All you petrol heads had better get your collective buttocks into 
(ahem) gear as the biggest motor event in South African history is about to hit Joburg’s Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit. That’s right folks the Top Gear Festival (sponsored by BP Ultimate) opens with a bang on Thursday 17 March and doesn’t let up the excitement until Sunday 20 March. All the Top Gear favourites will be there: Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, James May and The Stig. They will be joined by a host of other motoring celebs including David Coulthard and the rest of the Red Bull Racing F1 team (with one of the cars), Jody Sheckter (and all of his F1 cars), Eddie Jordan and five-time Le Mans winner Derek Bell.
The Top Gear crew has been to South Africa twice before but this is something different. Instead of being a simple show (as if Top Gear ever had one of those) the festival is on a grand scale and includes a stunt arena, drag racing, off-roading and an enormous exhibition of some of the most amazing cars the team has ever had the pleasure to drive, including:
- Aston Martin DBS
- Lamborghini Countach
- Lotus Esprit
- Bentley Continental GT
- Maserati Quattroporte
- McLaren F1
- Dodge Viper
- Ferrari Scuderia
- Porsche 911 GT2
- Shelby Mustang
- Jaguar XK
Tickets are graded into four categories, starting with Bronze at R250, Silver at R365, Gold at 495 and Platinum Corporate Hospitality tickets at R875 per person. If you really want to splash out you can hire a Sky Box for R37 000 (excl. VAT) for one show or R250 000 (excl VAT) for all eight shows.
All tickets include Park and Ride facilities and are available at Computicket or BP Express outlets nation wide. 
The Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit will open its doors to guests at 16h00 on Thursday the 17th, 14h00 on Friday the 18th and 09h00 on both the 19th and 20th of March.
On the Top Gear Festival’s official press release David Coulthard says, “I’m really looking forward to going to Johannesburg for the Top Gear Festival, tens of thousands of spectators will get the chance to see an F1 car on the race track and witness exactly what it can do. I don’t think a current F1 car has been to South Africa for a while so I plan to give everyone a true Red Bull experience with plenty of noise and burning rubber! I hope to see you all there.”
You won’t get a better invitation than that.
(all images by Ed Perchick (flickr), via Wikimedia Commons)
Jade Scully is a copywriter excited about writing copy and stories, blogging about the world and editing. She currently and regularly publishes her stories on a number of blogs. Jade loves animals and hopes to begin writing copy for the animal rescue charity TEARS as her contribution to the cause.
