Imagine spending weeks building a tiny car with no engine, no battery and absolutely no guarantee that it will stay upright only to climb into it and send itself flying down Sandton Drive.
That is exactly what two very different South African teams have signed up for.
Red Bull Box Cart Race returns to Johannesburg on Sunday, 4 October, and among the teams preparing for the madness are Noma Yini, a group inspired by township hustle, and Kwik Kwik Nawu Nawu, a team of final-year Mechanical Engineering students from the University of Cape Town.
They might be approaching the race from completely different worlds, but they have one thing in common: they are willing to build something ridiculous and see what happens when gravity takes over.
Noma Yini at Red Bull Box Cart 2018
Noma Yini’s name comes from the everyday hustle of township car guards people who are constantly moving, figuring things out and making a plan with whatever is available.
That idea became the team’s starting point.
“That spirit of hustle, creativity and resourcefulness is what our name represents,” the team told IOL.
“It speaks to our ability to make something out of nothing and work with whatever we have.”
And yes, they have done this before.But when asked why they keep coming back, the answer is surprisingly simple.
“Honestly, we do it because it’s fun,” they said.
There is also something personal about seeing themselves in a space they might not traditionally associate with.
“As Black South Africans, we don’t always see ourselves represented in spaces like this, and sometimes these experiences can feel unfamiliar,” the team said.
“We wanted to say, ‘Why not us?’ Why can’t we be here, have fun and create something crazy too?”
That attitude pretty much sums up what they are bringing to Sandton Drive.
Three words?
“Creative. Kasi. Unpredictable.”
So, if you see a cart coming down the hill with a healthy dose of township energy behind it, you will know who it is.
On the other side of the starting line are Kwik Kwik Nawu Nawu and they are not pretending they are here just for the vibes.
The team consists of final-year Mechanical Engineering students from UCT who decided that, before graduation sends them all in different directions, they should build one last completely unnecessary machine together.
“For most of us, this is probably one of the last times we’ll all be together before we graduate and go our separate ways,” they said.
“So we thought, why not build one last crazy project together?”
Their name is just as South African as their idea.
Kwik Kwik Nawu Nawu comes from the familiar “quick quick” and “now now” phrases South Africans throw around when promising they will be back soon.
For the students, it also fits the cart’s theme: a chaotic delivery vehicle trying to get one final package to its destination.
“The race is basically our final delivery, and we’re determined to make sure the package gets there,” they said.
And unlike Noma Yini, they are very clear about what they want from the day.
“First and foremost, we want to win.”
They are also confident about the performance they have planned for the top of the ramp.
“We’ve put a lot of thought into it, and we think we’re going to absolutely kill it.”
Red Bull Content Pool
The Box Cart Race is essentially a giant excuse to see what happens when people combine imagination, homemade engineering and a downhill road.
Teams build their own carts, perform a skit before the run and then send one driver down the course through jumps and obstacles.
Speed counts, but so do creativity and showmanship which means the team with the fastest cart is not necessarily the team people will remember.
And that is probably the fun of it.
Johannesburg has not hosted the race since 2018, while the most recent South African edition took place in Cape Town in 2022.
That race attracted more than 22,000 spectators to the Bo-Kaap, where homemade carts went tumbling, flying and rolling down the steep streets.
The reigning champions, Stellenbosch’s Potjie Boytjies, even won with a potjie pot on wheels.
Now the madness is heading to Sandton.
For Noma Yini, it is about bringing the kasi, the hustle and a bit of unpredictability. For Kwik Kwik Nawu Nawu, it is one last engineering project and, ideally, a winning one.
For everyone watching from the side of the road, it is probably best to find a good spot and see what survives the trip down.
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