Models of yesteryear take to the road

It was hosted for the 36th year by the Pretoria Old Motor Car at Numbi Hotel from August 13 to 15. The organisers said it’s been held in the escarpment the weekend after the long weekend in August for numerous years and that the area is chosen for its great-to-ride roads and scenery.

The rally is a regularity-and-reliability test held over three days, which gives competitors the opportunity to get their cars out of the garage and compete. The competition was originally only for motorcycles, but since there were few competitive events for vintage cars and the demand was high, provisions were made to include them for the last five or six years.

This year they had 30 entries, consisting of 10 cars and 20 motorcycles most of them from Gauteng. Each participant gets detailed instructions and route directions which they must follow as closely as possible. There were marshals stationed at various places and competitors are penalised for every second they arrive early or late. The entrant with the least number of penalty points is declared the winner. There were between 15 and 20 control points each day of the rally.

Participants followed a different route every day to landmarks and towns like Lydenburg, Sabie, Long Tom Pass, Robbers’ Pass, Ohrigstad, White River and Sudwala Caves. They also had lunch at places like Mac Mac Pools and Sudwala Caves. According to the organisers, their accident rate is almost non-existent as the contestants have to travel very carefully and at low speeds. They also mentioned that navigators are very important (usually in the case of cars) and that the driver and navigator have to be in sync to do well in the competition.

There are four different classes: A for pre-1961 motorcycles, B for post-1961, C for motor vehicles and D for touring class. To increase the difficulty level of the competition, the speedometers in the first three classes are covered. This means that competitors measure their speed in various ways, like looking at certain markers or beacons.  “When the speedo is covered, competitors have to know their cars, the nuances, as they have to determine how fast the vehicle is going by this,” one of the marshals mentioned.

Since competitors have to focus on their route schedules and the road so much, many of them won’t recognise the route if they had to drive it normally the next day. The winners of each day in each category, as well as the overall ones were honoured for their achievements during a prize-giving ceremony at Numbi Hotel on August 15.