Double Apex goes endurance racing later this week in the iLamuna Endurance Series. This is the very first time series organisers are hosting a race in Cape Town. The event takes place at Killarney International Raceway this coming weekend 6 July. The series has been hosting endurance races exclusively in Gauteng up until this point.

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On The Cheap

If you aren’t aware, iLamuna takes its inspiration from a similar race series in the US called LeMons. More info at this link. The idea of the series is to go endurance racing on the cheap. The racing itself is similar to any mainstream endurance event. The winner is the team that completes the most number of laps (ie the longest distance) by the time the flag falls. The first Cape Town iLamuna race is nine hours long. Starting time this weekend is 10:00 and the checkered flag should fly around 19:00, well into darkness.

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No Point in Spending

The iLamuna series has a price cap of R55 000 for race machines. Anyone who enters a vehicle more expensive earns penalty laps ie laps deducted from their eventual tally. This is to dissuade racers from spending more than the cap. There is also a lower lap time cut-off. At Killarney the time is set at 1 min 35,0 sec. Any lap that is completed in a time quicker than 1 min 35,0 does not count towards your tally. So there is no point in building an extremely quick racecar.

Click here to learn more about the very first 24 Hour race held SA, which was the inaugural iLamuna event.

A Jaaaaaaaagggg

Double Apex was invited to compete in the event by Team Polyplank, which consists of Jakes Wallage, Jan “Dem**rin” Koekemoer, Danie “Cement Bags” van Jaarsveldt and our managing editor, Sudhir “Banzai” Matai. Wallage and Van Jaarsveldt have no racing experience, while Koekemoer and Matai were once rivals in the local Fine Cars category.

The team had the idea to campaign a Jaguar S-Type. It is the most unlikely/unassuming cars to compete with. It seems that no one really wants an S-Type these days. As a result, the S-Type was bought for the princely sum of R25 000. Our racecar has a 3,0-litre engine shared with, then stablemate, Ford. A five-speed manual transmission sends power from the V6 to the rear wheels. The ‘PolyCat’ has been race-prepped with a full roll-cage, race seat, harness, etc, etc. All safety gear falls outside of the R55k price cut-off.

All Sorts

The series has featured many interesting machines up country. Previous events have included original VW Beetles, Ford Kas, MG TFs, Datsuns and Minis, Fiats and Porsches, Alfas and Audis, just about every automaker has been represented in the races hosted to date. The inaugural Cape Town race has 37 entries. Our Jag will compete against several VWs, a few BMWs, Fords and Toyotas; there’s even a Nissan 350Z in the field.

If you find yourself in the Mother City this weekend, and want to watch some racers who don’t take themselves too seriously, then pop down to Killarney International Raceway between 10:00 and 19:00. We’ll be easy to spot as ours in the only British luxury car in the field.