Saturdays - what are they good for? Well, if you're a sporting fan, there's probably something on TV to watch. But that involves sitting on the couch and shouting as your favourite team looses (again)...hardly a fun experience. Perhaps you have to clean the house? Yeah... also not that fun.
However, the IBV Supercar club came to the rescue on this otherwise bland Saturday morning, and provided some serious eye candy for us poorer individuals to go and look at during their breakfast meetup. And even more conveniently, their meeting spot was only a few miles away from my house, so there was pretty much no excuse to miss it. Obviously, I had to take my camera with to document some of the exotic machinery on display.
As per usual, I think it's best to just let the cars and photos do the rest of the talking here, but I'll throw in a few captions for good measure.
The showstopper award certainly goes to this brand new McLaren 720S that showed up - one of very few in the entire country. It attracted a huge crowd upon arrival, but luckily, the crowd thinned a bit as time passed, which allowed me to get quite a few photos of this one in a million car.
Parked a few spaces down was this new deep red / maroon Audi R8. The owner must have already modified this car somehow, as the V8 was already shooting flames out of the exhaust pipes at a tremendous volume. Or maybe it's built that way?
Slowly but surely, the owners were trickling in. This was about half of all the cars on display, so let's swing the camera to the left and take a look at some cars on the other side.
Yep...pretty much all Ferrari - certainly the brand of choice amongst members in this club. Remarkably, only one of them wasn't red - props to this owner for straying away from the traditional colour.
Speaking of unusual colours, this New R35 GTR was hidden away far down the parking line up. I'm not sure what colour this is - I think Nissan call it "burnt orange" - but feel free to correct me here.
The standout Ferrari was certainly this F12, being the only F12 in the sea of 458's and 488's. But with the pricetag on this one being so much higher, it's understandably not really the "affordable" model.
While there were only a few convertibles in attendance, all of the owners had the roofs off, and left them that way while the general public milled around. Personally, I've never been a convertible fan, but if by some chance I owned one, I doubt I would leave the top down - especially while parked under some trees.
I very rarely use my 10-17mm fisheye lens for shooting cars, as the distortion is just too much. However, in some cases, it can work - like this extreme close up view of the rear wheel on the 720S.
Non-South Africans are probably a bit confused as to what this registration means, so I'll just let Urban Dictionary explain it here for you.
This Lamborghini Gallardo drove past our little gathering, but clearly had no intention of joining. A bit of a disappointment, since there were no other Lambos present.
As nice as the cars are to look at from afar, sometime you need to get a little closer and focus on the smaller, more intricate details. Getting these emblem shots with my 50mm f1.8 has long been a favourite of mine, with the striking paintwork of this new Nissan R35 GTR providing a great contrast to the silver and red elements here.
After a bit of back and forth, it turned out that I actually knew the owner of the 720S. He owns the silver/grey Aston Martin DB9 "Bond Edition" from the previous supercar club run, which you can read about here. He was also kind enough to open the unique doors on his new McLaren for me to snap a quick photo, and let a few kids sit in the drivers seat. Sharing is caring right?
I know I know...another McLaren image. But seriously, this car holds a rare status like no other, so I had to get as many photos as possible.
The Audi R8 also seems a popular car here, with quite a few scattered throughout the line up. However, this was the only one wearing a V10 badge, and let me tell you - it sounded demonic.
Even though I'm mostly a JDM car fan, the Porsche 911 holds a special place in my heart - especially in the 4S or Turbo variant. I mean, look how aggressive that widebody stance is!
Arriving early certainly gets you the prime parking spot. It is the disabled spot, but lets just brush over that for a bit.
They key to happiness? Yes, I think so. Sure, it may not be a Ferrari or Porsche key, but it's certainly far more attainable.
The above key is responsible for firing up the 3.8 V6 twin-turbo of this Nissan R35 GTR. Supercar purists may scoff at the sight of a 4 year old Nissan crashing their morning display, but the fact of the matter remains - the R35 will easily keep up with (and maybe even overtake) some of the cars in the convoy. For a quarter of the price. I love the underdog.
However, the interior sure has some catching up to do in order to stay at the same level as the German and Italian counterparts. Luckily, Nissan have done a far better job on the 2017 and upwards GTR interior.
Thought we were all done with the Ferraris? Nope!
Eventually, it was time for all of the owners to depart and head down the coast for a lunch and track session at Dezzi Raceway. Since I don't own anything close to being classified as a "supercar", I took a few photos of the convoy leaving and decided to call it a day. Maybe sometime I'll be able to park a car here for the rest of the photographers and general public to drool over. It's a nice dream to have...
Which car was your favourite? Let me know in the comments below!
DISCLAIMER: All photos and writing are my own original work.
| Location | Umhlanga, South Africa |
| Camera | Canon 6D |
| Lenses | Canon 24-105mm / 50mm f1.8 / Tokina 10-17mm / Rokinon 24mm f1.4 |
| Processing | Lightroom CC |