Benz Heads from Paris to China to Tests Diesel E-Class

33 Participants in Modern-Day Peking-to-Paris Journey Long-distance events, regardless if theyre on the track or on the road have significant bearing in the automotive world. Be it the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the Paris-Dakar Rally, or even an endurance-speed test on the banks of a high-speed circuit, they each demonstrate a vehicles ability to cope and deal with high stresses that normal road vehicles would never be subjected to. In promotion of its new ultra-clean diesel engines, Mercedes-Benz decided to embark on one of the most daunting long-distance trips to date, following the route of the Peking-to-Paris race, albeit in reverse.

The original Peking-to-Paris (which, incidentally is the name of a Spyker super-SUV concept) was run in 1907 to demonstrate the advantages of the automobile over the horse. It took 62 days to complete the event. One year short of a century later, Mercedes is tackling the grueling trip with a fleet of E-Classes that will cover roughly 8,450 miles over a much shorter 28 days, with an expected arrival at the Chinese destination on November 17th. Thats a sum total of more than 280,000 miles, or enough to lap the equator of the earth eleven and half times, which should be good to show the advantages of diesel - particularly Benzs diesels - over standard motors.

Traveling from Paris to Beijing involves crossing more than one continent, which is no small undertaking. The journey has been split up into five stages of between 1,180 and 2,175 miles, which will be driven by around 330 drivers (journalists, celebrities, special guests, and Benz customers) coming from 35 countries. Its a pretty grueling job to partake in this event; daily mileage is expected to hit the 460 mile mark, and aside from the massive temperature changes and varying altitudes, the drivers must also contend with daily traffic and urban congestion. Luckily, they are in the E-Class, instead of something from the turn of the 20th century!

On October 21st, 33 E-Class sedans set out from Paris in a variety of different E-Class models and configurations. All of the vehicles are E320 CDIs, powered by a 224 horsepower V6 turbodiesel fitted with emissions-cutting particle filters. Some of these vehicles feature 4Matic four-wheel drive, which should prove to be useful when the going gets tough in sand or snow. But the real star of the show will be the three E320 CDIs that have BLUETEC technology that enables the E-Class to be sold in 45 States by undercutting the BIN 8 NOx regulation targeting emissions controls. All vehicles are expected to return between 31 and 32 mpg, which equates to about 745 miles per tank.

Dr Dieter Zetsche, Chairman of DaimlerChrysler AG and CEO of Mercedes Car Group said, "70 years after Mercedes-Benz as the first car producer introduced the diesel engine in passenger cars, we now want to underline the performance of our modern diesel technology with the long-distance journey from Paris to Beijing."