At a remote pan in the Kalahari hundreds of petrolheads from all over the country have converged to take part in a desert jamboree to see who can drive their vehicles the fastest - and the biggest contingent is from Cape Town.
It’s called the Kalahari Desert Speedweek, and it is being held at Hakskeenpan pan, about 250km north of Upington, the pan where Andy Green will attempt the world landspeed record in 2013.
The speedweek event was the brainchild of Jan Els of Pretoria, who grew up in the Kalahari.
“It was a dream I had with my late friend Bruce Meyers. We’re both serious petrolheads, and with these wonderful flat pans here, well, we followed the dream,” Els said.
The event began on Sunday.
So far the top speed for a car - 308km/h - was recorded by Greg Parton of Durban in his Lamborghini Adventador.
This is only the third such event in the world: there is an annual speedweek on Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah in the US and one in Australia. Els hopes to make this an annual event.
The high-speed track is 7km long with a speed timing point at the 5km mark.
Els and crew have created a huge tented village, with a big marquee where full breakfasts and dinners are served. The what-to-bring list includes beach umbrellas and sunscreen for the daytime where temperatures are in the 30s, but also fleeces and beanies for the nighttime drop to 2C.
They had used a special biodegradable substance to create a dust-free track, but it didn’t work.
“We applied it wrongly,” Els said. “It broke up like marbles, so we’re driving on the sand next to it, and there’s a lot of dust.”
Only 200 people are allowed per day, and everything brought in must be trucked out - including the sewage. - Cape Times