Let me tell you a story. It involves obsession, determination, perseverance, and just a smidgen of borderline insanity. Intrigued? Well, you may recall a while back, in 2014 to be precise,
I decided that I simply had to have another Mercedes-Benz W126, after selling off my fourth 300SE. It’s a weird thing really, totally inexplicable and unwarranted, but you can read about part one of the search here, to refresh your memory…
In Part Two of this odyssey, I’d finally managed to snag one for a decent price after a year-long search, a fixxer-upper that was actually destined for the parts-bin, and chronicled its subsequent rehabilitation and restoration process, seeing as how it had languished unloved for the better part of more than a year. Part Three was getting the well-past-its-prime interior of the car sorted, having taken care of its mechanical, electrical and exterior paintwork first – in that order, always.
Now that was at the end of 2016. It’s amazing how time flies these days, because what normally comes right after everything is sorted, is a shakedown drive. I’d have to wait till the end of August this year for something worth considering to come along…
As some of you may know, I was at the helm of EVO Malaysia magazine for 7-years, a monthly publication which has since turned into an on-line portal and very popular social-media platform, piloted by a buddy of mine, Bobby Ang (above, centre). So here’s the story…
Earlier this year Bobby says to me one day, “let’s do a drive”, and I’m thinking Ulu Yam, Fraser’s Hill, Genting Highlands, etc. but his plan was far more nefarious than that. Bobby wanted to recreate something along the lines of a Mille-Miglia, a proper long-haul drive that would take a whole day and then some. And as was thus, the Evo Enduro was born; a drive from KL to Phuket, Thailand in one day…
Now under normal circumstances I would have balked at the idea and brushed it off as ‘Bobby being bonkers-Bobby again’ but something clicked. I knew the kind of cars that would be participating in this drive thanks to a detailed list of eligible entrants set forth by maestro Bobby himself, so how cool would it be if I drove something there and back which was so old, no one would expect it to even make it past Rawang in one piece?
It was also the fact that as ex-Editor of the mag, I simply could not let this go on without me. Honour was at stake. Plus it would be the most epic ‘shakedown’ drive any of my cars ever had. But seeing as how the car was already more than three-decades old (think about that for a bit), was it being foolhardy? It took a while to convince myself otherwise.
I’ve always propagated the importance of having your car in tip-top working condition all the time, with the belief that all things considered, cars are just a bunch of connected mechanical and electrical components sewn into a metal body to provide mobility, that’s it. There’s nothing spiritual, supernatural or other-worldly about them*. Keep them properly maintained and they’ll serve you well; be delinquent, lazy and lackadaisical in their upkeep, and they’ll break down; usually at the worst possible time and in the worst possible place too. It was time to see if this was accurate, or if I was about to be proven wrong in the worst possible way…
(*the caveat here is that this applies to older cars I’m afraid, ones with no computerization and minimal electronics; modern day cars have too many computers, and computers will always have bugs)
So the day of reckoning finally came, and despite promises to ‘take it easy’ during the drive (yeah, right), given the list of cars attending, past experience and not clairvoyance told me it would be anything but. Thus, with my trusty wing-man Albakry Salehuddin from Roda Pusing, we set-off 24-hours earlier than the rest, as a lead-scout, to report back anything untoward along the way to the Malaysia-Thailand border at Padang Besar.
Of course before any long drive – one doesn’t simply hop into a car, any car, and drive 1,000km+ one-way without a few mandatory checks, I made sure the ‘ol 280SE was in as proper order. A full check at my usual workshop revealed that not much needed to be done in preparation for this journey, and for better or worse, she was as ready as she’d ever be.
One thing I did do though, was to swap back the original 15-inch alloys in lieu of the 16-inch AMGs (above). I did this for two reasons; one, the Continental CC6 tyres on the AMGs were brand new, while the ones on the original 15s were nicely scrubbed in; and two, I was hoping for a bit better mileage per full tank on 15s and lesser rolling-resistance from the Merc, which comes from a time when the term ‘fuel-efficiency’ was still decades away. I was banking on the fact that the mostly-highway drive would ease the petrol-holic nature of this 2,800cc 6-cylinder engine, which seems to deplete its 80-litre gas tank shockingly fast, especially in stop-and-go traffic. Also, RON95 goes for about RM4 per litre in Thailand…
I was right. On the open highway, the ‘lazy-six’ as I like to refer to it as, just purred away at normal cruising speeds, and I was delighted to find that we were able to get to the border on just one tank of fuel. The tripmeter read 597km from the time I reset it while fueling-up before the drive, and the low-fuel warning light hadn’t even come on yet. Needless to say I was chuffed as heck.
With the mandatory insurance and documentation taken care of, crossing the border was quite effortless; the authorities didn’t seem to bother much for an old car like this going over, and didn’t even ask for a ‘visual’ inspection. I guess seeing ‘1983’ as the year of make on the registration card quashed any suspicions that I may be sneaking a new stolen car across…
I have to say, things took a distinct turn for the (even) better over on the Thailand side insofar as the drive was concerned. For starters the toll-free roads all the way to Phuket were so much better than the roads we have here, in terms of texture and surface. The old Merc felt a lot smoother traversing the roads over there and by the time we’d reached Trang and the more hilly and twisty bits of the drive, the W126 was on-song.
We stopped briefly in Trang for a photo op and what was supposed to be lunch, but we were well behind schedule, because the border crossing for the rest who’d arrived en-masse had taken much longer than anticipated. Buck and I decided to leave and push on after about a 30-min stop in Trang, not because we wanted to be first into Phuket, but because the convoy would be moving much faster after Trang, with most wanting to get to the hotel as fast as possible.
Unlike he and I who’d arrived at the border a day before and were well-rested for the next leg, the rest of the weary group had been driving from KL since 5am that same day. They’d all been driving for the better part of 12-hours straight, and we were still nowhere even near Phuket…
Leaving Trang and heading into the the hilly bits of the drive, the W126 was still just purring along, faultlessly. I began to wonder how long this would last, because in all honesty, I too had my doubts. At the back of my mind was the undeniable fact that the car I was driving on this quest was 34-years of age, but then it also dawned on me exactly what this car was made to do back in the days before the internet, email, cell phones and digital, well, everything.
The Mercedes-Benz W126 was created to chew-up vast open roads like interstate highways and the famed Autobahn with consummate ease. It was built to get people from one place to another in comfort and safety, while covering huge distances in the process. In short, on this drive this car was doing exactly what it was made to do.
Arriving at the Ramada hotel in Phuket close to midnight, I was thoroughly impressed with what Mercedes-Benz had achieved when they made this car. It was over-engineered at the beginning, it was made to last, and it has definitely aged very well. I still tell anyone who’ll listen to my ramblings that I think the W126 is one of the most perfectly-proportioned cars ever made, and from a time when cars were built to last a lifetime.
The rest of the weary, and weather-beaten Evo Enduro participants began to trickle in close to – and well after – midnight, tired but happy. They’d achieved something incredible by getting from KL to Phuket in 18-hours straight. An “ironbutt” endurance drive if there ever was one.
The next day saw us all – this time in close convoy – head to the Bangwad Dam in Phuket for a photoshoot of all the cars, and that’s where I got this shot above of the newest Merc meeting the oldest Merc on the drive.
The journey back the very next day – we only had one full day in Phuket – was again an effortless task for the car, it just seemed to relish the open road, and completed the 2,655km round-trip journey without a single complaint.
What made this trip so special was that I proved to myself, and everyone else – skeptics and believers alike, that there’s a lot of life left in old cars. Properly maintained and well taken care of, this one here made it all the way to Phuket and back with no issues whatsoever, whereas I heard later that two much newer cars built a couple of years ago didn’t even make it past the border…
Even before the end of this epic journey, we were already talking about Evo Enduro 2018, and if all goes well, the ‘ol gal and I will be hitting the road again next year. She’s actually ready to go tomorrow if she could, but I on the other hand, need a little rest first… – Chris Wee.
Acknowledgements: Many thanks to the following people – Bobby Ang of Evo Malaysia, Aaron Lee & TJ Jitsawart for the photos, Albakry Salehuddin for being my wingman and photographer, the Tourism Authority of Thailand for hosting us so graciously as usual.
Evo Enduro 2017 Photo Gallery…
(For the full photo gallery of Evo Enduro 2017, check out Evo Malaysia’s FB page here.)
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