Image: Car Magazine
Image: Car Magazine
Image: Car Magazine
Toyota SA, retaining its old habits, returned as the main sponsor of the 4X4 club of South Africa, Western Cape Fun day at the Atlantis dunes writes Peter Palm.
Image: Car Magazine
The venue, run by a nature conservation organisation, has become very popular for off-road vehicles from motorcycles to quads to the 4X4 SUVs, as well as, some seriously modified vehicles. The fun began at 07h30 on Saturday 1st October, and the weather played along perfectly, starting cool and finishing warm, but not boiling.
This event saw entries of over 70 vehicles taking part in eight special stages involving both driver and navigator abilities. Some of the navigator’s duties were to recall as many of the 10 items in a hastily seen box as possible, thread nuts onto bolts in a box and tie knots in a length of rope, all while the vehicle was bouncing around on the sand trying to find some grip. Most of these had a time limit of 2,5 minutes, although one course had to be completed in exactly 1,5 minutes with penalties for being early or late.
Image: Car Magazine
Some interesting names were given to the stages such as Skaapsteker, Cape Cobra, Bosbok, Loop the loop, Up and over, Dune charge and The garage. Only the steepness and softness of the Atlantis dunes prevented us from completing all the stages, but we gave it our best until our time limit had expired.
On top of this, the sand was super fine making it a mission to even walk up a dune to take photos. We were kitted out with a combination of 2,8 GD Toyota Fortuners and Hilux double cabs and allocated one of the groups and off we went. The majority of the vehicles were Toyotas, but there was the usual mix of an odd Land Rover Discovery and Defender, Jeeps, Nissan and, of course, Suzuki Jimnys. Even an elderly Jeep Wagoneer from the 1960s!
Image: Car Magazine
Toyota has a special treat for the winner of the event who is invited to join the Toyota team at the next Rust de Winter event which is a full-blown rock crawling test. The same goes for the winner of Rust de Winter, who joins the Atlantis dunes fun day competition. All in all, a really fun day and next year’s event will be most anticipated by all involved.
Keyword: Full throttle at Toyota’s high octane Atlantis dunes 4X4 Fun Day