By Jesse Adams
It's all over. Cannonball Run Africa 2013 is behind us, and Team Jaguar dominated.
Well, to be honest we came 25th out of 33 cars, which is pretty dismal. But, if any of our 32 rival teams were still living under the impression that Jaguars are for old men in tweed blazers who shoot fowl for fun, they aren't anymore and that spells success for us.
And, a good portion of the Swazi population now knows that the new supercharged F-Type V6S has an exhaust overrun backfire that'll scare the feathers off a cock at 100 metres.
The third and final day of CBR started wet, which meant the first of three timed performance events would likely be cancelled. And, of course, on arrival at an early morning hillclimb, a bevy of competitors balked at the slippery surface. So no points were to be had there.
INCREDIBLY TREACHEROUS
Later though, after team mate Thomas Falkiner and I managed to stuff up two hours of scavenger hunting, another opportunity to strut our roadster's stuff presented itself. This time the special stage was dry, but still incredibly treacherous with guardrails on one periphery and a deep ditch on the other.
My run was neat (there was impediment by at least one stray logging truck) but our Jaguar's relative lack of horsepower was evident up the hill and the best we could do was third behind a Nissan GT-R and a 911 Turbo. That's a smug way of saying we outpaced 30 other supercars.
The F-Type, even in this middle-spec format, is truly a magnificent performer. Steering feel is fantastic and the car's ability to turn in, shrug off understeer, and get itself into a four wheel drift is uncanny. I'll let the fact that it finished first, second, third and sixth during the Cannonball Run's timed events speak for itself.
DAY TRIPPER
To be honest, it does have an irritating lack of storage space, and even with our spare wheel tossed aside Thomas and I battled to make space for all our gear - and there's lots of it on an event such as this. The F-Type makes a better day tripper than weekend getaway grand tourer.
At one point during today's tasks we encountered a fellow competitor with a flat tyre, and being the upstanding gentlemen we are, we offered assistance. The blowout was on a runflat, meaning no spare, in turn meaning we needed to make space for a full size wheel in the only place possible in this Jaguar... the passenger's lap. We thought this was funny. Your wife may not.
Our generosity cost us time, and lost us points, but the sacrifice was worth it. If we hadn't stopped, our affected adversaries could still be stuck on the side of a Swazi road with only featherless cocks for company.
And the winners were...
Congratulations to Jan-Hendrik Delport and Tanja Engelbrecht for winning the 2013 Cannonball Run Africa in their Mercedes SL55 AMG. Superchargers rule.
The Cannonball Run Africa 2013 raised almost R215 000 for the QuadPara Association of South Africa - that's 10 electric wheelchairs for disabled people who cannot afford them. - Star Motoring
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