Story: Evan Rothman
Picture: Motorpics
In full-attack mode this car eats up the gravel kilometres with a voracity I’ve never experienced before. One of South Africa’s most exciting rally drivers is Mohammed Moosa, a driver for the Team Total Evolution Toyota RunX S2000 outfit, and is in his first season in the top-flight Class S2000. He’s shown his speed and aggression in this the most cutthroat of Classes, and I was fortunate to experience first-hand his driving skills in his rally machine.
Ahead of last month’s fifth round of the South African Rally Championship, the Volkswagen Rally held in Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape, I attended the Shakedown Stage for the event at the Port Elizabeth Oval Track, which played host to two stages (with a majority of the Shakedown Stage part of the speed test for the event).
With a few runs already under his belt, and his car set up to his liking for this challenging event, I strapped myself tightly into the co-driver’s seat for what was to be a thrilling and unforgettable drive. A few seconds short of two minutes, and our drive was over but these two minutes I, as a rally enthusiast, will forever treasure. For Mohammed it was a test and more valuable seat time, and I fortunate to be able to glimpse a snatch into the worlds of the rally driver and co-driver.
The dusty stage starts with a long straight on a flat section. A countdown from ten starts and my excitement increases with that of the revs climbing. Quickly spinning through the gears, the car was soon bouncing on its rev limiter in sixth gear; Mohammed was cool, collected and nonchalantly chatting with me even at this speed, as if for a drive to buy milk at the corner shop.
As we barrelled down the long straight, I was told rather cavalierly that a first-gear left hand corner awaited us. Expecting to hit the brakes and begin to scrub off speed, and seeing the straight coming to an end ahead, Mohammed’s right boot was still firmly planted on the accelerator pedal and it didn’t look like shifting to the brake pedal any time soon.
“We’re over 210km/h at the moment: fast!” was Mohammed’s comment, as if reading my thoughts.
Seeing the tree trunks lining the road clearly, the dirt berm and the bushes beyond, I turned my attention away from the horizon and to Mohammed to watch as he worked the car’s levers and steering wheel to set it up for the turn in. Hitting the brakes hard, with the car’s nose diving aggressively towards the ground and the scenery out the side windows now becoming less of a speed blur, we were in the corner and already powering through it. It still astounds me the braking power of these machines and the grip actually made available by the tyres on this loose surface.
A quick tug of the handbrake lever, bashing down the gearbox and we’re booting out of the corner and focusing on the next corner to attack. His movements on the controls results in directness: there was no wild drifting or sideways antics as I’d have imagined from the speed that we entered the corner and the quick jump of his right foot from the brake pedal to the accelerator.
The revs climb quickly, the sound of the S2000 engine’s cacophonic howl rising as Mohammed punches up to fourth gear. Suddenly we’re hard on the brakes for two or three seconds, and then down the gears once more, another flick of the steering wheel and we are pointing in yet another direction. Of course, strapped into the car I don’t get a true sense of the speed but a look towards the digital tachometer and gear indicator gave me an indication. That, and the scenery seemingly zipping by.
I can just peer over the bonnet and notice rocks and bumps in the road ahead. I would’ve been in orbit in a road car, but this machine stays planted and his right foot is still pinned to the floor!
Talking about his family and home in Tzaneen, and then my work, all the while we are shooting through a left-right section and over a jump. The dust and sand sprays onto my side of the windows, and the scenery flicks past very fast… There’s no wafting into corners: its flat-out, hard on the brakes, feed the power and then flat-out again. There’s no in between pace, not even on this Shakedown Stage. It takes an aggressive and forceful input to keep this car in line, and the Toyota RunX S2000 responds immediately. The car tracks accurately with his steering wheel inputs, and requires no coaxing to stay to his desired line. Direct are his movements, with precise little adjustments to the steering wheel and the accelerator pedal and feeling out the corner and the surface beneath his tyres.
Corners approach rapidly: short straights merely serve for Mohammed to set his car up for the next corner, before pitching the car into it; it is in corners that this rally car truly shines and shows its worth.
We approach a blind rise that drops away into a set of zigzags that I look forward to. From having walked into the stage to spectate at this specific spot, I noticed the commitment needed to tackle this seemingly easy section. In fact, it’s a violent left-right-left-right-left section that demands respect and concentration. Needless to say, each side of the road is lined with berms, boulders and tree stumps. To boot, the road is not wide either and a few of the other S2000 machines clipped the banks in places during their shakedown runs.
We enter the first flick at speed: on-and-off the power quickly, and we’re through the first two. Then it’s flat-out through the following three corners as the car sidesteps in and out of the turns. Still, there are small movements, adjustments of the steering wheel. He uses every inch of the road, and we shoot out of the zigzags and into the finish zone.
The Team Total Evolution Toyota RunX S2000 of Mohammed Moosa isn’t a graceful machine; it needs to be strictly directed and bullied to travel over roads at that speed on gravel and asphalt. It’s raw: an action has an immediate response and effect. It’s a fantastic rally car, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed sitting inside the cockpit beside one of the bravest drivers in South Africa.