Simola Hillclimb is to South Africa what Goodwood Festival of Speed is to the UK. Sure, it’s not as grand an event as the British hillclimb, but ask any South African petrol head to name one must-attend event, and they will undoubtedly mention Knysna's celebration of motoring, which sees all manner of machinery tackle the 1.9km road up to Simola Hotel. Here’s everything we experienced at the event’s breathtaking 15th edition.
Classic Conquerers
Having totalled my beloved Alfa Romeo 75 after a suspension failure en-route to cover the event last year, I set out with just a smidge of trepidation in my supercharged 1991 Mazda MX-5. Thankfully, despite 7 hours of torrential rain, I made it to Knysna in one piece, just in time to witness Classic Car Friday, which saw a plethora of vintage machinery contend with surprisingly dreary conditions.
The driver of the 7.0-litre V8-powered Corvette certainly had his hands full, with a great deal of wheel spin off the starting line, while even the lower-powered Datsun GX Coupes made up for lost traction with their impressive burnouts winning over the crowds. Thankfully, conditions began improving and the track dried out as the day progressed, allowing spectators to revel in the noise from monsters like the Chevron B19 screaming up the hill at full tilt. In the end, it was Charles Arton’s March 79a single-seater that won the class, dispatching the course in an impressive 44.436 second run up the hill.
Burnouts at Blue Hour
As the classics were cooling down after a day of hard competition, we migrated to Knysna’s picturesque waterfront for the annual parade. Thousands of people line the holiday town’s streets as the sun begins to set for the chance to witness the hillclimb competitors demonstrate their considerable horsepower figures with magnificent smoky burnouts. Among the lineup, we spotted every generation of the legendary Nissan GT-R, from R32 right up to R35, including Franco Scribante’s dual-winged time attack monster (more on that later), but surprisingly it was a wide body LS7 V8-powered BMW Z4 that made the most dramatic display of vaporising its tyres.
It’s a Polo Party
Volkswagen Polo has cemented itself in South African car culture above any other model — except for the Citi Golf, perhaps — and its no surprise as the Polo is manufactured exclusively at Volkswagen’s Eastern Cape plant in Kariega. So, to properly celebrate the iconic model’s 50th birthday, Volkswagen sent their works team with a handful of Polo World Rallycross cars — wearing the magnificent 50th anniversary Harlequin livery — alongside seven-time world rallycross champion Johan Kristoffersson and his championship-winning fully-electric Polo RX1e. Anyone who tells you electric cars are boring hasn’t seen this 670 horsepower all-wheel-drive beast launch off the starting line, because the sound and speed are truly something else.
King of the Hill
With the weekend came the start of the King of the Hill shootout in earnest. This is where the weekend’s most fearsome machinery finally managed to start setting some times, with the plethora of Nissan GT-Rs quickly setting themselves apart as competitors to watch. However, there was one car we found ourselves returning to time and time again, and that was Franco Scribante’s missile of an R35 Nissan GT-R. Equipped with not one, but two enormous DRS-enabled wings at the front and rear, according to Franco this camo-green time attack machine can produce up to 2 tonnes of downforce, while its completely overhauled V6 produces between 1,400hp and 1,600hp depending on the state of tune. Despite the impressive spec sheet, Franco revealed that the team was still developing the suspension setup, and so they weren’t able to fully demonstrate what this mighty GT-R was capable of.
In the end, the winner of the Modified Saloon Car shootout wasn’t a GT-R, or even Johan Kristoffersson in his Polo RX1e, but the meanest third-generation MR-2 we’ve ever laid eyes on. Driven by Peter Zeelie up the hill in just 37.090 seconds, this 1,030 horsepower, 3.5-litre V6 powered Toyota proved the rear-wheel-drive machines can still hold their own against the all-wheel-drive rockets from the likes of Nissan and Audi. Meanwhile, the road and supercar shootout was won by Clint Weston at the wheel of a new Mercedes-AMG GT 63 S E Performance, beating out a McLaren 720S and Audi R8 V10 Plus, while the fastest single-seater of the day was the Formula VW Reynard driven by Byron Mitchell.
Overall, it’s incredible to see just how far this event has come since I attended the very first edition of the Simola Hillclimb as a young car-obsessed lad. Having been spoiled by Europe's numerous fantastic automotive celebrations, I was worried Simola wouldn’t compare, but how wrong I was. The gorgeous setting of Knysna is simply the cherry on top of a world-class petrol-fuelled extravaganza.
Unfortunately, however, this weekend was not entirely positive. Tragically, Pieter Joubert — a widely-loved figure in the local car scene — lost his life during his first run on Sunday morning when a mechanical failure caused his AMG V8-powered Lotus to veer off the track. It was a shocking reminder of just how dangerous motorsport can be, and the entire Classic Driver team extends our condolences to his family and friends.
Photos by Mikey Snelgar
