News / 3 November 2022 / Albert du Toit

South African motor racing legend auctioning off custom race cars – Details

South African motor racing legend Alan Green has announced his retirement by virtue of an auction for four of his bespoke race cars.

The auction will take place at Creative Rides in Johannesburg, Gauteng on 3 December at 11h00 and will be a hybrid live and online event.

Among the custom race cars that will be going under the hammer on the Saturday are:

1972 Ford Escort Mk1
Alfa Romeo 2000GTV
1,000 horsepower twin-turbo TVR
Track-ready Datsun built by Mike Leonardt

The public can view the vehicles on site between Wednesday, November 30^th, and Friday, December 2^ndas well as online.

The story of Fat Sheila

According to Green, he was always an enthusiast from the very start but his racing career only gained momentum in his late 40s when he competed in the Porsche Challenge.

Through the industry, Green quickly found out that he could import TVRs into the country for around R200,000 at the time and put his name on the list for two, one for him and one for his business partner.

The vehicles landed and Green’s was the slower one, causing him to instruct his mechanic to bolt on not one, but two turbos.

“Needless to say, the turbos were fitted and this car turned into an animal. I also took the tyres off a Shelby – big tyres – and from then on we called the car Fat Sheila,” said Green.

“It wasn’t very popular in the Porsche Club, because it was fast and it was embarrassing if you had a million-rand car you were racing and a TVR was quicker than you.”

Green then moved on to racing Shelbys and eventually took home the trophy for the 2001 Over-50s championship, and a year later took part in the Cape Town Mustang racing scene.

Along came Carol shortly thereafter, a 1972 Ford Escort Mk1 that was overhauled by Green and his team to put out 142kW, and it was equipped with a bespoke suspension system and “really big brakes” allowing the race car to brake much later into corners than most other vehicles.

“Today, just the parts to build an engine like that would cost R250,000,” he said.

Following this, Green had a brief stint in a custom-built Datsun and then got into his final race car, an Alfa Romeo 2000GTV.

“It was a replica of the GTA raced by Basil van Rooyen, but by the time it’d gone through a couple of owners and arrived with me, the car needed more than R250,000’s worth of new parts to turn it into a fierce contender,” he said.

On 3 December, all four of these iconic vehicles will be sold and before the end of 2022, Green plans to thin out his collection even further with another round of auctions of a 1962 Austin Healy 3000S BN7, 1963 MGA Twin Cam Le Mans Roadster, 1967 Sunbeam Tiger V8, and 1969 Alfa Spider Round Back.