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January 2016|TOPCAR.CO.ZA 95outing was the Governor General’sCup meeting at Lourenço Marques in July1966, where He ttema finished third behindDoug Serruri er’s 4.7 Lola T70 and SteveMellet’s 4.2 Mirage.Following this encouraging result, a Citroen’box was subsequently fitted to the car but itnever race d competitivel y again and itshistory from that point is unknown untilCape Town vintage and classic carenthusiast Dickon Daggitt acquired the carabout 10 years ago. The body and chassishad beenrescued off the ba ck of a truck enrouteto a scrapyard and the parts passedthrough a couple morehands beforeDickon gave the Duphet a home. Since thenhe has found authentic repl acements for themissing items, save for the suspensionparts, so would make an interestingrestoration project for an enthusiast.These cars repres ent just an inkling ofthe enterpri se that ex isted in the automotivefield in South Africa in the latter halfof the last millennium. Of these four, that``````only the Dart can be considere d aproduction success is to miss the point: allsymbolise a level of engineering expertisethat, given the limited resources available tothis countr y at the time, deserve to belooked upon with th e ut most admiration.Proudly South African! tc``````The authorwishes to thank theFranschhoek Motor Museum LegendsTrust and Bernie Koch for providingtheir cars and Dickon Daggitt for theuse of hi s premis es.``````Clockwise fromtop:hugeairintakedominatesProtea’sface.Woodgraindashboarda period‘luxury’item.Amplerubbercontributestoexcellentrideandhandling``````Clockwise fromtop:Caracal’sheadlights neatlymountedbehinda Perspexcover. Cracklingexhaust notefromVWGolfGTi 16v motor.Alloy wheels anobviouschoicefor the time