Pretoria - The million-rand Formula 5000 racing car stolen from a Parkview driveway on Tuesday has been found.
The owner of the car, author and historic racing driver Greg Mills, told IOL the car had been found by police in Pretoria, and that he was hopeful it not been severely damaged.
The thieves apparently gained entrance to the property where the car had been parked on its trailer by cutting a padlock and derailing the security gate, before stealing both car and trailer, while the owner was out between 8.30am and 3.30pm on Tuesday 28 July.
Mills was greatly relieved that the car had been found, because it was too well-known internationally to have been sold so, if not recovered quickly it would probably have been broken up and sold as scrap.
FORMULA 3
This car is the only survivor of two Sana chassis built as for Graham Eden Racing in 1976 by Northampton fabrication specialist John Thompson. It was built as a Formula 3 car, but was converted later that year to F5000 specification.
Many years and several owners later, Mills found the car in poor condition, brought it to South Africa and painstakingly restored it over a three-year period, with a 370kW, five-litre John Eales Buick/Rover V8 and FG gearbox. Since 2011 it has been raced in historic events in South African and Australia.
And just in case you think historic means slow, the car has been timed in its current trim at 307km/h.