The Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas is a 5,513 km test of driving expertise. Most turns bank to the left, exerting excessive amounts of G-force on the driver. “Don’t brake too late,” the motoring journalist mutters to himself as he reaches the apex of what the vehicle allows going down the straight. His face contorts as his concentration is centred on the turn ahead.
“Driving is a very primal thing,” says motoring journalist Gerhard Horn. This is definitely not your average day job!
During his student days, his face was as synonymous with Lovers’ Lane as the oak and wattle trees that adorn the beloved pathway on the NWU’s campus in Potchefstroom. From the mid to late 2000s, Gerhard would sit with his colleagues outside the offices of the Wapad student paper, discussing all that was topical and all that was not. A layout artist, a journalist, a deputy editor, a biting columnist, a reviewer: all those hats he would wear in a tenure that saw him work under editors such as Daniella van Heerden (née du Plooy), Corli de Kock, Ewoudt Cloete and Maggie Marx.
“Sho, the Wapad days. I think that taught me more about being a journalist than anything else. That is where I met lifelong friends. The Wapad taught me the fundamentals of journalism, which is something I think has been lost in the age of social media.” That is why he is unequivocal in his advice to aspiring journalists: “Read, read, read, read as much as you can. It feels as if there is this campaign against intellectualism, which is wrong.”
A BA degree in Communication, an extensive group of like-minded friends, and courting Febé-Marié, his future wife and the mother of sons Abel and Albert, were all features of days that were long and joyous, arduous and fulfilling.
There was, however, another passion that was increasingly coming to the fore. It nudged him forward and pulled his creative strings. It was what he read and what he watched. The budding writer from Rustenburg had the vocation of being a motoring journalist in his sights.
At his grandfather’s pet shop, a young Gerhard would page through old copies of Car Magazine, and when the writing became as enticing as the corresponding pictures, he was hooked. “I spent a lot of time at that pet shop,” he fondly remembers, and continues: “My dad was an engineer, and when I was 15, he bought me a Volkswagen Beetle, which we rebuilt from the ground up. Chassis, suspension, interior. He taught me how an internal combustion engine works.”
Gerhard developed a style of writing rife with evocative imagery, delightful comparisons and wit. He liaised with some of the leading motoring journalists of the time, such as Jaco Kirsten and that doyen of South African motoring journalists, Egmont Sippel.
As his career took off after varsity, his byline in various publications became increasingly regular and his face on television channels such as kykNET more prominent. For some this would have been enough. For some, once the pudding has been tasted, the appetite ceases. Gerhard’s increased. It became insatiable.
At Leisure Wheels he found a home, and on the racetracks around the world he found an office.
“I’ll never forget the rush when I was given a car to test drive for a week for the first time. Mine was a Chev Cruise. The first night I took everybody out for ice-cream in it.”
His career quickly shifted gears and soon he was traversing the globe behind the dream wheels of numerous boys (from 8 to 80).
“I’ve driven a number of supercars on international tracks,” he says, recalling the famous Laguna Seca racetrack in California with its legendary corkscrew turn. Locally, driving a Ferrari 458 on Kyalami was an unforgettable experience.
“If I have to choose highlights so far, one was when I received driving lessons from (former Formula 1 ace) David Coulthard at the Red Bull Ring in Austria, and another is every time I get to go to the Namib desert to drive over the dunes.”
From the reaches of the Far East to the sun-baked shores of the American West, rubber has been burnt on many a continent and in countries too many to recall. “I do spend a lot of time at airports, which can be annoying, but hey, somebody pays me to play with cars every month, which makes me feel that I haven’t really worked during the past decade,” he quips. “I get paid to play.”
And then, on a more serious note: “I’ve been doing this since I left university, and it is all I’ve ever known. Familywise, my wife knew what I wanted to do and this is what we know. I am grateful that Febé and my sons allow me to do this. It is always the most wonderful feeling when I return home to them. I hope my legacy is more than just having been a good motor journalist. I hope it is having been a good dad too. I have this fantasy that, one day when they put me in the ground, they’ll say that this oke lived a good life,” he says in his characteristic measured manner.
“My dad died when he was 53 and he had never left this country. He once told me that I should never forget how privileged I am, because now, at the age of 35, I’ve seen more than most people in two lifetimes. I want my sons to remember to live a full life. I firmly believe that we are not here for a long time, but we are here for a good time.”
The jargon of the motoring enthusiast is filled with terms that can sound as foreign as a Martian’s tongue, but, Gerhard explains, you need not understand the language to enjoy the opera.
“No, I don’t think you have to be a mechanical or technical fundi, because there are so many aspects of a car that you can appreciate, like its design, its comfort ... a car is an emotional thing. It is not a fridge – there is always some kind of emotion involved. You form a bond with a car, and you don’t have to know how it works to appreciate it. If you are going to write about cars this certainly helps.”
The cars he loves abound, and he would rather drive a Lamborghini – his “unicorn” – in his imagination than sully his expectations: “I think it is prettier to look at than to drive.” In the end, when the lights fade to black, it is an Alfa Giulia QV he will hear spur to life, and together they will depart, thinking of the pet shop where it all started, saying “Ah, what a ride”.
Former F1 star David Coulthard with Gerhard.
