When you’ve dedicated more than a decade and a half to motoring journalism, there are bound to be a few memorable drives in the memory bank. The sort of drives that people always want to know about. Basically, you won’t believe how often I’m asked: “What’s the best car you’ve ever driven?” I have my favourite cars, of course. Many, in fact, and I could bore you to death about those. But if you’ve been in the game long enough it comes down to the drives themselves. And purely coincidentally, both these memorable drives just so happened to occur at the same place. The home of South African motorsport, Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit. I guess you could say good things always happen at Kyalami …
MEMORABLE DRIVES
The first was my one and only encounter with the exquisite naturally aspirated Ferrari 458 Italia. Leading up to the event, owing to an insurance snafu, it appeared we weren’t going to be allowed drive the cars. Instead, we’d only experience the cars from the passenger seat as Ferrari test drivers (actually called ‘pilots’ by Ferrari) blasted us around the circuit. This promised to be great fun for them, no doubt.
Then, voila, on the day, we arrived to find we could drive after all. I don’t know if God took insurance out for us or what, but I felt so privileged to have the opportunity. Because that car felt like it was touched by the hand of God. And I’m not ashamed to admit, it’s the only time a car made me cry. Simply put, I experienced motoring perfection. The visceral sound, the telepathic handling and the sheer speed of it all. Wow, just wow. I quickly wiped the tear from my eye as I pulled back into pitlane before the Ferrari ‘pilot’ next to me could see it.
TRACK ATTACK
The second of my most memorable drives also took place at the high-altitude racetrack. This time at the wheel of the brutal Japanese supercar – Nissan GT-R Trackpack. Against instructors’ orders, myself and a colleague had secretly been taking everyone’s lap times the whole day. I should mention this was the older, shorter circuit. The quickest times were hovering around 2 minutes and a few seconds.
But my colleague said to me: “You’ll break into the 1-minute-59-second range, I can feel it!” I do love a challenge! Earlier in the day, instructor Jakes Venter gave me great advice on how to get maximum speed out of the Nissan GT-R. “Don’t over-drive the car, this isn’t a 1300 Citi Golf. Calm down and let the car do the work!” I shut everything off inside my head and focused all my attention into one ruthlessly fast lap. Progressive throttle application, precise steering input and incisive braking.
Basically, the key with the GT-R is no unnecessary weight transfer and loss of traction. Back in pitlane, my colleague comes running over to me animatedly with the stopwatch in his hand. “Dude, what was my time!?” I ask. 1 minute and 59 seconds dead, he exclaimed. Utter euphoria! Now that’s something that lives with you forever.
WHAT IS YOUR MOST MEMORABLE DRIVE?
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