The Car

The car is a long story (like everything else in our domain, and we love it!). This year’s steed is a Mercedes-Benz W202 C-Class. She is the ‘Esprit’ variation, with a 1.8l M111.920 (the 90kW version) engine with 4 cylinders and 16 valves; which generates 122bhp. That’s connected to a 5-speed manual gearbox, which drives 2670mm of solid beauty. Notice that I’m being fairly… technical, in the hope you stop reading now and don’t realise just how much character this car has.

Known as the “baby benz” or “pasqualina”, she’s been through quite a lot. Afer 14 years in the U.K. she drove to Morocco without any preparation other than an oil change as part of the Bamako Run 2010 (taking the place of the V6 Shogun 4×4 we had been preparing for a year). In southern Morocco, she was involved in a RTC with a 14T tipper truck. Held together by duct-tape, she drove back to London, took on two new doors and got ready for another road! This year, complete with 2 silver doors from a donor, we will reach Timbuktu!

The following pictures were taken during the Bamako Run 2010, before any decorations were put on the car… and about 18 hours after a lorry drove into the car!