Concours South Africa 2019-the ultimate celebration of luxury living and the deluxe showcase of the automotive worlds greatest creations takes place at Steyn City on the weekend from Friday 30 August to Sunday 1 September 2019.
A Best Dressed Lady prize will honor both Women’s Month and Spring Day at this year’s event, adding yet another element to this elegant motorized garden party that features the country’s best classic machinery. This year’s entry, limited to the top 100 classic cars in South Africa promises to be an unforgettable weekend of motorized splendor.
An area of some 8 hectares has been set aside, enabling all the cars to be displayed in a single, well-defined area. The car display area features sumptuous lawns, lakes and walkways affording spectacular views of the Steyn City Golf Course, Palazzo Steyn and the incredible golf course.
Last year the overall winning car was the Ferrari 328 GTS owned by Mrs Zia Wort.
Judging of the cars will take place on both Saturday and Sunday with the prize giving ceremony on Sunday afternoon. This year’s judging panel will be made up of experts, both local and international. A class win at Concours South Africa adds real (rand….dollar) value to the winning entries.
There are a number of additional attractions to keep all busy for the entire weekend.
Last year Mrs Carolyn Steyn was adjudged the Best Dressed Lady
In line with the established social season atmosphere, this year’s event will once again be awarding a prize for the Best Dressed Lady at the event. Event Master of Ceremonies Greg Marucchi noted that this year’s best-dressed lady’s award will enjoy a special resonance, as Concours South Africa 2019 spans both Women’s Month in August and Spring Day, which is celebrated on the final day of the Concours event on Sunday, September 1. The Best Dressed Lady and the winning cars at Concours South Africa 2019 will be announced at the prize giving on the afternoon of Sunday the 1st of September.
On the Friday evening of August 30, Concours South Africa will once again induct a world-renowned motoring personality into the South African Hall of Fame. This is a particularly prestigious event that has become part of the Concours weekend tradition. Past inductees at previous Concours events include motor racing personalities Sarel Van der Merwe, Ian Scheckter and Ferrari F1 designer Rory Byrne.
The 2019 Inductees are Basil Green and Graham Duxbury.
Basil Green
A favourite of Ford Motor Company boss Lee Lacocca, Basil Green made his mark by shoehorning larger-capacity engines into relatively ordinary cars. Green’s first Perana was the ’67 Cortina MKII, where he squeezed a three-litre Ford Essex V6 into an engine bay usually reserved for a four-cylinder engine.
The Cortina Perana raced onto to South Africa’slightly-trafficked roads, while at the same timemaking its mark on the country’s racetracks. Racing legends Koos Swanepoel and Bobby Olthoff drove Cortina Peranas to multiple victories and to SA national championships.
Green’s next trick cemented the Perana brand as an icon in South African motoring history: he audaciously extracted the V6 engines from Ford’s Capri coupe and replaced them with five-litre V8 powerhouses from the Mustang! The charismatic Ford Capri Perana V8 “hit the local motorsport scene with a sledge hammer blow”, while at the same time rewriting the road car rulebook.
Graham Duxbury
Born 1 December 1954, one of South Africa’s best loved racing driver, business man and motorsport commentators. Amongst many other accolades, Graham won the South African National Drivers Championship in 1982, initially driving a March 78B engineered by Ken Howes, before taking delivery of a ground effect March 822.
Graham, along with Tony Martin and former Hall of Fame inductee, Sarel van der Merwe, won the world famous Daytona 24 Hours, at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida, United States, in 1984 driving for Kreepy Krauly Racing, an all-South African team in a March 83G-Porsche again engineered by Howes..Graham is currently the Chief Executive Officer of Duxbury Networking, a South African-based Specialist Networking Distributor and commentates regularly at race meetings, on radio and television.
A notable feature of Concours South Africa 2019 will be a South African Specials category featuring classic cars that were SA-specific, such as the Ford Capri Perana of the 1970s, the early 1990s Opel Kadett Superboss and BMW 333’s to name a few. Continuing the South African theme, there will be a sizeable display of significant South African racing cars.
A number of famous marques will also be celebrating significant birthdays this year, including the centenary of Bentley and 60 years of the Mini.
The Daytona Group will also have some very special cars on display, including a McLaren Senna, five Rolls Royce’s-spanning nearly Seventy Years of the marque, a superb selection from Aston Martin and a very special automobile from the spectacular Italian manufacturer Pagani.
