FOUR locals have signed up to take part in their first South Australian (SA) Variety Bash from August 13 – 20 under the team banner “Beauty and the Beast” (BNB), where they will drive at least four thousand kilometres while fundraising for children who are sick, disadvantaged or live with special needs.

The driving team from Hamilton consists of Phil Rentsch, Andrew Schulz, Darren Schurmann and Chris Glisson, who will take turns driving a 1992 Ford Fairlane Ghia.

The Bash, as it is affectionately known, is a whacky madcap event for friends or ‘Bashers’ to form a crew and get to know each other really well over eight days driving across spectacular parts of Australia and sleeping under the stars in swags.

A minimum donation of a tax deductible $9000 is to be fundraised per car, in order to be eligible to enter the event.

“We were mostly able to raise money from people around the area who sponsored us,” Mr Schurmann said.

Vehicles must be a minimum age of 25-years-old and in standard condition, however, drivers and crews are usually anything but - with Bashers required to follow only one major rule - don’t take it seriously and have fun.

“The car is the beauty and the rest of us are the beast,” Mr Schulz said.

“We bought the car locally and it wasn’t running and so we towed it home,” Mr Rentsch said.

“Chris started working on it and started replacing mechanical things that needed replacing and added a bull bar, put on bigger wheels and heavier suspension.”

Mr Rentsch said he and his wife Michelle took the car to Adelaide to be approved by SA Variety and get the vehicle checked over.

“But we used a quarter of a tank of fuel by the time we got to Cherry Pool,” he said.

They eventually limped into Adelaide where they were able to make the mechanical repairs to get the vehicle approved and are now looking forward to the August event.

The Variety Bash has barely changed since the original concept was created by entrepreneur Dick Smith in 1985 when he took a group of friends on a drive he called ‘The Bourke to Burketown Bash’.

It is not a race or rally, and the route and destination changes every year, and has raised over $48 million over the past 33 years.

This year’s Bash will begin in Adelaide, with several stops along the route including at Roxby Downs, Ceduna, Whyalla, and will eventually finish in Tanunda.

“The organisers don’t actually tell us what route we will be taking,” Mr Rentsch said.

“There is a bit of orienteering involved – you have to find your way through the back roads and that’s all part of the fun.

“There is a fair bit of bush bashing – through rough back roads and sandy tracks and as there’s been a bit of rain, they’ll be boggy too.”

The Variety Bash has its own team of paramedics and provides mobile workshops to assist teams repair their bash car on the side of the road, with the aim of getting vehicles moving again and across the finish line.

“There’s a crew on standby to help if you run into any trouble,” Mr Rentsch said.

All cars are tracked each day throughout the event by officials, who maintain contact with the teams via HF radio and satellite phone with a central command post.

When asked how he would manage in a swag for eight nights, Mr Rentsch said that there will be a couple of nights where they will stay in a cabin in Ceduna to break it up.

If anyone would like to make a donation, they can do so via the SA Variety Bash website and reference Car BNB.