Gavin Foster

Next weekend, 24 – 25 April, sees the fifth annual Motorcycle Lifestyle Expo at Kyalami, now sponsored by Mecer, with all the locally available motorcycle and quad brands on show for biking nuts to salivate over. There’ll be displays of trick riding and Extreme Jumping, and the Harley Davidson and Triumph clubs will be putting on mass rides of their gleaming machines.

This year promises to be the most exciting in MotoGP’s three year history, with Suzuki coming back with a bang and Kawasaki lifting their game considerably to try and give the rest a run for their money. But the combination everybody’s watching closest is that of the effervescent Valentino Rossi and Yamaha. Gavin Foster takes a look at the main protagonists in the betandwin.com Africa’s Grand Prix.

Here’s a sneak pic of Kawasaki’s all-new KX45F-SR, due to debut at the first round of the All Japan 250MX championships on April 11.

Ford has launched a new budget car. Priced at an appealing R88 525, the Ford Ikon 1.3iL is R15 000 cheaper than next car in the Ikon range, and by far the cheapest Ford now available in this country.

BMW’s long awaited compact-class 1 Series cats will be available here later this year, shortly after its European launch.

The new Chevrolet Optra has arrived in South Africa, five months after the re-entry of Chevrolet into the country, and is designed to compete in the same segment as the Toyota Corolla.

MG Rover has increased its range in South Africa with the arrival of the Rover Streetwise, aimed at youthful buyers and the young at heart. For this model the Poms invented the catch-phrase "Urban Tough." Is this Streetwise finger-licking good? Motormouth Gavin Foster puts it to the test.

DaimlerChrysler South Africa has introduced a limited-edition Jeep Cherokee Extreme Sport. With only 150 available, demand is expected to outstrip supply.

Hyosung, who have been producing lightweight commuter motorcycles and scooters since 1979, has moved into the proper motorcycle market with the launch of a stylish 650cc street machine. The Hyosung Comet 650’s in-house 90 degree V-twin produces a very healthy 79 horsepower (58,5 kW) and revs cheerfully to its 10 500 red line when thrashed.

Up till now BMW have pretty made the serious dual-purpose market their own. But now the Big Red H has come back with a new version of the popular XL 650 V Transalp motorcycle, and the guys at Honda South Africa tell us that their sights are squarely set on the sector of the market dominated by BMW’s 650 single.

"I never saw such an extraordinarily beautiful place in life as there, hundreds of feet below us stretched out the whole valley with our huts looking like specks, and in the distance there were hills rising one above another, with a splendid blue tint on them." I don’t know exactly where Cecil John Rhodes was when he penned the above lines, about 130 years ago, but it must have been somewhere very close to the viewing platforms overlooking the Umkomaas Valley at Duma Manzi.

Subaru has finally built a car that looks up to date, and with an interior that’s as upmarket as the stunning engineering deserves. The fourth generation Outback, based as before on the Legacy touring wagon platform, is stylish and elegant both inside and out.

Just months after its worldwide launch in October last year, Peugeot has introduced their new 307CC into the South African market. Unlike its smaller relative, the 206 CC, the 307 CC is a genuine coupé and a true four-seater cabriolet.

Ford is really serious about once again producing cars meant for people who enjoy driving, and the newly launched Mondeo ST 220 is a cracker. Despite its model designation the car is not powered by a 2,2 litre engine; the numbers refer to the 220 horsepower output of the three litre V6 engine.

Double-cab 4X4 bakkies sell like hot cakes in this country, so prospective buyers will be pleased to hear that there’s a new kid on the block to play with. Ssangyong has just introduced their fully imported Musso Sports 4X4 double cab.

Volvo has introduced a new two litre derivative of the S60 series into the South African market. Because of the recent strong rand the company threw its hat into the circle and priced the very well equipped S60 2.0T at a very competitive R258 000 for the manual and R266 000 for the auto versions.

According to stereotypes the French are a volatile mob, ruled by their hearts rather than their heads. That may well apply in their relationships with other people, but when it comes to motor cars they have a way of cutting through the bulldust and building thoroughly practical vehicles loaded with soul.

Mazda’s marketing gurus concede that they’ve missed the bus a little in recent years, and punted the Mazda6 as being the car to pole-vault them out of the somewhat boring corner into which they painted themselves in the 1990s. Still, I think they may have become a little too enthusiastic in the hype they generated while spreading the word.

Kia’s new Shuma 1,8 Sport isn’t the quickest car around, and it doesn’t have the solid feel of some of the more expensive cars on the overcrowded South African market, but it enjoys a huge advantage in the one area that affects most of us — price. The Shuma is the cheapest 1,8 litre family saloon available, writes Gavin Foster.

It’s hard to believe that the Meriva is derived from the Opel Corsa floorpan, because the little wagon seems so big inside. In fact, the Meriva is not much smaller than its bigger brother, the Zafira. At R168 500, this Car of the Year finalist is well worth thinking about.

Peugeot has long been involved with sports events around the world, with the French Open tennis tournament at Roland Garros being the most famous example. The company’s now raising awareness of its involvement with the French Open and the international Rencontres Peugeot Roland Garros tournament for amateurs.

It sounds like the recipe for another product from <i>that</i> German manufacturer. Compact, sexy body, powerful six cylinder in-line 24 valve engine, lots of electronic wizardry to keep the whole damned shenanigan glued to the road. But the car I spent half a day thrashing around the Knysna area emanated from Japan, not Europe.

Over the next few weeks we expect to hear plenty more about motorcycle champ Alfie Cox at the Dakar Rally. While we’re waiting we decided to find out a little about his four wheeled exploits this year past. So, how’s it going, Alfie?

What do you get if you add a couple of Chevrolets, Jaguars, a BMW and a Fiat Uno with an Alfa Romeo, a Beetle, a BMW R1200C motorcyle <i>and</i> a Defy stove? Why, J.P. Barlow’s Hudson Terraplane special, of course. His latest creation started work as a 1937 Hudson Terraplane, but apart from the body shell there’s not much left of the original car.

Readers of the German magazines <i>Auto Zeitung</i> and <i>TV Movie</i> have voted the new Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren Germany’s best sports car.

The MG ZR 160 is <i>not</i> a boring car, which means that Gavin Foster didn’t have to poke anybody’s eye out with a pen or open fire on his local MG Rover dealership after spending a week on the road with it. It’s quick, it’s nimble and, above all, it’s fun.