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Overall designstylishlyaccommodatedmid-mountedengineVWGolfinstrumentationandswitchgearpartofCaracal’sprofessional buildquality``````January 2016|TOPCAR.CO.ZA 93``````head conversion upped power from 27kW to52kW, and a close-ratio ge arbox with th eoption of a Murray mechanical overdriveoperating on all the ge ars – includingreverse – could be fitted, all of which help edpropel the Protea to over 150kph.According to Protea expert Leon Joubert,14 cars were built with th e 10 0E engine, plusa similar number with other engines and/ orbodies lengthened by 180mm for mounti ngon a VW chassis. On the racing front, Myersand John Mason-Gordon won the 1959Pietermaritzburg 6-Hour at Ro y He sket h ina Triump h TR2-engined Protea, leadingfrom start to finish.Step forward 33 years and we have theCaracal, a car create d with th e highestcredential s but destined to be a non-starter.It wa s conceived in the late-1980s byIntermotormakers, a Cape Town companyestablished in the mid-1970s to assembleLamborghinis and Lotuses, a schemecutshor t when the Government withdrew anexemption clause from the industry’s thenLocal Content Programme. The companythen went ba ck to industrial design, and aplan to bu ild a local sports car came tofruition.Gerrie Steenkamp was the driving forc ebehind the car’s design and overalldevelopment. Local rally driver Nic de Waalwas responsible for most of the engineeringwork, which ut ilised a mid-mounted VW Golf Mk.2GTi 16V powertrainsubframe along withother Golfhardware and anumber offabricatedsuspensioncomponents.The glass fibrebody waslaminated to asubframe thatwas rubbermounted to thechassis to reduce NVH.The car was named Caracalafter 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, isbelieved to be in PE but in need of repair,the second Mk.1 version was destructiontested by VWSA, the first Mk.2 version waswritten off in an accident, and the fourth isthis example. It is owned by Bernie Koch,who purchased the car in early 2014 fr omthe estate of Bi lly Young who hadpurchased the car from Steenkamp. Firs tregistered in 1996, it was – and still is –widely used as a show car. Koch has``````Protea’slinesare anamalgamofflowingcurves.Exposeddoorhingeshintatcar’s ‘homebuilt’origins