Top Car

94 TOPCAR.CO.ZA|January 2016

refurbished the Caracal but without

affecting its original ity, especially the

distinctive body colour.

The car’s looks have not really dated and

the build integrity is strong. It would not

have taken much to turn Caracal into a

pukka production vehicle, but at the time

VW was launching the first Golf convertible

so its fate was already sealed. A case of what

might have been ...

Final car of this foursome is the one-off

Duphet, an elegant sports car built by

DUPie du Plooy and SA racing and rallying

legend Jan HETtema. Determined to put an

end to Dawie Gouws’ domination of the

local sports car racing scene in hi s Porsch e

Spyder, the ambitious pair decided to design

and build their own challenger. The chassis

was a simple but strong cross-braced

spac eframe with suspension built around

Triumph uprights up front and a fabricated

steel plate layout at the rear. Rack-and-

pinion steering was fitted and the wheels

came from a Cooper. An Alfa Romeo 1300cc

motor bored out to 1500cc was mounted

amidships and mated with a VW gearbox.

The mould for the bodywork was made up

from the tried and trusted chicken wire and

plaster of Paris method and the end result

was an attractive, low-slung outline typical

of many such sports race rs of the time but

the shape was neverthele ss distinctive. Its

debut entry was the 1965 SA GP race

meeting at Kyalami but the Duphet did not

start after He ttema cras hed at Sunset Bend

in practice when the brakes failed. The next

Dartbodywork

features neat

detailing. Basic

switchgear

mountedin

mirror-matching

panel. Familiar

wheel/tyre/

hubcap

combinationfills

the wheelarches

Feature: SASpecials

Just an

inkling of the

enterprise

thatexisted

in SA