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fanatics aficionados when we opined that perhaps the little rear-engined vans were on the sluggish side. Today we're going to regruntle our Type 2-loving friends by sharing this VW ad that demonstrates- in fact, encourages- off-road hoonage of the sort you'd normally associate with a Warlord Edition 4x4 Hilux. In South Africa, you could get a four-wheel-drive, Audi-5-banger-powered VW Transporter Syncro until 2002. Yes, 2002!
Volkswagen Bus Syncro: Ready For South African Hoonage
We caused some disgruntlement among VW Transporter
el camino
South Africa Gets Opel Corsaminos!
Let's say you're in South Africa and you just can't get your hands on a good vintage 1956 Mercedes-Benzamino (or, in the local parlance, a Mercedes-Benz Bakkie). Fortunately, The General sells a Gamma-platform-based bakkie known as the Opel Corsa Utility. Sure, it's front-wheel-drive, but it's a factory-built car with a truck bed nonetheless. Thanks to Franzouse for the tip! [GM South Africa]
maximum el camino day
Factory Benzaminos For South Africa!
Technically, the pickup truck version of the Mercedes-Benz 180D, built during the 1956-58 period for the South African market, wasn't a factory Benzamino (or should that name be Mercedampage, given the later association with Chrysler?), but we figure it's close enough for our purposes. 400 Mercedes-Benz 180Ds with no body behind the B pillar were imported to South Africa to have the beds installed locally, and they were promptly dubbed "Bakkies" by the locals. You can read about a Bakkie restoration project here, or wish for a time machine in order buy this one that just sold on eBay. [MBZPonton.org]
maximum el camino day
GM Launches South African El Camino, Calls It A Chevy Lumina
The South African market is getting its own new El Camino, but theirs is called a Chevy Lumina SS Ute, and gets the Chevy corporate face. Mechanically identical, the Lumina ute get the same 361bhp 6.0-liter V8 as the American
classic ad watch
Imagine Life In South Africa Without Opels
The General couldn't move too many Achievas or Azteks in South Africa, but Astras and Kapitäns and such seem to do all right there. This ad has some nice "why we love cars" shots, but its Manta shortage is distressing.
novelties
Now You Can Whip Out Your Vuvuzela On South African Taxi Drivers!
Apparently the drivers of minivan taxis in South Africa tend to be hated and feared by other drivers, so here comes this Flash game called Taxi Wars. Players get the opportunity to bash in the taxi's windows with a golf club, puncture its tires with a screwdriver, or redecorate its flank with spray paint. Those feeling more aggro can take a vuvuzela and blast it in the driver's ear, causing his hair to stand up (according to this article about the game, a vuvuzela is one of those plastic horns blown by drunks at sporting events); those who boil over with road rage (or bitterness over the dismantling of apartheid) can pound the hapless driver into unconsciousness with what appears to be the angry white fist of P. W. Botha. More »
news
Get A Hummer In England: H3 Wrong-Side-Drive Unveiled!
We were all excited earlier this morning when the General dropped the release on the green-is-good Aura Green Line. We thought maybe they'd turned a new leaf and began to learn to love the sedan. Ha! We totally should have known better. That bit of hetero-automaker love lasted all of about 20 minutes, which is about when we read the second release of the day, which amazingly ran right over that pro-green pro-car message with a 16" anti-green gas-guzzling tire. The second release pushes GM's new right-hand-drive Hummer H3 for jolly old England and other similarly-configured markets. Although this H3's a whole "39 mm shorter, 171 mm lower and 73 mm narrower" than the one we can buy over here, it still manages to run with the less-than-hearty (but always fuel inefficient!) 3.7-liter engine powering the 'merican version. The Lutz-heavy press release that's got all sorts of englandorable words like "manoeuvrability" is just after the jump. More »
retro
Electric Boogaloo, South African Corolla Style
Things may have seemed grim in South Africa in 1984, what with the whole apartheid/repression thing and all. But there was one bright spot for beleaguered South Africans: the brand-new Toyota Corolla. The '84 was just so good that it made ordinary office workers don gray-and-yellow shellsuits and perform perhaps the worst robot dancing ever done before a camera. Plenty of brain-damaging surreal details (e.g., gigantic fast-food items protruding from bouncing cars) in this one, folks; do not operate heavy machinery after watching. More »
retro
Sierrachero's Daddy: Cortinachero!
While Ford killed the Cortina when Lutz's Sierra was introduced in 1983, one facet of the storied marque soldiered on in South Africa (and was imported to Europe as both a Cortina and a Taunus): yes, the OG P100. Built from a lengthened Cortina chassis, the rustic-stage P100 was the final standing model of a line that had served Britain proudly for decades and is the only car besides a Cadillac that we can currently think of that ended up in a Clash song. We're totally starting a band just so we can cover "Janie Jones" and sing, "His P100 just won't run without fuel/Fill 'er up, Jacko!" More »
news
The Little Toyota Engine Light That Couldn't Turn Off: ToMoCo Issues Recalls For Over 250,000 Vehicles
The world's number one super best automaker from the land of the rising sun issued two recalls today — one here in the land of the free and home of the brave for around 60,700 four-cylinder Highlander SUV's from 2001 through 2003 and 159,100 RAV4's from 2001 and 2002. It seems the "check engine light" (also known as the Malfunction Indicator Light — just one F away from MILF) may "inadvertantly light" due to faulty "program logic in the Engine Control Module (ECM)." Apparently it's faulty because it's telling you something's wrong. Hmm...well, while you some of us sit and attempt to decipher that particular logic loopety-loop, let's just sigh in relief we're not in South Aftrica. That's where the second recall was placed into effect today, for more than 29,000 Corolla and RunX cars built during the 2006 model year after a problem was found in the vehicles' rear axle beam. Apparently this could result in the "front bush mountings splitting open and the front section of the axle beam coming adrift." Hmm, yup, that sounds fairly — well, why don't we let the official spokesperson from Toyota of South Africa finish that particular statement with the last line of the press release — "It could be dangerous." Took the word right out of our mouths. More »
news
Less than Lekker: VW South Africa Loses Historic Vehicles in Transporter Wreck
Sadly, a transporter rollover claimed nine milestone vehicles in Volkswagen South Africa's history. On the way back from a celebration in Cape Town that feted the 55th anniversary of the People's Car in SA, and ended up saying "Howzit!" to much, much damage. The carnage claimed vehicles including 2002 T3 microbus, a 1958 Beetle, a '78 Beetle, a '79 Passat, a '70 Audi 90, a '73 Audi 100S, a '75 Audi Coupe, and a '59 Beetle, all of which represented significant mileposts in VWSA's history. We hope they can rebuild them. Make them stronger. Faster. Better. Or just the same and not broken. They can choose. [Thanks to Mark Jawdoszyn for the tip.] More »
news
Steam Makes Them Hot And Speedy! Brit Team Attempts To Set Land Steam Speed Record
The conclusion reached after hearing a team of wacky Brits are looking to set the 100-year unbroken land speed record for steam powered vehicles is probably something like "there's a land speed record for just about everything." You'd probably be right, and proof of that assertion's coming in the spring of next year in Verneuk Pan, a lake bed in South Africa's Northern Cape — where the all-British team (complete with a "lady driver") will seek the un-Hammond-like speed of 200 mph as the champ speed of all things steam. That would beat the conductors cap off the old official record set at 127.659 mph by Fred Marriot's Stanley Steamer in 1906. But in our minds it still falls short of the old unofficial record set back in 1928, by a little cartoon duck named "RailCar Daffy" — unfortunately, his run of 382.1 mph was not sanctioned by the F d ration Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), the world motorsport's governing body, which requires an average of two runs in opposite directions — as well as requiring non-fictional drivers to not infringe on any of Disney's non-fictional water-vehicle driving characters. More »
retro
Datcamino Mystery Solved?
Oddly enough, our plea for help regarding the origins of the Datcamino did not go unheeded. It's apparently a Datsun/Nissan 1200/1400 Bakkie — aka the Sunny Truck and Datsun Ute — which to people who don't habitually say "Howzit!" means that it's a small pickup sold in South Africa with a design that dates back to the 1970s. Which means that it's not really a Camino at all. Christ. We were double-foiled! [Pictured above is a current-model Bakkie with Fiat-esque square headlamps.] More »
news: racing
RIP, Speedy: World's Fastest South African Killed in Accident
Johan Jacobs, the "World's Fastest South African," was killed when his jet-powered dragster flipped over and disintegrated at 300 miles per hour. The accident happened on a trial run, a day before he was to make a run at the a land speed record he set this past March, at 316 mph. He'd been hoping to set a world record for acceleration over one mile. [Thanks to Haje for the tip.] More »
news
Some People Didn't Like the South African Smart Billboard
We actually thought the "German engineering, Swiss innovation, American nothing" billboards in South Africa were pretty ballsy and clever. Chrysler's Jason Vines doesn't think so, and apparently neither did some other PR types at DCX. The billboards are now toast. The ad agency said the "nothing" crack referred to the car's diminutive size, rather than the perception that America sucks. Mmm-hm... More »
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Ad Watch: Kermit Snags Some South African Green From BMW
So, basically...Kermit the Frog is a whore — he'll sell himself to any automaker that will take his furry green froggie butt and plop it into the front seat of a car. But really, at least he's doing what other big celebs have done — commercialized himself overseas, as in this BMW 1-Series commercial for South Africa. And although we totally have no idea what the hell he's saying — the "making of" video after the jump is in english — and pretty damn funny. Especially when he asks if he can get the Beemer in green. For you Kermit, I think they'll do it — after all, you're a star now. A bright, shining star. More »
novelties
