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adriaan pienaar
Samba Member
Joined: February 17, 2003
Posts: 692
Location: Sedgefield, South Africa
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 Posted: Sat Nov 22, 2008 10:14 pm Post subject: Lolette buggy racing |
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The Lolette is a South African Manx-clone buggy, with a bit of a grey past, referring to a deal set up between some South African entrepeneur and Bruce Meyers many years ago. Royalties, that was supposed to be payed to BF Meyers & Co for Manxes sold in SA, were never done, instead the 'Lolette' was born...
In a very interesting article from a 1968 'Motoring Mirror' magazine, it is stated that William Ferguson and C. Pearce (name not mentioned) won the grueling Roof of Africa Rally overall that year in a pretty standard Lolette Buggy. I found the following (re-typed) part in the article, refering to where they crossed the Sani Pass, simply hillarious 
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| It was grey - overcast and very cold at that altitude. The Lolette Dune Buggy of Willam Ferguson and C. Pearce, the ulitmate winners, started coughing and spluttering. Iced-up carburettor and intake manifold. The solution easy - wee all over it to defrost and proceed happily. The next time the procedure was the same but the third, alas - nature could no longer provide. Necessity is the mother of invention and a detached and rebent exhaust pointing onto the intake provided a highly successful modification. |
This is the only pic of the buggy in the article, with the following text:
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| The Prime Minister of Lesotho studies the works end of the winning Lolette Dune Buggy. With him are the crew, Pearce and Ferguson. On the extreme right is the Chief Traffic Officer of Lesotho. |
A Porsche-engined buggy, driven by 'Mr & Mrs Louw' in the same event is also mentioned in the article, they had won the Lesotho Independence Challenge Cup for the fastest time from the bottom of Sani Pass to Buthe Buthe, namely 6hrs, 42 mins. This time was 11 minutes faster than the previous years' fastest time, in dry weather - and down the Pass.
This is what a Lolette looks like today, they are still being manufactured here in South Africa..
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gonenomad
Samba Member
Joined: August 04, 2008
Posts: 83
Location: Indiana
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| Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2008 5:51 am Post subject: |
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| How old is that ad? R6800 is only like 700 us dollars. |
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adriaan pienaar
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Joined: February 17, 2003
Posts: 692
Location: Sedgefield, South Africa
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adriaan pienaar
Samba Member
Joined: February 17, 2003
Posts: 692
Location: Sedgefield, South Africa
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dune limo
Samba Member
Joined: March 09, 2007
Posts: 125
Location: Australia
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| Posted: Sun Dec 14, 2008 4:40 pm Post subject: |
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| That looks like a GP buggy from England, I owned one of those guys, The GP came from South Africa and was made/sold in England |
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adriaan pienaar
Samba Member
Joined: February 17, 2003
Posts: 692
Location: Sedgefield, South Africa
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| Posted: Sun Dec 14, 2008 10:12 pm Post subject: |
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The South African Buggy history is quite vague, yet interesting. I believe the Lolette pre-dates the GP, since the first reference I could get to the GP only dates back to 1970
This buggy on the cover of a common 1972 South African family magazine might be a GP as well?
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dune limo
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