A city celebrates the freedom wheels give

AN ice-cream-meltingly perfect day saw thousands of people throng the Cars in the Park display in Pietermartizburg yesterday.

“Now I’ve seen everything,” said one show-goer as he marvelled at “Houtie”, the Midlands’ wood-clad Ford bakkie. But he hadn’t, not by a long shot.

For the 37th edition of the city’s annual celebration of people’s love for their wheels had a slew of Cortinas, more Porsches than the city has ever seen, throaty American muscle cars, and Beemers with engines tuned so hot they could be used to light the fires of the many car clubs that braaied under the trees at Alexandra Park.

The only wood-clad pick-up in Africa
goes by the name of Houttie, which
traslated to a 'small piece wood'... but
not a small woodie.

The families and friends who gathered around these fires showed why Cars in the Park is such a popular event — it is not about the car, but about the freedom cars give people to get out of the house and meet likeminded souls from all walks of life.

While these friends and families yesterday drifted from the classics to the muddy 4x4s, and on to the motorbikes and old diesel pumps on display, the ballies looked far down memory lane saying, “Those were the days, hey?” Teenagers with gelled hair and tight tops meanwhile kept their eyes firmly on the future, and each other, proving that the more the wheel turns, the more things stay the same.

Blacksmith Robin Hanney worked up a sweat to show the crowd how to shape metal the traditional way at the stand of the Natal Vintage Tractor and Machinery Club.

Travelling the hour from Hillcrest, veteran show stoppers John and Val Borland, have attended 16 Cars in the Park to date, only missing the display in 2012.

Balancing on the wheel of his dad's extreme 4x4 car Joshua van Vuuren’handed out leaflets to promote the 4x4 competition taking place at High Stakes near Cato Ridge on Saturday.

In his canary-coloured Volvo S44 coupe, Hans Raj remembered when submarines were yellow and Volvo's not square.

Behind Raj, Minesh Mahraj applied marinade to his flatties (making some stomachs rumble as loudly as a V8 engine) while the family spread newspaper pages to make an instant tablecloth.

Posing next to an organge 1970s El Camino bakkie, Ackonha Khumalo, a student at UKZN, thought his veteran afro hairdo went especially well with the low-slung pick-up's "porno lines".

Sitting on the bonnet of his mint Ford, professional shrink Ruben Naidoo, of the Pietermaritzburg-based classic car club Cruise Control, dispensed sage advice on Fords and life.

But not everyone is a car nut, as a crying Zahra (right) shows while mom Juwairiya, sister Azra, and dad Yasin enjoy the passing parade at Cars in the Park yesterday.
(Published in the Witness on 20 May 2013.)