Following the successful hosting of the FIFA World Cup in South Africa, the nation is chasing other major sport events with renewed vigour, and Formula One is no exception.

Over the weekend, F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone reaffirmed his belief that Formula One will come to the African continent this decade, and the leading city is Cape Town. Eccelstone told BBC radio that “We’ve been talking to the people in Cape Town…We’re talking about building a circuit. It’s probably about three years away. That’s what I would like to see. I would hope so. I’ve been hoping that for five years.”

South Africa enjoyed a healthy dose of Formula One from the inception of the sport. Cape Town was the first city to host an international Formula One Grand Prix in 1960 at the Killarney Race Circuit. The following year the saw the likes of Sterling Moss compete at the same facility but poor financial planning by the promoters lost the event for the venue.

The last time a Formula One race was held in South Africa was in 1993, at the Kyalami circuit in Midrand, north of Johannesburg. Kyalami also held a race in 1992, and from 1967 through to 1985. Prior to that, the Prince George Circuit in East London held events in 1962, ’63 and ’65.

The financial benefits are seemingly obvious; Formula One is the single most expensive sporting code per event on Earth, and returns to each track year after year. Mega-events like the Olympics come along once every few decades and place considerable strain on a city’s finances. It has been suggested that Athens 2004 played a considerable role in the Greek financial crisis which struck only this year.

The news spread rapidly and inevitably Dave Gant, CEO of the South African Grand Prix Corporation, was asked to clarify or even ratify the statements.

Gant has spent the better part of the last decade working to bring Formula One to Africa, and in particular, Cape Town. He has spoken to Ecclestone a number of times on the potential of adding Cape Town to the F1 calendar. Plans for a racetrack facility near the airport were in advanced stages about three years ago but were squashed by the former cabinet of the Western Cape, who backtracked after formally getting behind the project.

Speaking to 567 Cape Talk’s John Maytham late yesterday afternoon, Gant confirmed that the project is very much still alive. “The focus has now moved to a multi-purpose facility, which will include a racetrack as well as industrial and wider business opportunities, with a particular focus on socio-economic upliftment for the area concerned.”

This was the proposed facility near the Cape Town airport.

While he was unable to elaborate further due to sensitivities with the ongoing negotiations, he did detail the financial difficulties of staging a Formula One event: “While the event represents a huge earning opportunity, the license fees and the cost of promoting it mean the facility has to be cross-subsidised.”

This is one of the reservations he has against a street circuit in Cape Town. “While I agree that a street circuit in the Mother City would rival the very best, even Monte Carlo, for beauty and spectacle, it remains a romantic idea which I think is not financialy viable. There is no way for the promoter to capture the crowd, something which Durban learnt the hard way [after staging the A1 Grand Prix].”

Ecclestone has made a direct contribution to developing motorsport in South Africa, through his involvement with the South African Kart Racing Academy, SAKRA, a Section 21 charity training youngsters from all backgrounds for a possible career in motorsport, with the ultimate aim of having a South African in a Formula One car in the near future.

Gant feels strongly about the growing the culture of motorsport in SA, and in that sense, by staging a street race, there is no way to leave a legacy behind once the Formula One roadshow packs up at the end of the race weekend. A purpose built facility has the potential to become a foundation for all motorsport.

While Ecclestone mentioned 2013 as a possible date, Gant believes 2015 is more likely: “I feel it is inevitable that Formula One will come to South Africa, most likely in the next five years, and most likely to Cape Town. I don’t think it will be a street race, but rather at a purpose built facility, of which I hope to reveal details soon.”

Ciro De Siena

Can anybody decipher this? We’re stumped. Even better, if you know the owner, get him to drop us a line.

Thanks Davide!

I think, Sir, you'll find the correct spelling just to the left of the VW badge.

We’ve all had those moments in the traffic. The [insert preferred insult here] in front of you is proudly sporting a shit numberplate and there’s absolutely nothing you can do about it. Well, to hell with that. Tell him/her that his/her numberplate sucks, we say.

Sometimes it’s less obvious than the case above. I once saw a very plain looking Mercedes C180 with the plate HAVNFUN-WP. I’m almost certain he wasn’t. Now you see with this chap above, he must have known he was spelling Scirocco incorrectly. I mean, the model name is actually on the car, just left of the VW badge. But, you can only put seven characters on a numberplate, so he just went for it anyway.

Excellent.

Thanks Davide.

Gavin didn't get to drive his through a Dulux factory, unfortunately.

Let’s be honest, there are certain things women didn’t traditionally do. Like drinking until throwing up on a fern in an Umhlanga hotel lobby or just throwing. Until recently the world of car design has been as male-dominated as a Premier League changing room. But the new Z4 is, wait for it…designed by two women; Juliane Blasi and Nadya Arnaout and fair play to BMW for giving the ladies a crack. I suspect it might be some sort of guilt-laden PC response to all the male chauvinist BMW owners in Ray-Bans and Sasoons who were responsible for 80s divorce rates.

It was quite obviously time for BMW to respect the ladies and the bodies they create and not just see them as a passenger side pair of airbags.  Remember too that an Iranian woman, Zaha Hadid, designed BMW’s faultlessly cool Leipzig Central Building. So, are they going a bit soft and girly in Bavaria?  Not a chance.  The new Z4 is all flared aggression and full frontal machismo.

The ladies have always preferred a bit of rough rather than a hair-dried ponce talking about his yoga, or so I’m told. But they do like someone who shares their feelings and the Z4 certainly does that. I have no idea how BMW consistently just make their cars feel so…right.  It’s something in the suspension geometry, in the driving position and their rear wheel drive DNA that just makes the new Z4 compliant yet thrilling, red-bloodedly fun yet pointed.

The new model has somehow managed to improve ride comfort without sacrificing grip. Sitting low-slung, right out over the back axle with that bonnet seeming to curve into infinity, you get that real go-kart feeling.

Like all new Beemers, especially these estate agent roadsters, it will divide opinion on whether men can be taken seriously in one, but when that glorious straight 6 or the mental 3.5 twin turbo kicks into life, you’ll find yourself not really caring what anyone else thinks.  It’s a manly car designed by women that women will buy and men will secretly covet. Oh, the tangled webs we weave.

More info here:  http://www.bmw.co.za/campaigns/z4/

Gavin Williams

Coming across a Pagani Zonda F Roadster in the metal, in South Africa, is a bit like finding a Panda in Uganda. Let’s just quickly get to grips with this thing: it’s on sale at Future Exotics, in the V&A Waterfront, for a cool R20 million. Depending on the exchange rate, obviously. This particular Zonda F is actually the ‘Cinqe’ model, simply meaning ‘five’ in Italian; only five will ever be produced. Ever. The body is made of carbon-titanium fibre, well, because carbon fibre is just so last millennium. The engine is sourced from AMG, and ensures the car reaches 100km/h in 3.4 seconds and doesn’t stop before it hits 350. Small wonder then that it’s fitted with a rosary. The owner’s manual recommends giving it a rub before you switch the traction control off. Just between your thumb and index finger, apparently.

Fascinating.

The new Polo. It’s nice, you should buy one.

Ciro De Siena

I hate beginning articles with a rhetorical question but I feel maybe this is unavoidable. Have you ever noticed that the only place, in the whole of South Africa where motorists stop for pedestrians crossing at a pedestrian/zebra crossing is in the V&A Waterfront? Now that’s just plain weird.

I’ve road tripped most of South Africa (a few times) and I’m basing this entirely on sound personal experience, but I don’ t think I’m wrong. It’s just that overseas, the UK in particular, a motorist will get the ABS involved to stop for a pedestrian waiting to cross. I think that down here we just don’t respect pedestrians enough.

So what is it then? Again, I hate to be this guy, but I think it’s got to do with our past. Back in the shit/good old days, depending on which side of the colour fence you happened to be, motorists were rich, ie white, and pedestrians were poor, ie not white. The whole system was engineered to denigrate certain citizens, most of whom happened to be in front of your bonnet, rather than in the car next to you, picking his/her nose.

I’m willing to bet that this whole lack of respect for pedestrians doesn’t apply to the waterfront, because that’s probably the one place in the whole of South Africa where you just know that if you do knock over a pedestrian, he’s definitely going to be wearing socks and sandals. Tourists, in other words, by the plane/open-Land Rover/ship-load, swarm the place.

Or perhaps it’s just us locals showing off. It’s a sort of; “Hey, look at us, Johnny Foreigner, we practice civilised road manners down here too.”

Either way, I think it’s all a bit sad.

Ciro De Siena

There’s a famous VW ad from the 60s which asked, “Ever wondered how the guy who drives the snow plough, gets to the snowplough?”.  Well if you’ve ever wondered how the guy who owns the snowplough company gets to the snowplough company, Mercedes-Benz has the answer: The S 65 AMG L-spec.

It proves the Germans have a sense of humour after all.  They’ve handed their svelte, distinguished flagship S-Class over to their dark arts division, AMG, and the result is the most powerful series saloon ever built.

It produces more torque than a gaggle of secretaries trapped in a lift.  1000 Newton metres of it to be precise. And here’s the kicker. It’s electronically limited to 1000Nm.  Newton certainly never expected his name to be associated with this sort of vulgarity.

Let’s start with the looks though.  We had more than week of the most perfect sunshine until this sidled into my driveway. Suddenly there were menacing grey clouds above as if it had scheduled doomsday to arrive just after lunch.  The big S in ‘iridium silver’ just looks better under brutish brooding skies, and it seems to know that.  I’m sure this amount of power can control the weather. And that sort of power is simply intoxicating.  An engine this good and this relentless doesn’t seem possible.  It’s almost alien as it staggers your senses with a whispered whoosh.  It’s like that ghost army that sweeps through the forces of darkness at the end of Lord Of The Rings.

Ah, the front seats. Immeasurably comfortable and offers relentless massages.

This car has to straddle the two worlds between luxury saloon and madman- with-a-gun-in-a-belltower performance.  So it has a few visual clues to separate it from its more sedate brethren.  Look at the front.  Have you ever seen a powerful businessman fly into a frothing rage?  Not in a hammy Alan Sugar way, but in a real life (shouting down phone) “I’m going to turn France into a f****n parking lot” kind of way.  That’s what the front of this looks like. It’s angry. Very angry.

This is the S 65 L-spec, which could stand for Luxury, Limousine, Limited or Large as Luxembourg.  The car is massive, and as a result my 6ft 4 frame fits comfortably in the back where I can keep an eye on the Nasdaq and fire people at the same time via the complimentary cordless phone and two televisions.  There’s also a bar fridge and remote controls for things like the blinds to keep the sun off your expensive indoor tan.

L-Spec means an extra foot of legroom. So these rear seats recline. They also massage, heat up, cool down, have access to a fridge, a TV each, wireless headphones and a telephone.

Hauling this two tonnne-plus leviathan along is a handbuilt V12 Biturbo producing 450kW. AMG have a one man one engine policy which sounds very Trotskyish, but is in fact rather liberating considering it gets you to 100km/h in 4.8 seconds.

Inside simplicity is the order of the day spoiled slightly by a German “sock and sandal-ness” that sometimes creeps in.  The AMG clock in the centre is just tacky considering the people who own these cars have watches worth more than a block of holiday flats. And the silver lining along the burrwood just seems out of place.

They’re small complaints on a car that is always the benchmark of safety and innovation. It can make you see better at night, stop on its own and make a confident bound to the private airstrip if the coup d’etat doesn’t go quite as planned.  In the world of performance luxury motoring, it stands alone.

Gavin Williams

You could be one of these lucky audience members!

Last week we revealed that at last year’s show, Jeremy Clarkson found an enormous sex toy in Sasha Martinengo’s luggage. This week’s MPH Show fact is…did you know South Africa was the very first place outside of the UK that the Top Gear lads chose for their road show? Bet you feel a bit more special now, don’t you. Well you have just over a week left to get your tickets.

Head over to www.mphshow.co.za as soon as you can and read up all about it. If you’re too lazy to do that, click ‘read more’ below and you’ll find that we’ve copy/pasted all the details you need to know. There’s also a bonus opportunity to watch me interview Richard Hammond, sporting a hideous goatee (me, not Richard). Even more good news, I’ve never worn a goatee ever again.