OUT OF AFRICA

This globe-trotting 1982 W123 200D – the ‘Brauner Benz’ –
has survived over half a million miles of mishaps and adventure

ARTICLE– BLUE NELSON, GARY ANDERSON

IMAGES – RICHARD SIMONDS, GARY ANDERSON, MARKUS BESOLD

So, what was the story with the rusty 1982 W123 200D with “826,000 kms” scrawled across the windshield parked among the shiny show cars at Legends of the Autobahn® in Monterey this past August? Listen as the car’s owner, Blue Nelson, tells the story of the “Brauner Benz”– as she is called – and you will hear an amazing, multifaceted tale.

Not only will you sense the pride he feels in resurrecting an iconic Mercedes-Benz that was derelict and left for the crusher, you will appreciate the respect he has for this amazing vehicle that has covered more than half a million miles in the past 36 years – and is still running. And as Nelson – wearing a safari shirt he bartered from an ice cream vendor while living in Zimbabwe when he was 15 – retells the exploits of the car’s first owner, Markus Besold, you begin to see that these two men have much in common.

Behind a shipping container

Jett Scott of Los Angeles, California, is a W123 enthusiast, to say the least, maintaining a scrap yard to provide a supply of spare parts for other enthusiasts. Scott happened upon the apparently abandoned old W123 in January 2017, sitting in the back of the international shipper’s yard in Long Beach, California, where he had gone to pick up a car.

Perhaps the roof rack might have been the first thing that caught his trained eye, loaded with remnants of distant travel gear including military jerry cans and sand ladders made from surplus World War II Marston Mat (perforated steel planking used to build temporary airfields) repurposed as an off-road recovery aid to escape sand. The second oddity was the odometer, which registered more than 800,000 kilometers. This was no ordinary, derelict old car.

The yard owner was happy to be rid of the 200D – scavengers had stripped nearly everything of value from the hulk, and it was due to be scrapped after sitting in the yard for many years. Scott hauled the battered W123 back to his shop to check for unusual parts and see if he could piece together more of its story.

When he posted pictures of the brown car on Craigslist, word soon came back that the old 200D was “sort of famous.” In fact, in Germany in 2001, Markus Besold had published a book detailing his adventures driving the car over 500,000 kilometers. Several enthusiasts even offered to buy the car.

Scott then contacted Blue Nelson, a classic car hunter with an international reputation for finding unusual cars. Nelson actually recalled seeing the car when Besold crossed his path in Los Angeles in 2003. Something about the 200D spoke to Nelson; he immediately drove from his home in Southern Oregon to Lancaster. Scott felt the same connection and agreed that Nelson should have the car. A deal was struck, with Nelson purchasing the car outright so that he would be able to see it placed in a collection or museum, where he believed it belonged.

An odd aura of capricious adventure seemed to surround the old W123, as Nelson would shortly discover. Soon after hooking the car up to his own half-million mile W123 station wagon to flat-tow it back to Oregon, Nelson nearly lost his life when the old sedan’s fatigued tie rods broke on the highway not five miles from Scott’s yard. The rig spun out of control.
After managing to arrest the slide and tow the W123 back to Scott’s for repairs, Nelson finally drove up to his shop in Oregon. There he would continue to peel back the layers of the old car’s story.

Automotive archaeology     

Using internet chat rooms and online sources, Nelson was able to confirm the car’s identity. He became convinced that the vagabond W123 should be considered a historic artifact. He decided to restore the car only to its condition when it had last been used for overland travel, complete with poorly repaired dents, bullet holes, faded brown paint and worn sheepskin seat covers.

That goal meant treating the car like an archaeological dig. Excavating the accumulated layers, Nelson was amazed by what he found. An artillery compass, toy camel,  and a pile of Classical music tapes had taken up residence in the glove compartment, and old duffle bags and pillows were tucked in the trunk along with a well-used frying pan. He carefully bagged and tagged everything as if they were relics from a forgotten age.

Then Nelson turned his attention to making the 200D run again. Valves were way too tight, brakes were nonexistent and the transmission’s first and second gears had vanished. Nelson got the brown relic running well enough to drive to Flagstaff, Arizona to attend the Overland Expo convention, where the car was acclaimed “Coolest Ride.”
He also visited the Mercedes-Benz Classic Center in Irvine, which certified the 200D’s mileage, earning the 250,000-, 500,000- and rare 750,000-kilometer award badges – proudly displayed with the car at Legends in August.

Driving back to Oregon, Nelson had a second near-death experience with the Brauner Benz. The rusty floor under the driver’s seat gave way and Nelson just managed to steer the decrepit machine safely to the side of the road while hanging from the steering wheel. He propped the floor up with some scrap wood found on the side of the road and continued his journey. The car was still in that condition when Nelson made the trip back down from Oregon for Legends.
During that same period, he was able to get in touch with Besold in Germany, assuring him that the W123 was back on the road. Besold replied with a lengthy letter detailing his adventures in the car.

A sense of adventure …

What impressed Nelson most was that Besold seemed to approach living with an attitude similar to his own: Life should be an unplanned adventure rather than a mapped-out journey to a preset destination. Besold had discovered this wanderlust in himself after buying the car in 1994: While working as an apprentice finish carpenter, Besold had found a 12-year-old W123 200D sedan that was still in pretty good shape, with only 232,665 kilometers on the odometer.

 ... but no sense of direction

Soon he was taking off on weekends to see the countryside, but found that, while travel was addictive, he had utterly no sense of direction. Luckily, there always seemed to be someone who either wanted to tag along or needed to get somewhere who could navigate for him.

Weekend jaunts turned into short expeditions, first a 2,000-mile tour to Spain, then a longer trip to Croatia, and next a journey up to Scandinavia. After sampling glacier ice, Besold decided he must also see the desert and embarked on a 5,000-mile odyssey through Libya. This experience would severely test his carefree approach to life, but also show him how easy it was to find like-minded people eager to explore the world.

Later adventures were marked by run-ins with police in Turkey, a war in Serbia and a second 10,000-mile trip to Libya. A friend helped him put together a book on his exploits based on his travel journal. Eager for new journeys, he left Germany for good – or so he thought – in August 2000, headed for South Africa.

Into and out of Africa

The route south in Africa got interesting as they passed through Mauritania. Here, the only way to travel was in convoy, led by a guide – like a wagon train in the Old West – traversing unmarked sand wastes, being careful to stay in the tracks of the vehicle ahead to avoid land mines. Along the coast, the only passable route was threading between outgoing tides and sand dunes. In 2001, Besold’s visa expired while in the Ivory Coast. With money scarce, he decided it was time to experience a different continent and managed to book passage to Brazil on a freighter for himself and his car.

The following two years were spent in South America. Besold would work until his visa expired and then move on to the next country. He managed to get all the way south to Tierra del Fuego, then back north on the west side of the continent and up through Central America.

Besold found a way around the gap in the Pan-American Highway and drove into Mexico. The climate there didn’t suit him, so he pressed on to the north, crossing the Texas border into the United States. In a more relaxed era of immigration, the oddity of a German passport, license plates and vehicle so far from home convinced border guards to allow this “tourist” into the country.

North to Alaska

With a new continent to explore, Besold devoted the next three years to traveling through the United States and Canada, interrupting his journey to work here and there just long enough  to save up enough cash to get to the next location. Besold made it all the way to Alaska before deciding to return to Southern California.

Left behind in Long Beach

With construction around the Los Angeles area booming, Besold was soon able to start a carpentry business, even hiring employees to handle the workload. He was even able to travel back and forth to Germany, making sure he didn’t overstay his visa each time. Unfortunately, he was eventually turned back at the border when it was discovered he had been operating a business without the necessary permits, and hasn’t since been able to return to the United States.

In 2013, Besold arranged to ship the 200D – now more of a keepsake and a talisman of past adventures than practical transportation – back home to Europe on a container ship out of Long Beach. Unfortunately, trying to make arrangements from long distance to ship a car without a clear title out of the United States proved overwhelming, so the car wound up stuck in the shipping yard where Scott would discover it a few years later.

Undeterred, Besold reports that he has found a light blue 200D and continues his long-distance touring in Europe and Africa. He was pleased to learn that a kindred spirit is still driving his Brauner Benz.

SPECIFICATIONS

1982 Mercedes-Benz 200D (W123.120)
TYPE: Four-door, five-passenger sedan
ENGINE: OM615.940 1,988cc, inline-four-cylinder diesel
TRANSMISSION: 4-speed manual
HORSEPOWER: 60 rpm at 4,400rpm (DIN)  TORQUE: 83 lb-ft at 2,400 rpm (DIN)
LENGTH: 186 in   CURB WEIGHT: 3,025 lb   FUEL EFFICIENCY: 28 mpg
PERFORMANCE: Zero-60 mph 27.4 sec   TOP SPEED: 84 mph

Images

The 1982 W123 ’s roof rack carries spare tires, fuel, water and Marston Mat sand ladders for desert survival.

First owner Markus Besold wrote a book, “Brauner Benz” based on his travel diaries.

A patina of age and hard use traces across the skin of the old W123 200D.

It's almost like a map recording car and driver’s travels and trials on many continents.

The bullet holes remain unexplained.

The W123’s adventurous owners – Markus Besold and current owner Blue Nelson, share a love of unstructured travel, a passion for Africa and a deep affection for this tough old Mercedes-Benz.

Artifacts of adventure: Toy camel and artillery compass, weary sheepskin seat covers, dangling earplugs and dashboard map.

A rare Mercedes-Benz desert air cleaner crowns the old diesel in the engine compartment.

Cataloging the contents of the trunk after decades of use was like excavating an archaeological dig.