This year's Cars in the Park proves a resounding success

The Pretoria Old Motor Club is celebrating another successful Cars in the Park show at Zwartkops Raceway after a bumper day in glorious weather on August 4.

It was the 42nd rendition of South Africa’s biggest one-day car show and chief organiser Frik Kraamwinkel says he would be hard put to recall a show that has run so smoothly.

The organising club issued more than 2,500 special entrance badges, one to each participating car owner, and even then, classic cars were still arriving at the gates at the racetrack venue, southwest of Pretoria.

A feature of this year’s show was a focus on cars built before World War 2 and it was wonderful to see machines ranging from a 1908 Buick to veteran and vintage cars built up to 1939 and the immediate post-war years in the early 1940s.

This concession was made as immediately after the war many manufacturers were still building pre-war models, as car production effectively stopped between 1939 and 1945, when factories put their efforts into building armaments.

An undoubted star of this year’s show was the 1933 Rolls-Royce Phantom II, owned by Graham Blackbeard, which has been fitted with an electric engine and runs on pure battery power. The car was presented at the show by the man who undertook this conversion to electric power, Gerald Burrell.

“It was a two-year project,” explained Burrell.

“Purists who fret that this amazing car’s originality has been compromised should be reassured that the original petrol engine, which needs an extensive rebuild, is still in the owner’s possession. We did the conversion with the idea that every change made for electric conversion can be reversed and only two small extra holes have been drilled into the car’s chassis to achieve the conversion. The original engine is mounted on a stand displayed with the car in the owner’s garage.”

With the Phantom II model, another 1930s Rolls-Royce, a 20-25 model tourer, was also displayed in a splendid “African” white colour by its owner Bob Bouwmeesters.

Other famous names from that pre-war era represented at Zwartkops included Packard, Buick, Chevrolet, a host of Fords in Model T, Model A and 1930s V8 guise, Willys, Triumph and a delightful 1925 Citroën B12 Torpedo, displayed in the pits with a picnic montage that included an original wind-up record player churning out music from old shellac records used in the pre-vinyl era.

This type of attention to detail and passion was displayed by more than 2,500 car owners around the Zwartkops circuit. One Datsun owner used a camshaft as a bonnet prop to display his car’s beautifully-detailed engine, featuring hundreds of hours of hard work and original thought processes.

The 2024 show was notable for the huge presence of Datsuns and Nissans from the 1970s, representing the strength of the classic Datsun-Nissan awareness in the Pretoria area, which began in earnest in the late 1960s when cars such as the Datsun 1200 GX and Datsun SSS were the toast of the town and built in nearby Rosslyn.

Other ambitious displays were organised by the 100 clubs officially represented this year. One of these was the Triumph Club, which had cars from the 1920s to the classic late 1970s era and included Heralds, Spitfires, the TR sports car ranges and the Triumph Stag.

The Jeep presence was also huge, notable for a number of 1940s classic CJ models displayed in various states of restoration. The Willys Jeep era began soon after World War 2, when the first CJ models (Civilian Jeep) were offered for sale to the public. Another club that had a (literally) huge presence was the Unimog Club, displaying the giant off-roaders that became known to many young South Africans doing their national service in the 1970s.

Rivalling the Datsun 1200-1400 brigade for numbers were the amount of Ford Escorts on show, from the golden era that began with the Mk I model in the late 1960s. Classic American cars were also on show en-masse, notably a number of Ford Mustangs, as Mustang was celebrating its 60th birthday at this year’s Cars in the Park.

Another car that celebrated a birthday was the Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint, also available in open-topped Spider form, which was first produced in 1954, 70 years ago. A number of these cars made the trip to the show and Zwartkops owner Peter du Toit had his lovely race-trim versions on display in the pits. Other cars prominently displayed in the pits area included the Ford GT sports cars, part of long-time Cars in the Park supporter Colin Lazarus’ display of special Fords.

Classic Volkswagens had a huge presence at this year’s show again and some very special early Beetles were on display, including an original split window model, as produced in South Africa between 1951 and 1953. The numerous Kombi versions were on show as well as the later Type 3 models, as well as a number of beautiful Karmann Ghia sporty models.

In 2024 Chrysler has been celebrating the first car built with a Chrysler nameplate and in South Africa Chrysler is best-known for producing the famous Valiant models which dominated South African sales charts in the late 1960s. There were beautiful Valiant models on display, notably Barracuda versions from the late 1960s, which were two-door Valiants with a coupe style.

DKW is a brand that disappeared in South Africa in the mid-1960s, but these cars were so tough and reliable that an amazing number of them survive to this day. The 3=6 and 1000S rounded models were prominent, while an early pre-war DKW with a fabric body and wooden framework was displayed in the Special Invites section. This was a 1937 model owned by Corne Fourie, still using its original two-cylinder two-stroke engine.

Most DKWs sold in South Africa were three-cylinder models and these included the little duck-shaped Junior and F12 models from the late 1960s and early 1970s. Alwyn Kraamwinkel’s Junior model was on display in the pits area in competition form, with a hot three-cylinder engine and a roll cage. It was displayed in the spirit of the first car raced by South Africa’s most famous racing driver Sarel van der Merwe in the late 1960s.

An unusual vehicle that drew a lot of interest was a 1909 Reliable Dayton replica. It was built by POMC long-time member Jurjen Kamstra, from photographs of the only original example that exists. It is a so-called high-wheeler car and Jurjen went to great lengths to create the body using an English Wheel and produced special brass castings to give the car a genuine appearance.

On the day leading up to the show, a special event was organised for the older pre-war cars to lap the Zwartkops track at non-race speeds and owners were delighted to use their cars on a historic racetrack, Zwartkops having first been laid out in 1961, the same year as its more famous counterpart Kyalami.

Also celebrating a landmark birthday this year was a car that is no stranger to race tracks: Porsche’s 911. The first Porsche 911 went on sale in 1964. There were a good number of Porsches at Cars in the Park this year and a handful of Ferraris too.

A new attraction this year was the Rally Stage for classic rally cars organised on the Zwartkops kart circuit by well-known rally driver Ben van der Westhuizen of the MSA North motor club. It attracted a lot of attention and added an action dynamic to the event.

“All in all, we are happy with the way this year’s event turned out,” said Frik Kraamwinkel. “A big thank you to all the clubs, our stall holders, the car owners and the public who turned up in great numbers to share our passion. And to our team at Pretoria Old Motor Club, and to The Lions, who provided much help in managing the event.”