From the editor

Greetings CAR readers. As all the best ideas do, it started with a casual conversation on a road trip to Gqeberha to shoot our Golf GTI exclusive. On the R62 between Joubertina and Kareedouw, I began brainstorming ideas for future issues with Carri-anne and photographer Peet. Ever the bakkie a cionado, Peet began counting all the new bakkies on the market and we soon realised we might be on to something. The new Nissan Navara, GWM P-series and Mazda BT-50 versus the Toyota Hilux, Mitsubishi Triton, Isuzu D-max, Volkswagen Amarok and Ford Ranger, and why not throw a couple of outsiders into the mix as well with the Mahindra Pik Up and JAC T8.

By the time we arrived in the windy city, Bakkie Shootout 2021 was born. Performance Shootout with bakkies, we called it. I still had the not-insubstantial task of working through the October issue but I’ll admit a lot of my mental capacity was dedicated to securing a venue, sponsors and getting all 10 double cabs in one province. No mean feat with the poorly timed (is there ever a good time?) civil unrest and eeting return of travel restrictions. Many bakkies, little time ...

From there, the idea took hold and continued to germinate … nay, torment me. To give you an idea, I was playing tennis with Carri-anne when a farmer in a Mahindra Pik Up, towing a trailer loaded to the hilt with garden refuse, pulled into the parking lot next to the tennis court. This snapshot of the workhorse in its natural habitat – being used for the precise task it was built for – completely threw me off. I folded, Carri-anne won game, set and match and I got back to work. How do we incorporate that into our Shootout!? That’s where the idea of challenges, along with subjective votes and category scores came from.

Forget reputation, forget brand loyalty, all 10 double cabs started on a level playing

eld in this Shootout. I even seriously considered covering up the badges and model designations of each bakkie but thought better of it. There’s just not enough gaffer tape in the world to pull that off. Also, the feature would’ve been pretty impossible to read or write without actually naming the vehicles, but you get the idea. And that’s how the tagline “No fear, no favour” wormed its way into my head and became the spirit of this magazine. It all kicks off on page 44.

Enjoy the issue.