- All three Swift Sport models have been given the green light to race tomorrow
- Suzuki competing in Class A1 for standard production sports cars
- Racing starts at 9:00 on Saturday 6 May
The three cars were entered by Suzuki Auto South Africa to yet again prove that you do not need deep pockets, or many years of racing experience, to have a jol and be competitive at the Hillclimb.
The three cars, one manual and two automatic Swift Sport models, will compete in Class A1 for unmodified sports cars with a turbo or supercharger and with two-wheel drive. They will be joined by a fellow made-in-Japan car, the new Honda Civic Type-R.
All three Suzuki models passed their technical scrutineering with flying colours on Friday and are ready for tomorrow’s practice and qualifying runs.
“We did not expect any problems at scrutineering,” says Chelsy Pinto, Product Planning and Sales Development Coordinator at Suzuki Auto and Team Manager for the 2023 Suzuki Swift Sport Team at Simola.
“All three vehicles are completely stock, and two of the three cars were still driven by staff members a week ago. Even our Managing Director, Teruo Katakawa, had to give up his beloved Swift Sport manual to have it compete in this weekend’s racing.”
Katakawa san’s car will be piloted by Sudhir Matai of Double Apex. As an experienced racing driver, Matai has competed in various track and off-road races, but never in a Hillclimb. He is joined by Wesley Greybe, second on the podium in class A1 in 2022, and Kumbi Mtshakazi of Kumbi-M on Cars and a complete racing rookie. Greybe and Mtshakazi are in Swift Sport auto models.
“We have a perfect mix of cars and drivers for tomorrow. With our mix of manual and auto models and of experienced and novice drivers, we can answer every question on why the Swift Sport is the perfect everyday sports car,” says Pinto.
Even on paper, the Swift Sport is a perfect hill-climb vehicle. At R419 900 for the six-speed manual model and R442 900 for the six-speed automatic model with paddle shifts, the Swift Sport is the most affordable racing car on the starting grid.
Perhaps more importantly, the Swift Sport is also the lightest production car in its class at 970 kg.
Under the bonnet of the Swift Sport is the group’s much-lauded four-cylinder 1.4 litre BOOSTERJET engine. In the Swift Sport, this engine delivers 103 kW at 5 500 r/min and 230 Nm between 2 500 r/min and 3 500 r/min.
With this set of power figures, the Swift Sport finds itself in the 100+ kilowatt per tonne category of true sports cars. It has a theoretical 106.2 kW or 142 horsepower per tonne of weight.
“The engine is so tractable and willing,” says Greybe, who set an impressive time of 54.580 seconds in the final King of the Hill race last year. “At the same time, the light weight and taut chassis mean that you are not fighting with gravity or momentum to keep your speed as you negotiate the last few corners of the track.”
It is these tight corners that have been the undoing of many race cars in past Hillclimbs. The Simola track is 1.9 kilometres long and has eight turns. The last four turns follow very quickly on each other, especially as the car has reached its top speed by then, and it tends to unsettle even the most experienced driver and sorted race car.
“When we launched the Swift Sport, we quoted Colin Chapman, the founder of Lotus. He said that adding power only makes you faster in the straights, while losing weight makes you faster everywhere,” says Pinto.
At less than a tonne, the Swift Sport rolls off the production line in Japan already light and nimble and with a low centre of gravity.
Add to this important foundation, a factory-tuned chassis, featuring a higher tensile strength and more welding points than the standard Swift models, uprated brakes that are ventilated in front, lightweight alloy rims, special Monroe shock absorbers and more direct steering and you have a recipe for fun.
“In any form of motorsport that allows modified production vehicles, you have to spend a lot of money to be competitive.
“First you add power and then you strip out weight and then you spend time and money on tuning and maintaining your racing vehicle. In contrast, our Swift Sport models are light and fast out of the box, and all three these cars will return to their duty as daily drivers on Monday,” says Pinto.
Suzuki is not only a competitor at Simola, but also a Tier One sponsor.
“The Simola Hillclimb is great fun and family friendly, which are two of our own brand attributes. We are happy to make this event a reality and are encouraged to see other brands join the fun this year. Visitors and online viewers are in for a real treat and some great racing tomorrow!” says Brendon Carpenter, Brand Marketing Manager of Suzuki Auto.
The King of the Hill racing starts with first practice at 9:00 tomorrow and it will be broadcast live on YouTube. Follow Suzuki on all social channels at #SimolaHillClimb2023 and #TeamSuzuki.
