In September of 1987 Toyota South-Africa set out to thrash several endurance records at the Gerotek testing circuit. Four vehicles participated, two 1300 Conquests and two of the legendary 1600 RSI’s, of course. The Mission: To determine what distance can be covered in 72 hours while driving like a bat-out-of-hell and to break as many records as possible while doing it. During the 72 hours the cars could only stop for petrol, tyres and fresh drivers – all three preferably happening at the same stop.
So off they went blazing into the distance and after the first hour of the endurance, the first record was already shattered. A distance of 177 km was attained at an average speed of 179km/h by an RSI, beating the previous record, set by a VW Golf GTI, by 56km.
Everything went according to plan and after 48 hours a distance of 8559 km was achieved at an average speed of 179km/h beating the record set by a BMW 325iS Shadowline, set only two months earlier.
Then after three days of non-stop driving at top speed it all ended with all four vehicles finishing without any mechanical problems and smashing 33 South African records in the process. The leading RSI clocked an amazing 12899 km in 72 hours at a average speed of, wait for it …….179 km/h. Wow, talk about reliability and durability – damn!
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