Carrera Panamericana in a 230SL

[Peter van Es]

Dear all,

A good friend of mine - who admittedly is a little nutty and who has hobbies with cars that are probably not in line with most of the audience here - is participating in La Carrera Panamericana 2008 http://www.lacarrerapanamericana.com.mx/ , which starts the 24th of october in Tuxtla Gutiérrez and finishes on the 30th of October in Nuevo Laredo.

Why is Roel Mulder a little nutty? Well, he has raced the Paris Dakar rally on a motorcycle a couple of times, until he was nearly killed and found 2 days later in the desert. He then decided to pick up the safe motorsport of racing historic formula cars - last year he was the European Champion in his class, picking up the well-known German Graf Berghe von Trips prize. For entertainment he also  participates in long distance rallies with classic motor cars.

Although he has a prized, and beautifully restored 190SL which he did mostly himself, his 230 SL which he shipped to Mexico yesterday will not win any points at a car show. The car has been totally prepared for rough rallying. It has a full roll-cage, a transplanted 280SL engine with a 4 speed gearbox, a 123-ignition, a racing fuel tank, a fuel cooler and oil cooler, upgraded variable shocks, vented disc brakes and so on. All feature comforts have been stripped. I drove the car yesterday and I assure you, it's noisy.

He's got full harness rally seats and the usual accoutrements of meters and stopwatches for the navigator. Have a look at the photos below.

Let's all wish him good luck. Those of you in Mexico, go look his car over if it passes near by your home, and send Roel my regards.

Peter

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[zanone]

Vanesp,

The link shows two Pagodas in the "participants" section. Any exterior photos of this car? I have an undershield/skid plate (#481) for a 230SL  that I'm not using if he needs it but I'm sure he has that covered.

Zanone
66 230SL

[Peter van Es]

Zanone,

since I thought all of us would know what a Pagoda looks like from the outside, I forgot to take a photo...  :oops:  and as the car is now shipped, I won't be able to do so until it returns.

He's got a shield protecting the radiator and his two coolers. The underbody has been cleaned and repainted and protected using a special rally car compound... don't know what it is called exactly. He's routed fuel lines etc through the cabin along the transmission so that it cannot be damaged by stones.

He's got an automatic fire-extinguishing system with lines and nozzles spraying into the engine compartment and the passenger area.

Peter

[MichaelB.]

THAT is OUTSTANDING.

Great contribution. Thank you.

[JamesL]

Guessing it won't be this clean when it gets back

[Cees Klumper]

Mike Heaney is a previous Panamericana participant in a Pagoda. It will be interesting to see how Roel fares. And I wonder what is to become of his car after he returns, although I suppose he can do many more rallies in it in the future. The Panamericana is known to be very dangerous as well BTW!

[rob walker]

Peter, looks really well prepared athough I am suprised that he has not fitted a front strut brace. Wish him well and keep us informed of progress.
Another green interior car, what has he done with the carpets???