The award-winning documentary follows children racing homemade wire cars through the Northern Cape town, with an equally inventive soundtrack built from wire, scrap metal and found materials.
Philipstown, South Africa (26 August 2026) – What started with homemade wire cars racing through the dusty streets of a small Northern Cape town has become an award-winning documentary. And now, even the sound of those unusual little cars has inspired music of its own.
Streaming globally on Prime Video, The Philipstown WireCar Grand Prix follows the annual race in the Karoo town, where children build their own cars from scrap metal before racing them for three kilometres.
But for the team behind the documentary’s soundtrack, the cars were more than something to film. They became the starting point for an entire musical world.
When Cape Town-based Pressure Cooker Studios was brought on to create the score, the team first listened closely to the sounds of the wire cars themselves. Their solution was wonderfully unconventional: they built eight instruments from wire, scrap metal and other found materials.
Among them was a recreation of a traditional San musical bow made from tin cans and wire, while another involved stretching wire across a large sheet of metal and playing it with a bow.
The result is deliberately raw and unpredictable. Much like the cars speeding through Philipstown.
Pressure Cooker Studios founder and CEO James Matthes, who served as music director on the project had this to say on the cars.
“They’re imperfect and unpredictable, just like the cars, and just like us.”
That idea of imperfection runs through the film itself.
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The filmmakers brought that imagination to life by combining GPS race tracking with a digital recreation of Philipstown, turning the children’s race into a CGI spectacle. Formula 1 commentator Alex Jacques even provides the commentary, giving the action the full Grand Prix treatment.
The music therefore had to sit somewhere between the dusty streets of the Karoo and the huge world these children imagine for themselves.
Muneyi, an award-winning musician from a small village outside Thohoyandou, provides the voice at the heart of the soundtrack, while South African Hip Hop Awards winner YoungstaCPT also features on one track. The unusual approach has clearly struck a chord.
The 75-minute documentary has picked up more than 20 awards, including a Webby and Tribeca X honours, while the campaign also collected 16 prizes at South Africa’s Bookmarks Awards. Pressure Cooker Studios’ score won Best Use of Sound at the Bookmarks and received further international recognition.
The Philipstown WireCar Grand Prix will return to the Northern Cape town on Saturday, 12 September 2026, but the story goes beyond race day.
The documentary forms part of the wider Philipstown WireCar Foundation initiative, which aims to create lasting opportunities for young people in the community.
Because sometimes all it takes is a bit of scrap metal, a wild imagination and someone willing to believe the dream is worth chasing.
Want to listen to the soundtrack, follow the link here.
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