GT-R

Make
Nissan
Segment
Coupe

A Nissan GT-R hillclimb racer has pulled off an epic, skid-mark-inducing save at this past weekend's Simola Hillclimb in Knysna, South Africa.

Every year, racers from across the world gather in South Africa for the Knysna Hillclimb (now Simola Hillclimb), which has been running since 2009 and has attracted the likes of Randy Pobst and Cole Powelson in the past. This year's event welcomed international talents like ex-Formula 1 driver Mika Salo driving a Mercedes-AMG A45 S hatchback, and WRC and WRX World Champion Petter Solberg driving his 600-horsepower 2018 title-winning VW Polo R WRX Supercar. Petter's older brother, Henning, also competed, driving a Volkswagen Motorsport-backed Golf R.

While the racing itself was exciting, it was when things nearly went wrong that the excitement peaked. Fortunately, our friends over at Double Apex were in attendance (piloting a Suzuki Swift Sport up the hill), collating the craziest saves of the weekend.

The finest save belonged to Reghard Roets, pilot of an R35 Nissan GT-R that ultimately finished in second in the Modified Saloon Car Shootout category's B5 class behind another highly-modified R35 driven by Franco Scribante, known for his insane Nissan GT-R builds.

On one of his qualifying runs up the 1.18-mile stretch of tarmac - approximately as long as the Goodwood Hill Climb - things went very sideways in a sphincter-puckering moment that saw him nearly lose his GT-R at speed; the hill climb is notorious for speeds of up to 160 mph being reached in some sections.

Fortunately, he managed to catch it in time for the next right-hander, and he ultimately recovered, qualified, and placed second with a time of 40.539 seconds in the final shootout. The winning time was 39.877 seconds in the B5 class.

Petter Solberg and his Polo R WRX Supercar finished 3rd in the Modified Saloon Car shootout in a time of 41.281, picking up a class win in the B3 category.

As far as street cars went, the best time of the weekend was a 44.991 set in a 992-gen Porsche 911 Turbo S. Mika Salo in the AMG A45 S finished third in the streetcar segment with a time of 47.876 seconds, while the BMW XM managed a relatively impressive 48.837 up the hill.

The quickest run of the weekend's final shootout belonged to Andre Bezuidenhout in a Gould GR55, who won the Single Seater and Sport Car Shootout in 37.850 seconds, clinching his sixth title in a row, despite being more than 3.5 seconds slower than his effort last year, which set an outright Simola Hillclimb record.