Saturday belonged to the Nissan GT-R at the 2021 Simola Hillclimb.

The day started with three voluntary test runs, before the first three qualifying runs were held in the afternoon as the road up the Simola hill cooled down. This drop in temperature suited the turbo charged engines of the various GT-Rs and they continued to overpower the qualifying charts.

Three very distinct GT-Rs are currently dominating the Modified Saloon Car class.

The first is the beastly R35 GT-R of Franco Scribante. Scribante won the Classic Conqueror title on Friday in a 1972 Chevron B26, which meant that he started his practice runs on Saturday in his GT-R with a good working memory of the Simola hill road.

Scribante ran consistently in the low 40 second bracket, which would have been enough to win the race a few years ago, before hitting a snag in the first qualifying run with misaligned electronic settings.

He returned in the second qualifying round with the first sub-40 second run in the Modified Saloon class. He remained at the top of the charts for the day with that time of 39.581 seconds and is well positioned to defend his King of the Hill title on Sunday.

Running very close to Scribante was Wilhelm Baard, a three-time King of the Hill winner and the pilot of the monstrous R35 GT-R called Armageddon. Baard is a three-time King of the Hill winner, and he will give no quarter to Scribante in their fight for the top spot on the podium.

Baard started his campaign late and did not compete in the morning’s test runs. He opted to give his team time to tweak the fuel supply system on his highly modified GT-R. This meant that his first run was during the first Qualifying run of the day.

If there was any concern about Baard’s car or his intention to win, it surely did not show up in his times. He quickly dropped down to 41.1 seconds in his second qualifying run, which incidentally is faster than the time of 42.444 seconds with which he won the 2011 King of the Hill title in a GT-R.

The third GT-R is piloted by Wade van Zummeren. Van Zummeren usually sends all the pit crews running for their ear protection as his rear-wheel drive R34 GT-R screams so loudly that it echoes off the nearby houses.

Van Zummeren dropped to 40.507 seconds up the 1.9 kilometre hill during the third qualifying round, positioning him well for the final qualifying rounds and class shootout on Sunday.

The Nissan GT-R remains the supercar with the most wins at the Simola Hillclimb. A version of the GT-R has won every Modified Saloon King of the Hill title every year since 2015 and it has won the Road and Supercar class since it was introduced. In total, the GT-R has 10 King of the Hill titles on its mantlepiece.

This year alone, 80% of the vehicles in the relevant class for Modified Saloons are Nissan GT-Rs and several other rear-wheel drive models compete in related classes.

“Perhaps the most telling statistic for us, is how the number of GT-R entries at the Simola Hillclimb has grown over the last decade.

“After its first win, its breadth of capabilities and ability to lay down its power through all four wheels have become well known and more and more competitors have started competing in the Nissan GT-R,” says Stefan Haasbroek, marketing director for Nissan South Africa.

Tomorrow, the GT-Rs will return for the final qualifying rounds, before competing in the class finals and Top 10 King of the Hill shootout.

To follow the action, visit Nissan’s social media channels and watch the live stream on www.speedfestival.co.za.