Action-packed line-up for 2016 Jaguar Simola Hillclimb
The 2016 Jaguar Simola Hillclimb will host the country's largest gathering of road and race cars when Knysna is transformed into South Africa's motorsport capital from 6 to 8 May 2016.
Of particular interest to motorsport enthusiasts is the King of the Hill challenge, along with the all-new SuperCar Shootout, which sees a line-up of over 80 cars from 30 manufacturers being driven up the 1.9 km hillclimb course at breathtaking speeds on the Saturday and Sunday. The entries include hot hatchbacks to performance sedans, exotic supercars and even Le Mans and Formula One racers.
Race-bred machinery
The current lap record of 40.148 sec was set by last year’s winner, Des Gutzeit, in his modified 1400 hp Nissan GT-R, achieving an average speed of over 170 km/h from a standing start for the challenging 1.9 km road course.
While Dezzi will be back to defend his title and aims to break the 40 sec barrier, he will face off against a brace of rivals, including Anton Cronje and Geoff Mortimer in their heavily modified Mitsubishi Lancer Evos in Class B1 for four-cylinder turbocharged cars. Cronje finished a close second to Sarel van der Merwe in 2009, while Mortimer won the event in 2010 thus they will both be formidable competitors.
Once again Nissan GT-Rs will be out in force in Class B2 for modified six-cylinder racing cars. Des Gutzeit will be going up against 2011 winner Wilhelm Baard, last year’s third-placed finisher Darron Gudmanz, as well as Reghardt Roets – all driving highly tuned GT-Rs with around 1 400 hp on tap! 2015 runner-up Sav Gualtieri will also be back in his rapid BMW 335i racer.
Class B3 caters for turbocharged and supercharged eight-cylinder vehicles, and features the wild Jaguar XJR (otherwise known as ‘The Beast’) driven by Rory Beattie, along with Thouca Mechanicos in his distinctive chrome Mercedes-Benz C55 AMG, and Paige Lindenberg in a new Shelby Super Snake Ford Mustang GT.
A wide range of cars are spread across classes B4 to B6 for four, six and eight-cylinder race cars respectively. The latter class includes the WesBank Modifieds-era 6.3-litre V8 Opel Rekord of Willie Hepburn, and rally ace Enzo Kuun in a Ford-powered V8 Masters car. Single-seater and sports racing cars make up Class C, spread across five categories based on engine size. The main interest will be focused on Class C5 with 2014 champion Franco Scribante launching his bid for a second King of the Hill title in a 1972 Chevron B29. This lightweight sports racer is powered by a specially developed 2.9-litre V8 derived from two Suzuki motorcycle engines.
Another headline act is the first-ever Formula One car to take on the Simola Hill. Motorsport enthusiast and racer Andre Bezuidenhout will make his hillclimb debut in a 1989 Dallara F189, powered 3.5-litre Ford V8 engine – a special treat for F1 fans.
Road car field
While the array of race-bred machinery will dominate the overall fastest times throughout the weekend, there’s plenty on offer from the road car field too. Class A1 for four-cylinder two-wheel drive cars features the all-new Jaguar XE sports sedan that was unveiled at the Hillclimb last year, and will be driven a selection of SA’s fastest motoring journalists.
A2 caters for faster two or four-wheel drive four-cylinder entries, and includes two modified VW Golf Rs, a Porsche 944 Turbo and a Subaru Impreza WRX STi. With no entries for A3, next up is Class A4, which is dominated by road-legal Nissan GT-Rs. Class A5 is home to normally aspirated four-cylinder models, while A6 is for six-cylinder non-boosted entries such as the Porsche 911 GT3. Exclusivity steps up several notches in Class A7 which is the playground of the exotics, comprising a Lamborghini Aventador, Ferrari 458 Italia and Mercedes-Benz CLK63 Black.
Turbocharged and supercharged sports cars are grouped in Class A8, headed by the two official Jaguar F-Type Coupé R entries, driven by Dawie Olivier and Gary Formato. The class also features a McLaren 650s and, for a bit of a twist, a supercharged 5.0-litre V8 Shelby Ford Ranger pickup driven by Peter Lindenberg. New to this year’s event is Class A9 for hybrid cars, which features the BMW i8.
An exciting addition to this year’s Jaguar Simola Hillclimb is the SuperCar Shootout, which runs in conjunction with King of the Hill. On completion of the respective class finals, drivers of road going, street legal, supercars that have registered to compete in this special category instead of the King of the Hill will take to the hill, thus creating a whole new level of excitement as the exotic supercars battle it out for glory.
