28 Nov 06
The 36 cars consumed 40,530 litres of diesel; the 18 rear-wheel-drive cars averaged 34.9mpg; the 18 4Matics (not sold in the UK) averaged 33.1mpg. Not bad, especially bearing in mind that these cars had full boots and at least two people on board. They also wore winter tyres, and suspension raised by 5cm, neither of which would have improved their frugality. The most economical car over the whole 8,500-mile trip averaged 39.3mpg; the best daily average was 51.4. In the interests of science 4Car found that if you floored it for dozens of miles on end you could get it below 25, but not much below.
After the trip, Dr Zetsche said of the E320s: 'They proved that driving enjoyment, great fuel economy and environmental compatibility are not mutually exclusive.' And jokily referring to the 40,000-euro fare clocked up by the E-Class that did the trip in full Parisian taxi garb, Dr Z said: 'We have proved two things. The E-Class is the perfect vehicle to take on such a trip. And it wouldn't make sense to take a taxi.'
The E-Classes all made it the whole way in one piece, through snow, ice, desert and sometimes unpaved roads, covering an average daily driving distance of about 350 miles. There were no serious accidents, and only five minor shunts in traffic.
Time for another list: the 360 drivers and 40 support crew between them occupied 5,000 hotel rooms, generally the right ones. They ate breakfast and dinner in hotels, but in between times they also consumed (or gave away to local kids) 8,200 sandwiches, 5,300 bananas, 4,000 chocolate bars and 9,600 bottles of mineral water. Aside from the odd quivery tummy, there were no health problems, and that's despite the tobogganing, the dune buggy racing, the wheezing up the Great Wall and - in some cases - drinking like there's no tomorrow. The two doctors who accompanied the whole trip had plenty of time to buff their stethoscopes.
So, is that it? A big, expensive, successful one-off? Many people who took part hope not - again and again, you heard people say that they wished they'd found a way to do more than one leg. Merc's global communications chief, Johannes Reifenrath, teased participants by saying at the final handover: 'We will have another drive from Paris to Beijing next year - from Paris, Texas, to Peking, Illinois.' That's only about 1,500 miles, and you'd struggle to justify spending more than two days doing it. Unless you took the long route, of course...
