeiffer’s APM no freeways and no general speed limit Special which he drove so well in late in those days! sixties? I remember being driven by Regards him round the track (for the Cape Hell TRIUMPHANT NUMBERS Martin Pomeroy Drivers) at the Cape Showgrounds - a Great article - maybe it will gain our club special treat (at a small price) for anyone some more cars and members. By the Thanks for the details Martin. Finding who wanted the excitement of being in way according to MSA records there information on local specials is a racing car. I think Koos Swanepoel’s were 5 712 MK1 2000s built between sometimes a dark art and more often Elva Porsche was also available/used. 1966 &1970 and 384 MK1 SW between than not you only meet the right To finish, I’m mad about the racing 1967 and 1970. contacts after the magazine has hit the side of things, and know this topic has Best Regards, shelf. Glad you could clear up the details been debated already, but any chance Eric Fletcher and we could record it. of more coverage of the Historic Racing -Stuart events (plus pictures of course!)? Thank Hi Eric you and keep up the excellent work. Thanks for the stats. Here’s hoping ONCE A FAN, ALWAYS A Regards, these ‘cheap’ classics will allow for FAN Bruce Moles more classic car owners and drive the Firstly thank you for an excellent magazine club membership numbers upward. - pity it can’t come out every month! Hi Bruce Clubs are such an integral part of classic I have been an avid motorsport Thanks for the kind words. A monthly car ownership with plenty of advice, fan since my early years and can just magazine would be awesome but for activities and spares on offer. remember, as a 4- year-old, my father now we are focussing on making the - Stuart

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25 CARS TO DRIVE BEFORE YOU DIE Author: Alexander Parker Publisher: Two Dogs ISBN: 978-1-92013-724-3 Price: R155 Available: www.motorbooks.co.za f the author’s name rings a Ibell you’ve more than likely picked up a copy of Business Day or stumbled across his top seller 50 People Who Stuffed Up South Africa. He knows a thing or two about STEVE McQUEEN cars, having worked with the likes of Top Gear South Africa, scripted A PASSION FOR SPEED some TV motoring shows and owned more cars than most his age – Author: Frederic Brun including a 1981 Mini and a ’64 Landy. Any list of 25 cars to drive before Publisher: Motorbooks you die is going to be hotly debated, but what I find a touch short-sighted ISBN: 978-0-7603-4248-0 is the abundance of modern machinery – save for the 1964 Mini Cooper Price: R530 S, Land Rover SII, Lambo Miura S, Birkin S3 and Ford GT40, I think all Available: www.motorbooks.co.za the cars were still in new car showrooms in 2008. uperstars like cool cars. A top-of-the-line Mumble aside, it is an enjoyable book thanks to some intelligent Svehicle (often destroyed by customising) humour, general knowledge, facts and real life driving impressions. seemingly tells the world you have arrived, The foreword by David Bullard, in typical Bullard column style, sets the have individual style and bundles of wealth – tone for the educational enjoyable read. I am left wondering though as just like your other Hollywood neighbour or to how many of the cars driven are still running as when new and how mid-twenties football player. It’s all a façade – many have suffered high tech component failure? My guess is 5. but there are the odd celebs like Jay Leno, Jerry Seinfeld, Nicholas Cage, Rowan Atkinson and JAGUAR E-TYPE Nick Mason that do it right. But the title race THE DEFINITIVE HISTORY for who is the coolest cat with the coolest cars Author: Philip Porter has to be between Steve McQueen and James Publisher: Haynes Publishing Dean. By sheer numbers and real combustion- ISBN: 978-0-85733-122-9 powered fascination my vote is with McQueen. Price: R2 260 In his movies he always had a great car to Available: www.motorbooks.co.za share the limelight. Think of his Mustang ny list of iconic cars should in Bullit, Ferrari 275 GTS/4 in The Thomas Afeature the E-Type Jaguar. Crown Affair and a Gulf in the Launched in 1961, it made an 1971 racing epic Le Mans. Two-wheels were impression from the outset and not also his thing and he showed his might aboard only on the motoring world but also some bucking machinery during the cult influenced a generation and became a symbol of the swinging sixties. classic On Any Sunday. He was more than an This second edition of the book celebrates fifty years of the legend and onscreen enthusiast, competing in high-level is widely regarded as the most important volume written about the off-road racing events like the Baja 1000 as well marque. It is packed with 688 pages of in-depth research, images and as on circuit, with a highlight being finishing statistics. Over 150 interviews with significant E-Type personalities second with Peter Revson in the 1970 12 Hours result in this being the closest thing to the horse’s mouth. Production of Sebring. In his own words: ‘Racing is life. figures, detail changes, drawings, motorsport, marketing and everything Anything before or after is just waiting.’ you ever wanted to know (and even stuff you didn’t realise you wanted Brun’s book is heavily weighted toward to know) fill the pages. This second edition features new information imagery with an introduction to each chapter throughout, especially in the design and development department, as giving way to well-captioned pictures from real well as the Lightweight racing exploits and the development of the V12 life and silver screen moments. It’s a beautiful lump. A couple of hundred new images make their way into the book chronicle of a great and enthusiastic life. and where possible colour versions have replaced the old black and whites. A must-have classic car covered by a must-have book.

96 | April/May 2013 | www.cpca.co.za

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