Quote:
Originally posted by G-Man
The G has never done well in racing to my knowledge.
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Brent,
the G used to be great in off-road rallies. Jacky Ickx won the Dakar with a 280GE in 1984. But it has only been downhill since and Mercedes has refused to do anything about it. Nowadays the G is so obsolete, that I am not even aware of any G having finished a Dakar in the last decade. I mean not even winning, but the Gs can not even simply start, drive through the desert for 2 to 3 weeks and arrive at Dakar without some serious break downs.
The G400 you may have read about on my website, who tried to keep up last year, was unable to drive in deep sand in low gear since it overheated immediately. Eventually a wheel broke off and it retired.
The Dakar 2003 will have an $800,000 BMW X5 diesel prototype and probably beat anybody. And in 2004 Volkswagen will enter the off-road racing scene, starting with the Dakar. It seems Mercedes Gs are just giving up.
What counts is a FIA off-road world cup title. These events with picture taking at your favorite hole, or the Rubicon with Generals a la Harold Pietschmann... sorry, I don't take that stuff seriously any longer. One can always build another vehicle which is better suited to that particular hole... Or walk across it, that's even faster... and it saves you a lot of bucks.
Wolfgang
http://www.whnet.com/4x4/pix/rolled.jpg
http://www.whnet.com/4x4/pix/rolled_2.jpg