Every year in the dead of winter, a host of brave competitors descend on a mystery venue that hosts one of South Africa's premier 4x4 challenge events. The brainchild of South African rally royalty, Sarel van der Merwe, the Spirit of Africa 4x4 challenge gets underway with a contingent of media who are essentially the guinea pigs for that year's obstacle course.
Related: Spirit of Africa 2024
This is AutoTrader's fifth year competing in this prestigious event, which puts the driver and navigator to the ultimate test of patience, skill, and precision. This year, we were paired with Sean Hendley of Dirt and Trail magazine, a seasoned motorcycling journalist who is no stranger to the dust and cold temperatures experienced at the Spirit Challenge.
Off-road-ready Nissan Navara launched!
The Event
The Spirit of Africa never stays at the same venue. In the past few years, it has been hosted in Nelspruit, Limpopo, Bloemfontein, and Zeerust. In 2025, it will return to a region far north of Pretoria at the Sandwani Game Lodge. The host venue must have camping facilities, a full kitchen, and a vast enough area for Oom Sarel to set up his cunning obstacles.
Over the next month, the challenge will host 23 teams per rotation, three rotations per week at the venue, where teams will sleep over. The winning team from each rotation will go through to the final challenge, where the winner will be decided and go on to represent South Africa at the international competition. So many teams want to compete that the event has to cap the number of team entries at 400.
The event comprises a mixture of technically challenging 4x4 sections, fast and flowing rally-style speed stages and a few skill challenges thrown in for good measure. There are 16 stages on the day, with competitors given either points or time for each stage. Striking a pole is either a 10 or 30 point penalty from the 100 you start the stage with, and for every second you are late passing the finish line, you receive penalty points.
The penalty poles are placed at precise locations on the stage that indicate a skill position or a danger point. Red-flagged poles are danger points; if struck, they are worth 30 points each, while white poles are worth 10 points. Striking a pole means your vehicle was incorrectly positioned or off the driving line.
If you damage a vehicle in any way, you are immediately removed from the event and sent home.
The Vehicle
The weapons in use for the 2025 edition are the newly minted special edition Warrior Nissan Pro4X double cabs. These vehicles were launched in early 2025 and have all the features that Nissan offers in a premium double-cab. As part of a collaboration between Nissan and Australian engineering firm Premcar, South Africa is the first market outside Australia to build and offer the Warrior. Manufactured at Nissan’s Rosslyn plant near Pretoria, the Warrior boasts a 2.5-litre DDTi turbo-diesel engine, putting out 140kW of power and 450Nm of torque.
Premcar’s enhancements to the Navara include a reinforced suspension with newly tuned springs and dampers, increased ride height and ground clearance, a wider track, a heavy-duty bash plate, reinforced underbody, and high-performance all-terrain tyres – all designed to withstand the most punishing landscapes Africa has to offer.
Once again, the event sponsor, Dunlop, supplied the Warriors with tyres made of its Grand Trek series of rugged 4x4-ready rubber.
Points finish
With a total of 948 points out of 1,200, Brendon Staniforth (Maroela Media) and Oliver Keohane (Leisure Wheels) claimed the top spot, followed by Reuben van Niekerk (Wheels24) and Denis Droppa (Business Day) in second place, and Willem van de Putte (IOL) and Anton Willemse (4x4 Africa) in third. Sean and I finished in a respectable 6th place out of the 12 teams, not too shabby considering we have never driven together. I was suitably impressed with the man's driving skills, especially when going backwards!
Despite the negative sentiment concerning the future of Nissan in South Africa and globally, the event staff and folks from Nissan seem very upbeat about the future, even commenting on the Spirit event for 2026 and what we could see happening. We thoroughly enjoy this event and the elements of skill and competitiveness it inspires in all those who enjoy putting themselves and their 4x4 to the test.
