Look me in the eye and tell me that you’d brave the Jo’burg traffic to visit Auto Africa just to check out the latest MPVs…Yeah, I didn’t think so – not when there’s this much firepower on exhibit!
By Gareth Dean
Look me in the eye and tell me that you’d brave the Jo’burg traffic to visit Auto Africa just to check out the latest MPVs…Yeah, I didn’t think so – not when there’s this much firepower on exhibit!
Considering the collection of esoteric metal that constituted the supercar armada at this year’s show, we can’t blame you for ploughing through the crowds to catch a glimpse at some of these beauties. Audi’s R8 was an obvious port of call for many, but the show also played host to a brace of other exotic tar shredders that could reduce a grown man (who ears an ordinary salary) to tears.
Visitors to the capacious Ford display were standing on the tips of their toes and straining their eyes to confirm that something immensely special was lurking behind the semi-glazed garage door display at the back of the stand. When strobes flickered and images of GT40s getting luridly sideways issued forth from the display the crowd held its breath as the Ford GT emerged from the display.
The Ford GT clearly holds a great deal of DNA from the 1966 Le Mans winning GT40. Although 457 mm longer and 100 mm taller than the original, the GT still sports everything the 1960s racer held proud; the sweeping cowl, arch-filling wheels, long front overhang and ducktail spoiler – everything except the blue and orange Gulf livery.
Powered by an all-aluminium 5,4-litre V8 delivering 410 kW and a near-tectonic 678 N.m of torque, the new GT lays claim to figures comparable to those generated by its Le Mans predecessor – including a top speed of 330 km/h. The original GT40 was built to hammer the Scuderia’s finest in motorsport’s most famous endurance race and, to many visiting the stand, the new GT looks like it could do the same.
Ferrari would obviously argue otherwise and placed two of its raciest models on display to wow the masses. The 599 GTB Fiorano managed to redeem a good deal of aesthetic ground lost by the “looks only a mother could love” Scaglietti. With a suitably aggressive snout contrasting with sleek lines and an abundance of vents adorning the flank, the GTBs looks compliment the 456 kW and 608 N.m clout dished out by its 6,0-litre V12. A 330 km/h top speed never looked so good, even in (um, shudder) yellow. A more suitably coloured (red) F430 shared the sea admiring glances on the stand.
Less shouty but still exuding an air of Italian cool just across from the Ferrari stand were the trident-sporting Maserati Quattroporte and the Gran Sport Coupé. The Quattroporte showed the other exotic marques how to fit a practical, opulent interior inside a svelte, subtle (for 295 kW V8-engined supercar) package that can wow the crowds even though most of them were asking: “what is that”? The GT showed its sleek lines and crushing 295 km/h V8 performance as a refreshing antidote to the usual well-known supercar players; albeit without the previous generation’s boomerang brake lights.But subtlety does not always associate itself with a supercar line-up; so it was little surprise to witness the mass of gravity-bound jaws and panting that characterized the crowd at the Lamborghini stand.
The stand featured a black backdrop and
