No one can better define the toughness except the Mercedes-Benz G-Class. And if said that someone had taken a world tour in it comprising of 215 countries, 890,000km in 26 years, hence only word to exactly define is, that’s “Impeccable”!
An ex Lufthansa manager took this daunting task after quitting his job for the sake of exploring German automotive to the fullest. Commenced his journey in 1988, Mr. Gunther Holtorf strapped a sky-blue Mercedes-Benz 300GD named as “Otto” with the necessities and stepped out on his journey. The trip also included his better half for most of locations. The year 1988 marked the beginning of this epic adventure in the countries of Africa. And in 1990 he traveled to South America covering almost 200,000km on the odo by the year 1998 in Argentina.
The journey was then followed to Central America, grasping to Canada, taking to Mexico and the last stop on this route was Alaska, which then the G-Class was headed to an island continent Australia.
Later on, the 300GD augmented the odo to 500,000km with the trip made to countries like Kazakhstan and Syria.
Not to be forgotten the hearted mad also tripped to the war-torn Afghanistan, and then turned towards Turkey, Cuba, Caribbean, UK (United Kingdom) and rest of the Europe.
Though, the journey wasn’t a cakewalk for Gunther Holtorf as he has been made to face several mental and physical stresses throughout the time. Even it is reported the man married thrice during the course of world tour due to this.
On the aesthetic note, the G-Class was mostly bruised rather than broken. It was only in Madagascar when the SUV was spotted with wheels facing the sky in an accident. And the mountain of Andes demanded a change of axle bearing. The other tough times G-Class Otto was puffing and panting but didn’t sipped a new engine to its belly. The major of countries was covered by own, but for several places like China, North Korea, Vietnam and Cambodia he received support from the Mercedes-Benz. The end of journey marked its impression at the Brandenburg Gate of Berlin, Germany. With a total of 890,000km (553,020miles) on the odo the sky-blue old Glendwagen is reported to be kept in museum of Mercedes in Stuttgart.
Just to put in simpler words, the Holtorf’s collection of 400 spare parts packed in an aluminum boxes over the roof has aided to tackle the technical agitation by the machine at times. But the agitation in his personal life hasn’t lasted the true-meaning of a life-partner.
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