Late last week, Porsche of South Africa participated in a short private auction, and walked away with something that is really very cool, the Kyalami Grand Prix circuit. The circuit had come up for sale, and was being eyed by a few local land developers putting the track in danger of becoming a series of housing developments or office buildings. After a short bidding process, as you can see in the video below, Porsche eventually came out on top and took ownership proudly for only $19.5 million dollars.
What Does Porsche Gain From Purchasing Kyalami?
For their $19.5 million dollar winning bid, Porsche now owns the massively historically important track, which is located on the northern border of the city of Johannesburg, the single most affluent city in Africa. Kyalami has some excellent history to draw from, having hosted a total of 20 Formula One grand prix races between the late 1960s and early 1990s, not to mention countless sports car races. From the 1950s through the late 1980s, Kyalami also played host to a 9-hour sports car endurance race, which was occasionally held as a round of the World Sportscar Championship. True to their endurance racing history, Porsche has more Kyalami 9-Hour victories than any other manufacturer, eight in total. British racer and promoter of South African racing, David Piper, was a big proponent of Porsche Motorsport in South Africa, running a number of significant Porsche racing cars, including 904s, 908s, and 917s.
Since the 1990s, Kyalami has continued to host various international sports car, touring car, and motorcycle races, but their efforts to get back on the F1 circuit have been for naught thus far. Outside of the realm of racing, the track is frequently used for track lapping events for local sportscar and supercar clubs. The city of Johannesburg is stated to be home to Africa’s largest population of millionaires, with more than 23,000 7-figure bank accounts calling the city their home. It would make sense, then, that many of them would be interested in exercising their cars on an historic track like this one.
Does Porsche Even Sell Cars in Africa?
As a matter of fact, they do. Porsche has four dealerships in the country of South Africa, one each in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Umhlanga, and Randburg. There are three further dealers installed in Angola, Nigeria, and Ghana.
Outside of the Chinese market, the Middle East and Africa are Porsche’s fastest growing segment, and it is easy to tell that they are interested in furthering their reach in South Africa, and becoming the steward of the Kyalami circuit will certainly garner the company some all important ‘good will’.
What Will Porsche Do With Kyalami?
With the purchase, it is uncertain exactly what Porsche will do with the track, perhaps letting it continue relatively unabated as they have done with the Nardoring that they purchased two years ago in Italy. Being that the South Africa market seems to be quite lucrative for Porsche at the moment, they could also spend some money cleaning up the grounds and updating some of the amenities before unveiling a new Porsche Experience Center at the circuit. Additionally, under Porsche’s control, the circuit could potentially be brought back up to spec in order to bring in some more prestigious events, perhaps even regaining FIA certification. This could be a very interesting time for sports car racing in Africa.
Dieter Rencken, Formula 1 Journalist:
“I’m not convinced it has a Grand Prix future. However, there is a market in South Africa for one or two international motor racing events a year.”
Kyalami means ‘my home’ in the native Zulu language. Now, it would seem, the track is Porsche’s home in one of their fastest growing markets.
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View Comments (8)
Just want to point out some mistake in your story about KYalami. David Piper is British and not a South African driver and he probably had more success driving a Ferrari than a Porsche.
You are right, that was a poorly worded sentence, and it has been amended. I was attempting to convey that he was often a racer IN South Africa, but it read that I was stating he was from the country.
While Piper did run many Ferrari cars in the early-to-mid 1960s, he was a Porsche man from at least 1969 onward, and remains one of the few in the world to own a 917. (Chassis 917-010, the green and white car)
The race track sold for 205 million not 19.5 million. I thought that was too cheap !
Yes, it sold for 205 million South African Rand. At time of purchase about $19.5 million US dollars
One Further Key Comment - neither Porsche AG nor Porsche SAfrica bought the circuit. The dealer principle for South Africa, Toby Venter's own company acquired and reconstructed the track. Indeed Toby is synonymous with Porsche in SA having overseen the marques success since the early 90s and often racing a mammothly fast TT'd 993 GT2R.
Porsche had already used the site as your site showed when Jorg Bergmeister helped launch the new 991 Mark 2 cars there recently. The track looks fantastic and Toyota, Jeep and Fiat among others are likely to follow suite soon. Lamborghini, Ferrari, McLaren and Aston are also looking at a variety of event types. Most importantly - obviously - Porsche Sport Driving is expected soon!
But any suggestion that Porsche itself bought the track is incorrect.
Love the site and your insights though so keep it coming!
Thanks, M
I concur with HiWind that Porsche does not own Kyalami and issued an official statement to that effect after the purchase was effected by Toby Venter.
Also, Porsche has an official centre in Nairobi that's apparently doing rather well. They've even sold a GT3 but heaven knows how that car will enjoy the dodgy roads there.
Cool news here, I hadn't heard that. We rescued the 1987 Kyalami winner (raced in Rothmans colors) a few years ago and it just returned back to the states. Here's the story on it:
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-911-technical-forum/655425-barn-find-porsche-962-106b.html
-Wayne
Wow! What a great investigation into history and provenance. Great purchase and event better story!