By Séan Hendley
Pics: Nissan SA
YES! Yes! We know this is a motorcycle publication, and why the heck are we doing featuring an Automotive article and, and and….. Well, if you were offered to thrash the latest and greatest in Bakkie models in their range around the bush and challenged to try and beat a certain Sarel van der Merwe’s record on around said bit of bush – would you say no?
EXACTLY!!!
So, when a random email landed in our inbox from NISSAN SA offering said bit of fun, we cautiously enquired that they had not sent it along erroneously. When they confirmed that they liked what we did and would love to have us along we accepted gladly. Afterall, most of us drive Bakkies or haul our dirt bikes around on bakkies, so it makes sense to review a bakkie once in a while.
It was a crisp and early winter morning run out to a Game Lodge just north of Cullinan on our long termer Suzuki GSX-S 1000 GX, which drew many a raised eyebrow from the Automotive Journalists and Influencers gathered at Sandwani 4×4 Game Lodge, all commenting on how happy they all had heated seats and steering wheels in their media demo’s, I was just eternally grateful that I had shot past the office and swapped the naked streetfighter I was riding for the Suzuki GSX-S 1000GX with its windshield, fairings and handguards to keep the worst of the icy winds off of me.
Sandwani is a great place in the middle of the bush, not too far out of town with wild animals roaming free and quite tame and friendly. More importantly Nissan had put on a very lekker spread for us, with lots of hot coffee flowing freely. After a quick registration, meet and greets and sorting out of driving teams, we had a welcoming, introduction to the day’s events and a driver briefing over a spectacular breakfast by various Nissan SA and Spirit of Africa dignitaries, we were pointed to a fleet of Nissan Navara 4×4 Warriors and told to saddle up.
So, what is The Spirit of Africa?
Well, in a nutshell the concept is quite similar to the GS Trophy, in so far as that basically anybody can apply or enter and it is a one make/brand challenge – putting everybody on equal footing from the vehicle perspective. Like the Trophy, it is a skills challenge on a level playing field designed by none other than retired Rally Champion Sarel van Der Merwe – so, you just know it is going to be good.
The challenges range from speed challenges along very narrow, tree lined dirt roads to technical 4×4 challenges. The rules are simple, closest to the allocated time wins. Sounds simple enough until you find out arriving ahead of the allocated time scores you penalties, as does arriving after the allocated time. Touching the flags gets you more penalties, so does stopping or reversing, (unless it is a reverse challenge, then going forwards scores you penalties). Driving recklessly and damaging the vehicle gets you disqualified and sent packing.
So What!?!? We can all drive! Well, Oom Sarel can drive better and more precisely as well as a lot faster and this challenge is designed to put your precision driving skills to the test, as well as showcase the chosen vehicles capabilities. It took only my first technical challenge to wind my neck in and realise this is some serious stuff. Those trees lining the dirt roads are a lot closer than you might expect and the corners a lot tighter too. Then the weight of the vehicle versus the speed attained versus the absence of traction from road bias tyres in the sand suddenly gives you a new perspective on braking distances, and all your long forgotten religious chants coming flooding back very quickly as you squeak between the trees barrelling towards a fleeing wide-eyed marshal and Uncle Chappy growling over the walkie talkie for you to slow the “flip” down.
Driving up a ridiculously steep hill, slowly with aforementioned lack of traction without slipping off the edge is hard enough, then you have to wiggle through randomly placed flags without touching them only for terra firma to disappear below your bonnet and replaced by the big blue sky – No Worries, I’ve done this plenty – only to find that I need to turn sharply as the vehicle breaks over the top. I cocked that up solidly, coming in almost 50% over the time limit and managing to tag or run over a good portion of the flags.
My unfortunate team mate for the event was Lawrence Minnie of Auto Trader fame and a really talented racing driver, who had done a lot of these and was really good at them. I do have to commend him for his control and composure in the passenger seat and still calmly utter encouragement and guidance as I clumsily scuttled any podium ambitions he might have had – Sorry Bud. However, I did manage to redeem myself somewhat on the speed stages once I got a feel for the Nissan Navara Warrior 4×4, especially in the reversing challenges and I also aced the off road drag racing section along with the figure 8 race. At this point Lawrence handled all the clever technical driving challenges and I took on all the ‘dom-krag’ go fast and don’t crash sections. And that is the lekker thing with the Spirit of Africa challenge, each team mate focuses on what they are strong at. All I can tell you is that I had a complete jol and I am really looking forward to being invited back next year.
A little bit about the Nissan Navara Pro-X 4×4 Warrior.
I am not going to bore you with all the spec’s, you probably know more about them than I ever will, but I am going to tell you what it was like to drive it like a maniac along some really wild terrain. And I suspect this is where the Nissan Navara Pro-X 4×4 Warrior.really shines.
Not being a regular automotive tester/reviewer all I have to compare it to is my past and present vehicles which range from my Current Land Rover Discovery, to my 2007 Spain Spec Nissan Navara 4×4 double cab that said Disco replaced and various other 4×4 bakkies of old along the way. The original Navara’s from about 2005 or so if memory serves, really shook up the bakkie market in South Africa, they were much bigger than anything else, much more luxurious, more car like in its ride comfort and a lot more powerful than any comparative engine, as well as a lot more fuel efficient. My late Dad was one of the first Navara owners in SA and we reviewed that vehicle in this here publication when we were still in print back then. Towing a 6-metre x 2 metre trailer full of quads and dirt bikes and fully laden with 5 people and all our weekend stuff from Kempton Park to Graskop for an Adventure Company event. It performed more than admirably and by the next event there were significantly more Navara’s in the parking lot. I got mine a few years later, towed my caravan or my 4×4 camp trailer around the country, down dirt tracks over rocky off-road passes and anything else that got in my path. It has recovered more vehicles than I can remember, towed many broken-down vehicles and done a lot of long distance holidays, all in absolute reliability and comfort.
These days, all bakkies seem to have followed Navara’s lead, and rightly so and it is a good thing. Slipping behind the wheel of the Nissan Navara Pro-X 4×4 Warrior, there is an air of rugged elegance and comfort. It has an easy to understand and use Infotainment system, control, buttons and knobs are where any Navarra driver would look for them and it is comfortable. I am 2 metres tall and find a lot of the modern bakkies a bit on the claustrophobic side with interior cabin space more akin to a mid-sized passenger vehicle, to me space is the ultimate luxury, and the Navara has acres of it.
Ergo’s are really good as well, nice under thigh and lower back support from the seats. Pedals are properly spaced for my big cold-hopper feet, gauges and dials are all up to scratch and easy to read and understand without having to divert undue attention away from the road ahead of you. The cabin is a really nice place to be, especially in the hot African bushveld – it got quite warm during the day after a fairly chilly start. Dust sealing is really good as well, very important when you are kicking up clouds of the stuff like we were.
Power wise? It is good, more than good enough to take on all the challenges we put it through with plenty to spare. Stick it in 4×4 low range and it will climb over just about anything put in front of it. Stand on the brakes and boost the accelerator and it will launch off the line and keep going through the silky-smooth box long and hard, more than enough to get you into trouble with the local constabulary.
For me however, the party piece was its handling under very aggressive driving. The figure 8 race really brought this to the forefront as did the reversing challenges. The figure 8 required hard acceleration, harder braking a aggressive steering input before getting back on to the gas hard again and repeating that over and over again. By now I had a good feel for the weight and balance of the Navara and was putting some proper Veldskoen into the right corner of the foot well and the Warrior responded to my input almost intuitively inspiring even more driving confidence and shouts of absolute glee from my team mate in the passenger seat. In thick loose sand around very tight turns under hard acceleration and braking this big bakkie is incredibly sure footed, nimble and agile. I have had similar stuff in other bakkies before and the overwhelming feeling has been one of dread as they each felt like they wanted to topple over, this Nissan was so stable the entire time I was being a complete hooligan – very impressive.
What more can I tell you?
It is a very lekker, very competent, very comfortable vehicle that feels more like a luxury SUV than a bakkie – go drive one for yourself – go check out the Spirit of Africa, even as a spectator – it is very cool.
