South african-only specials through the years

By Stuart Johnston

The recent Knysna Motor Show  brought together one of the finest collections of cars that were developed specifically by South Africans from the 1950s through to the 1990s. The display on the sports fields of the Knysna High School on April 29  inspired us to compile  our own quick list of these cars, many of which have now become world-wide collectables.

1956. The Protea. Long before our cricket team took on the name of the famous Cape wild flower, a chap called John Myers built a fibreglass sports car in Booysens Reserve, just a mine dump away from Jo’burg’s CBD. He built some 15 examples , the base model being fitted with a modest four-cylinder Ford Prefect engine and a three-speed gearbox.

1957. The GSM Dart and Flamingo. Meanwhile three Cape Town-based South Africans were beavering away on their own Ford-powered, much more modern-looking car called the GSM Dart. Willie Meissner, Bob van Niekerk and Verster de Witt created the Dart of which more than 100 examples were built and sold through Ford dealerships. GSM also produced about 70 cars in the UK, where they were sold as GSM Deltas. The GSM Flamingo, produced in 1962 to 1965, was a Ford Taunus-engined GT version of the car. Over 130 Flamingos were sold.

1964. The Renault Alconi. A pair of racing enthusiasts, Puddles Adler and John Conchie, had carved a name for themselves racing Fiats and Renaults, and established a Jo’burg tuning shop called Alconi, specialising in mods for road-going cars. At the end of 1964 they launched the amazing Renault R8 Alconi, which was then sold through Renault dealerships. Using a twin-choke Weber carburettor, hotter camshaft , ported head and branch exhaust, the rear-engined R8 and R10 Alconis could manage close to 160 km/h in an era where the standard R8 and R10 were only good for about 125 km/h! It is believed that some 500 Renault Alconis were produced and sold over a four-year period.

1968. Perana. In late 1967, racing driver and tuner Basil Green established the Perana Car Company. The first model, the Cortina Perana, sold through Grosvenor Motors in Jo’burg, was a Cortina Mk II fitted with a V6 engine from a Ford Zephyr. It managed a top speed of close to 180 km/h and a 0-100 km/h time in the 8,0 second bracket. Later came a Capri V6 and then the immortal Capri Perana V8, using a Mustang 302 cubic inch V8 in the Capri body shell. This car had a mid-six-second 0-100 time and a top speed of 228! Other models followed in the 1970s, including the Ford Escort Perana Mk I (a two-litre Pinto motor in an Escort body-shell), a Mk III Cortina Perana V6, and a Granada Perana V8. Today the Perana name survives , thanks to a Zagato-designed body on a chassis commissioned by Hi-Tech Automotive of Port Elizabeth. The car is now known as the AC 378 Zagato and is globally recognised.

1972. Chevrolet Firenza Can Am. The Chev Firenza, as it was known here, was an English-derived model badged as a Vauxhall in the UK. In South Africa, race driver Basil van Rooyen derived the idea to build a V8-engined Firenza to take on the Capri Perana V8 on the race track. The road-going Chev Can Am, assembled by GM in Port Elizabeth, was super-quick, using a race-developed Z28 motor imported from the US. It ran a 230 km/h top speed and a 0-100 km/h time in the mid-five-second bracket. Just 100 were built, and today the survivors are hugely collectable on the world classic car market. And yes, the Can Am did smoke the Perana on the race track!

1974. Marauder. These were based on the Lotus 7 kit-car idea that established Colin Chapman as a car constructor in the UK in the late 1950s. The brainchild of Randburg enthusiast Peter Meefan, the Marauder was available as a built-up car or a kit, using a fibreglass body and a steel tube chassis underpinned by Ford four-cylinder mechanicals. A surprising number of the 50 reportedly built survive today.

1978 Fiat 131 Racing. This was a homologation special built by Fiat to do battle in South African Group One racing. A total of 100 cars were due to be built, but only 16 made it into production before the ship, containing all the special Autodelta parts to convert the standard 131 into Racing examples, sank, en route to South Africa!

1983 Alfa Romeo GTV6 3.0. The Alfa Romeo GTV6 2.5 was built world-wide, but only a few hundred of the famous GTV6 3.0 models were built in South Africa, once again with racing being the objective in mind. The bored-out three-litre Alfas featured a fibreglass bonnet with an enlarged scoop to house six Dell’Orto carburettors, as well as beautiful Compomotive alloy wheels, and special striping and badges. UK collectors go crazy for the survivors!

1984 Ford Sierra XR8. Ford South Africa couldn’t stand to see Alfa Romeo getting all the race track glory, so they slotted a 5.0-litre V8 into a Sierra body-shell, along with alloy wheels, wheel arch blisters and a giant rear dual-plane wing. The cars did well on the race tracks, and Ford sold some 250 of the road-going examples through dealerships all over South Africa.

BMW 333i. BMW South Africa came up with two homologation specials during this time. One was the 333i, which used a 3,2-litre straight-six motor normally used in the large 7 Series body, in the comparatively tiny E30 3 Series body-shell. Special body dress-up kits and wheels from Alpina made for a fast and sexy package. Unfortunately, racing regs prevented the car from doing much competition on the tracks. Another unique-to-SA BMW at this time was the 745i, a lumbering 7 Series car fitted with the M88 24-valve straight-six originally developed for the M1 sports car. A German-spec 745i also existed, but this used a turbocharged straight-six BMW engine.

*Note to AutoTrader readers. We are aware that this list is far from complete. If there are any other South African-only models you are aware of, drop us a line!