What started a few years ago as a parade of old racers on old race bikes has now become a full fledged, three-race International Historic series - and it'll reach its climax this weekend at Killarney's Anniversary meeting in Cape Town, after meetings at the East London Grand Prix Circuit on January 22 and Zwartkop in Pretoria on January 30.
No motorcycle racing enthusiast worth his Castrol R could fail to be stirred by names - straight out of Grand Prix's golden era - such as MV Agusta, Norton and Matchless, or those of legendary riders such as six times World Champion Jim Redman, eight times World Champion Phil Read, Alan Walker, Yorkshire's never-say-die Mick Grant, former TT lap record holder Steve Plater, and South African stars Jimmy Guthrie, Keith Zeeman and Dave Petersen.
Even if you've heard it before, the hairs on the back of your neck will stand to attention when Redman's 250cc Honda four clears its throat and howls down the main straight. You'll be astonished by hard Grant's 1982 works Suzuki RG500 - probably the ultimate two-stroke with its 500cc square-four, disc-valve engine - accelerates up the hill from Turn 5.
You'll swallow - hard - when you hear Alan Walker's MV Agusta triple in full song. It's the most evocative noise in motorcycling - and it comes as a shock to today's decibel-limited racers just how loud they all are. Even the Manx Norton, AJS 7R and Matchless G50 - big singles all and nearly 60 years old - speak with an authority unthinkable today.
Yet these “Old Farts” (the bikes, not the riders) still have relevance for today's teenage hotshots. In most cases their engines are faster than their tyres or suspension and they're neither as agile or as forgiving as modern machines.
To get the best out of these bikes you have to be butter-smooth and your lines inch-perfect on every corner. Watching how the old guys do it is a master class in precision and style for up-and-coming riders.
The bikes are relevant too: The Suzuki XR69 endurance racer to be ridden by Maria Costello - the fastest woman ever around the Isle of Man TT course - is the direct ancestor of the iconic GSX-R series, while every liquid-cooled Ducati on the road today can trace its heritage back to Alan Walker's Ducati 888 Superbike and its street-bike parent, the iconic 851 Strada.
There are more than 50 bikes entered with racing on Saturday and Sunday - get ready for a weekend of high-revving nostalgia, a real blast from the past.