Aircooled VW South Africa

From Werner Alker's priceless personal collection - a picture of him driving his Splitty on the classic Kyalami circuit in 1967

I work right next to the track and I would never have said that was anywhere near Kyalami.

I'd have said that was the last corner before the main straight, obviously prior to the track change, but the exit lane is on the right in the direction of travel?

*scratches head*

Hi All,

Nick, The track has had a few major changes since this pic was taken. A large part of the main straight area has been lost to development. Rotation is clockwise. The run - off lane that you see on the left of the split is the pit lane entrance ! They used to have 100 mph days then and you can pitch up and do your thing for a few bucks. You had to have a hard hat and a safety belt. You would probably would have seen Nick's split St.Johns Ambo parked at the side of Clubhouse or Crowthorne corners waiting for customers.------ 2 mins, 48 secs is not a bad time around the original track --especially in a brick !
I often used to go to the track in my 55 Oval. The best was that it never boiled in the monstrous traffic jam that used to start in Orange Grove, bumper to bumper. Remember, the M1 was only in the early stages of construction in those years - Louis Botha was the main Pretotia Road! At Woodmead interchange, the old bridge, (the one with the round pillars) was the first "flyover " constructed in S. Africa, and probably the the entire African continent.

Cheers

Bill

Hey Bill,

I wondered if the direction had changed...

Wow! It's amazing how development F'cks everything in it's path up.

From what was a worthy track, in the spectator's favour, to the private, and run-down track that is today.

We can only hope that someone with lots of money buys it and builds it from scratch again.

The area has lost out on something of value.

Bernie claims we won't get an F1 here due to the altitude, which is probably correct with the modern cars, but I doubt that's the only reason.

I know a few guys who used to do the 100 Mph run at Kyalami in bugs.

*lmao* @ a hard-hat... *envisages bricklayers racing*

Neat titbit on the flyover.

Cheers, N.

the only racetrack that i really like is zwartkops raceway...the atmosphere, you have access to everything in the pits, it's really great.