Flat out for 48 hours
Setting a national endurance record sounds like fun… until you read the small print, discovered Sudhir “Banzai” Matai.
I was less than five minutes into a three-hour driving stint when I wondered to myself: “WHAT have I done?”
Chinese automaker Chery was planning to set a 48-hour endurance record for cars with engines of between 0.8 and 1.1-litres. It was a clever marketing move as the records didn’t exist, so whichever manufacturer went first netted themselves a good deal of publicity. To amplify the message Chery invited mostly motoring journalists to carry out the driving duties, yours truly included.
The site of the event was the Gerotek test facility just outside South Africa’s capital Pretoria. This one-time military vehicle proving ground has a three kilometre oval and has been the site of many South African records.
To set a 48-hour record, one has to have a decent driving team and divvy up the workload. As one of the younger members of the team, I was handed three, less than ideal driving slots: 3am to 6.30am, 11am to 2.30pm and from 11pm to about 2.30am. Each stint lasted one full tank of fuel, which in an 800cc car is about three hours fifteen minutes.
As the seconds ticked down to my first turn the excitement levels ramped up. Once my co-driver had dived into the pits, I was prepped and ready to go the moment the refueler gave me the go-ahead.
I zipped out of the pits in car number two and scooted onto the multi-lane banked oval. I took about a lap to get settled into the car, and then it dawned on me what I was facing over the next two days… sheer boredom.
Driving at full throttle, for three-hours at a time may seem like fun, but not in a car with next to no power. To conserve fuel we had to run without the air-conditioner, or even the fan running. Not ideal on a warm Highveld day with not a cloud in sight.
There was no entertainment in the cabin, save for the odd crackle from the two-way radio informing us of our respective lap counts. The most excitement we were faced with was when one of the cars hit a porcupine in the dead of night. The critter’s spiky quills did some serious damage to the car’s radiator and front right tyre.
I spent pretty much the entire time at full throttle with the speedo needle hovering around the 150 km/h-mark. With my right leg welded to the floor it would eventually get numb and I’d have to swap over to my left. During this time I had to sit askew with my right leg propped against the driver’s door. My longest stint was close to 150 laps.
After two days of non-stop running we covered 6,369 km at an average speed of 132.7 km/h.
Ultimately it probably was fun, but, like a bungee jump, only in hindsight.
Words Sudhir “Banzai” Matai Twitter | Instagram
Photography Chery
