This is a rollicking good read. Written by the late Innes Ireland, who used to write for Road and Track, and was a F1 driver who raced against Moss and Clark and won, I believe, two races driving second tier Lotuses mostly for Rob Walker.

In this story which takes place in late '68 he along with two other merry pranksters enter the London to Sidney Road Race/ RAlley which lasted about two weeks and was over 10,000 miles of roads which varied from decent paved european roads to rough and rocky roads in Iraq, afganistan, India and finally in the Australian outback. They also encounter dogs, cats, horses, cows (both sacred and milk) and camels on the roads. Along with tottering men on bikes, weaving lorries and old men building fires in the center of the road (in India). The schedule didn't really allow for sleep, so they had a bed in the car and rotated the three guys. The only way to sleep in a bed was to get ahead of schedule and stop in a Hotel for a bath and some sleep for a few hours.

Their choice of car was a 115 Saloon car a MB 280SE sedan equipped with hd springs, shocks and 15" wheels which was prepped by the factory with extra reinforcing at the suspension points, various skid plates, padded brake lines and low compression pistons. This they loaded with a huge amount of spares including starter and alternator and various stuff ( I could have told them not to bother with a starter!) including three jerry cans and three extra spare wheels. The load was distributed in the car and on the roof and a Roo bar was fitted to the front end to protect it form animals. Also they had about six extra lights and a yellow flashing light and siren to get through the traffic on public roads which were not closed! With the entire load the rear of the car sat bout three inches lower than the front.

They could run comfortably all day (they said) at 6500 RPM which was about 115 mph except the Dunlop tires would chunk and they had to slow down to about 105 to 110 ( no kidding).

The car was totally reliable and they were the first private entry to reach Bombay.

IN Australia they had a problem with the radiator due to the weight and vibration of the roo bar which loostened the radiator and it got back into the fan which allowed the engine to get too hot and blew a head gasket. (sound familiar?)

This put them out of contention for the win and they were disqualified due to the length of time it took for the repair.

But the benz was totally reliable and didn't rattle or squeek after 10,000 miles of racing speeds over some really horrible roads.

A must read for old benz fans.

Tom W

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.