JAC Motors has made local motoring history after its T9 2.0L CTi bakkie broke the official South African 24-hour endurance record for commercial vehicles. The achievement saw the T9 cover 4 084 kilometres at an average speed of 170.1 km/h at the Gerotek testing facility just outside Pretoria.
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Chinese automaker JAC Motors has become the latest to set a South African record. This comes after a T9 bakkie lapped the Gerotek testing facility for a 24 hour period, covering just over four thousand kilometres in the process. The previous record was set by Isuzu in 2010, but JAC Motors reported that this was a far less coordinated effort, using just one vehicle and a small support grew.
Behind the wheel were four experienced racing drivers – Michele Habig, Setshaba Mashigo, Phillip Kekana and Daniel Barbosa – all of whom are also driving instructors. Despite not having a dedicated pit team or advanced refuelling systems, the team pushed through with minimal delays, relying on the T9’s consistency and strength.
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Isuzu’s record, also set at Gerotek, stood at 4 063 km with an average speed of 169.3 km/h using its KB300 TDi. Before that, Toyota held the record with its Hilux reaching 3 818 km at an average of 159.1 km/h in 2003. JAC’s T9 has now outpaced both in 2025 with the Chinese automaker stating that the T9’s 2.0-litre turbo-diesel engine operated superlatively. The bakkie maintained high speeds for over 1 350 laps of the circuit, with an average fuel consumption of 16.5 L/100 km. It ran on Continental CrossContact ATR tyres and used Engen’s 10W40 CK-4 full synthetic oil, which has recently been rolled out across JAC’s vehicle line-up to improve thermal stability and reduce engine wear.
JAC Motors South Africa CEO Karl-Heinz Göbel said the record is more than just a bragging point—it’s a real-world demonstration of the brand’s reliability. Since arriving in South Africa in 2017, JAC has built a network of over 70 dealers across Southern Africa and now supports its T9 with a 5 year/200 000 km warranty and a 5 year/100 000 km service plan.
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