Team Jaguar gears up for play
SPECTATORS CAN LOOK FORWARD TO A STUNNING DISPLAY OF PRECISION DRIVING Jaguar’s PACE family of SUVs will also be a highlight of this year’s event.
Awide variety of Jaguar’s cats will come out to play in the King of the Hill competition at this year’s Jaguar Simola Hillclimb – with a driver lineup comprising first-time racers, regulars and a world champion motor sportsman.
Heading the charge in the Supercars Class is Jaguar South Africa’s national aftersales manager, Dawie Olivier. Dawie, who has competed in every Jaguar Simola Hillclimb, is entered in Class A7 for super- or turbocharged road-going cars with eight-cylinders or more, with a ferocious 423kW Jaguar F-TYPE SVR.
Also, in Class A7 is multiple racing champion Mark Cronje in Jaguar’s new performance flagship – the XJR 575. With a 5.0-litre supercharged V8 sending 423kW to the rear wheels through an eight-speed automatic transmission – and the ability to launch from 0-100km/h in 4.4 seconds – the XJR 575 is the fastest and most powerful version of the XJ sedan to date.
A well-known name in motorsport, Cronje’s resume boasts five SA national rally championships and two national Off-Road titles. He was crowned Rotax Max World Karting world champion in 2002.
Another Jaguar sports sedan will be entered by Jaguar SA’s Regional Technical Manager, Derrick Dearlove, who will contest Class A3 for cars with blown six-cylinder engines in a 2018 model year Jaguar XE S.
In its latest guise, the 3.0-litre supercharged V6 in the XE S has been upgraded from 250kW to 280kW. The rear-wheel drive XE S can launch from standstill to 100km/h in 5.0 seconds.
Jaguar’s PACE family of SUVs will also be a highlight of this year’s event.
The recently-launched E-PACE compact SUV is set to be the first Jaguar SUV to compete at the Jaguar Simola Hillclimb, with popular videojournalist Ciro De Siena, from cars.co.za at the wheel.
His entry is an E-PACE P300 with 221kW from its Ingenium petrol turbo engine, standard allwheel drive and a nine-speed automatic transmission.
Spectators can look forward to a stunning display of precision driving from world-famous stuntman Terry Grant. The multiple world record-holder will wow crowds by driving up the 1.9km Simola Road on two wheels during intermissions, in the same Jaguar F-PACE with which he completed the world’s highest loop-the-loop in a car at 19.08m in 2015.
For the second year running, Jaguar SA has afforded two lucky customers the opportunity to drive their own vehicles in anger as competitors at the event.
As the winners of a customer experience day held at Kyalami exclusively for F-TYPE owners, Travis Briscoe and Jason Basterfield were the recipients of a prize money cannot buy – an all-expenses paid trip to compete at South Africa’s premier motorsport event. Both will pilot their own Jaguar F-TYPE S sports cars.
The 2018 Jaguar Simola Hillclimb kicks off with Classic Car Friday, on May 4. On Saturday and Sunday (5-6 May 2018), competitors will race up the most-contested stretch of road in the country for the King of the Hill title.
Tickets for the Jaguar Simola Hillclimb start at R120 for day passes, and can be purchased at http://jaguarsimolahillclimb. nutickets.co.za
For those unable to make it to the event, an online live stream will be available.
For more information visit www.jaguarsimolahillclimb.com