SOUTH AFRICA SET TO THRILL TO THE SIGHTS AND SOUNDS OF 1930 GRAND PRIX CARS
IN NOVEMBER 2018 the exhaust notes of Grand Prix cars from the 1930s will tear through the South African air for the first time in nearly 80 years. They’ll be the stars of the South African Historic Grand Prix Festival, a live celebration of the very cars that raced in the South African Grands Prix of the 1930s.
Between 1934 and 1939, the South African GP was run at the Prince George Race track in East London. With the Grosvenor GP in Cape Town and the Rand GP in Johannesburg it formed part of a three-event ‘Winter Series’ for European racing drivers of the day.
Speedstream Events, the Festival’s UKbased organiser, has undertaken much research to identify and trace as many as possible of the cars that participated in the original South African events. The response has been extremely positive, with several thrilling cars confirmed for the Festival – including the Maserati 8CM in which Whitney Straight won the inaugural 1934 Grand Prix, and from the 1937 Grand Prix the winning ERA and the second-placed Riley Ulster Imp.
Other marques already entered include Bugatti, Talbot, Frazer Nash, Aston Martin, MG, Railton and Plymouth.
Billed as a ‘once in a lifetime’ experience, the South African Historic Grand Prix Festival will run from 25 November to 2 December in three parts. It starts with a commemorative race at the East London Grand Prix Circuit on 25 November, along with a parade around the original 11-mile Prince George race circuit. Next comes a private tour, from 26 to 30 November, for the roadgoing Grand Prix cars, taking in some of South Africa’s most scenic and exhilarating roads between East London and the Western Cape.
The event culminates in a two-day Grand Prix Garden Party in the heart of the Franschhoek wine region. As well as being demonstrated, the Grand Prix cars will be on display, allowing the public to get close to the cars and owners as they celebrate South Africa’s proud Grand Prix history.
Preference will be given to entries with a South African Grand Prix history, but this byinvitation-only event is also open to owners of other age-related Grand Prix cars. Entries are limited to 25 cars, with just a few places le".
supposed to be an easy drive of 183km to Salta, but it proved far trickier than anticipated for the 1957 Bentley S1, which suffered cooling problems.
Fortunately, a local garage owner – a classic car owner himself – quickly found the fault and fixed it for free, and a great barbeque in Salta that evening ensured everybody ended the day in high spirits.
On day six we rolled onto one of the most scenic roads of the whole rally: Ruta National 40, the longest road in Argentina at 5194km. It’s a dirt track for 47km between the villages of Cachi and Molinos, lost between the cacti and the mountains. Molinos resembles a Hollywood film set, with a little church and the hacienda where we stayed overnight.
The next few days took us through canyons and miles and miles of open space, wild horses running free, and all the way to the Estancia Las Carreras, a cattle farm where we were fed fondue and delicious meat.
It was not all smooth running, predictably, and several ailing cars had to be transported onwards by tow-truck; the Lagonda eventually gave up with brake and engine problems, and the crew was forced to hire a car for the drive to the finish.
After Talampaya canyon, with its huge walls of red rock, we headed on to the Valley de la Luna, colourful but very dusty. Our Mustang caught fire there thanks to an electrical short, but the flames were quickly extinguished and the damage was minimal.
The next day’s route took us to the beautiful vineyards that made the Mendoza name famous and plenty of their product was enjoyed over the next two days at the nearby hotel, The Vines.
A good rest later, we were back on Ruta 40 making for the crossing back into Chile. The first cars drove over the border under a blue sky; the last cars to make the crossing were covered with snow – and the pass had been closed behind them. Via 28 hairpins we descended to the city of Los Andes and arrived at the Hotel del Valle.
Day 15 was our last driving day, back towards the Pacific coast we had left behind two weeks earlier. There, in the village of Zapallar, we sat in the sun eating freshly caught seafood while dolphins frolicked in the bay as if for our entertainment.
The owner of a local car museum came in his classic police car to escort us to his place on the road to Valparaíso, and after our visit we drove the last miles to Vina del Mar on the Chilean Riviera for our final night at the Sheraton.
The trip had been challenging at times but never less than spectacular, and at the gala dinner that evening it was hard not to wish that we were back at the start line in Antofagasta; 2324 miles, it turns out, just aren’t enough.