Ciro finally drives the Cars.co.za Superboss

The Cars.co.za Superboss is affectionately known internally as “Project 1”. When we embarked on the SentiMetal heritage project, the aim was to purchase, restore and maintain a fleet of South African specials - cars that were developed and only ever sold in South Africa. The vision was to help preserve South Africa’s rich motoring heritage.

This Kadett Superboss is the first car we ever took on and it will always have a special place in our hearts. We purchased it in 2017 and over the years I have watched with much delight as the restoration progressed.

When we found our Superboss, it was in terrible shape. But it had all the right credentials, and matching numbers, to make restoring it worthwhile. And so, over the next few years, the car was stripped down to the metal.

Our Superboss specialist painstakingly brought the car back to life, down to recreating the warning stickers printed in Afrikaans in the engine bay. If it sounds good just reading this, it looks and feels even better in the metal.

And so when the lockdown eased and I could travel again, I put a plan in motion to film our Superboss in its natural habitat: a racetrack. Off I went to JHB, met up with the crew and braved the dark cold winter mornings in JHB to make use of the best light at the track.

The result is this film. I don’t want to spoil it for you, but in summary, I can’t think of any other car I’ve driven, before or since, that brought me this much joy. My colleagues have driven it, and driven it hard, and regaled me with tales of how it comes alive on a track. But nothing could have prepared me for how fun this car would be to drive.

0:00 Intro
1:23 Power & Torque
2:08 Speed Test
3:24 Engine Analysis
5:04 Story of the car
6:39 How is it to drive the car?
7:37 Interior
8:24 Cassette trays
9:05 Can I easily find the Superboss car?
10:00 Driving analysis
11:05 Outro