Words by: Rajiv Hurribunce
Pics by: Righardt Guse, Steven Darge, Nishan Sitlu

More often than not people tend to make flashy purchases of the latest sports cars and saloons. Big price tags and equally big egos until the vehicle gets parked up a tree in some local suburb. Here with the Twin Cam Club we take pride in those possessions and help you enjoy them and try keep you safe as well. Yet again, this May the TTCC held our annual advanced driving and full circuit event at the Z. With the capable Toyota Advanced Driving (TAD) instructors by our sides we took to the track to brush up those driving skills.

Zwartkops hosted the committee bright and early with coffee while we set up the stage for what was turning out to be the largest turn out the club has seen. As the club members rolled in toward the pit lane it was not long before we were at capacity and to our surprise, there were still people that wanted to enter. With registrations out the way, it was on to the driver’s briefing from the guys at the Z, TAD as well as our chairman, Kimesh Naidoo. Eagerness poured out of driver’s ears as they waited for the last bit of useful information being dictated. The novice session was first, and being the majority of the lot the instructors split amongst them to provide real-time professional guidance. From male to female, young to old, everyone had a chance and everyone took away valuable information. It’s a great atmosphere when you are learning together with some of Toyota’s greatest. Being in the novice category with a Supra behind you just goes to show that even the fastest of cars need good drivers. We say spot on to all those drivers that started at the bottom to learn their cars and hone their skills. It’s about creating a bond with your car and once you find it, the rewards are endless.

The Intermediate and Advanced drivers being the more experienced bunch had the pleasure of going out there and fine tuning their developing skills. Keeping to tighter lines, stepping on the throttle earlier, braking a little later, its adrenalin pumping to say the least. We watched drivers improve greatly and up goes the confidence with it. For the most part it was supposed to be a great learning exercise but the amount of fun that it churns out is very hard to beat. Even being a passenger in a friend’s car can still scare the beans out of you, that was me anyway.

What’s always good to see is the variety of cars and people that attended. Many familiar faces joined us from all sorts of stables, Honda, VW, and Nissan … it created a brilliant atmosphere. The Toyota 86 came in big numbers and with that came supercharged and turbocharged variants. Our supercharger addicts RGMotorsport and RMS both put on a great show with their demo cars and Auto Sound Engineering brought in their turbocharged 86 which was a first sight for many. We had some dealership presence as well – McCarthy Toyota Centurion were kind enough to show off a few of their latest models. Media coverage was taken care of by Speed & Sound Magazine as well as Nick Beukes from SA Car Clubs Magazine. Keep your eyes peeled for the next publication of these two gloss fronts to get the full write up and photographs from TTCC’s biggest circuit event. It’s not to be missed.

A big thank you to all the fanatics that entered, as well as to the boys from McCarthy Toyota Centurion, SnS, SACC magazine and Zwartkops Raceway for helping us host a great event. We hope all the entrants had a good Sunday and learned a bit more about their cars and themselves. We would also like to wish Rikus and Dave well after their very unfortunate incident on the track. It’s a learning curve and these things happen to the best of us. We are glad you guys are safe.

Until our next event in June at Schalk’s Conversions, we hope your tuning is fine and your bolts are on tight. Be prepared to see some of the craziest cars battle it out on the rollers!