Kapp to Cape Motor Challenge 2030

HERO-ERA have been developing their own Super Endurance Nord Kapp to the Cape of Good Hope 2030 (Kapp to Cape Motor Challenge) for the last 18 months. As a result, they salute the efforts of Fiat, Quattroruote and the leadership of H.R.H. Amedeo of Savoy, the Duke of Aosta, on the 60th anniversary of the Fiat 124 which was central to their triumphant 40,000 km ‘Raid of the Two Capes’ in 1970.

Reviving that dogged pioneering spirit of the 1970 ‘Raid of the Two Capes’ in Fiats, HERO-ERA’s 2030 Kapp to Cape Motor Challenge will create its own legacy as a mix of Odyssey, Adventure, Expedition and Competition as the five leg Motor Challenge plans to take up to 60 crews from Norway to South Africa in 50 days.

Even though the Kapp to Cape Motor Challenge 2030 is still under development, the spirit of adventure it evokes has resulted in 27 crews already registering their interest on the event page of the HERO-ERA website.

The Kapp to Cape Motor Challenge 2030 sits alongside the Peking to Paris Motor Challenge as a flagship super endurance event for HERO-ERA. The P2P is often referred to as the ‘Last Great Motoring Adventure’ as it takes competitors halfway around the world in historic cars.

The unprecedented Fiat-organised drive from Cape Point, South Africa to North Cape, Norway was achieved in three lightly modified Fiat 124s despite the death of a team member in a diving accident in Trieste. The five remaining team members completed the raid in honour of their colleague reaching Kapp Nord in Norway under the midnight sun on the 14th August 1970. The one remaining Fiat 124 Special has gone on display in the Fiat Heritage Hub in Turin as the centrepiece of the exhibition celebrating the 124’s 60th anniversary. Alongside sits the Fiat 124 Sport Spider, a version of which forms part of HERO-ERA’s Arrive Drive fleet, driven to a sixth place overall finish on the RAC Rally of the Tests by HERO-ERA Chairman Tomas de Vargas Machuca.

Tomas, the inspiration and driving force behind Kapp to Cape 2030 confirmed that the Turin based Museum has endorsed the super endurance rally, as he affirmed that the event will run in the spirit of the original; “As HERO-ERA we are custodians of authentic endurance motoring adventures. In organising such events, we pay tribute to the extraordinary achievements of those who took part, and inspire those who haven’t yet. We are all so excited by the interest the K2C has generated so far and the support we are being offered in order todeliver this additional endurance motoring adventure. I will also be reaching out to the families of those who took part in 1970 to better capture the spirit and essence of their success sixty years later.”

Unlike the 1970 original which ran from the Cape of Good Hope in Cape Town to the North Cape in Norway, the 2023 Kapp to Cape will run in the opposite direction from north to south, starting in the Land of the Midnight Sun, Norway.

Currently running in five legs, the K2C Odyssey will take up to 60 crews through; Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, France, UK, Spain, Morocco, Mauritania, Senegal, Namibia, Botswana and South Africa.

HERO-ERA will be utilising all its vast international organisational experience by using the best routes and knowledge from their Sahara Challenges and Classic Safaris in Africa to ensure the expedition/adventure is in line with the best of their super endurance rallies. This includes employing the most experienced Route Coordinators, a specialist for each of the geographic legs.

The current five legs in development are North Cape and Western Europe from Norway down into France then the UK to take a ferry to Spain. Then Spain and Portugal (Lisbon) again using invaluable experience from the London Lisbon rally.

Leg three from Lisbon to Morocco, Mauritania and Dakar (Senegal), will garner all the Sahara Challenge (past editions) knowledge plus the upcoming Sahara Challenge in 2027. Leg four will run from Dakar to Namibia by sea, then Namibia to Cape Town for the final leg, adapting lessons from Classic Safaris, and in particular the 2027 African route.

HERO-ERA experts are continuing their work to construct the event, but should be in a position to fully launch the Kapp to Cape Motor Challenge in the first quarter of 2027. For now, any potential entrants are invited to go to the Kapp to Cape Motor Challenge page of the HERO-ERA website which can be reached via the link below. They are urged to register their interest along with the 27 other crews already fascinated by the potential of this huge super endurance rally set for September 2030.