Top Car

January 2016|TOPCAR.CO.ZA 107

IT’S BECOMEA

tradition of sorts for my

wife and I to travel to

Langebaan once a year.

You see there’s a cycling

festival that takes place within the Langebaan

nature reserve every November ca tering for

both road ra cers and mountain bike

enthusiasts. What makes the event all the more

special is that the ro ad network within the

reserve is closed to traffic providing a relatively

safe cycling environment. I say ‘relative’

beca use there’s still the odd chance of a tortoi se

or stra y ostrich colliding with you...

This year, the West Coast sojourn also gave

me the chance to spen d some lengthy time

behind the wheel of Hunchy. For the past

month or so we’ve been at odds wrestling with

the ridiculous amount of traffic that

punctuates my routeto and from work every

day. Where all the extra traffic is coming from,

I don’t know but it’s helluva annoying.

Anyway, these weekend ge taways always make

me appreciate wh at an awesome car the 335i

really is–it’s so stable on the long road and

effortless to drive, all the while returning a

substantial amount of feedback from the helm

and chassis. It’s in these open expanses where

the 335i shines. Although it’s got the 8-speed

ZF auto–a boon in tr affic situations–the GT

was designed to be en joyed as a fast cruiser

where car and driver combine as one entity.

An area that impres sed most over the

250km return trip was that of the ride quality.

Even in the sportiest settings Hunchy

managed to stay composed, dispatching the

somewhat bumpy stretches of the R27 with

consummate ease. At the same time wind

and ro ad noise is kept to minimum, a result

no doubtowing to the vehicle’ s aerodynamics

and insulation proficiency.

It’s the GT’s adaptable approach to motoring

that has me lauding it to anyone who asks for

my honest opinion. Yes it has questionable

styling (you either love it or hate it) but that’s a

subjective idiosyncrasy that is soon forgotten

the moment you direct it through the first

corner at speed. It’s got all the qualiti es that

define a driver’s car: telepathic steering, a

communicative chassis, tunable suspension

and a well-built interior bristling with intuitive

switchgear an d on-board processes. What’s not

to love?

@AaronBorrill

Ups/downs

A comfor table space for

stressful commutes

Traffic, poorly timed

lights , jay-walkers

On the (long) road again

All it took was the right piece of road (and a cycling weeken d

away) to re-ign iteAaronBorrill’spassion for pistons

MONTH 7

BMW

335i GT

LOGBOOKBMW335i

GRANTURISMO

>Odo reading start/now55/ 14 596km

>Distance covered14 541km

>Fuel consumed1 537.93ℓ

>Average fuel consumption10.6ℓ/100km

>Service inter val 20 000km

>Service costCovered by5-yr/100000km

maintenance plan

>Total fuel costR19 366.11

>Running costR1.33/km