Celebrating the Spirit of Africa and the prowess of the Nissan Navara PRO-4X Warrior bakkie
Image: Supplied
Celebrating its coming of age, the Spirit of Africa 4x4 driving challenge, now in its third year under the Nissan banner, saw 22 journalists and content creators, including some of our colleagues north of our borders, celebrate its 21st birthday, tackling the course in Cullinan just outside Pretoria.
Founded by motorsport legend Sarel van der Merwe, the event saw us pairing up to take on various speed and technical challenges in the Nissan Navara PRO-4X Warrior by Premcar.
Navara PRO-4X Warrior
Launched in March, the Navara PRO-4X Warrior is a collaboration between Nissan and Australian engineering firm Premcar, making South Africa the first market outside Australia to build and offer the Warrior.
The exterior features a more aggressive look with a blacked-out grille, door handles, roof rack, side steps, 17-inch alloys under flares and red accents, while inside the seats receive Warrior-banded black seats with red stitching.
The modified front bumper improves the approach angle by two degrees to 35 degrees, with the departure angle still 27 degrees.
The suspension has also been transformed, providing increased ride height and a wider track, while improved springs and recalibrated dampers give better wheel articulation.
Under the bonnet is the same 2.5-litre turbo diesel engine with 140kW and 450Nm of torque coupled to a seven-speed automatic transmission with 4H, 4L and a rear difflock.
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The Spirit of Africa challenge saw the Navara PRO-4X Warrior tackle some difficult obstacles.
Image: Supplied
Off-road skills
The event, which started in April, sees 400 two-person teams testing their off-road driving skills over two days to secure a spot in the Top 20, which will be announced after 21 June.
But back to testing our skills.
Because of the limited time, we completed 12 of the 16 challenges, competing in four technical and eight high-octane speed events.
Between 10 and 30 points are deducted or seconds added per infringement pole struck, so we had to keep our wits about us.
I teamed up with Anton Willemse from Adventure Afrika, the pair of us having secured second place in a previous Spirit of Africa competition.
Let's go
Up first was a speed challenge, which saw me post a good time without hitting any red flags or poles, followed by a technical challenge that needed to be completed within a certain time.
My partner acquitted himself well, so we decided that I would do the fast bits and the rocky pole littered part of the competition would be his responsibility.
As the day progressed and the Gauteng winter sun started to warm us up, the competition heated up too, with us keeping our ears to the radio to hear the marshals call out penalties from the other hopefuls.
The Navara is a big bakkie, but it's surprisingly nimble as we thread our way through the poles and red flags in 4H.
With my left foot on the brake and right foot hard on the accelerator as a type of launch control, it would lunge forward on the speed sections and during the drag race, managed well over 120km/h.
We had a fair idea of where we were in the pecking order, but after a couple of less than favourable challenges, we reckoned that our race was run.
Tight turns were the order of the day at the Spirit of Africa Challenge.
Image: Supplied
Racing face
However, competition is a funny thing.
The moment the marshall counts you down and you enter the obstacle your 'racing face' appears and you're back in full competition mode.
It felt like we had managed to claw back into contention until the last figure of eight speed challenge.
All was going well and we were flying through just missing the poles before the last sharp left hand turn.
The front left wheel dug in, the Navara continued straight, and I unceremoniously ploughed over three poles before it turned to cross the line.
Oh well, it was still a fun and challenging day out testing the abilities of the Navara PRO-4X Warrior.
Motorsport legend Sarel van der Merwe (middle) with third place winners Willem van de Putte (left) from Independent Media and IOL Motoring and Anton Willemse from Adventure Afrika.
Image: Supplied
Bronze Medal
Swapping the day's war stories among ourselves, we weren't expecting much when the chief marshall came out to read the results.
Counting down from 15 (there were three Nissan SA staff teams as well), we weren't last and as he went through the top 10 and then the top five, we were in with a podium chance.
'And in third place, team number three with Willem and Anton,' he said.
Not too shabby for a day's outing.
Brendon Staniforth (Maroela Media) and Oliver Keohane (Leisure Wheels) claimed the top spot, followed by Reuben van Niekerk (Wheels24) and Denis Droppa (Business Day) in second place.
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