Contrary to what the movies would have us believe, you don’t actually need a DeLorean fitted with a Flux Capacitor to travel back into the depths of time. Nope, all it takes to get an authentic taste of yesteryear is a trip to the 10th International Historic Race Day set to take place from 28 – 30 January at Zwartkops Raceway situated just outside Pretoria.
An event envisioned by the track’s owner and veteran racecar driver, Peter du Toit, this festival of speed is a veritable wormhole to that golden age of motorsport that shone so brightly back in the 1950s and 1960s. A time where the so-called Baby Boomers basked in a fleeting period of post-war innocence, not only did it reflect the angst-filled mood of the day but also did much to mirror the rooty fire of rebellion swooping through most of the world’s youth. Similar to the way guitar-wielding rock gods like Elvis and Chuck Berry pushed traditional values and norms with their plectrums, young men with a thirst for speed caused a nationwide rumpus as they started tinkering with their automobiles.
Replacing service rifles with ratchets and a whole lot of mechanical ingenuity, these early pioneers set about modding whatever cars they could get their greasy hands on; stripping them bare and rebuilding them to go as fast as the technology of the day would allow.
A motoring craze revolutionized by a relatively niche group of Californian hot-rodders, it quickly spread; sparking through the system and causing a popular culture explosion. From drag-racing weekend warriors to pockets of amateur circuit racers, every petrolhead worth his salt wanted a piece of the high-octane action. And so too did the manufacturers.
From nimble European sports cars made by boutique companies like Lotus and Jaguar to America’s AC Cobra, marques now gave no quarter when it came to building and indeed marketing their race-orientated hardware. To be expected, these exotic two-seaters soon became common sights around the globe’s racetracks but, being endowed with a price tag to match, not everybody could afford to splurge on their pedigreed levels of performance. In other words, although playboy enthusiasts like James Dean were capable of coughing up the dough to buy a Porsche Spyder, those without a Hollywood pay-cheque couldn’t.
Fortunately for the man in the street, some of the more mainstream players in the motor market took note of this little issue and began fashioning more raunchy versions of their everyday saloons. In fact no matter what side of the Atlantic you lived on, there was now a smorgasbord of factory-fresh performance metal to suit your pocket, taste and lifestyle.
Whether you sided with the finely tuned Renault Gordinis and Mini Coopers that took Europe by storm or America’s hooligan Shelby Mustang and Camaro Z28, the industry’s fixation with building affordable racing cars for the road caused a revelation that could rival anything within the realms of music, fashion, art or politics. Indeed, it just takes a quick spin of some vintage Beach Boys vinyl to hear the effect Motown was having.
Needless to say these poster cars of the late 1950s and early 1960s soon spilled out onto the racetrack where chiseled men with petrol in their veins battled it out for champagne, victory and pit girls. Concerned not about their safety, the antics of these early motorsport pioneers drew massive crowds; not just because of their skill but because the machines they drove were in reach of the common man. Simply put, whatever won on Sunday could be bought on Monday. Try that today and you’ll have to sell both your kidneys.
Yes, it was an exciting time all right, and one that actually played out with great success right here in South Africa. And perhaps the most seminal event of this devil-may-care era was the 9-Hour than ran at packed-out venues like Grand Central and, later, Kyalami. A grueling test of endurance that attracted drivers from around the globe, its legacy has been instrumental in Du Toit’s pursuit of developing the local historic racing scene.
“It was a spectacle to behold,” he says, those eyes lighting up behind his glasses. “I mean who will ever forget the time a little Renault R8 Gordini nailed Ferraris and GT40s in the rain at Kyalami? Or when that great big red Ford Galaxie used to mix it up with nimble little Lotus 23s. Honestly, it was like a whale the way it used fly through those corners.”
A man who’s deeply passionate about these halcyon days of racing, Du Toit is now busy rekindling the romance and excitement of this period with his homegrown Etana Legends of the 9-Hour series. Just one of the many classes set to shake the cage of spectators at this year’s annual International Historic Race Day, the provisional lineup looks set to include nine V8 muscle cars all followed closely by a pack of Alfas, Anglias and Minis.
Even more impressive is the scope of drivers who’ve signed-up to do duty behind the wheels of this heavy metal hoard. With famous names like Sarel van der Merwe, Hennie Groenewald, Ian Scheckter, Paolo Cavalieri and Alan Minshaw emblazoned down those steely flanks, you can be sure of some proper balls-to-the-wall racing from the start right up until the checkered flag flutters. Forget the clinical world of modern production cars, this is the essence of motorsport and it kicks you in the gut harder than a shot of wit-blitz.
But the action doesn’t stop at brawny blue-collared saloons. Started back in 2000 with the help of motorsport gurus Mike Knight and David Piper, this 10th annual spectacular also comes armed with a whole lot of other vintage racing metal from motorsports finest hour.
Looking as if they’ve just leapt from the grainy frames of Steve McQueen’s cult 1971 racing flick, Le Mans, you can expect to melt your eyeballs upon the Technicolored silhouettes of Porsche 917s, Ford GT40s and Lola T70s. Sleek, purpose-built sports cars bolted to engines that’ll give eco-loving liberals apoplexy, they’re still genuinely capable of lapping the Zwartkops circuit with the same ferocity as their modern day equivalents.
Yet the car endowed with the biggest crowd-pleasing kudos has to be the menacing black McLaren M8F that’s going to be driven by European GT4 stalwart, Michael Campagne. A survivor from the dangerously excessive Can-Am racing series of the early 1970s, this mean monument to speed once cranked out nearly 1000 kilowatts and could top out in the region of 360km/h. Only racecar drivers with serious cohunes could keep beasts like these in check and even then, many lost their lives in some horrific high-speed smashes.
Indeed, thanks to the enthusiasm of Peter du Toit and the rest of the Zwartkops crew, it’s safe to say that we’re in for one helluva show; a pageant of historic racing goodness that’ll get adrenalin glands pumping harder than a set of big-bore pistons. Forget about mad scientists and temperamental time machines, with the 10th International Historic Race Day you can revisit the glory of the past without having to leave the present.