Scania walks the show

Scania sold the first example of its new bus, the Scania Touring, as well as a ‘substantial’ number of trucks during the first two days of the 2013 Johannesburg International Motor Show.

Gideon de Swardt, PRO for Scania in South Africa, said they sold the bus straight off the stand on the first day of the show as well and on the VIP preview day, a cross-border customer placed a double-digit order for some very specialised truck-tractors, (shown) to be used mainly in the mining industry. ‘I’ve been in the truck business for many years and this is the first time this has happened.I cannot quote figures, but the order was substantial.”

‘On the second day we sold a further eight vehicles, comprising various models. One of the customers flew in a private aircraft from Louis Trichardt, landed at Rand Airport, arrived at the show and straight away purchased the Scania Streamline, our latest edition to the range, launched in Europe only a few months ago. This is one of our flagship truck models.’

Hauliers must share the blame

KwaZulu-Natal MEC Willies Mchunu

SPEAKERS at a truckers’ conference held at the recent Shongweni Expo supported a suggestion that truck operators should be able to demonstrate a working knowledge of their duties before being allowed to buy a truck.

The event was hosted by outspoken Fleetwatch magazine editor Patrick O’Leary. The Irishman again pulled no punches in addressing the issues that make South Africa’s roads among the world’s most deadly.

He mooted that apart from changes to professional driver training, South Africa’s industry should consider a hauliers’ certificate, suggesting that dealers should not sell trucks to operators who did not have a certificate to show they knew their duties in terms of section 49 of the National Road Traffic Act (number 93 of 1996).

The aim is to make truck owners aware that they can be held criminally accountable if

Mud, what mud?

Oh… THAT mud. ALWYN VILJOEN discovers when tyre choices and turbo lag matter.

Before the rain, we could jest mud, what mud?

FIRST off — a new Triton is coming.

Earlier this year, CarAdvice in Australia quoted Mitsubishi Motors Corporation (MMC) president Osamu Masuki at the Sydney motor show saying: “The next-generation Triton is already in the works and the popular ute is expected to debut in 2014.”

Looking at the concept lines that Mitsubishi showed at the last Geneva Show, I think we’re in for as much of a visual feast

Oh dear: ebikes remain too costly

 North Carolina-based entrepreneur
Jesse Stephenson with his eFox.

YOUNG designers in the United States and Austria have launched two electric-assisted bicycles, which demonstrates how far some people will go not to pay ever increasing fuel prices.

In the U.S., the eFox is currently raising production funds on Kickstarter.

A pledge of $4 500 (R44 163) will get you an eFox of your own,

Sugarcane growers hope to finally make fuel

Pinky Deku with the only biodiesel pump in
KwaZulu-Natal in 2012. 

KWAZULU-NATAL’S sugar-cane growers are hoping they can start producing ethanol to supplement fuel, as well as sugar.

Minister of Energy Ben Martins admitted at the beginning of October that the government’s tactic to get more biofuel pumped into people’s fuel tanks with a mix of rebates and tax holidays is not working and he said it is time to use the law.

Hence, from October 1, 2015, fuel producers will begin a mandatory blending of petrol and diesel with ethanol distilled from “under utilised” crops such as sugar cane, sugar beet,

Ambobikes save lives in hell holes across the world

The editor (in black) testing the ambobike.

A SMALL sidecar factory in King Williamstown has saved hundreds of lives in eight developing countries by thinking out of the box.

The Ranger Production Company builds the eRanger, which comprises a robust sidecar that is typically attached to either a Jialing JH125 or a JH200 motorbike.

The unit is designed to reach areas that may be inaccessible to all but 4x4s, but at a fraction of the cost.

As usual, I was the only hack willing and able to test the motorbikes at the

Claim those corners, but only at legal speeds

The Chery J2 leans a bit, then handles normal driving with aplomb.

Simon Haw writes

“NOW everyone can afford to be sexy” is Chinese automaker Chery’s tagline for the J2 1.5TX, recently released in South Africa.

I can only presume that the carmaker’s marketers have a very low arousal threshold, for “sexy” is hardly the word I would use to describe this new B class contender.

Not that the car’s outward appearance in the currently popular jellybean school of styling is in any way offensive. It’s a neat if rather bland looking product, but sexy it

Best boat puller

SA best 4x4, the Iveco Daily 4x4 can also like to pull babes.

You can lead KZN skippers to water, but you cannot force them to pick one, best bakkie

WE use two very simple sums at Witness Wheels to recommend a bakkie as a towing vehicle.

All we want to know is how much torque the bakkie has at low revs and how much the dealers charge for this power. Most boat pullers use two extra criteria to choose a bakkie. Depending on which part of the coast you hook your boat, this is either a bakkie’s trendiness or its affordability. This means our list of recommended bakkies looks a lot different to the short-list that we collected from the boat-pulling fraternity.

In Durban, for example, Nathan Munthree from Boat-a-rama lists a Ford Ranger, Nissan 3,3 Hardbody or Land Cruiser 4,5 as his clients’ preferred boat-pullers. In this part of the world, the skippers have ski-boats, often with girls in tiny bikinis tanning on the deck.

The RCZ, now with more Arrrh

AT the Peugeot stand of the Johannesburg International Motor Show, the RCZ-R is the centre of attention.

The newcomer was unveiled at the expo and goes on sale next year.

When I  reviewed the 2011 model, I did not just praise the handling of the front-wheel drive car, but thus enthused: “With the tyres placed as far apart as the corners allow, and the suspension seemingly designed at the same time God did the hummingbird, this Peugeot just soaks up the ugliest bumps, and instinctively noses out the right line through the apex.

The future buzzes electric

Cute curves and lovely lines: the Mahindra e2o (right) could be South
Africa's cheapest electric vehicle if it is sold locally. 

THE current motor show in Johannesburg showcases several electric and hybrid vehicles, ranging from Mahindra's e2o to VW’s Jetta hybrid to Nissan 100% electric Leaf, which is scheduled to go on sale in South Africa next month through a dedicated Nissan Leaf dealer network only in Johannesburg and Pretoria.

A charging infrastructure has been implemented at convenient locations in the two cities to provide a new environmentally sustainable way of travelling. Nissan spokesperson Veralda Schmidt did, however, reassure Witness Wheels that plans are under way to sell the Leaf in Durban.

Massive wheels zoom in on tiny waves

THE last of 66 massive satellite antennae was delivered last week to the Atacama Large Millimetre/sub-millimetre Array (Alma) observatory in Chile.

This observatory studies signals with tiny wavelengths of only 0,3 to 9,6 mm from deep space, but to zoom in its antennae, uses two 28-wheeled colossal transporters to precisely position the 100-plus ton satellite dishes on any of 200 foundations.

“I can tell you, it feels cool to move 250 tons the same way as a toy car,” Max Kraus, project engineer at Eso Garching, told Witness Wheels.

Real word, solar-powered family car

SOLAR Team Eindhoven grabbed headlines last week as they drove the world’s first solar-powered four-seater for 875 km on one day.

Stella also proved to be as tough as a family car needs to be. Over half the field of 22 teams pulled out before completing the 3 000 km, bi-annual Solar Challenge from Darwin to Adelaide, but Stella soldiered on.

In a Witness Wheels exclusive, Quirein Biewenga told us Stella was not only comfortable to drive, but “some of passengers actually slept part of the way”. Despite the 3000 km-long party held each night by the hundreds of students from 22 universities, he stressed Stella’s passengers were not sleeping off any babalas either. Their party came only after the race, he tweeted.

South Africa buys most Tatas outside India

RESIDENTS of KwaZulu-Natal like to think their province hosts the most Indians outside India.

This is an urban legend, as a visit to Dubai or Indonesia quickly shows otherwise, so it should come as some comfort to know that South Africa does buy more Tata vehicles than any other country outside India.

Sentra boosts Nissan sales in South Africa

It looks as good in the flesh as it does in the photos.

NISSAN sold 1 931 bakkies in September, beating Ford’s 1 741, but the management was tight-lipped as strikes in August resulted in the Rosslyn-built NP200 half-tonner and NP300 one-tonner ranges simply being absent from showroom floors, as the nationwide strike, which started in August, hit home with stoppages at the Rosslyn plant, compounded by similar action at component suppliers. Production losses amounted to some 1 600 units.

Shongweni Expo 2013

Monica Pretorius says in 1976 her dad dated her mom on a
BSA motorbike like this B31 ‘Ducktail Boney’.
She found it a bit weird thinking of her parents
as gum-chewing, ducktail rebels.

KZN’s biggest Car, Truck, Bike and Outdoor Expo this year started with more than 300 hauliers in KZN attending a “Changing Attitudes” conference at the Shongweni Polo Club.

Quoting a letter in The Witness, the commercial manager of the N3 toll operator Con Roux said it seemed to a South African returning from overseas that in the past 11 years, local road users had completely abandoned the laws of the road.

Teardrop caravan makes for smiles

The staff at Jetstream who hand-build the little
teardrop caravans that make the smiles (from left)
Linda Shangashe, Khanyi Ntinga, Sar Ngonfo,
Alan Holmes and Gugu Mtshali

PINETOWN hosts a five-month-old factory where the staff think they are building teardrops, but as the beaming faces at last weekend’s Shongweni Expo showed, they are actually making smiles.

The Jetstream teardrop trailers are the brainchild of Barry Olivier and Brenden Keating. Olivier had crafted a classic plywood teardrop trailer for himself.

Microdot costs a concern

The made-in-South Africa Recoveri’s mikrodots fit on the tip
of a needle and are sprayed in their thousands on various parts of a vehicle to combat car theft and hi-jackings.

FROM the end of September, all newly registered vehicles must have microdots applied.
We have compared the current fees for an application of on average 5 000 microdots on a car in South Africa and the recomended retail price across the province is R850.
Jannie Badenhorst of Elite Services in Ladysmith told Witness Wheels that he worries about companies who advertise they can dot spray any vehicle for R500 or less.
The dots alone cost about that price, and detergent that is needed to remove all the dirt and grease from a truck or trailer costs more. “We suspect the only way for companies to apply dots below the recommended retail price is to dab on the dots using a sponge. This is the approved technigue for motorbikes, which retails for R336,40 with us, not R500,” he said.

The four types of all-wheel drive systems

There are four types of all-wheel drive systems and car manufacturers use a dozen brand names to show a model has a four-wheel drive system, like “quattro”, “4motion”, “AWD”, “4WD”.

All of them aim to transfer to the wheel that is not slipping, and from the wheel’s perspective, there are four types of all wheel drive (AWD) systems:

The Subaru Forester's AWD system provides the best of
all worlds.

• Part-time AWD — for real off-roading and crawling speed only.

• Full-time AWD — for dirt roads and bakkies or SUVs carrying loads.

• Automatic AWD — for driving icy roads and mud in winter and economic driving in summer.

• Selectable AWD — for the driver who wants it all.

Aiming for electrifying record

KZN’s swimmer turned royalty Princess Charlene of Monaco is seen here with the steering wheel of what its makers intend to be the world’s fastest electric car.

The princess and her husband, Prince Albert II of Monaco, unveiled the Venturi VBB-3 at the Wendover airfield in Utah. Billed as the most powerful electric car ever made, the VBB-3 was built by French manufacturer Venturi Automobiles in its third record-breaking attempt as part of project ‘Jamais Contente’ — Never Satisfied.

Giving a beauty a facelift

Giving the Triton bakkie a face-lift is a bit like having to come up with suggestions to make actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan more beautiful, writes ALWYN VILJOEN
OFF-ROAD enthusiasts, the author included, already consider the Triton’s 4x4 drivetrain with its three differential locks the best on offer in a bakkie in South Africa.
This system could hardly be improved on, but the marketers did what they could, and Triton Double Cab 4x4 now has a shift-on-the-fly system to lock the centre differential. The driver can change from standard 4x2 mode (for fuel economy) to 4H without a locked differential at speeds up to 100 km/h.

Kamberg hosts last junior nationals

Travis Teasdale

THE past weekend saw Kamberg hosting the last rounds of the 2013 SA Junior National Off-road Championship for young off-road motorcycle competitors — all between the ages of seven and 17 years.

It was the first time that South Africa’s young off-road riders competed for two consecutive days to complete the final rounds. Competition in each class was extremely tough as riders who have scored points at each of the five events could get rid of their worst set of points in the “Drop Points” system. Sunday also saw the last staging of a junior national off-road series, as no clubs have tendered to take part in this championship next year.

It that engine stiff, or just too excited to perform?

OF the 20 Chinese brands that have launched vehicles in SA since 2006, Great Wall Motors, or GWM, is among the six brands that not only survived, but have prospered both internationally and locally.

In South Africa, GWM stands out as the only Chinese brand that sells its vehicles through branded, instead of multi-franchise, dealerships. There are 70 of these dealerships throughout South Africa, backed by a warehouse stocking of over R150 million worth of parts in Durban.