Mercedes 280SL Sports
Alastair laughs as he talks about the Mercedes 280SL, or the ‘tart’s car’ as it is called by “proper so-called car fans”. Originally purchased for his wife, he used it for the first time on his first rally in the Highland Fling, 1991. It has done two London to Sydney rallys, and a London to Cape Town which it won.
Alastair describes the car as very well made and nicely designed. He talks about how Mercedes used all the existing components from Saloon cars which made it incredibly reliable and strong on this small car. For Alastair, it’s almost ideal for a long-distance rally.
I took it up to the Highland Fling and lots of the cars had come on trailers and everybody was terribly serious and I turned up with this car, which didn’t even look like a rally car to them. But we had a right laugh and it was how I managed to get hooked on rallying. We finished third overall in the rally.
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