What does this issue hold in store? As usual, pure awesomeness. You’ve no doubt seen and heard of Ken Block’s insane Fiesta, I mean who hasn’t? It’s been in loads of viral vids to create awareness on the Monster and DC Shoes brands.

Well there’s a local one that also gets all the looks. It’s not a multi-million Dollar build like Ken’s car; it’s a much milder, street legal version and it’s pretty damn sexy. The car looks very similar to Ken’s car, the signage on his car served as inspiration for the signage on Anton’s car.

It’s also been built for a purpose, to kick ass in gymkhana events. We quite like Anton’s little Ford. Jumping brands we then bring you a Champ from Mossel Bay (baai). Mitsubishi-powered and it’s in the 9s while being legal for the street. Mental actually! Another jump and we have a BMW. It’s Manny Ribeiro’s E36 track car. It’s definitely my favourite feature in this issue. Not because I like BMWs, not because I like track cars and not because Manny was in my high school many, many (many) years ago. I love this car because at the shoot at Midvaal Racetrack Manny insisted I take the car around the track. It was my second time around the track, and it was awesome. I’m pretty damn sure that if I took a normal streetcar around the track, it wouldn’t have been as much fun. Another car is from the Opel stable, and yeah, we’ve been meaning to do this car for years now. We finally got down to it and did the shoot. Marco Gounder’s Opel Kadett is insane; it runs in the front-wheel drive, normally aspirated class and it rather quick. On the line it sounds like a motorbike. It’s one of those sounds that words can’t describe so best you see it in action for yourself. There are other awesome features too; best you take a look for yourself though. The magazine also has all the usual cool bits and pieces inside like the tech stuff, Neeresh’s sound side and awesome adverts, and with everything all added together, it makes for yet another cool issue that we’re sure you’ll enjoy.

At a function held at the Cradle of Humankind, Cooper Tyres South Africa launched a range of SUV and passenger products to compliment the already well known 4×4 tyres in Southern Africa. In attendance was Cooper brand ambassador, Kingsley Holgate, well known South African explorer and humanitarian who shared the stage with Xavier Foj, two times winner of the Dakar Rally production class on a Cooper shod Toyota. These two men have travelled many kilometres of rough terrain on their Cooper tyres and they entertained guests by sharing their experiences.

Spaniard Xavier Foj, winner of the Production class in the 2013 Dakar rally visited South Africa to speak at the re-launch of the Cooper tyre brand in South Africa at an event held in Gauteng on 7 February.  In June last year Cooper Tire and Rubber Company appointed a new distributor Top Draw Tyres, trading as Cooper Tyres South Africa, for the importation of the full range of Cooper manufactured products for the SADC region.

Foj, who used Cooper Discoverer S/T Maxx tyres on his production-based Toyota Land Cruiser for the 9 000km Dakar rally, crossed the finish line 13 minutes clear of his nearest rival to seal the T2 class title for the second year in succession, finishing 27^th overall in the car standings.  Said Foj: “The Dakar rally is regarded as the world’s toughest race, with good reason. The terrain and altitude that crew and tyres have to ensure, combined with the navigational demands of the course, make it really difficult.”

Made in America

Made in America, the Cooper 4×4 range of tyres has proven performance in the toughest of African conditions. The preferred tyre choice of explorer and humanitarian Kingsley Holgate said: “Cooper tyres have proven their pedigree as serious off-road performers time after time on our expeditions, carrying huge loads and enduring road surface extremes. We have journeyed across the sands of the Namib and Sahara, over the rocks and razor sharp basalt outcrops of the Sperrgebied, Skeleton Coast and Kaokaland, and through the mud in Equatorial Africa at the height of the rainy season. These tyres excel in all conditions. Cooper tyres will not only get you anywhere… but also bring you back again.”

“If reputation is everything, then Cooper have it all,” says Georg Schramm, Managing Director of Cooper Tyres South Africa. He continues: “Quality, research and development and state-of-the-art testing have earned Cooper a reputation of brilliance and we are proud to bring these qualities to Africa.”

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With a smoothie bar keeping us refreshed, we sat through a presentation on Mercedes Benz and AMG.  Usually these bore me, but this was brilliant, and very informative.  Mercedes Benz as a brand is brilliant, and the initiatives they have in place to make sure they stay at the forefront of their industry are just as innovative as their cars.  A new market-leading initiative is their new warranty system.  The original warranty required a customer contribution to what was needed on the car, but now, with the new PremiumDrive warranty, it’s a best-in-class 100 000km or 6-years maintenance plan (whichever comes first) with no customer contribution during this period.  This has just blown the competition out of the water.  Mercedes Benz owners with the existing warranty plans are also able to upgrade to the new plans at a pro-rata cost.

You guys wanna know about the cars though I’m sure.  There was a whole range for us to try out, all fully-fledged AMG models.  We were split into groups, and my group first went to try out the traction control, ABS, EBD and other cool acronyms.  Let’s just say that if you wipe out in an AMG, you deserve to, the car will save your ass in any normal situation. The C and E Class cars are quick off the line too, they’re huge cars and post 0-100 times under 5 seconds.

With that done we headed trackside, here we got to play with everything.  Not with an instructor driving showing off the car, no.  I got to drive the car, an out lap and a hot lap then back in.  Yes, there was an instructor in the car, but that’s a must-have with any track eperience.  There were nine models for us to punish, I mean drive.  A CLS63 AMG, a CLS63 AMG Shooting Brake, an E63 AMG, an ML63 AMG, an SL63 AMG, an SL65 AMG, an SLK55 AMG, an SLS AMG Coupe and lastly, an SLS AMG Roadster.  Jealous?  You should be, I’m even jealous of myself!

These cars are properly quick, but it’s not just that, they’re safe too; they have amazing technology running inside their massive electronic brains.  Straight-line performance is insane; these cars all like rubber, for lunch.  Just for the hell of it actually.  The daddy of them all was the SLS though.  It’s insane.  Speed, handling, looks, and sound – everything is just right.  You have to know what you’re doing though; it can easily bite you and leave you with spares worth a few million Rand and some change.  I’m pretty sure you could drive it on the roof of a tunnel if you got the chance.

We had another presentation about the current social media revolution, and again, Mercedes Benz is leading this side of the industry too.  We were shown some amazing things.  Keep an eye out for Activate-A, augmented reality – it’s awesome.

A huge thanks to Mercedes Benz and AMG for the best day at work I’ve had so far this year.  It’s going to be hard to beat.  If you ever get the chance to get behind the wheel of an AMG, and AMG, take it!

~Krutch

By this time of the year, nearly everyone is back from vacation and hard at work, even if they are counting down the days to their next holiday. To make the drudgery of the return to work a little easier, we’ve compiled a powerful Twin Turbo themed issue for you to escape with.

While twin turbo sound cars are a little hard to find we’ve made sure that the speed side is jam-packed with twin turbo goodness.

Our cover car is a blisteringly quick example of Nissan’s finest creation to date. Fettled to the heavens and back, this GTR will peel the face off of unsuspecting passengers – in fact, it’s the fastest car that Mark has ever tested. Read all about it and see the figures yourself.

There’s a refeature but we’re ok with that because not only does it look good, but it’s sporting some extra power and running the times to back it up. Ralph’s Chevy Can-Am is now twin turbo and he’s ripping up the tarmac in the most spectacular way.

Shaun Lamprecht reappears in the magazine, this time with his monstrous twin turbo Chev Lumina. This one has stopped the rollers at a massive 995hp on the wheels before he activates the nitrous. It’s dark and deadly and that’s a literal description of this car.

Another drag brute is Lionel Kruger’s twin turbo Sierra. It’s a bit of an odd looking machine with its combination of parts but it does the trick. It also has the biggest intercooler we’ve ever seen.

We bring you action and pictures from the VW Car Show that was held at Nasrec and all the epic action from the race event of the year, the Hi-Octane event that was recently held at Killarney in the Western Cape.

On the sound side, we showcase a tidy Mozambican VW Golf 4 that was lovingly recreated by the guys at Van’s Auto and Sound and we look at Lenny’s Chev Corsa Ute – both cars are packed with killer Rockford Fosgate sound installs.

Dino’s Customs makes a long awaited return to our pages with a beautifully crafted VW Golf V GTI that features some of the best gear that JL Audio has to offer.

All this and more in this months issue of Speed and Sound Magazine. On sale 21 January.

Issue 136 – The Monster Xmas Edition

With the festivities just around the corner, we’re all looking forward to a little bit of down time. What better way to relax than with a copy of the Speed and Sound Magazine – The Monster Edition. Packed with the usual hot cars and informative features, only now you can grab some shopping ideas with the Christmas Buyer’s Guide and free 2013 calendar.

You’ll also find the Vieira brothers’ BMW M3 inside this issue. Built for track abuse, the Vieiras have been bitten by the circuit bug and there focus is set squarely on making an impression in the BMW Car Club racing series in this turbocharged, wide-arch beast.

On the opposite side of the super sedan spectrum, we get all the juicy info on the RGMotorsport Mercedes Benz C63 AMG. This has been a lengthy project that they will admit, they’re not done with. They’ve completed a world first and supercharged a C63 AMG – helping it produce a mouth watering, ear-shattering 572kW. We climbed onboard and took a ride with the certifiable Steve Green as he showed us a mere snippet of what this machine is capable of.

The Pro-Fit Exhausts VW Golf is well known in the Western Cape for it’s prowess on the drag strip. This naturally aspirated wonder is taking the FWD scene forward in leaps and bounds; showing us that drag racing in the Western Cape is far from dead.

We went sideways with 18-year old drift wunderkind, Jason Webb in his Nissan 200SX to see what everyone was on about. We delve into the finer details to show you how and why his car manages to get as sideways as it does.

We look at the MRD Dyno Day and the Streetmods show that took place in Cape Town. We also look at the Cum Laude VW Golf build and take a closer look at turbo selection in Project R.

Race cars are filled with new technology, we show you our top ten things that we feel that race cars gave us to use in our daily motoring.

The God Of War is an insane Mini that features a sound install unlike any other we’ve ever seen in a Mini. While we usually see rough SPL installs, this one is a full entertainment system that still manages to look good, turn heads and get people excited. Neeresh installs a capacitor in his section, Installs for Dummies and takes a look at the Ground Zero Opel Corsa.

Get all of this and more in the latest issue of Speed and Sound Magazine – the Monster Edition, on shelves 18 December.

At the end of the month, we will be publishing what we think are the top modified pictures. This month….a Golf GTi Concept. Can you improve on perfection? When you’ve finished, just email to virtualrides@speedandsound.co.za  (Subject: Project-VR 106) Click here to get a bigger version