Porsche saves Kyalami race track
Winning bid of £11.5m submitted by Porsche boss on his mobile
Surtees' Honda leads pack at Kyalami in '68
The auction didn't last long though, and the winning bid actually came by phone. The bidding ended just one minute and 50 seconds after it started, with Porsche picking up Kyalami for a relative snip at just five million Rand over the reserve price - or £11.5 million in total.
The man on the other end of the line was today revealed to be Porsche South Africa CEO Toby Venter, who couldn't be there in person as he was attending the Macan launch in Cape Town. Well, at least you can't accuse him of not getting his hands dirty...
According to Porsche SA spokesperson, Christo Kruger, the race track will most definitely remain as such. "Porsche SA has purchased Kyalami and it will be preserved as a race track going forward."
Fittipaldi's Brabham laying down rubber in '73
It figures, too. With a - ahem - "new" Cayenne launching this week and the Porsche 991 GT3 RS also spied testing, it'd only be logical to christen the venue with a couple of product launches.
Off-roading in the scrubland with the Cayenne, and setting a real, old-school track alight like Kyalami in what has the potential to be the best Porsche ever - Mr Venter, if you're listening...
[Photos: LAT Photo; lead pic shows the Bellof/Bell Porsche 956 in action at Kyalami in December 1983]
I struggled to find much in the way of decent imagery of the old circuit layout on the web so I have just knocked these up with what I could find as I remain curious as I was once involved with a property company that acquired some land in the vicinity but ultimately struggled to developed it.
The old start finish line is shown in red (entirely built over for many years now). Only the blue section (and the green pan handle to the south west) remains in approximately the same layout (although the new circuit runs counter clockwise and features a new section that was built to the south shown in green).
Norwegian winters are slightly different to Jo'burg winters! 
I struggled to find much in the way of decent imagery of the old circuit layout on the web so I have just knocked these up with what I could find as I remain curious as I was once involved with a property company that acquired some land in the vicinity but ultimately struggled to developed it.
The old start finish line is shown in red (entirely built over for many years now). Only the blue section (and the green pan handle to the south west) remains in approximately the same layout (although the new circuit runs counter clockwise and features a new section that was built to the south shown in green).
It was the highlight of my not very brilliant racing career as I won my class that day and technically beat Scheckter who was driving a Lotus Esprit (OK - he retired with a blown engine).
The old Kyalami was a great circuit. I think it was, at the time, the longest straight of all the world courses, but I stand to be corrected.
Now it has been shortened to the extent of a go-kart circuit. Due to this emasculation; it will never ever again host a F1 GP.
Congratulations to Porsche for preserving Kyalami as a racing venue.
However, only when I get really, really, old and boring, would I consider buying a Porsche (unless it had a wheelchair facility).
911 Kyalami edition, very distinctive exhaust throaty yet clipped exhaust note, yellow and green, very aggressive styling, very dark interior with sewn billtong seats and Springbok interior and stereo that only plays spitting image songs.
Hopefully this is a personal purchase in the end rather than VW steamrolling into yet another part of the automotive industry to bring on more pseudo corportate marketing racing events.
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