Dealers, manufacturers battle it out at Simola Hillclimb

Crowds nearing 20 000 travel to the coastal town of Knysna to see the country’s fastest road cars, modified saloons and single seaters race up the Simola hill.

Testament to the success of this event is the tremendous support it enjoys from dealers and manufacturers who use it to showcase what their cars and engineering prowess can do.

Reghard Roets, in his powerful BB Motorsport Nissan GT-R, took second place.

Dealers battling it out:

Speedy Car Sales, the renowned Klerksdorp dealer was present on both Classic Car Friday and the weekend’s King of the Hill competition for more modern machinery with owner Farouk Dangor piloting a BMW M3 and a Nissan GT-R up the hill over the three days.

This very special BMW M3 is an ex British Touring car which came to SA in the early 90s when the German Touring cars raced here in South Africa, and it was then acquired by Farouk for local competition.

The Speedy Car Sales Group N Opel Kadett Superboss was in action at the hands of Craig Czank on Friday.

As always, BB Motorsport, the performance arm of the BB Group, brought out the big guns. BB Motor Group Owner and CEO, Arnold du Plessis, entered the rather large, yet extremely powerful Nissan Patrol fitted with a supercharger and Black Hawk kit all weekend long and took it to second place in Class B9.

Reghard Roets, behind the wheel of the BB Motorsport Nissan GT-R, was one of the fastest cars overall all weekend long, dipping under the 40 second mark on Saturday already.

In the overall King of the Hill standings, Anton Zeelie, driving a highly modified Toyota MR2 set a blistering time of 37.090 seconds to take the title.

Manufacturer presence:

This year no fewer than nine manufactures entered cars in the competitive element of the Simola Hillclimb.

Suzuki was back with a trio of cars, including the recently launched Swift, the all-conquering Jimny and the performance-focused Swift Sport.

BMW entered their sporty M2 and M4, with the latter setting the second fastest road car time of the weekend. A Mini John Cooper Works in Castrol livery netted second place in the B1 class.

Mercedes-Benz fielded three cars, including the AMG GT SE, AMG C63 SE and AMG GLC 63 SE. Mercedes-AMG driving instructor Clint Weston piloted the AMG GT SE to overall victory in the road car category of the event.

MG, a new entrant in the market, fielded their 375kW Cyberster and 155kW MG3 but were unfortunately plagued by battery overheating problems all weekend.

Stellantis sent their Alfa Romeo Stelvio and Opel Corsa Irmscher up the hill. Janus Janse van Rensburg aboard the Alfa Romeo managed to clinch the SUV class victory.

Volkswagen targeted the race car categories, entering modified versions of their popular Supa Polo race car as well as the lighting fast Volkswagen Polo RX1E, boasting 500kW and piloted by multiple Rally Cross World Champion Johan Kristofferson. The Rally Cross car was hampered by shorter gearing, which limited its top speed but managed to set the third fastest time in the modified saloon car class.

Ford were in attendance with a whole host of modified Mustangs, including a Roush 5.0, Shelby Super Snake and Shelby Terlingua fielded by Shelby South Africa.