Hi guys,

not really Audi, in fact not at all...

I was cruising into Kimberley the other day on the jhb road, when a whole span of prototype merc's with German plates raced past at a tremedous rate. I followed them through town until they headed out on the road to Bloem.

Quite interesting actually, all painted black with tape over some of the panels, as well as a few suspect pieces of cardboard stuck on as well. There were a couple of e-class, a couple of S-class, two ML's and a roadster that didn't look very different to the BMW Z3 roadster, but with an SLK frontend. There were probably about 6 or 7 cars in total.

Wish I had a camera on my cell phone, but alas... I was quite surprised that they were testing in RSA and more surprised to find them out here...

Cheers
Rich

Wow...was it the new ML and the new S?

It is not uncommont at all for them to test them here - they all have factories here and SA makes a great testing ground for most of the souther hemisphere condition areas...I saw a RR Phantom in Cape Town while I was studying there, with a whole bunch of VW Phaetons and a **** load of telemetry on them...

Pizzaboy and I saw a few mercs on test when driving through Clarens. Get some pics on my cellphone. Saw the New ML, New S class and the BABY ML.

Got up close and personal with the S class and Baby ML. The guys from Germany were not too friendly though.

Stuff I noticed about them. Merc are no longer using gearshifts on the centre panel. They are now a stalk next to the steering. The new S class has an electroic dash and a mercedes version of the Audi MMi and BMW I-Drive.

Also saw a 3 series on test another day. Also near Clarens.

Guess it's the place to test.

Ruben
auTobahn sTormer

That must have been the fleet delivery for King Mswati the Third of Swaziland (his royal highnes) )

I am always unlucky to not see these cars. But you guys must go to Upington. That is where ALL manufacturers test. They fly the prototypes using BIG cargo planes, as Tavcor Audi sales person told me and they just TEST there. Even the Q7 is testing there if I am not mistaken.

I get to see the VW Lupo and other strange VWs in PE especially in my suburb. So I have not really missed out.

I believe even the Mclaren F1 was tested here before its Euro release. Porsche Carrera GT, PRevious Boxster S, Mclaren Mercedes SLR, Noble M12 (body shells bits also manufactured in EC)etc....
Northern Cape is a particular hotspot for testing. I saw a few nice goodies in the VW Motorsport offices, but no cameras were allowed! I have also seen stuff in Clarens, Eastern Free State, where the 10km stretch to Golden Gate and the Lesotho Highlands Water Scheme revamped roads (Fouriesburg is a nice stretch too) provide excellent high speed testing twisties for performance cars under high altitude, high temperature testing grounds.
My fastest outing ever, driving a 996 Turbo, was on these roads, so if you are ever looking for a place to truly test your Quattro driving skills, its a good destination!

Perhaps we should have a club weekend there sometime, even the Overtaker might make the trip Nice places to stay too!
Comments, committee?

Nice idea Will. Beautiful part of the world and roughly halfway between Jhb and Durban too. And a little closer to Kimblerley?

Will investigate.

Er... Kimberley, I think!

The road from Golden Gate to Clarens (and a few of the others in the area) is great fun.

nice idea... I'd been thinking of heading out that way, and how about with a whole stack of Audi Buddies... It should be a bit closer than than Jhb, so why not?

The Groot Gat rulz...

Rich