Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2015 i Leisure Wheels

Condescending reply I just had to comment on the “Rusty Toyota” letter in the April edition. The aggressive and condescending tone of the Toyota management's reply has irked me into responding. My Land Rover spent its first eight years in Walvis Bay, driving on salt roads and on beaches, and getting stuck in salt pans. I then relocated to Cape Town, where I launched my boat many times in the salty rivers along our coast, and I still do not have as much rust as I saw in the photographs. I then went underneath my mother's 1987 Toyota Cressida, and my father-inlaw’s 1989 500 SE, and both these cars had less corrosion than the rusty Toyota. SM Rayner-Payne, Cape Town What happened to “zero tolerance”? I recently wrote a letter…

OUR OPINION gerhard@leisurewheels.com If someone were to write a book about the world’s worst ideas, a few prominent South Africans would definitely feature. Transport Minister Dipuo Peters would be among the select few, for the nonsense she recently spouted following the release of the Easter road death toll statistics. Colleague GG van Rooyen pondered in his opinion piece on whether the massive police presence on the roads over the holidays would make any difference. It didn’t. The police impounded a few cars, arrested some drunk drivers and even placed car wrecks next to the highway as a shock tactic, but that wasn’t enough to save more than 280 people from dying on the roads. The previous year 198 people died, so it’s fairly obvious that this issue needs to be…

IS THE PREFERRED FUEL USED BY LEISURE WHEELS Life must be tough if you have a renowned parent. Imagine, for example, being Albert Einstein’s son. How could you possibly live up to expectations when your father was one of the most celebrated scientists in history? Einstein’s son, for the record, was also a scientist. He studied “sediment transport”, but his contributions to this field came nowhere near the achievements of his father. So he was always to be known simply as “Einstein’s son.” At a stretch, the new X-Trail faces a similar problem. The first generation was easily the best vehicle in its class and it turned out to be pretty much the same story for the replacement model. The latest version arrived in SA a few months ago, but…

It’s hard to think of a car that embodies hippy culture better than the Volkswagen Camper Van. Some might argue that the Beetle is a more recognisable symbol of free love and having a good time, but to us nothing says, “I’m a free spirit” more than a van with hand-painted flowers on the side. A few years ago we had the pleasure of attending the annual Oppikoppi festival and we came across a Camper Van with the word “dagga” written on it. At first we thought it was a joke, but on closer inspection we noticed an actual menu in the window. This van had everything from “Swazi Poison” to “Sweet Mary Jane” for sale. Its owners sold everything they had within 24 hours and if that wasn’t the…

There is a 340km-long 4x4 circuit in Johnson Valley, California. In places it is so rough and rocky that even mountain goats won’t go there. This year, 17 out of 129 competing vehicles (in the top Ultra4 class) finished the event. That’s a ratio of just 13%. If this had been a scientific experiment it would have been deemed a failure! In the Nitto King of Hammers (KoH) 4x4 race, hopes and dreams are broken on the rocks of obstacles such as Backdoor, Chocolate Thunder and Jack Hammer, vehicles and their crews battered into submission on the giant granite blocks. Every year only one “King” is crowned. The others on the podium are bitterly disappointed while the rest of the handful of competitors to finish are considered heroes just for…

SECRETS OF THE DESERT When we recently travelled from Hentiesbaai all the way to the Kunene River Mouth, which forms Namibia’s border with Angola, we realised why this barren and merciless stretch of desert is known as the Skeleton Coast. The road from Henties goes to Torra Bay. From there you need a permit to enter the Skeleton Coast Park. And only a few kilometres into the park you come across the remains of an oil rig that represented the dreams of a brave and adventurous Mr Du Preez. He was sure there was oil under the sand and started a prospecting company funded by various organisations. Even Aristotle Onassis came to have a look, but decided not to get involved. When the tower of the rig was about half…

AFRICA OVERLAND It is almost impossible to conjure up images of overland travel without including a group of people sitting around a campfire. And, of course, some meat roasting over the coals. For a tour guide, making a fire when you reach your destination is part of the job. A fire creates a cosy, tranquil atmosphere, and makes everyone feel at home. Starting a fire is easy enough, but preparing meals can be tricky. In fact, feeding a travelling group can be as difficult and stressful as escorting a convoy over a series of high sand dunes. Some guides leave food preparation to the individual group members but others, like me, provide all meals as part of the deal. If you are catering for a large group, there is almost…

There have been two stand-out incidents at our service station recently. One was very positive and the other was very negative. The first incident occurred at around 11pm on a Saturday night, and I only found out about it the next day, when one of the parties involved wanted to obtain video footage from our CCTV system. Two young men had been on their way home from the pub up the road when they drove onto my site in a blue car. They parked at a pump, but with the petrol cap on the “wrong” side of the pump. They restarted the car, reversed and then drove towards the pump just opposite from where they had stopped initially. It was late at night and there were no other vehicles on…

I like the new X-Trail a lot. We didn’t get along the first few days because of that finicky clutch, but once I got used to it, it was smooth sailing all the way. To me it’s at its best on the open road. I used it for a quick trip to Potchefstroom and back to Randburg and it used only a little more than a quarter tank of fuel. I loved the LCD display between the speed and rev counter dials. The stop/start system shows you how much CO2 you’ve saved by using it and I nearly got to a full kilogram. It’s gimmicky, I know, but it also kept me from switching the stop/start system off, which is normally the first thing I do when I get behind…

Did you know? Why was the town called Pilgrim’s Rest? Because after many false trails, prospectors believed that they had finally found a home. This was a town where gold prospectors could settle. They call it the Pilgrim’s Guild. It’s ritual served up in the enigmatic Johnny Reinder’s bar in Pilgrim’s Rest. It works like this: when a patron indicates that he or she is ready to become a member of the Guild, a tot glass of Stroh rum, a slice of lemon and a helping of snuff is presented to the brave soul. First the Stroh rum has to be downed. Next the snuff needs to be sniffed. And lastly, the lemon slice has to be squeezed out in the person’s eyes. Clearly the Pilgrim’s Guild is not for…

BUYING USED It is difficult to know for sure if a second-hand vehicle has been in an accident. The owner, or dealer, might tell you that it is in an excellent condition and that it has never been in any sort of mishap, but how can you be sure? Well, there are a couple of things you can look out for. The first thing I do when inspecting a car is to check that all the panels are perfectly straight. Do the panels line up correctly? If not, this is a troubling sign that some serious work has been done on the vehicle, which possibly means that it has been in an accident. I also recommend running your fingertips around the edges of panels to check if they are smooth.…

DYNO TESTING Without a load, most engines should last about three or four minutes, if that long. With a load that restricts the engine to its designed rev range, the engine should last at least 500 hours, if not more. How do I know? I’ve been there, and I’ve got the T-shirt. My first entry into the automotive manufacturing environment was as a dynamometer technician at the old Chrysler SA assembly plant in Cape Town. The dyno was a hydraulic unit, connected to the engine’s flywheel by means of a short shaft. Initially my weekly routine consisted of selecting a Chrysler Valiant engine from the assembly line, performing a running-in procedure on the dyno, and then measuring the maximum power output. The running-in procedure consisted of starting at low revs…

OUR OPINION gert@leisurewheels.com Predictably, the Easter weekend road accident toll this year has added many more fatalities to the country’s grim record of deaths during holiday periods. Whatever the appeals for careful driving by traffic authorities and motoring organisations, there are scores of accidents in which many people die and hundreds more are severely injured. In 2014, 193 people died on our roads over Easter. In 2013 it was 241. These figures pale in comparison to the number of people that die over the summer festive season every year. No less than 1376 people died on the roads in December of 2013, and in 2014 the number dropped ever so slightly to 1368. It’s a simple fact that an awful lot of people die in motor accidents, all over the…

Ingenium is a new family of premium diesel and petrol engines designed, engineered and manufactured by in-house Jaguar Land Rover, and which the company promises will deliver class-leading levels of torque, power and refinement, while reducing emissions and fuel consumption at the same time. Jaguar Land Rover powertrain engineers at the company’s Whitley and Gaydon development facilities have based the Ingenium engine range’s foundation on extremely strong and compact aluminium blocks for both diesel and petrol versions. These lightweight blocks all share a bore, stroke, cylinder spacing and 500cc cylinder capacity. This helps give Ingenium the configurability and flexibility around which smaller or larger engines can quickly and efficiently be developed to meet future regulatory and competitive requirements. These engines will also weigh, on average, 80kg less than their predecessors,…

Landy launches heritage division Jaguar Land Rover launched a Land Rover Heritage division at the Techno Classica show in Essen, Germany. Complementing the recently established Jaguar Heritage division, Land Rover Heritage will offer original Land Rover vehicle parts for a variety of heritage models that have been out of production for more than a decade. Body, trim and extended servicing items are available for the Range Rover Classic, while for Range Rover P38 and Discovery 1 and 2, Land Rover Heritage supplies salvage and extended service parts to ensure customers’ cherished cars can be maintained to the highest standards. The showcase for this new division will be an iconic first-generation Range Rover Classic, featuring a selected range of Land Rover parts created by the original tooling. The most luxurious Volvo…

Graeme and Nicky Stonebank. The Stonebanks are old hands at camping, starting off with tents and later moving up to camping trailers. Nowadays they do it caravan style. As long as they can spend time camping in the bush, though, they are happy. Tau and Nomzamo Sello. The recently-wed Sellos are very much into the great outdoors, with Tau, especially, preferring to pack his tent and cooler box in his Toyota Hilux 4x4 and heading to the remotest location he can find. Tinus and Dalene Breitenbach. The couple recently took their grandchildren camping for the first time and returned with a few extra grey hairs. Tinus runs the McCarthy 4x4 Club, so he spends plenty of time every year camping in some exotic place. Dalene joins him on his travels…

Our Mount Sheba visit started off on a high note – driving the last 10km to the lodge after turning off the main R533 road between Pilgrim’s Rest and Lydenburg is a treat in itself. The dirt road snakes its way through the mountains and beautiful plantations. Finally, about 1,5km from the lodge, a narrow tar road runs into the rain forest and you drive through the lush greenery, completely surrounded by the forest. It’s a bit like a scene from the children’s book series, The Gruffalo, where the story is set in a deep, dark wood. The lodge itself is a beautiful business, and looks as though it might also come straight out of some fairytale. With the white-washed finishes for the walls, thatched roofs and big chimneys, the…

SNAKE BITES There is a great deal of speculation about how many people are bitten annually by snakes, and one figure that is often quoted for southern Africa is 6000. Snake lovers are quick to claim that most victims are bitten while trying to kill snakes. Others feel that the majority of victims are snake enthusiasts or keepers who get bitten while capturing or handling snakes. Compared with the total number of bites, however, snake handlers make up a very small percentage of victims – probably less than 3%. We know that the vast majority of snakebite victims are rural people who are bitten when they accidentally stand on a snake or while working their land, usually barefoot. Most bites happen on warm summer days or nights, often after rain.…

INTO AFRICA There is a place in Ethiopia called the Danakil Depression, also known as the Afar, and we spent a few weeks there. This is a region in the north-east, spilling over into Eritrea and Djibouti. It is one of the most remote areas in Africa, where the Rift Valley runs into the Red Sea. Getting to the Danakil is simple in one way yet complicated in another. We were fortunate not only to have proper guide books but also to get advice from a number of tour guides in Addis Ababa. They warned us to prepare properly. We started off at Samara. This is a newly constructed town in the middle of a semi-desert. A number of apartment buildings and hotels were recently completed. We had to report…

TAKING PICTURES I am a bit old fashioned. I still listen to vinyl records and I never jumped aboard the whole “digital revolution” when it came to photography. I have a Canon G10 camera, which I use for quick snaps, but I prefer to use an old Nikon FM 2 film camera when travelling. My fridge is full of film, some of which still needs to be taken to the lab for developing. And whenever I do develop a roll, it’s wonderful to revisit the experiences, sometimes of years earlier. The fun starts when you scan and archive the pictures, and then start sharing them on various social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. I do not pretend to be a professional photographer, but I enjoy the ability to…

A – B Maintenance plan: 5 years / 100 000 km Fuel tank: 64 litres.. Average sales per month: 176» The Q3 is trendy, modern and – in typical Audi fashion – very well put together. The ride is sporty yet wonderfully comfortable and luxurious. It’s not an off-roader, but it can deal with gravel tracks. We reckon that, as an overall package, this “Q” may be the best of the lot. Pricing is reasonably competitive, but the optional extra list will certainly add a lot more rands to the deal. LW choice: 2.0TDI quattro. Also look at: BMW X1, MINI Countryman, Mercedes-Benz GLA, Subaru XV Maintenance plan: 5 years/100 000 km Fuel tank: 61 litres. Average sales per month: n/a» More station wagon than SUV, the Allroad is a…