Loose wheel bolts and wrecked show cars at Assen auto event

Thousands of car enthusiasts from all over the country gathered for the Hart voor Auto’s event in Assen on Sunday 26 March. However, the day took a nasty turn when several show cars were wrecked and wheel bolts were even loosened.

In an interview with Autovisie, Ronald van den Broek, owner of the umbrella organization 402 Automotive, reports that the first damage reports were received in the late afternoon. “The police were soon there to record reports,” says van den Broek.

Loose wheel bolts at the Hart voor Auto event

Although it’s mostly scratched paintwork and windows (which isn’t possible on this Mercedes), there have been victims who claim that sugar – there’s even talk of water online – was poured into fuel tanks. You wonder how this could have gone unnoticed.

Unfortunately it goes further. “The wheel bolts were loosened on one of our cars and on some visitor cars,” says Van den Broek. This offense is therefore more serious than just vandalism. We don’t need to explain how dangerous it is to take to the road with loose wheel bolts. Something went wrong in the United States recently when the front wheel of a pickup truck broke off.

Witnessed and recorded the most insane car accident yesterday, you can see the autopilot also dodge and dodge the rouge tire for me $TSLA pic.twitter.com/csMh2nbRNX

— Anoop (@Anoop_Khatra) March 25, 2023

Various media speak of hundreds of damaged cars. However, van den Broek points out that there are probably only dozens of cases. Contrary to what has been written in various media, who is responsible for the destruction is not yet known. “There was another incident with the police, but that’s separate from that,” says the organizer of the Heart for Cars event.

Dashcam footage

“We don’t know yet whether there are multiple perpetrators or a single madman,” says Van den Broek. The organization does not feel responsible for the destruction. “There were about 2,500 cars, which makes it almost impossible to keep an eye on them all the time.” Van den Broek also emphasizes that there has never been such a demolition tour.

However, the organization of the Heart for Cars event will take measures to prevent this from happening in the future. It also examines dashcam images to catch the person(s) behind the destruction. “At the moment, however, we have no idea how this could have happened.”