What is a hillclimb?
Pretty much since the invention of the car, drivers have been challenging themselves and others to see who can get to a destination the fastest. With a hillclimb, it is exactly that, who can get to the top of a hill the fastest. The first hillclimb was done in Nice, France in 1897 and has since spread around the globe. Modern hillclimbs can be seen all over the world with drivers and their vehicles taking on a stretch of road that climbs in elevation usually featuring challenging corners and high-speed straights.
Related: The hills are alive! - Simola Hillclimb
Some of the most famous hillclimb events are the Pikes Peak International Race to the Clouds, the Goodwood Festival of Speed, and off course here locally, the Simola HillClimb. The Simola event has just completed it's 13th running up the 1.9km stretch of twisty tar and is an all-in-one festival that basically shuts down its hometown of Knysna for 3 days as entrants converge on the sleepy coastal town to pit themselves against the hill and the clock. The Simola hillclimb is a very prestigious event and entry is capped at 70 cars for the Classic Car Friday and 80 cars for the Saturday and Sunday King of the Hill and Shootout so just getting a chance to compete is a win in itself.
What's all the hubub?
Well be honest here, Hillclimb racing is quite a nerdy sport, success is measured in micro measurements, millimetres instead of metres, milliseconds instead of seconds and single kilowatts over horsepower. The difference between winning and losing is razor-thin and on all courses, there is no room for error if you want to win. This does of course appeal to perfectionists and individuals that want to challenge themselves and have really deep pockets, as the incremental gains are measured in hundreds of thousands of rands in development costs.
Take a stroll through the pit lane on race day, and you will be greeted with millions of rands worth of purpose-built race cars some defying reality with huge aero wings and massive slick tyres. Strangely enough, the front end of the grid that features ex-F1 cars and highly tuned open-wheel racers fails to capture the attention of the multitude of fans lining the hill but rather it is the standard production cars and modified saloon cars that garner the most cheers. This is most likely down to the fact that everyone knows an open race car is fast and nimble but the question of how fast you can make a standard street car go by modifying it beyond belief and sharpening the drivers' skill to fine edge seems to grab the attention of the crowd.
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Standard production cars you say?
The last few years at Simola have been a little dry, unlike previous years when local manufacturers clamoured to bring the fastest cars to take on the hill. This year was somewhat different as a number of local brands brought out some of their halo cars to play. BMW brought a fleet of cars ranging from well-known classic racing cars and current performance M vehicles as well as some of their fully electric cars, Honda brought their brand new recently launched Type R Civic driven by SA race ace Deon Joubert, Toyota drove down from Johannesburg and competed in the new GR Corolla, Mercedes-AMG brought out two A45s, one driven by F1 legend Mika Salo and VW trucked in a fleet of Golf 8 R and GTi's, as well as their current race cars and a museum-worthy WRX Polo, piloted by international rally driver Petter Solberg. Ford South Africa and Shelby also brought with them gaggle of blue ovaled racers, mostly Mustangs and a lone Ranger Raptor that wowed the crowds with its antics.
Petter Solberg has competed in SA before
Our media hosts, Suzuki, also had their finger in the pie again with three Suzuki Swift Sports that took the fight to the top dogs with one stepping onto the podium in second place. All of this just went to prove that you don't need to have a multi-million rand race car to go up the hill and set a sub 1 minute time. Fans enjoyed watching cars that they can actually buy set some blistering times, but it was the Suzuki Swift Sports that stole the production car challenge, chasing and edging each other's times every run, very often on the absolute edge.
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Everyone loves a super modified
Arguably the most hotly contested at the hillcimb is the modified saloon car category. Here teams put a year's worth of development into just a few short runs and this is where the most cerebral side of the challenge takes place. You can have 2000hp but it's useless if you can't control it or put it down onto the road, you can have the perfect suspension setup but if the driver's skill is not fighter pilot perfect it's of no use, you have to balance all the aspects that make a perfectly clean run and this is easier said than done. One microsecond or unforced error can cost you the event and this is most likely why people love this so much.
Once the event gets to the pointy end, everyone gathers around the various timing screens to follow each run with each driver either pipping his competition or failing to do so which is usually followed by collective groans and cheers from the crowd. Highly modified Nissan Skylines, supercars of all shapes and sizes and engine-swapped sportscars are the order of the day and are the machines that keep the crowd on the edge of their seats all day.
What's the fastest production car in South Africa?
Exhibition class
This is a fairly new class added by the organizers where the event puts vehicles that are not officially competing or being timed but is simply eye candy for the spectators. This is where two-wheel fans will find themselves, Suzuki fielded a new DL1050 DE adventure bike and a GSXR 1000 superbike and Honda squeezed in a new CBR1000 FireBlade. MSA and the organizers are still on the fence about officially adding a bike class as this heightens the danger level as the margin for error here is simply non-existent. This is also where they put a monster cloud-making machine in the form of Jason Webb's 5.0 Mustang drift car, a spectacle that left its mark on downtown Knysna and the hill, repeatedly.
Bikes make a showing at Festival of Motoring
The results that matter
The Classic Car Conquerer title was taken by Andre Bezuidenhout in a T460 Lola on Friday, the Sunday shootout would see Franco Scribante edge out Reghard Roets in the modified class with Petter Solberg stealing the show in 3rd place. The Road and Supercar category was dominated by Jean Pierre van der Walt in a Porsche 911 Turbo S with decent showing from the BMW, VW and Mercedes AMG drivers all being within a second or two of each other. The single-seater category was once again taken by Andre Bezuidenhout in his Gould GR55 in a time 37.58 seconds for his sixth consecutive win. Wesley Greybe took a well deserved 2nd place in his Suzuki Swift Sport followed by teammates Sudhir Matai and Kumbi Mtshakazi
For the full results you can visit the Simola HillClimb Results page here
