Race to the sea: the story of Shootout
What lies ahead is a thrilling road trip from coast to coast, with little in the way of coasting. Let’s go!
THE Honda’s arrival at the viewing point which forms the gateway to Clarence Drive – the wonderfully sinuous ribbon of tarmac footing the coastline along the Hottentots Holland – is met with a somewhat mixed reception. It may have seen off some tough opposition to afford its place in this year’s Shootout but as bodykitted, scaffold-winged and studded with vents as the Type R is, it still appears to slink meekly into its allotted gap in the line of more expensive performance cars, under the judging glare of their LED headlamps.
You’d be forgiven for thinking the Type R’s inclusion is tantamount to wading into a gunfight with a butter knife but there’s almost a sense of unease to the disapproving grumbles of its rivals’ idling six- and eightcylinder engines. Every year, we strive to include an eyebrow-raising hero car in the Shootout stable and there was a chance this year’s halo slot was to be filled by a Mclaren 600LT. A few days prior to the road trip, we received news the car had been delayed, leaving a sizeable dent in our line-up. But with the plucky Japanese hot hatch shuffled into the deck of high-performance cars came the sense the supercar’s exclusion was a blessing in disguise.
There was the svelte sophisticate that’s the Aston Martin; the Bauhaus missiles in the guise of the M5 Competition and RS5; the Pit Bull Terrier M2 Competition; a brace of Nipponese boy-racer pinups in the Type R and the loudest Subaru Impreza we’ve ever piloted; and two Porsches finished in retina-searing yellow. This cast was one of the most balanced we’ve ever hosted. Without the 600LT’S distraction, it looked as though picking a winner would prove especially difficult.
As the sky lightens with the promise of a day that’ll bake under 30-odd degrees, the motorcade sets off on the first leg of drivers’ heaven; a 652 km swathe which cuts inland from False Bay, weaving through mountain passes and stretching along open roads before curving back towards the sea and a wind-whipped airfield on the West Coast. Although it initially met with a good deal less enthusiasm than a performance car road trip should be, our crack-ofdawn start on a Sunday is something of a masterstroke. Devoid of whale-watching
rental cars and decrepit fishermen’s bakkies which often choke this scenic coastal road, we’re confronted with a brilliant expanse of sweeping uphills, tight switchbacks and bends that seem to drop into the calm ocean.
Here the cars get their first opportunity to stretch their legs and warm up. On this coastal road, wedged into the 911 T’s unyielding but incredibly supportive seat, there’s a blurring of the connection between driver and car. Pressing into sharp bends, the steering is a touch light and docile at lower speeds but begins to settle into its gearing, becoming sharp and balanced as the speedometer needle swings right. With the ocean on one side and a cliff face that whips past like a belt sander, piloting something this fast with its engine perched on the rear axle has the potential to pendulum the tail before ricocheting off the rocks and into the drink. Instead, the 911 T hunkers down and serves up a ludicrous amount of grip.
From a stop in Rooi-els, we take turns running the Drive, completing circuits and trading opinions. Beyond the initial doubts about the Type R’s presence, the conversation moves to another anomaly in the line-up. If the idea of the Honda joining Shootout was a stretch, a Kia would’ve met with incredulity a few years back. Yet, here we are, our colourful fleet strung along the road towards Kleinmond with a V6 Kia sedan doing more than its bit to hang with the bigger hitters. In this company, it is a bit of a softy but we’ve always maintained on the long road, a brisk, comfy cruiser like the Stinger GT is a welcome reprieve from wrestling the heavy steering of the more demanding cars.
Just as satisfying are the reactions of bystanders who encounter our collection of performance hardware. The piece of close-formation parking on the slipway of Kleinmond Harbour would be the first of many such photo and video opportunities en route, and the first chance for the public to get up close and personal with the cars.
The Shootout bystander is a fascinating species; their behaviour ranges from furtive glances to full-on selfie posing. Petrolheads want to talk about engine displacement and performance figures, not to mention share a motoring story or two. Timid or bold, we love them all but there’s always the inevitable person who didn’t get the memo…
With the fleet carefully arranged and the majority of bystanders waiting on the sidelines as the photo session begins, a portly fellow in boardshorts casually strolls among the cars, peering into a window here and admiring a rear wing there. We’re guessing our polite yells and hand gestures to move out of the frame are probably all but muffled background noise to this gentleman, and with little wonder. He’s happened upon the Vantage. We can’t really blame him. In the short time it’s been in our midst, it’s managed to attract plenty of attention from roadside spectators urging us to rev the magnificent, guttural V8. One genial older gentleman at a petrol station asks if the lone female member of our team sitting in the car is a Bond Girl.
We’re quickly discovering there’s some substance backing up those good looks. While we’ve always been great admirers of Astons, we’ve generally found the cars – although ballistically fast and often marketed as dynamically gifted – fall squarely into the softer GT category. Not so the new Vantage. On both the long road inland and tight mountain passes, the Aston proves light and
more balanced than any before it. The knee-weakening good looks just add to its appeal.
On a beautiful day, driving through Hermanus is a frustrating crawl, so we decide to sidestep the coastal town and cut into the Hemel-en-aarde Valley. If ever a place has earned its name, it has to be this picturesque landscape of vineyards clinging to rolling hills crowned with mist. The road is just as much of a treat and it’s here the MercedesAMG GLC63 S begins to unveil the breadth of its talents. Swift dips in the road and speedy sweeps into sharp corners would set most performance SUVS wallowing and screeching their tyres but the GLC63 proves surprisingly composed and wickedly fast on the straighter sections. It’s not completely immune to gravity, though; the big AMG will press its weight laterally sooner than the others and understeer when things get really tight but it surprises a number of us with its ability to keep pace with its more focused rivals.
This stretch between Onrus and Caledon is a gem. A number of CAR staffers remark that the combination of sharp changes in direction and elevation give the machinery a balanced canvas to paint their road trip narrative… or words to that effect, with the odd sawing at an imaginary steering wheel and plenty of pretend tyre screeching and engine noises.
There’s a gap in the fun as the sinuous and involving R320 gently peters out into Caledon. Our senses, calibrated to driving at speed on sweeping roads, are numbed by the
transition into urban speed limits and stop streets. Thankfully, this brief and cautious crawl along the N2 entrance to Caledon with its notorious speed traps is soon behind us, and the 30-odd kilometres of the fast R406 towards Greyton beckons. Again, the traffic gods have smiled on our Sunday departure and laid out a quiet run with plenty of wellsighted overtaking spots. Motorists meet our convoy with smiles and raised smartphones.
Rumbling into Greyton, the Shootout motorcade is in stark contrast to the peaceful treelined streets and the understandably nervous horses that trot through the village. The temperature gauges in the cars register upwards of 37 degrees Celsius and you can feel the heat pressing on their roofs. Lunch on the veranda of a Victorian cottage is brief; notes are traded, heatstroke marginally avoided and photo opportunities discussed. It’s at this point that we have to pay respect to enthusiastic photographers and videographers Peet, Jotham, Chulu, Malin and Saint. From the air-conditioned comfort of our cars, we watch in sympathy and admiration as the guys bravely balance body and expensive equipment from the doors of the Hyundai H-1 support vehicle, or patiently stand in stifling heat to bring you these images.
Leaving Greyton, the R406 shrugs off
its tarmac and becomes a little-used dirt road that winds along the backbone of the Riviersonderend Nature Reserve before rejoining the N2. Sportscars don't belong on gravel, so we turn around before tarmac ends and backtrack to the road we came in on … not necessarily a bad thing, given the earlier smiles.
Motorway driving on a trip intended for performance motoring is necessary to get to more entertaining stretches of blacktop. The road between Riviersonderend and Swellendam gave the bigger Bavarians in our line-up an opportunity to strut their stuff. Contrasting with the smaller cars – with a firmer ride and thinner seat cushioning – the AWD pairing of the BMW M5 Competition and Audi RS5 are both business-class lounge and bullet. The latter proves especially fast for a car of its size and closes down the R60 to Ashton with almost time-shrinking ease.
Cutting a winding vein between Twistniet and Montagu Mountain nature reserves, Kogmanskloof Mountain Pass typifies the Cape hinterland. Flanked by towering sandstone, cut and folded as though pressed by a giant hand, it’s the perfect area for a spot of paddle-pulling, hard-braking fun. Then, just before Montagu, the smooth tarmac gives way to stop-and-go roadworks. That giant hand seems to have taken a hatchet to this stretch of the R62. If nothing else, it gives our charges time to cool their heels as they slowly thread through the hole in the mountains at the Old English Fort and into Montagu.
The day is a mixed bag of sweeping roads and onlookers’ smiles, interspersed with scorching weather, a stuttering halt through one of the most pleasing mountain passes in the area and a bizarre bruising of a posterior. One of the larger-framed members of the team had been wedged into the 911 T’s love handle-squishing sports seats, colloquially referred to as “nine-one-one bum”.
But tomorrow with its mixture of fast open roads and the much-vaunted Gydo Pass promises all the right ingredients for some serious road trip fun.
DAY2 Monday, 29 October 400 km: Montagu to Langebaan
Look up Gydo Pass on Google Maps and you’ll understand why it beckons us. Towering at more than 900 metres above sea level, it is wreathed with a road generously peppered with dips, sweeps and a pair of vast hairpins levelling out at the summit before gently sloping down towards Prince Alfred Hamlet. We’ve driven this pass extensively in past Shootouts and it always manages to entertain and terrify in equal measure. But there’s the small matter of a lengthy drive through some scenic, albeit arid flats on the R318 first.
While they’re not the most entertaining roads for performance cars, they’re often good for a spot of mental unwinding. There’s banter between members of the team, with a good-humoured jab here and a cheesy bit of local music there squawking through twoway radios. This route does, however, play host to a particularly entertaining stretch. Scroll down the digital map, to the stretch of the R318, 25 km outside Montagu. Threading its way through the hills between the Langeberg-wes mountains and Witbosrivier Nature Reserve, you’ll spot a little knot in the otherwise straight road. That’s Burger’s Pass and with precious little traffic clogging its sharp uphills and switchbacks, it’s a gem of a drive, serving as a great curtain raiser to Gydo.
At least that’s what we tell ourselves as the stale pastries and bitter coffee from the local supermarket settle heavily in our stomachs. All is quickly forgiven at the growing realisation The Joker of our fleet is anything but. Gamely keeping up with the faster cars and decanting a CAR journalist grinning from ear to ear at every step of the journey, the Toyota Yaris GRMN’S peppy supercharged engine, tight chassis and snappy gearshift – rivalled only by the Type R’s rifle-bolt of a shifter – has somehow wormed its way into our sceptical hearts.
While Burger’s Pass is a drivers’ delight, it’s just an amuse bouche to Gydo. With the quicker pace outside a baking hot Ceres, the highlight of our drive rises out of the surrounding country and goads us into switching our cars to their sportiest settings, perching fingertips on paddle shifters in anticipation of the demanding climb ahead.
Setting up a makeshift HQ on the pass’ topmost viewing point, we take turns to sample the cars in their element. In the subsequent Doppler effect flyby of snarling engines and tyres fighting for purchase on the sharp downhill bends, two cars are increasingly garnering plaudits from the team.
The BMW M2 Competition sits in contrast to its V8 sedan relative here, requiring a
heavy hand when pressing on and making you fight tooth and nail for its rewarding drive. Some of the team emerge from the M2 looking dishevelled and out of breath but still smiling.
Where the M2 sometimes feels as though it’s going to pull your arm out of its socket, the Porsche Cayman simply takes your hand and speeds you through tight corners and crests with the utmost mid-engined confidence. It’s quickly proving to be the most balanced car, capable of scything through bends flat and true; its finely weighted steering allows you to place it on the exact piece of macadam you’ve been eyeing and punching past slower traffic. Respectful as we are of the 911 T, there’s the gentle ripple of unease through the team at the notion the Cayman might eclipse its bigger brother; a notion that would be tested to jaw-dropping effect the following day.
In the company of self-shifters, the three Japanese cars are a refreshing change, handing the driver a greater degree of control when taking on the twists and turns. Tackling Gydo, the underdog begins to put some of its decidedly pricier and more powerful companions in the shade. It’s one thing to watch the Type R from the viewing point, nosing keenly into corners and blatting along straights with more gusto than we’d expect from a car of its ilk, but piloting it down the pass is quite another, and it goes something like this…
Pulling out of the parking area, you immediately dip into a sharp right-hander which makes the wheels work to track into the next sweep. The road cuts slightly left before switching into a deceptively sharp right. Rock face whips past at a frightening lick while a stunning view of the patchwork of fields in the flats stretches past Prince Alfred Hamlet and off to Ceres in the distance. Then it hits you: a precipitous drop in elevation as the road folds itself into that big ol’ hairpin. Here the scenery is quickly forgotten, gearshifts rapidly click into place and there’s a mild feeling of surprise at just how much nose-end grip is on offer. Shortly after, the road spits us onto a straight section and gives one last shimmy before easing into the valley below.
Needless to say, a good chunk of our day is spent tackling the pass in as many cars as possible and marvelling at the tenacity of our drone pilot who prevents his craft from smashing into the rocks in the winds. Despite the challenging road, almost everyone has emerged from Gydo unscathed and fuelled by adrenaline. Almost, because the Type R’s rear-left brake – which had been making some worrisome noises earlier – is now a tooth-gritting mix between a jet at take-off and scraping metal. Thankfully, it’s something that will be resolved when we reach Killarney.
It’s not just the Type R, though. As we exit the old Tollhouse Pass outside Ceres and enter Riebeek-kasteel, the skies darken and the temperature drops by 14 degrees. It’s a welcome relief for the parboiled CAR team and a boon for the turbocharged cars whose blowers thrive on cool air. But while the temperature has dropped, the decibels of the Subaru WRX STI has not eased. We’re taken by its neon-accented, body-kitted brashness and the old-school driving experience that’s a Subaru signature, but there’s no escaping the grimaces and finger-in-ear attempts to stem the tinnitus brought on by the pressure waves permeating the WRX’S cabin from its cannon-sized exhaust.
The combination of fatigue and the