September 14, 2017
Witness
Industry briefs
WHEELS
ADVERTISING: AVIR THULSIRAM ON 084 278 3447 This Austin 8 from PMB will not be part of the forthcoming Amazing Rally, after being restored by Junior Smith and sold to a Cape Town owner, but as it was built between 1939 and 1948, it would have started out with eight points for the owner. PHOTO: ALWYN VILJOEN
AMAZING RALLY OPEN TO THE PUBLIC THE members of the Vintage Sports Car Club in Pietermaritzburg are planning an Amazing Rally on October 1, and members of the public are welcome to join the fun. Carl Habermann told Witness Wheels that a team of preferably two people can enter any vehicle, car or motorcycle, but the drivers or riders will need a combina tion of careful planning, timekeeping skill, word knowledge and lots of luck to collect the most points along the way. The Amazing Rally will be only about 140 km long, but it will take about four hours to complete, as driving will be only on secondary roads, with five stops at shops along the route where comfort breaks can be had and words have to be found. Participants will leave the Vintage Sports Car Club grounds at Oribi at one minute intervals, where they will be handed an envelope with the route infor mation to all the shops to visit, as well as a form on which to log all the necessa ry information along the route. The total route time will be calculated at the average speed, based on the speed limit, and crews will have 12 minutes at
each point to find the VSCC sticker and a word to log on their forms. With the 10 words collected along the route and the two given at the beginning, they will need to make up as many sen tences as they can with the 12 words. Each sentence gives the team 10 points and there are over 10 possibili ties. Crews that cannot find the item in the allocated time will be able to contin ue searching and lose time, or leave and lose points. The crew and car with the most overall points wins. As this is a timed rally, drivers who arrive at the end destination within a minute of the cor rect time get 30 points. For every minute that a driver is early or late, one point will be deducted. Vehicles will also score points on their age, with 20 points for cars or bikes built between 1910 and 1919. The points decrease each decade, going down to 15 points for vehicles built be tween 1920 and 1929, and continue de creasing to one point for cars built be tween 2000 and 2009, and no points for a vehicle built after 2010. • Drivers who want to enter will find more on www.vscc.co.za.
The Panda cocks a wheel over an axle bender. PHOTO: ALWYN VILJOEN
PANDA 4x4 JUST EATS SPEED BUMPS AS a big fan of the third generation all wheeldrive Fiat Panda Climbing (very few of which sold in SA) I keenly awaited the arrival of the latest, fourth genera tion Fiat Panda Cross. Back in 2007 I had on a whim taken the Climbing over SA’s highest dirt road at Naude’s Neck Pass, which crests at 2 920 m and along the way averaged 4,8 l/100 km with the little 1,2litre en gine. Ten years later I could only get 8,1 l/100 km in a combination of city and offroad driving from the new twocylin der 875 cc turbopetrol. That was the first of three frowns the little Fiat inspired. The second was from the new Ucon nec infotainment system, which the spec sheet says has Bluetooth, audio stream ing as well as voice recognition — none of which I could get to work, even after reading the manual. Nor could I link with a cable to a USB port that is awkwardly placed in the cubbyhole. Apparently, I have to download an app for my phone to talk to the car. Really?! The cabin layout sparked the third frown. There are lots of small cuphold ers, but no place to dump things like phones and house keys.
So I shoved my phone and keys into the cubbyhole and instead went bush, which is where my three frowns turned into one big, fat grin. A sixspeed manual box makes the most of the little twocyl inder’s 145 Nm from only 1 900 r/min ei ther during overtaking or overlanding. Turn the knob to engage the electron ic difflock and the torque is split front and rear for serious mud work. A further twist of a knob engage hill descent control. While able and fun over axle benders in the bush it is, however, through our potholes and over our speedhumps that the Fiat Cross excels on its 185/65R15 allseason tyres. This is simply the smoothest ride over any speedhump in a small car on sale today. Selling for just shy of R250k for the 4x4 Cross and R230k for the 4x4 model, both allwheeldrive Panda models com pete with the only other cute little 4x4 in SA — the Suzuki Jimny, which retails at R258k with the same warranty. The Fury dealership that serves the Midlands from Pietermaritzburg told Wheels theirs is, however, the better dis count on offer and what is more, there is a Jimny on the floor, just waiting.
… NOW YOU’RE MOTORING
X marks the sweet spot ROB RATHGEBER travelled all the way to Cologne to scoop a surprise drive in Merc’s bakkie WHILE attending a medical conference in Germany, my wife’s great uncle Wal ter invited me to his estate at Cologne — or more accurately, Köln — in north west Germany to taste a few of his fa mous wines on the Rhine river. I thought this was all rather larney for a boytjie from Durbs, but then uncle Walter met us at the country house in a vehicle as smooth as the local Eau de Cologne — the new Merc XClass! At the recent launch of this bakkie in Cape Town, no one got to drive the bakkie. “Would I like to drive it?” asked uncle Walter. Would I ever! Uncle Walter had ordered himself the X 250d, which uses a derivative of the new Nissan Navara’s four cylinder 2,3 turbo diesel. This block makes 100 Kw and 450 Nm. A sevenspeed auto sends the power to all four wheels with what Merc calls 4MATIC allwheel drive, which en gage the front wheels with the push of a button. There is a lowrange button for tough offroad work, but I could not find a place that required such muscle. Before anyone makes more snide “Mercnavara” remarks, let me state both XClass and Navara bakkies have a beautifully pliant ride on dirt, but the Merc is something else inside. Stars, presidents and politicians will drive the XClasses and rappers will weave them into their latest raps. There are three iterations of the XClass, with the “entry level” Pure, then the Progressive and then the full house Power, each offering more finish and bigger wheels. What was really impressive in the dark was the LED headlamps. Merc stated these lamps deliver the brightest light output in the segment thanks to six LEDs respectively. How soon will we see XClasses on South African roads? On past experience, it will not be too many months before the European de mand has been met and the really en thusiastic big bakkie markets, South Af rica, Australia and Venezuela, get their turn. The big question of course is how will these double cabs compete with the three big sellers at home, the Toyota Hi lux, Ford Ranger, Isuzus? To my mind, the VW Amarok is the
comes a fullyfledged navigation system with live traffic information. With both systems, XClass drivers benefit from early information about disturbances such as traffic jams, in creased traffic volumes or other possi ble delays along the route, allowing them to adjust their route planning in good time. The XClass is the first midsize pick up to feature a communications module with an integrated SIM card. This makes it possible to use the ex tensive Mercedes me connect services, and to access the vehicle by smart phone. XClass owners like uncle Wal ter can thus find out their XClass’s lo cation when it is parked or being driven by someone else in 21 European mar kets. In addition, complete doorto door navigation is possible with the Mercedes me app. Mercedes me connect services also provides emergency calls and the stan dard breakdown management, accident recovery. • When not being a petrolhead, Dr Rob Rathgeber checks that pilots are healthy enough to fly over South Africa. A wider and longer wheel base ensures that the MercedesBenz XClass have none of the typical bakkie wallow around corners. PHOTO: MERCEDESBENZ more natural competitor, being Ger man and all, but from what I have seen in the Köln vineyards, the opposition is in for a hiding. Thanks to tuned coil springs front and rear, the XClass was as comfy on Germany’s busy but fast highways dur ing the week as it was while trundling through the muddy vineyards over the weekend. Or as Merc said in a statement: “The XClass is the first pickup to deliver both excellent off and onroad per formance. The wide track, long wheel base and comfortable spring and damp ing tuning typical of a Mercedes open up a new world of driving enjoyment and driving dynamics on the road — without resulting in compromises when offroad.” It takes a load too, with the rear multi link solid axle that provides good articu lation over the rougher bits, a trick that requires optional, stiffer rear leaf springs in other bakkies. For those who still persist in calling the XClass a Navara with a Merc badge, note the XClass has a wider track that allows higher cornering speeds. None
EAST COAST
of the typical bakkie wallow here. The wheelbase is also longer than many other midsize pickups, making for shorter overhangs and a really smooth, stable ride on the straights. The expression, “like its on rails” came to mind. In Europe, the ground clearance is just over 20 cm, but we will get a 22 cm high suspension in South Africa. The XClass stops in short order too. Merc’s is the only bakkie with internally vented brake discs on both axles as stan dard. The front axle has brake discs with a diameter of 32 cm and the rear axle with a diameter of 30,8 cm. Merc last week announced its bakkie will next year also be sold with a perma nent allwheel drive option, which should give a lot of traction at speed on road. Merc said permanent allwheel drive will only be fitted to its sixcylinder engine. The XClass is sold under Merc’s trucking division, and like its trucks, the bakkie has active brake assist, lane keep ing assist, traffic sign assist and trailer stability assist, apart from the usual sys tems like tyre pressure monitoring, a re
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versing camera, cruise control and tele matics that including live traffic infor mation. A highlight of the intelligent net working is the transmission of traffic in formation in real time. In conjunction with a Mercedes me account, and within Europe, the Co mand Online navigation system can show the beginning and length of a traf fic jam on a map to within 100 metres of the exact position, and compute a dy namic route with shorter travel times. The potential loss of time is taken in to account automatically in real time for the arrival time displayed by Comand Online navigation. The system also provides a 3D view with threedimensional urban models, making orientation in unfamiliar city centres easier. Special personal destinations can al so be saved or imported via SD card, and four alternate routes can be dis played on the navigation map, one of them a particularly economical varia tion. In conjunction with the optional Garmin system, in most European countries the Audio 20 CD also be
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Honda’s new electric vehicle, the Urban EV Concept, will go on sale in Europe in 2019. PHOTO: QUICKPIC
ELECTRIFYING PLANS AT FRANKFURT MERCEDESBENZ and Honda were two companies that announced their plans for electric cars in the near future at the Frankfurt Motor Show. Mercedes said its Untertürkheim fac tory will eventually be a major supplier of, among other parts, the battery packs to the Sindelfingen passengercar plant, where the brand’s next EQ line of electric cars will be built. Honda has confirmed that electrified technology will now feature in every new car model launched in Europe. The an nouncement was made by Honda Motor Company president and CEO Takahiro Hachigo, during his conference speech
at the 2017 Frankfurt Motor Show. Hachigosan made the commitment as he unveiled Honda’s new electric vehi cle, the Urban EV Concept. “This is not some vision of the distant future; a pro duction version of this car will be here in Europe in 2019,” he said, confirming that the concept is set to become a reali ty within two years. MercedesBenz announced earlier that it will launch 10 electric cars under the EQ badge by the year 2025, but last week said some of the new electric vehi cles are now scheduled to arrive by 2022. This is in the wake of cities’ plans to ban diesel cars. — WR.
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