The rarely told story of the greatest South African sports car begins with local powerboat champion, Peter Lindenberg. One day in the 2003, he and world-renowned Port Elizabeth-based sports car builder, Jimmy Price, came together to fulfil a lifelong dream. Ever since they could remember, both of them wanted to build the ‘greatest South African sports car’ and finally put this country’s car builders on the map.
Jimmy Price was revered the world over for building the chassis and bodies for the Noble N400 and Shelby Legendary cars (used in the Ford v Ferrari movie). And he always believed there was no reason the greatest South African sports car couldn’t become a reality. His factory in the Eastern Cape, Hi-Tech Automotive, had the hardware, manpower and engineering knowhow. All it needed was the money and the right car. Between Price, Lindenberg and pioneering Ford dealership owner Colin Lazarus, they formed the Perana Performance Group (PPG). And decided to revive the Perana name in homage to the legendary cars of Basil Green. The car itself would be called the Z-One.
GREATEST SOUTH AFRICAN SPORTS CAR EVER
The only thing missing in their masterplan was a top-notch vehicle design. However, back in 2003, Price was building cars for Noble. And he regularly visited the UK on business. At the time, TVR and MG Rover had come together under a banner called the Phoenix Consortium. While the venture eventually folded, it did bear fruit for Price who was introduced to former Maserati technical director, Giordano Casarini. The Italian wanted to rekindle the famous, but long dormant, De Tomaso marque with a bespoke V8 sports car. The car Casarini described was an ‘Italian TVR,’ and he wanted Price to build it for him. That project never materialised either. However, it did forge Price’s relationship with Casarini and grant him access to the finest coach-builders in Italy.
One of which was Zagato of Arese, Northern Italy. So, when the time came to design the greatest South African sports car ever, who better to hire than Zagato!? Price contacted Casarini and the timing couldn’t have been better. Zagato was looking for a new project. Of course, Price made it clear that PPG couldn’t afford to pay full price. In 2003, as it is now, the South African Rand was not strong against the Euro. And so, fully aware they were not going to make any money off the small Perana project, Zagato set to work designing the Z-One. Price, Lazarus and Lindenberg got their affairs in order and traveled to Arese, Italy, to help craft the greatest South African sports car.
CORVETTE UNDERPINNINGS
Everyone was in agreement the Z-One should be tailored around the mechanicals of a Chevrolet Corvette C6 of the time. That meant using the all-aluminium LS3 6.2-litre V8, good for 325 kW. The group met with Zagato’s chief designer, Norihiko Harada. Within just five days (presumably all the South African Rands could afford) Harada came up with a design for the Z-One. It was a distinctive, head-turning GT sports car, with a pronounced bonnet and svelte coupe silhouette. It was finished off with a squat, wide and muscly rear end. The chassis itself was designed and built in Port Elizabeth at Hi-Tech by Price. Moreover, the complete car, hefty V8 and all, weighed just 1 195 kg. It was light, fast and nimble: zero to 100 km/h in less than 4.0 seconds and a top speed of 300 km/h.
At the time, the PPG consortium foisted big money into the project. And the first development cars were built for testing. Just 18-months later, the Perana Z-One concept car was loaded onto an airplane and airfreighted to Switzerland for its world debut at the Geneva Motor Show in 2009. Peter Lindenberg recounts his experience manning the stand at the motor show. “Everyone thought we were just a bunch of clowns from South Africa. But after we uncovered the car for the first time, there was total bedlam. Media swarmed the stand, and top brass from the likes of Bentley, Lamborghini, Maserati, Porsche and Ferrari all wanted to get close to the car. The sentiment was utter disbelief,” explains Lindenberg.
GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS
Perana planned to build 999 cars (Zagato also had a fixation with the number 9, normally limiting production runs to 99 or 999). The retail price was pegged at $70 000 or roughly R1.9 million in today’s money. Unfortunately, the circumstances surrounding the greatest South African sports car couldn’t have been worse. The worldwide recession of 2009 put the skids on the project and demand for nice-to-have, limited-run, coach-built sports cars dried up. Price built just eight Z-Ones in the end, before the project was abandoned. However, British firm, AC Cars, came to the rescue. It bought up everything and rebranding the car an AC 378 GT Zagato (as pictured). Even then, only 15 more vehicles were produced by Price.
The history books – for now – might consider the Perana Z-One a failure. That’s just the way it goes with passion projects sometimes. But had the car been conceived a few years earlier at the height of niche sports cars boom, who knows … Perhaps the greatest South Africa sports car would have been one we all know about and revere. Nevertheless, to this day, it remains the only sports car fully conceived, engineered and built in South Africa that graced an international motor show. And we reckon that’s something to be mighty proud of.
THE FIGURES
- Perana Z-One/AC 378 GT Zagato
- Engine: 6 198 cc V8 petrol
- Power: 325 kW @ 4 000 rpm, 583 Nm @ 1 750 rpm
- Performance: 0-100km/h 3.9 sec (claimed), top speed 300 km/h
- Transmission: 6-speed manual, rear-wheel drive
- Price: Last sold at auction for R2 450 000 (in 2017)
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THIS RARE SPORTS CAR?
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