Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2018 i Leisure Wheels

05/18 Issue no 169 I write this a few days after the 2018 South African Guild of Motoring Journalists’ Car of the Year winner was announced. The Porsche Panamera won the competition, as voted for by a small panel of motoring journalists. And so it became the fourth Porsche in the past six years to win the competition. Make no mistake: any modern Porsche bats at the sharpest end of motoring technology, innovation, excellence and performance. The Panamera is a perfect example of this ethos. But the Panamera range starts at R1.4 million and in February 2018, Porsche sold just eight of them in South Africa. The announcement sent shock waves through the local motoring industry. A Porsche? Again? What’s the point of entering then, asked some rivals? It was…

According to scientists, this massive sea of sand was created from the sands of the Orange River, swept north with the Benguela current, washed out on the beaches of the Skeleton Coast and blown to the interior with the prevailing southwesterly wind. Not only was sand deposited on these shores, but so were the diamonds of the Namib. Where there are diamonds, there is money. And where there is money, there is greed. Because of this, there are many lessons to be learnt from the Namib. The Namib is an unforgiving land. Only the fittest survive. Only the determined succeed. Only those who obey the rules endure. Driving through the diamond areas, specifically Sperrgebiet No 2, the area north of Lüderitz, stretching all the way to the Kuiseb River, makes…

THE arrival of a new Subaru at our office, inevitably, elicits the same behavioural patterns: car arrives, papers are signed. We inspect it. We jump in and drive it around the block. We park it, suitably impressed and willing the time to go by quickly so we can drive it home. While we wait, and after we’ve jabbered excitedly about the Boxer engine this and Symmetrical all-wheel-drive system that, we get curious about sales figures, and we look them up. This is followed by gasps of disbelief… thing is, Subaru sells cars in South Africa. They just don’t sell nearly as many as you’d think they should. The Outback 3.6R-S’ arrival was no different. However, the sales figures were not quite relevant yet, this is the latest incarnation of the…

I’VE always been fond of the outdoors and overly curious about new places and nature in general. Travelling, exploring and doing something that takes you out of your comfort zone once in a while is in my DNA. It has resulted in extensive travelling on four continents. I love being in new places. I love the wilderness, seeing, smelling and hearing different things. Most of all, though, I love arid landscapes. In 1982, I travelled the Kaokoveld with Norbert Magura’s Vahimba Safari, cruising in three Land Rovers from the Hoanib to the Kunene, visiting Southern Africa’s finest remote wilderness area, accessible only by 4×4. It has the reputation for being both inhospitable and for possessing magnificent natural beauty. Now, equipped with many years of off-road experience, the right gear and…

OKAY, so these used guides are usually written to provide useful consumer advice to those shopping around in the secondhand car market, in a specific market segment. This month, we offer something completely different and off the wall: a listing of over-the-top, ‘my wallet is bigger than yours’ vehicles. Just in case you are (very) well heeled and have given up on thinking of ways to spend a few million. As an added bonus, we looked at whether the car would be an appreciating asset, or a bit of a dud. For the rest of us, we can dream a bit too, right? PRICE: R15 000 000 (in Dubai). YEAR: 2017 ENGINE: Six-litre V12 bi-turbo MILEAGE: 65km THE GOOD: Sipping champagne while the driver does all the hard work. Sounds…

If you covered the Haval badges inside the H6 Coupé cabin, and asked Joe Soap to guess what car they were in (without seeing the exterior first), chances are a good few would guess they were in the cabin of a modern Audi of sorts. This month, we take a closer look at the H6 C office space. 1. STEERING WHEEL The sporty three-spoke steering wheel feels surprisingly, well, sporty. Remote buttons for infotainment and Bluetooth phone connection are okay, but a fiddly rotary dial is initially tricky to use. Paddle shifters for the dual clutch gearbox feel surprisingly purposeful, but in practice, the computer does a grand job of swapping gears. 2. INSTRUMENT PANEL A central screen displays various info but when the low fuel warning is activated, you…

FOR some years, the factory Toyota Gazoo Racing SA team has had it very much its own way in the national cross country series. The works Toyota Gazoo team essentially uses the local off-road championship as official test sessions for its Dakar campaign. The factory Hilux bakkies have been running in Dakar FIA specification, with only a handful of privateers, also with Dakar stars in their eyes, competing in the FIA class. However, none of these privateer teams have been able to compete with the Toyota factory team budget or expertise. The privateer drivers were fast but not as fast as the factory Toyota Gazoo drivers. Most of the top privateers competed in Class T: a more affordable class, but also one that, due to technical limitations, could never compete…

Thank you Leisure Wheels for the amazing prize, I took part in the Battle of the Dunes 2018 from Sunday, 4 February to Friday, the 9th. This was by far the most incredible adventure that I have ever experienced. Although the dunes were challenging at times, I’ve learnt a lot, improved my driving skills and, most importantly, had a lot of fun. Sharing this experience with my dad (see photo above) made it even more special. I will definitely take up the challenge again in order to make more memories.…

If you had no idea who he was, and you met Hannes Grobler at a braai at a friend’s house, you’d never guess he’s one of South Africa’s most successful racing drivers of all time. He’s just an unassuming, friendly man, with no airs about him. He’s got plenty of jokes, too. Yet this is the same man who not only created the legendary 650 horsepower Nissan Skyline Turbo 4×4 rally beast to take on the (almost) unbeatable Audi quattros, but also drove that Nissan in such a sideways fashion that he hardly ever used the windscreen to see where he was heading. And beat the Quattro. He famously retired in the ’90s and landed up as a spectator on the famous Sasol Rally, in the Mpumalanga forests. Watching the…

It was a busy month on the international motor show scene; first Geneva dished up interesting new concepts, and later New York added a few concepts and production models. These are some of the New York highlights. TOYOTA’S FIFTH RAV4 DUE NEXT YEAR Toyota showed its all-new RAV4… and it’s a pretty radical departure on all fronts over the previous generation recreational all-activity vehicle (RAV). It will be powered by, among others, a new 2.5-litre four-cylinder petrol, which will eventually also have an electric motor bolted to it for additional power. The standard petrol will use an eight-speed automatic transmission to send power to an all-new all-wheel-drive system (so the CVT is no more, it seems). The RAV4 will arrive locally in the second half of 2019. NEW AMAROK? This…

FOR off-roaders, there’s nothing better than going out for a weekend off-roading or having a bash around at a 4×4 pay-andplay site. Maybe, if you’re really serious about your 4×4 overlanding, you’ll go on a proper overseas off-roading adventure to Morocco or Botswana. But if you want to explore a little further afield, you’ll come across a geographical limitation because first you have to reach the starting point of your chosen expedition, which is an expedition in itself. This is where Fly-Drive companies come in. After working for nearly 20 years with huge trans-Asian expeditions, Russia’s Aljona Dudashili and her husband, Andrei, are downscaling slightly to focus on more family-and friend-oriented offroading holiday tours in their home country. Run with all the experience amassed from decades of organising high-end expeditions…

HALF a bar can get you a lot of secondhand metal in South Africa. You could, for example, get a low mileage Isuzu KB 250 double cab and a decent second-hand hot hatch, like a Mini Cooper S, or Suzuki Swift Sport. Heck, for R500 000 you can get a whole fleet of cars. Your driveway may be impossible to traverse due to the oil leaks, but at least you’ll have a bunch of interesting conversation starters parked on it. What about overseas markets, especially since South Africans traditionally pay comparatively more for their wheels than many international buyers? A word of caution then: in certain parts of the world, preowned vehicles are ridiculously cheap, so prepare to be thoroughly depressed. 5 USA! USA! USA! American budget: $40 000 Turns…

The Mathole 4×4 trail, situated just north of Pretoria, is but 7km long. It is set in a dry river bed, littered with large rocks and boulders. If you drive a super-capable Jeep Wrangler Rubicon with larger-than-life tyres, lockers for every differential you have, powerful engines and a few other tricks, too, then it will still take you eight hours to complete that 7km. That’s eight hours! The trail is said to have started out as a motocross bike playing area only, the first 4×4s only recently braving this extreme track. Interestingly, there seems to be a growing demand for such extreme 4×4 challenges among the men and women with their oversized 4WDs. If you plan on tackling Mathole, you’ll need a highly capable 4×4. Even a standard Jeep Wrangler…

So there was Hennie*, taking snaps of the brand new 4×4, at a beautiful seaside location. There was even a lovely model, too. Hennie had arrived at the media launch venue of the new 4×4 a day ahead of the rest of the regular motoring journalist crowd, specifically to exclusively photograph the new vehicle. The vehicle he was photographing was one of only a handful of vehicles that were available for the media, so he had promised he would look after it like gold. With the photos in the bag, and on the way back to the venue, disaster… Hennie did not see a rather immovable branch that waited in ambush around a corner on the very narrow tweespoor track and… scraaaaaatch! Oh bugger. There was a dent and very…

I read GG van Rooyen’s article on electronic park brakes in your March 2018 issue and I was intrigued, as I have always had the good ol’ standard handbrake in all the vehicles that I’ve owned. My sister has a 2017 Volvo V60 Cross Country and subsequently I borrowed it for a day, just for the hell of it. I drove it round town on my usual routes with a fair amount of parking, as I had some purchases to make and although it’s a small detail I must admit that I’m sold on the EPB. It’s neat, compact, works well and seeing as I’ve left the thought of ‘pulling doughnuts’ way behind me, I can say that this is a piece of new technology that an old timer such…

We recently tested Fujifilm’s brand-new flagship X model, the X-H1 mirrorless camera. What’s a mirrorless camera you ask and why would you want one? A mirrorless camera, as the name suggests comes sans a mirror and a prism inside the body, and instead allows light to pass through the lens and directly onto the image sensor. The main advantages are twofold: the body is lighter, and high-end mirrorless cameras are also known to shoot better video footage than a traditional DSLRs. Fujifilm has taken the popular mirrorless X-T2 and improved it; the X-H1 uses a a 25% thicker magnesium alloy than the X-T2 and the structure for attaching the mount is modified, resulting in a more robust, compact and lighter body. It is also dust-resistant, water-resistant and can operate in…

It was 2016. We were on a highway near Turin, Italy, for the international launch of the Fiat Fullback bakkie. The next moment, three blacked-out Maserati Levantes blasted past our bakkie at the speed of light. At that time, details on the new SUV’s engine or engines were sketchy. But we were pretty convinced it was the howl of a V6 petrol engine that accompanied the speeding Masers. It was a soul-stirring moment. The Levante arrived in South Africa amid much hype and anticipation. And the company revealed that it will be importing only a turbodiesel version. It was a sad day We’ve got nothing against diesel. It’s a perfectly adequate fossil fuel for powering normal SUVs, bakkies, hatches and cars. But when it comes to delivering a ‘sporty’ driving…

Change gears and shift out of your comfort zone. One of these guided self-drive safaris could be that once-in-lifetime adventure you’ve always dreamt about. For more information on any of these tours, or to book your trip: Email: lwtravel@ramsaymedia.co.za Website: leisurewheels.co.za/travel-packages/or phone Inshaaf Amos @ Tel: 021 530 3380 ISIMANGALISO TURTLE TOUR 2 – 8 DECEMBER 2018 The turtle season stretches from the beginning of November and continues until mid-March when the nesting and hatching season comes to an end. Kosi Bay is the best place in South Africa for a turtle tour. We will overnight three nights in a B&B in Sodwana Bay before travelling via Lake Sibaya, Rocktail Bay and Lala Nek to Kosi Bay where we will stay in a self-catering tented camp for three nights. This…

SO you’ve signed on the dotted line for that expensive new SUV you’ve always dreamt about. And that long-planned trip to wild Botswana is around the corner. But then the big worry starts… what if your dream wheels gets even the faintest scratch from a bush? Just the thought of it! This is where LLumar’s self-healing paint protection film fits into the picture: a film designed specifically to protect your valuable assset without anyone even knowing it’s there. You see, some luxury vehicle manufacturers have been installing film to their vehicles in select areas that endure the harshest conditions. This is a way of fending off wear and tear for many years, and locations such as wheel arches, door sills and even fuel caps are common for this treatment. This…

For Maurice Symes, there has never been a time when he wasn’t aware of his 1957 Series 1 Land Rover. As a toddler in the 1960s, he remembers being perched in the back on day-long shooting expeditions to the Standerton district, with his father and the owner of the Landy, Herbie Ririe, chatting away up front. “The Land Rover was always around at our house,” explains Maurice today. “Herbie and my father were lifelong friends and Herbie drove this Land Rover as a commuter on occasion, and for his hunting trips all over Africa. “Herbie lived close by in the eastern suburbs of Johannesburg, and he remained close to my mother after my dad died. He had no family of his own and when he died, he left his estate…