Meet #CarsAwards Judge Khutso Theledi
For the second year running YFM's Khutso Theledi has been a Cars.co.za Consumer Awards – Powered by WesBank, guest judge. What makes this passionate petrolhead tick? Let's find out!
Mpumalanga-born and bred Khutso Theledi was snapped up by YFM in 2012 while she was still completing her studies in Radio and Sound Engineering at Boston Media House. She was a co-host and traffic presenter for the breakfast show, "Flava In The Morning" with Mo Flava (2012-2014), and went on to co-host on Drive Time “The Freeway“ with Mo Flava (2014-2015). She stayed on Drive Time in 2015-2017 to co-host on “The Raw Rush” with Thulisa Kanzi while holding it down as the host of “Coupe De Grace” in 2015-2017. She hosts the R&B Hot 9 9 chart, and also steered your weekend afternoons on Charged up. Currently, however, she rides the airways during YFM's Krunch Time from 12:00 to 15:00 weekdays. We're sure her meteoric rise is nowhere near finished just yet…
In fact, Khutso is fast becoming one of South Africa’s most loved voices and media personalities and also happens to be a true petrolhead. She was the face and presenter for Kasi Car Culture & Celeb Rides and is also a qualified “spinning” lady. She spins cars for a hobby in the dusty streets of Midway, Soweto where they call her “Mary-Go-Round”. CNN Africa/Inside Africa produced a documentary feature on Khutso which took an inside look into her life and her hobby.
Khutso was a judge in the Fun and Performance Car categories of the CarsAwards, amongst others.
Where did your love for cars start?
My love for cars started back in primary school. When my dad passed away, he left behind what I didn’t then imagine would become my dream car and not only that, but a car that would literally spin my world around until this day… his red "Gusheshe", a BMW 325i Coupe! Dad’s Gusheshe taught me what performance meant before I could even understand the meaning or feeling of a high-performance car. We would get so much attention from people whistling and turned every head when we drove past. That car will forever have a special place in my heart.
What was your first car?
My first car was a BMW 118i 3-Door auto.
What is your favourite motoring memory?
See Khutso spin a Gusheshe in this Top Billing interview.
My favourite motoring memory has to be the first time I got to spin a Gusheshe and the moment everyone witnessed me doing a figure 8 in 2013. That moment would not have happened if it wasn't for Pule (Soweto Drift Aacademy) as well as the amazing professional qualified spinners who equipped me with all that I know today about this type of motorsport.
The spinning journey all started with a phonecall from Pule, who called into the breakfast show I was co-hosting at that time with Mo-Flava on YFM. Pule asked Mo-Flava to come try out spinning, he said yes, and I wasn’t included in the conversation live on air, but I jumped at the opportunity and invited myself to try spinning as well. I walked onto a spinning ground for the first time, sat in the Gusheshe and started spinning and immediately felt like I was born to do it.
You have all the money in the world, what would be in your fantasy 2-car garage?
Khutso with one of her all-time fantasy cars, BMW's iconic 333i.
One of them, without any doubt, would be BMW’s iconic locally-developed (E30) 333i. The second is much tougher. As much as I would love to drive and own one of the world's most expensive cars (Lamborghini Veneno Roadster) I’d love to be realistic because these 2 babies should be in my garage before 2020… So the second car would be the 2018 Mercedes-AMG GT C Roadster.
Given your background in high-performance machinery, you are a judge in the Performance and Fun car categories of the #CarsAwards. What do you look for on the day of testing? What in your view makes a good Fun or Performance car?
Of course performance cars are built for speed and with speed, hopefully, comes great handling and braking systems. What I looked for on the day of testing was a car that hugged my body, and particularly direct and responsive steering. I like to feel "at one" with a car, especially sportier cars, so most importantly, I looked for a car that made it easy for me to "sync" with while having my adrenaline rush.
What is testing for #CarsAwards at Gerotek like?
Khutso returns from giving the VW Golf R, a finalist in the Performance Car category, a proper shakedown.
Firstly, I want to commend the Gerotek team who are a pleasure to be around with and learn from. They are motivated and always helpful… How do they do it in that heat!? What makes Gerotek so unique to me is my favorite test route, the "Dynamic Ride and Handling" track. I wish all South African roads could be as fun as this amazing route which we use to assess the dynamic abilities of the cars. But Gerotek has it all, and it allows us to evaluate every facet of the finalist cars.
You can follow Khutso on Twitter here.
