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Fun drive for Limpopo Classic Car Club

With chairperson Ben Olivier in his 1972 Citroën DS23 Pallas leading, a limited group of members of the Limpopo Classic Car Club (LCCC) took a late morning drive to the weekend hideout of members Fred and Adrienne de Wit outside Haenertsburg on Saturday. The oldest vehicle taking part in the excursion was a 1963 Porsche …

With chairperson Ben Olivier in his 1972 Citroën DS23 Pallas leading, a limited group of members of the Limpopo Classic Car Club (LCCC) took a late morning drive to the weekend hideout of members Fred and Adrienne de Wit outside Haenertsburg on Saturday.
The oldest vehicle taking part in the excursion was a 1963 Porsche 356 C owned by Pieter Vermeulen, who was also the first chairperson of the club that was established in 2011.
According to Olivier, the founder members of the club were Vermeulen, Kippy Fowlds, Flip van As, Arrie van Wyk, Koko Pohl, Arthur van der Schyff, John Hudson and Luther Eisenberg. Pohl, Hudson and Eisenberg have since passed away and new members joined, bringing the current membership to 40.
The first memorable outing of the club was arranged by Vermeulen to Tshipise over the weekend of 3 to 5 June 2011. This outing set the standard for all future outings as it was a huge success and everybody enjoyed it thoroughly. Since then the club arranged many outings to other events of which the annual Cars in the Park events in George and Scottburgh were highlights. Locally, the club arranged a number of drives of which last year’s visit to Jannie van Waveren’s extensive classic car collection on his farm outside the city was also an eye-opener for many.
According to Olivier, the club’s annual Cars in the Park event was first hosted at The Farmyard in May 2012 and in 2014 the idea was born to have the next Cars in the Park at Mall of the North. This show of classic cars and any other related vehicle or item became an annual event on the Polokwane calendar of events hosted in conjunction with the management of Mall of the North and became known as the Wheels Expo. This event enabled the club to annually donate funds to the Rotary clubs that utilise the money for Ons Tuiste/Our Home and according to Olivier, the club donated an average of R20 000 per annum since 2014 and was able to raise the amount to R25 000 in 2017.
Membership of the LCCC is open to all lovers of classic vehicles and the age of the vehicle is not the only determining factor for admission. “Some cars are classic because they are scarce, others have rare technology and some are just well maintained for their age. Some members even own cars that are not yet classic, but have the potential,” Olivier explained.

Story: Barry Viljoen

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