Timeless elegance meets modern speed at Cape Town’s exciting Speed Classic hillclimb

It’s rare for a motor-racing event to feature a car that has never been raced before. Rarer still when that car is almost 100 years old and one of fewer than 400 left in the world.

At the inaugural Speed Classic Cape Town hillclimb this October, spectators will witness a 1930 4.5L Bentley race for the first time on the 1.8km course up Philip Kgosana Drive.

Speed Classic Cape Town makes its debut on 25 and 26 October 2025, bringing nearly 150 show-stopping cars to the base of Table Mountain. The action begins with the Classic Car race, a celebration of timeless motoring elegance, and the day Harry Tayler’s Bentley will take to the hill.

The following day, the spotlight shifts to raw speed with the King of the Mountain showdown, where modern supercars and high-performance machines battle for supremacy.

Race the car

Behind the wheel of the Bentley will be owner Tayler, who believes cars built for racing should do exactly that. 

“It’s a race car, so it needs to be raced. I thought, let’s just send it up the hill and see how it does,” he said.

This Bentley is among some of the rarest classics in the world. Of the 720 built between 1927 and 1931, fewer than 400 are believed to still exist. Its pedigree is also unquestionable, with an earlier model winning the 1928 24-hour Le Mans, proving it was built to race.

The Bentley Harry will pilot is in pristine condition after a 21-month restoration in the UK.

“It was built at the Bentley Works in Cripplewood in the United Kingdom,” Tayler said. “It’s an original car that has been fully restored. But it still has the original chassis, engine, drive train and as many parts as we could salvage from the original car.”

Although Harry has driven the Bentley in touring rallies, Speed Classic Cape Town will mark its first actual race. With the car returning to the UK in the coming months, the event offers a rare chance to put it to the test on Harry’s doorstep in the Mother City.

Harry is no stranger to speed, having competed in several V8 Masters seasons at Killarney Raceway for multiple years until 2020. But this will be his first hillclimb. 

“I don’t really have expectations,” he admits. “I’ll just give it horns and see what happens.”

While it is too old to contest the class title, Harry still expects his Bentley to put on a show.

“It’s quite a powerful engine. It’s a big heavy lumber of a car, but it’s got a reasonable amount of force, so it’ll be intriguing to see what it can do here. The indicator isn’t super accurate, so I estimate I’ve reached about 105mph (approximately 170km/h) before. But I think it’ll go faster if I have a longer approach, so I think the car’s top end speed is around 115 miles per hour (185km/h).”

In the lead-up to Speed Classic Cape Town, Harry has been familiarising himself with the twists and turns of the Philip Kgosana Drive racecourse. 

As the event’s oldest entry, and with so much work invested in its restoration, he knows better than anyone how vital it is to keep the Bentley on track.

“I’ll be very cross with myself if I do manage to stack (crash) it. But if everyone thought that, then no one would race anything, right?” he said.

“Ultimately, it is a race car — albeit one that was built almost 100 years ago — but it was built to be raced. So, I am only doing what it was designed to do.

“If it all goes wrong, it will be an expensive and possibly painful day at the races, but hopefully it won’t. I’ll try to keep it on the black stuff and just see what happens.” DM

Harry and nearly 150 other eye-catching cars will be in action at Speed Classic Cape Town on 25 and 26 October.

Traffic Closures

19-22 October between 7pm and 5am: Philip Kgosana Drive — Outbound.

23-26 October: Philip Kgosana Drive – Outbound and Inbound.

27 October: Philip Kgosana Drive – Outbound.

28-30 October between 7pm and 5am: Philip Kgosana Drive – Outbound.

More information on road closures and diversions can be found here.