Detour #175: The fastest road in Africa
South Africa’s Northern Cape is home to the speediest road on the continent with a 155 mph limit – as long as you know who to ask.
The little corner at the very bottom of the African continent is known as the Western Cape. It’s a favoured tourist destination within South Africa and most will know it thanks to countless images of the flat-topped mountain that protects the city of Cape Town, its beautiful beaches and myriad wine farms.
The geological formations in and around the Western Cape have resulted in the creation of some of the world’s best driving roads. Some of which I have written about on this very site, as you can read by clicking here. However, to the north lies the less glamorous sister province known as the Northern Cape and a mecca of speed that few folks know about.
The sparsely populated Northern Cape borders neighbouring Namibia and Botswana. The arid and flat landscape of the Kalahari Desert has its own beauty and charm that is in stark contrast to the coastal towns far to its south. However, that same flat topography and climate make it an ideal place for automakers to test upcoming products.
In fact, this little industry has become so popular that the government has even created special dispensation for new models to be tested at extremely high speeds. The National 14 (N14) links the nation’s capital Pretoria with the town of Springbok near the western edge of SA. Most of that stretch has the national limit of 120 km/h (75 mph). However, there’s a 55 km section between Pofadder and Kakamas that has a ‘speed limit’ of 250 km/h (155 mph).
The fastest road in South Africa isn’t a free-for-all, mind you. You can’t just pitch up in your private car and go full tilt whenever you please. You need special permission, which I assume comes with a truck-load of paperwork, from the government to use this stretch of tar to its full potential. The end result is a yellow sticker that brings with it the freedom we all wish for as it boldly states: High Speed Test Vehicle Approved By Government.
The testing industry has brought with it a few handy business opportunities for the locals, like providing high-octane fuel for performance models and keeping an assortment of tyres in various sizes in stock should an international crew require a bit of last minute help.
Not far from the bit of the N14 is a test track that belongs to the VW Group. And it is definitely one they’d prefer you don’t know about as it reportedly even has protected air space. The facility, according to very basic online measurements, has a 17,5 km oval with two 4,5 km long straights and an in-field/handling track that’s over 5,5 km long. It’s no wonder then that so many VW Group products (such as the Veyron) are spotted in SA far ahead on public debuts. You can have a look for yourself at these coordinates: -29.057756951577048, 19.853251503542168.
The Hakskeen Pan, due north of the high-speed section of N14 was supposed to be the site of Bloodhound SSC’s land speed record run. 317 workers removed 16 500 tonnes of rock from 22 million square metres to allow the car to run there. In preliminary testing it achieved 1 010 km/h
I’ve been down the fastest road in South Africa, with pin-straight sections as far as the eye can see. Although our car didn’t have the requisite decal, that did not stop the former SA national motorsport champion behind the wheel from covering just over 100 km in a shade over 30 minutes…