The Renault Knysna Hillclimb is the main event of the Knysna Speed Week and the undoubted highlight of the week. The event attracts cars and stars of both yesteryear and the present.
While it is a new event on the South African motorsport calendar, following our second running the event has created a huge amount excitement in the motorsport fraternity and is being spoken of in terms of the South African equivalent of the renowned Goodwood Festival of Speed held annually in the UK.
Catering to historic, classic and modern road and race cars the Knysna Hillclimb has hit a niche that was not previously catered for on the motorsport calendar. Add in the idyllic Simola Country Estate and Knysna Estuary and we believe that we have the world's most impressive hillclimb route.
Our objective for the hillclimb is to mix competitive spirit with a lot of fun. Therefore, while the action on the track can get pretty hot and exciting, we want both the spectators that attend the event and the competitors to leave feeling that they had a blast. Despite the rain that dampened proceedings during the weekend (although it was desperately needed in the area), there was unanimous consensus that we had achieved what we set out to do. With 114 cars taking to the track during the weekend and around 5000 people attending, everyone had a lot of fun.
The list of luminary drivers who have indicated their participation in 2011 is impressive: Sarel van der Merwe, Ian Scheckter, Jaki Scheckter, Geoff Mortimer, Robbi Smith, Grant McCleery and twice World Motocross Champion Jean Michel Bayle participating. The latter is travelling from France especially for the event.
Likewise the list of beautiful cars that will take part is a long one; from classics such as a Gunston Chevron B25 Formula 2 from the 1970s and a 1961 LDS Formula 1, to more modern machinery such as a Ferrari F430 race version, Porsche GT3RS, Nissan 370Z, KTM X-Bow and an Ariel Atom.
