The inaugural Concours South Africa held at Sun City at the weekend (September 9-11) was an overwhelming success. Organised by supercar aficionados Ross Crichton and Paul Kennard, joint-owners of Super Car Lifestyle, the event drew close to 50 entries, compiling an amazing array of diversity and high quality among cars entered in six different categories.
Brian Joss – The overall winner was a De Tomaso Pantera GT5, hailing from Botswana and owned by Fatima de Abreu, and lovingly restored by her husband Carlos.
The De Abreus had a red-letter weekend at Sun City, as their bright-red 1990 Ferrari Testarossa claimed second place overall, followed by the remarkably understated, mint-original Pontiac GTO owned by Basil Papagorgio.
The Show and Shine category, with a far less-stringent judging process, was won hands-down by Manana Nhlanhla with her immaculate Mercedes-Benz 190 SL. Manana and her husband Albert had trailered the classic “baby” Merc sports car all the way up from Botha’s Hill, KZN, for the event.
“Concours South Africa exceeded all my expectations,” said organiser Ross Crichton. “I was overwhelmed by the response of both entrants and the public. Of course, this is something Paul Kennard and I have lived with for a long time. The idea for the event has been with us for the past five years.”