The Sabat Rally Team has completed its programme with Saab to ready the Sabat Saab 9-5 R for this weekend’s Automark All-Tar Rally in and around Pretoria this weekend. –
– The car enjoyed a highly successful shake-down test Wednesday afternoon and the team is anticipating a good weekend’s rallying. “We are totally satisfied with the car’s performance,” driver Michele Lupini reported after driving the car for the first time. “It’s great right out of the box and we need to only make some small changes in time for the start Friday evening.” –
– The Sabat Saab is a project car built by Saab South Africa to explore what a Saab can be made to do and now in conjunction with the Sabat Rally Team, has been turned into a rally weapon of note. –
– “The project has been a huge success so far,” Lupini added. “All we now need is a little luck and we could well come up with quite a nice surprise,” Michele concluded. –
– The All Tar Rally starts at the Zwartkops Raceway at seven Friday evening when the field runs in reverse order. Then on Saturday morning the event re-starts again at Zwartkops at seven sharp with another stage around the track in Friday’s finishing order. –
– From there it’s off to Arena where the fist car is off at 07:47 before crews head for Gerotek for three highly entertaining tests. First up is an 16km piste on the mountainous ride and handling track starting at 08:32 five laps of the high speed oval – first car off at 09:12 and then the short dynamic handling test tack at 09:52. –
– From Gerotek its off to another thrilling special stage at the Watloo Testing Grounds in Pretoria where the first car sets off at 11:27 before the event heads to the Carousel Casino for a pair of stages starting at 13:57 and 18:00 respectively and the finish. –
– The All-Tar rally has drawn a broad and delightful entry of 70 cars as usual. Expected front runners include the Sabat Saab along with a trio of Subaru Imprezas, a classic Ford Escort BDA, some amazing Toyotas and Nissans, the unique RAD Giotto, Porsches, Fiats, Fords, Minis, Alfas and much much more. –
– All you need do to enjoy a spectacular day’s rallying, is to chose the most interesting stages and get to the start in time for the various times listed above. It makes for a great day out!
