When (T-)Rex returned as a Hilux

With The Citizen Motoring’s usual operations put on hold due to the current national lockdown, performing our usual high performance road tests are simply not possible.

However, we have every intention of keeping petrolheads and enthusiasts interested during these times and for this we require the reserve gear.

I have been sniffling through my archives and discovered some interesting numbers in his detailed records from the last 16 years. For some light entertainment and an interesting glimpse into how things have evolved over time, we have compiled a list of the Top 10 fastest cars – in terms of 0 to 100k m/h – for every year dating back to 2004. We are rolling these out over the course of the lockdown.

Two-thousand-and-fifteen was to be the year that Mercedes-Benz dominated the timesheets with five of the top 10 cars being from their high performance AMG division.

It was also the first year that not a single car went beyond the four-second barrier. Life was getting faster all the time! Back to Benz’s onslaught.

Its 375kW/650 Nm AMG GT S took pole position with a time of 3.46 sec, followed by the 430kW/830Nm CLS 63 S and 375kW/700Nm C63 S in third and fourth with times of 4.19 sec and 4.21 respectively.

This potent trio was split by Jaguar’s 405kW/680Nm F-Type R Coupe that came in second with a 4.14 sec run. This time driven through all four wheels and while I loved the wild, try-and-kill-you, rear-wheel-drive model of the previous year more, this AWD model was easier to live with if you weren’t a skilled driver and still wanted to go fast. Ironically this composure came at the cost of a fraction of raw speed as was shown up by the 3.91 sec run of the RWD derivative.

Two SUV’s also punched hard in 2015. BMW’s 423kW/750Nm X5 M did a quick 4.43 sec and Mercedes AMG’430kW/760Nm GLE 63 S Coupe clocked in with an equally impressive 4.71 sec. Range Rover’s 405kW/680Nm SVR brought up the rear with a decent time of 5.29 sec.

A few other notable mentions include BMW’s 266kW/570Nm i8, the first brand in South Africa to show the potential of what electricity can do for performance. Today now almost every performance car offers some form of electrical assistance.

Audi’s RS3 Sportback, now producing 270 kW of power and 465 Nm of torque, gave us a glimpse of the giant killing that the brand was going to be doing in the future with their RS3 range of cars when it ran an unthought-of 4.57 sec. And just as the RS3 was running ahead of the pack, Audi’s 412kW/700Nm RS6 Avant, while being a very unique and quick people mover, came in with a slower 4.89 sec run thanks to the lack of launch control once again.

The most fun drive of the year was without a doubt Toyota’s Hilux V8 that was loosely based on their world renowned Dakar racing bakkie. Affectionately called Rex, this Hilux was packing a 335kW/600Nm, 5.0-litre naturally aspirated V8 Lexus engine.

Short ratios with a barking straight through exhaust made for a mad experience in the suburbs, which I of course used as my Dakar test track, much to the disgust of all of my neighbours. And I couldn’t even sneak out my complex to cause this mayhem, as Rex would set off car alarms all over the show as soon as you hit the start button.

I did road test data more for fun than anything else and the 0 to 100 km/h dash was done in a hot hatch-type 7.84 sec, and 195 km/h in 1 000m, while stopping at a very un-bakkie 230 km/h.

Mark Jones is The Citizen Motoring’s Road Test Editor. All his data has been obtained up on the Reef using the world recognised test facility of Gerotek, located West of Pretoria. He has always followed the same test procedure and makes use of the world standard in road test data equipment Racelogic VBOX

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