Going to the Hill climb

By Clinton HulleyPorsche 917 Replica
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So one day my boss calls me up to his office. He told me that I need to get the Porsche 917 ready as we are going to the Knysna Hill climb. The hill climb is called the Simola Hill Climb of Knysna. We didn’t really know what to expect or how big the event was.

We got everything together. I didn’t know what tires to fit in the car. Will we run the slicks, or will we fit the wet tires. There isn’t much time to get the tires hot for a run and the run doesn’t last that long. It was a bit of a difficult decision to make so we took the wets and the slicks with.


Loading the car to take it to the Hill Climb.

We left for Knysna the Thursday afternoon, it is about a 5-hour drive from Cape Town to Knysna. We got to Knysna late afternoon. Everybody stayed over at the house my boss had on Thesen Island. The Porsche was in tip-top shape.

The Simola Hill climb is part of the Speed Festival that is held in Knysna every year. It is a very big event and it draws a big crowd of people to Knysna. The hill climb started the Friday and carried on till the main event on Sunday.

Let the fun starts

We had to take the Porsche 917 to the waterfront for a show and shine. All the cars that were going to compete the weekend had to be on display in the parking lot of the Waterfront. There was a really big crowd of people that came to look at all the cars.

Porsche at the show and shine in Knysna Waterfront

Next up the organizers told us that there is going to be a parade lap through the town. My boss told me I can go ahead and do the parade lap with the Porsche. He would be behind me with his Aston Martin DB9 and his friend behind him again with his Ferrari 458 Italia. The engines started up and one for one the cars were leaving the waterfront parking lot. Most of the cars that competed in the event weren’t road legal but no one cared.


The traffic department tired to control the traffic so that we could do a seamless lap without too many passenger cars between the competitors. At one stage one of the traffic officials showed me to accelerate a bit as there was an opening in front of me. I put my foot down and the beast started screaming. The crowds next to the road loved it. It was quite an adrenaline rush to drive the Porsche 917 on a public road. We Ended up back at the waterfront after which we loaded the Porsche back onto the trailer to take the car up the Simola Hill were the event is held.

Let’s start to make some noise.

The Porsche in the pit tents

Saturday was mostly practice sessions up the hill. Everybody got multiple chances to run up the hill. There were a few cars that didn’t come down the hill in one piece. This was an insane event, with a lot of nice cars and a lot of noise.

Lamborghini and Ferrari that competed
Track car that competed.
High Horse Power GT-R that competed.
McLaren that tried his luck.
Check the wheel on this car.
Another Mclaren that competed.

There were a lot of beautiful cars and a lot of them were really high horsepower cars. The battle was between the 2 wheel driven cars and the 4 wheel driven cars. There wasn’t much that could compete with the Nissan GT-R’s. They were the fastest up the hill. The one 1000 HP Mitsubishi EVO 8 wasn’t far behind the GT-R’s. There were some really quick cars here.


My Boss took the Porsche 917 up the hill, and we were amazed at the good times the car was doing. The Porsche 917 ended up being one of the fastest 2 wheel driven cars at the event.

One of the runs up the hill at the Simola Hill climb.

This turned out to be a great event. The people and spirit was great. This is a must-see event. We didn’t go home empty-handed, we got a trophy for the fastest car in our class.


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