Kaizer Chiefs defender Philani Zulu watched as the custom-built Kentucky Rounder arrived at Naturena for the iconic reveal of a car built to represent everything Amakhosi as part of Vodacom’s Sisonke Siya Winna campaign. And he knew immediately that he would never be able to look at another Kentucky Rounder ever again.
“It feels like every other Kentucky Rounder ever produced should’ve looked exactly like this one,” he said as he joined other leading players and club officials for the exclusive reveal of the finished product.
It was the end of a journey that began several months ago with Vodacom’s brief to the LA Customs workshop in Paarl to search the countryside for the perfect Toyota Twincam GLi Sprinter that could be completely rebuilt in the iconic colours and style of Kaizer Chiefs and which would eventually be won by one of their lucky fans.
May 4, 2021 - 01:35 pm By Kick Off
As he sits down on an orange couch in his workshop in Paarl with a sigh of relief, Gino Lange of LA Customs cannot believe what he’s been a part of over the past four months of his involvement with Vodacom’s Sisonke Siya Winna campaign.
“I think we have achieved what we wanted. It’s been so rewarding to get both of these cars to this point,” he says of a project that has been a ground-breaking one for South African football.
On the workshop floor below him stand the two vehicles that are a monument to hundreds of hours of hard work and sweat, a bit of stress and frustration, and now finally a lot of relief and satisfaction. The Orlando Pirates-styled Gusheshe and the Kaizer Chiefs-themed Kentucky Rounder are now both finished.
If you want to know what it feels like to sit in an icon of a car, you ask another icon.And in the case of Vodacom’s Sisonke Siya Winna Kentucky Rounder rebuild project, the icon to ask is none other than Spinach, the other half of the dynamic duo of
When it comes to creating an iconic car for an iconic football club such as Orlando Pirates, the one question you don't need to ask is the paint job's colour.
"Black," says Gino Lange, the owner of LA Customs in Paarl, as he looks at the Gusheshe in his workshop that he's currently rebuilding for Vodacom's Sisonke Siya Winna campaign.
He continues: "With Orlando Pirates and a Gusheshe, there's only one choice. It's black on black on black. Usually, there's a bit of back and forth with the client regarding colour choice. But not in this case. It's just black because that is very Orlando Pirates."