Chasing The Quarter Mile - Mkuze, South Africa

Illegal street racing in South Africa is a small problem, to say the least. Every Thursday and Saturday evening, hotspots in various cities around the country turn into racing events, often attracting thousands of people who stand perilously close to speeding cars. The police have tried to curb these activities over the years, but often to no avail - it’s clear that street racing is here to stay.

Every so often, someone will take the initiative and organise a legal racing event for the petrol heads who want to test their cars away from the wrath of the law. Sadly, these events are often in far-flung corners of the country, as potential venues close to major cities often cite “noise concerns” as reasons for not allowing events. Therefore, it was on one chilly Saturday afternoon that I found myself in a convoy of cars heading towards the small town of Mkuze for a drag racing event early the next morning. Like moths to a flame, a legal racing event was sure to attract a good turnout.

To begin with, getting to Mkuze itself was no easy feat, as it involved a 300km drive with rain pelting down early into our trip, and only getting worse as the light faded. Including a few pit stops in some less than desirable areas along the way, our journey took much longer than the three hour estimate given by the Audi satnav.

A brief break to stretch our legs and admire our little convoy.

After our extended waterskiing / driving session, we arrived at our remarkably nice accommodation for the night - Ghost Mountain Inn. The entire town of Mkuze is overlooked by the actual 'Ghost Mountain', which was previously a historic battle field, and said to be home to a vast array of paranormal activity. Luckily, our lodge was far more modern, and we didn’t have to deal with anything out of the ordinary.

Putting the wipers on full speed didn't help much, you can see how much rain was gathering on the windscreen.

Even though the event was due to start at 8am the following morning, once the drinks started flowing, it was clear that no one was interested in getting some beauty sleep before the race. I eventually checked out of the bar around 2am, but the rest of our party kept on going until an estimated 4am, when they eventually decided to call it quits. Brave men I tell you.

Only a few hours later, we all stumbled out of our respective rooms looking a little worse for wear. Fortunately, there was an enormous breakfast buffet waiting for us in the dining area - the best way to get a kickstart for the day. Showered and packed, it was time to head to the venue, which was less than a mile from our hotel.

The Mkuze airstrip was the grand venue for todays drag racing session, offering a 1750m long bit of tar for us to test out our 400m times on, as well as a 1km marker for those dedicated souls who weren’t afraid of running out of space. Some cars had come all the way from Johannesburg for this event, which was a 6 hour drive away - that's some serious commitment for a one-day event.

Speaking of cars, there was a good variation parked around the airfield. From VW Golf R’s, Nissan GTR’s, and even an E63 AMG, all classes were catered for. However, the one thing that certainly wasn’t catered for was the actual airstrip. All drivers of rear-wheel drive cars reported that they started to lose traction past the 180kmh mark due to the slippery surface, as it was littered with sand and small stones. Therefore, no actual timed runs took place until midday, while we waited for a bunch of people to sweep the airstrip. As you can imagine, sweeping an airstrip takes a long, long time.

This highly modified R35 didn't make any runs throughout the day, which I was a little sad to see. Can you spot the full rollcage peeking through in the back?

Battle of the hot hatches: VW Golf 7R vs a Ford Focus RS

Throughout all the confusion, I managed to get one test run in, with the Audi RS3 Quattro system working overtime to stop any unintentional slip-ups. Even though it was just a test run, I saw the speedometer edge north of 240kmh, after which time I stopped looking down and decided (wisely) to focus on the fast-approaching end of the runway. Not feeling like crashing a car that wasn’t mine, I retreated back to the start line and tossed the keys to the actual owner for him to have some fun instead.

Now safely back behind my camera, I set out to get some shots of the cars lining up, as well as some motion shots as they launched off the line. The ominous surroundings of Ghost Mountain did well in providing a good backdrop for my photos, with the low hanging clouds threatening to open up at any minute. However, the racing gods must have overpowered any evil spirits on the mountain, as no rain fell during the day.

My favourite car in attendance was certainly this Nissan R34 GT-R V-Spec II Nür edition - one of only 718 worldwide. The owner only made one pass at the event before retiring due to mechanical issues, but it was still incredible to see a beast like this in the flesh. The car is far from standard, and rumoured to make over 1000hp when on race fuel and full boost.

But why the full suede interior?

You can watch a video of it here blasting off down the main straight, or just read the specs if you're interested: 2.9 Brian Crower Stroker Kit / N1 24U NISMO Block / ENDYN CNC ported head with Brian Crower cams, vales, springs / GReddy Plenum with single throttle / Full race twin scroll manifold / GTX4202R turbo / Tomei high flow oil pump / Haltech Platinum Pro with flex fuel / Nismo intercooler / Nismo radiator / Nismo engine damper / Custom oil catch can breather

An unusual sight to see in South Africa, a fully registered Toyota Supra.

The Focus RS running a race against himself.

After a few hours of hard launches and burnt clutches, it was time to depart our temporary racing grounds for a more familiar location - home. The drive back to Durban was an entirely different story, as we had a convoy of about 20 cars from the event all heading back to the same place. Frustrated by the lack of actual racing that day, we may have started to drive a little bit faster on the freeway than recommended. Needless to say, the drive home was done way faster than the drive there. Being a Sunday afternoon on a rather deserted highway in a small corner of the world meant that there wasn’t much traffic for the first half of the trip - a bonus which we took full extent of.

There's a small Alpha badge on the boot of this car, meaning that it has some serious work under the hood. Maybe people were just too scared to challenge it?

BMW 335i vs Golf 7R. The AWD system of the Golf clearly gives a good advantage when launching off the line.

And just like that, exactly 24 hours after leaving, I was back in the comfortable confines of my home. Since the previous afternoon, I’d drove over 600km, ate a lot of food, launched a car down a 1km straight, drooled over many more cars I can’t afford, laughed plenty, and made a dent in my camera memory card. Was this a good way to spend 24 hours? I think so.

Camera	Canon 6D
Lens	Canon 24-105 f4 L Series
Processing	Lightroom CC
Location	Mkuze, South Africa

DISCLAIMER: All photos and writings are my own original work.

Here's Mkuze on Google Maps. Spoiler alert: it's tiny.