Top Car

Overall design
stylishlyaccommodated
mid-mountedengine

VWGolfinstrumentation

andswitchgearpartofCaracal’s

professional buildquality

January 2016|TOPCAR.CO.ZA 93

head conversion upped power from 27kW to

52kW, and a close-ratio ge arbox with th e

option of a Murray mechanical overdrive

operating on all the ge ars – including

reverse – could be fitted, all of which help ed

propel the Protea to over 150kph.

According to Protea expert Leon Joubert,

14 cars were built with th e 10 0E engine, plus

a similar number with other engines and/ or

bodies lengthened by 180mm for mounti ng

on a VW chassis. On the racing front, Myers

and John Mason-Gordon won the 1959

Pietermaritzburg 6-Hour at Ro y He sket h in

a Triump h TR2-engined Protea, leading

from start to finish.

Step forward 33 years and we have the

Caracal, a car create d with th e highest

credential s but destined to be a non-starter.

It wa s conceived in the late-1980s by

Intermotormakers, a Cape Town company

established in the mid-1970s to assemble

Lamborghinis and Lotuses, a schemecut

shor t when the Government withdrew an

exemption clause from the industry’s then

Local Content Programme. The company

then went ba ck to industrial design, and a

plan to bu ild a local sports car came to

fruition.

Gerrie Steenkamp was the driving forc e

behind the car’s design and overall

development. Local rally driver Nic de Waal

was responsible for most of the engineering

work, which ut ilised a mid-

mounted VW Golf Mk.2

GTi 16V powertrain

subframe along with

other Golf

hardware and a

number of

fabricated

suspension

components.

The glass fibre

body was

laminated to a

subframe that

was rubber

mounted to the

chassis to reduce NVH.

The car was named Caracal

after a wild cat native to Africa,

Central Asia, Southwest Asia and India.

Four cars were built du ring 1989/90.

The first, with a Ford Escort 1.6 motor, is

believed to be in PE but in need of repair,

the second Mk.1 version was destruction

tested by VWSA, the first Mk.2 version was

written off in an accident, and the fourth is

this example. It is owned by Bernie Koch,

who purchased the car in early 2014 fr om

the estate of Bi lly Young who had

purchased the car from Steenkamp. Firs t

registered in 1996, it was – and still is –

widely used as a show car. Koch has

Protea’s

linesare an

amalgamof

flowingcurves.

Exposeddoor

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car’s ‘home

built’origins