Top Gear Month
June is upon us and with it possibly the most exciting motoring event of the year – The Top Gear Festival. You may have noticed an increase in sports cars flooding your streets or perhaps local radio DJ’s getting their piece of the motoring pie. Well we at DriveRSA thought we would give those ‘petrolheads’who have been living under a rock a little breakdown on some of the Top Gear activities that have been going on.
Silent film star and legendary racer; The Stig was in Durban May 30th, fine tuning his driving skills on South African soil ahead of the Top Gear Festival coming to town in June. After checking out the Moses Mabhida, he took a drive round the local roads where Top Gear Festival’s first ever street circuit will be staged, and even took in a few local sites.
The Stig pushed a BMW M3, Porsche GT3 RS & Birkin S3 to their limits in the grounds of the iconic stadium as he demonstrated his legendary driving skills taking time to share a few driving tips with Sharks rugby stars Lawazi Mvovo, Ryan Kankowski, Odwa Ndugane and Coach, John Plumtree along with 5fm DJ Gareth Cliff.
If The Stig himself isn’t enough of a draw card for you (well see a doctor), a breath-taking line-up of historic Grand Prix and F1 Cars spanning nine decades of legendary racing should just about push you over the motoring edge as they take part in the first ever street circuit this June. Joining the MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS Formula One Team on track will be a procession of iconic race cars, never before seen together in South Africa, spanning the 1920’s to the present day in Top Gear Festival’s tribute to Grand Prix Racing and F1.
This spectacular gathering will form just part of a 90 minute extravaganza which takes place on the specially created street circuit in Durban on the 16th & 17th. F1 and Le Mans racing driver Tiff Needell will be joined by Sasha Martinengo to introduce a whole host of motoring festivities alongside the F1 tribute.
Other highlights include power laps with The Stig, supercar grudge matches and a celebrity quarter mile challenge. Top Gear will also be introducing its own InterNations challenge, where with a nod to the sadly departed A1 GP series, they’ll pitch country against country with a grid of celebrity racing drivers, such as Sabine Schmitz (a former resident of South Africa) for Germany and Shane Lynch for Ireland.
Tickets are on sale and range from R250 for a bronze ticket to R1995 for a VIP super fan ticket. For more information on ticket prices or to book visit www.itickets.co.za or www.topgearfestival.co.za
Justin Stephenson