The Cape 1000 Diary - Day Two

Touring with vintage cars over long distances always serves up surprises, as Hannes Oosthuizen found out.

Photos by: Devin Paisley, Dieter Pey, Duwyne Aspeling, Stefan Kotze, JoNo Nienaber

The second day of the inaugural Cape 1000 vintage and exotic car rally covered a distance of 474.4km. This is not a distance to be sneezed at - particularly when you're in a car from the '50s, without air-conditioning and a roof!

Nevertheless, my co-pilot Greg Marucchi and I set off determined from Hermanus to improve on our seventh place (out of 36 runners), in the Cape 1000, which pays tribute to various classic car regularity rallies from around the world. We started at Gearing's Point in Hermanus and it was fantastic to see the public support for the event, even in its first year.

Freshly washed, our Healey felt eager in the crisp morning air as we pushed first towards the direction of Gansbaai, and then started heading inland towards Caledon and Riviersonderend. Cloud cover in the early morning meant that the cockpit of the Austin-Healey was a relatively comfy place to be, even though it doesn't really suit drivers taller than 1.7m.

For the start of the first Regularity section, we headed to Birkenhead Brewery, and decided to forego the suggested comfort break, and instead tackle the first timed session immediately. An unexpected roadworks stop/go played into our favour, and we managed to complete the first regularity section quite comfortably and in good time, but our fellow participants weren't as lucky. Consequently, the first regularity section was scrapped... a pity, as we think we did quite well.

The route then took us towards Napier (still with plenty of cloud cover) and the Healey was singing along sweetly, driver Greg enjoying the responsiveness of the engine. The cloud cover continued through our regularity section that took us to Swellendam, and we thought we were, as they say, "in the pound seats".

But then the clouds lifted and the temperatures started rising. Outside of Swellendam we headed for the Tradouw Pass, a spectacular piece of road that is a must for any driving enthusiast. Greg pushed the Healey hard, and it delivered.

As we reached the Cape 1000 Cafe at the summit of the pass, I got a call from my colleague Ciro (piloting the '67 Citroën DS19), and my blood froze. He said he had a problem... that the Citroën wouldn't start. Not being able to assist in person was difficult to accept, but I knew the Cape 1000 crew or, as it turned out, a competitor, would have the solution. The driver of the Porsche 356 competing in the same category as our Healey immediately spotted a disconnected distributor lead, and once that was connected, the DS ran faultlessly for the rest of the day.

Sadly, this was not the destiny of the Healey. On the other side of the Tradouw  Pass, the clouds disappeared and the ambient temperatures rose sharply. We got a notice of troubles to come when the Healey was difficult to start after refueling in Montagu (which was brought to a standstill when multiple Lamborghinis stopped for fuel at the same time), and as we started the next Regularity section, the Healey started coughing and farting. We could simply not achieve the required average speeds, and it seemed like our steed was slowly "dying". Near Stettyn Wine Farm, the Healey finally gave up, and ground to a halt, signaling and end to our challenge in the competition... or so we thought.

Given all the symptoms, it seemed like fuel starvation was the most likely cause, but help soon arrived, and we were towed to Kelkiewyn, where the car's owner replaced the car's battery and soon sent us on our way again, to our surprise. 

Still, the temperatures kept rising and when we hit the iconic Franschhoek Pass our dream of a fun drive was soon spoilt by the stark reality that our Healey was still suffering. We barely made the summit, the British sportster spluttering and smoking, but we crested and then managed to coast our way down into town and to the the Franschhoek Motor Museum to end the day. 

As it stands right now, the Healey has been towed to Cape Town for some serious attention, and we simply don't know whether we will have a competitive car for tomorrow.

In the other Cars.co.za camp, things were looking better. After the distributor lead was fastened, the DS19 ran faultlessly, and even though driver Ciro de Siena had to stop to chase a bee out of the car (he is allergic), the team (with Duwyne Aspeling) still managed to finish third overall for the day and move up to fourth in the overall standings.

Undoubtedly a hard day, I am however extremely upbeat. This is what I expected classic car rallying to be about, and the tough, hot conditions, and the breakdown only added to the overall spectacle. Besides, we were not alone. One of the racing Alfa Romeo GTVs ran out of fuel, and a Porsche 911 also had to be towed at one stage. 

Nearly 500km later I am rather sunburnt and exhausted, but look forward to the challenges that the next day of this incredible event will bring.

You can follow The Cape 1000 on Instagram here. The Cape 1000 is sponsored by Cars.co.za, SCL Travel, Silvercrest Super Car Insurance and Mix 93.8FM.