Left to right: Mariska Hoyinck, Michiel Campagne, FMM’s Wayne Harley and Jan Lammers.
 

In early February FMM had a surprise visit from Dutch ex-F1 and WSC racing driver Jan Lammers, accompanied by historic car racer Michiel Campagne (who has competed in numerous Springbok Series races) and Mariska Hoyinck. Born in Zandvoort in 1956, Lammers made his F1 début in 1979 with the Shadow team. He started the 1980 season with ATS before switching to Ensign, then the following year he went back to ATS for four races before joining Theodore in 1982. He never scored points in F1. Lammers tried IndyCar before moving to sports car racing, helping to win the1988 Le Mans for TWR Jaguar after driving 13 of the 24 hours. It was Jaguar’s first win since 1957. He also won the 1990 Daytona 24-Hour for Jaguar.

After two comeback races in F1for March in 1992, Lammers shifted to the British Touring Car Championship driving a Volvo 850 Estate for TWR. Since then he has run his own sports car team, ran the Dutch team in the ill-fated A1 GP championship and took part in three rounds of the similarly short-lived Grand Prix Masters series. MM

Top, Wayne Harley blasts the Peugeot Hill Climb Special off the start line at the 2010 Knysna Hillclimb.
Above: the car undergoing restoration.

Over the past 18 months we have been working on the restoration of the 1939 Peugeot Hill Climb Special. Its last really public appearance was in 2010 at the Knysna Hillclimb where it became clear that the car was in desperate need of a total redo. We at the museum are not too keen on the total restoration of cars as the heritage and patina are always most certainly lost and once gone you can never replace it, so after a year of preserving what we could and trying keep this fine old lady running we had to make the vital call – retire the car completely or restore?
 
A decision to restore was taken but every care has been taken to be as true as possible to the car and its creator, Don Tout. Restoration has been out-sourced to Ferris and Brown Classics Restoration. In going through the car’s history we came across a letter written to Mr P Brun-Wibaux (Peugeot Automobile Africa) by a Mr Kenneth Maxwell that shed a little more light on the car’s racing background.  This letter provided us with rather interesting information: the Peugeot never saw any competitive track racing but due to is rather interesting diff ratios and great acceleration the car was used in a number of hill climbs in the early 1950s, which earned it the name Hill Climb Special.
 
It was also one of the very few cars that was personally accepted into the museum by the late Dr Anton Rupert when it was donated by Peugeot South Africa. It has formed part of the collection since January 1979 and is one of our unique and truly special South African cars. With the project now moving along rather nicely, I will do a monthly update until the restoration is complete. WH

(Credit: Derek Stuart-Findlay and his book, The Motorist’s Paradise, written in conjunction with the late Bob Johnston.)

On 7 February 1903 South Africa’s first motor race took place at Cape Town’s Green Point cycle track. Organised by Jack Rose to celebrate the first anniversary of the Automobile Club, the Cape Times reported that the club was “favoured with glorious weather for their bow to the public”. There were other events on the programme but the motor bicycle races were not successful. However, the procession and manoeuvring of cars was a “very imposing and interesting spectacle. Twenty-one cars formed a procession some 300 metres long and Rose led them through a series of spiral movements on the field. The ease with which the large and small cars followed the turns and twists was an object lesson in steering”.
 
The Climbing competition impressed, with gradients being 1 in 10, 1 in 8, 1 in 6 and 1 in 3. Most cars went up backwards and some even stopped and continued both on ascent and descent. There was a challenging steering competition too. But it was the racing events that really excited the crowd. J Courtis won the small car race in his Peugeot ahead of Rose in his De Dion Bouton. Donald Menzies won the large car race in a Panhard. Highest speed recorded on the day was 51 km/h.
 
That evening the Automobile Club held its first annual dinner with none other than Rudyard Kipling as the guest speaker. Cape Town had successfully hosted the first motor racing event in South Africa. MM