Intermotormakers Caracal
Car of the Day #291: 1990 Intermotormakers Caracal – Endangered desert cat
Caracal is a fitting title for a South African sports car — it's another name for the desert lynx, a wild cat that prowls across some of the world's harshest terrain.
This roadster was styled by Nic de Waal, rally driver and future touring car driver, whose day job was as an industrial design engineer.
His boss, IMM founder and former architect Gerrie Steenkamp, signed off on the roadster and this refined-looking design was drawn up for production: stubby, nimble, mid-engined, and quick.
Whoops, I’m getting ahead of myself.
IMM Caracal Mk2 • via dyna.co.za, CAR December 1990
Did you know — and I did not for the longest time — that in the mid-1970s, a deal was struck to assemble Lotus and Lamborghini models in South Africa?
(tl;dr: Yes, car company executives will do almost anything to avoid paying import taxes.)
Intermotormakers, or IMM for short, had set up production facilities in South Africa in order to not only make some profit assembling foreign sports cars (and, at the same time, to learn about how they're put together.)
The successful project means about two dozen Lotus and two dozen Lamborghinis are out there in the world with South African VINs, and as far as I’ve read, some Lamborghini customers preferred the cars assembled outside of Italy.
The arrangement ended when laws changed to remove the operation’s exemption on producing non-local products. IMM had also been involved in discussions to purchase Lamborghini, with a deal struck down in the last minute — or so it’s said — because the entire operation would have moved to South Africa, an unacceptable outcome for the Italians.
To this day, South African-built Lamborghinis (Countach, Urraco, and Espada) remain the only models ever produced outside of Italy.
IMM also made the Lotus Esprit, Elite, and Eclat…if you're into rarity, try finding a South African Eclat!
The final surviving Caracal at the Franschhoek Motor Museum • via mx5world.com, Obscure Supercar of the Day on X (x.com)
This sports car assembly operation and international boardroom bartering left IMM with plenty of newfound automotive industry expertise but no product to make — but as the tale goes, IMM founder Steenkamp and his investors had originally set up the operation to produce locally-made vehicles.
By 1990, they were ready to show it: the mid-engined, designed in South Africa Caracal sports car.
Components were quickly acquired from Volkswagen — thanks to de Waal's success rallying a Volkswagen Golf, which got the attention and sign-off from bosses in Germany. The result is sort of like a South African version of a Treser TR1, no?
Notably, the entire front subframe from the Golf GTI was placed behind the front seats, with the rest of the car just as cleverly constructed.
A rigid tubular steel frame is used for the rest of the Caracal, with special steering links and various Volkswagen parts used where possible in order to keep costs down. Don't those Passat tail lights look ______ on a convertible?
