NC Province set to shake, rattle and rumble when Nuts & Bolts Rally gets send-off in City

NUTS & Bolts will be hosting their first Northern Cape Rally this year, and it starts right here in Kimberley. The rally has been running successfully from 2013 in the Western Cape with the event starting with a modest 14 cars.

The Nuts & Bolts Rally is a challenge where drivers travel across some of South Africa’s most arduous and unthinkable roads in a cheap and old jalopy. All in the name of fun whilst supporting a charity at the same time.

The rally will be departing from the Big Hole tomorrow at 8am. The route, however, remains a secret, which is part of the fun, and participants will receive a new route map every morning.

The only part of the route that is not a secret is Verneukpan, 391km from Kimberley as the crow flies, where the participants will probably try to break the land speed record in their jalopies, and according to organisers, tonguein-cheek, it’s here that they can besure of setting the slowest land speed record.

Earlier this year drivers took part in the Garden Route Rally, which was held in March covering the Baviaanskloof, Hel and Knysna area where 30 cars were entered. This week is the Northern Cape Rally and at the end of August it is the West Coast Rally. September will be the Tip of Africa Rally and in October they will be finishing off the year by going up to Vosburg.

The CEO and founder of the Nuts & Bolts, Pieter Andersen, is extremely excited about the Northern Cape leg as Kimberley is his home town. Anderson attended Newton Primary School and completed his matric at Adamantia High. He then went on to study in Bloemfontein.

During the year Nuts & Bolts have small fun events to keep the cars going. In 2017 there was a car funeral in the Tankwa Karoo, where a Peugeot 504 was buried. This year, in May, there was supposed to be a 24-hour race that was called 24-hour Jou Ma, but the time was changed to 240 minutes and the competitors did 10km-long laps and then completed challenges like eating donuts off a string, finding a nut in flour(using only their face) or popping a balloon between co-drivers.

To be eligible for the rally the rally cars must be pre-1985 and must be as cheap as possible. They travel a route on gravel roads, then camp every night. The whole idea is to illustrate how cancer sufferers face daily trials on the long and difficult journey towards recovery.

Nuts & Bolts started to raise awareness of testicular and prostate cancer, but found other charities along the way that they now help as well.

For more information you can visit the rally’s website at nutsandboltsrally.co.za for more information.