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| Home » Mercedes E320 News » 2007 Mercedes-Benz E320 Bluetec Paris to Beijing Challenge | ||
| 02/23/2007 Forget the German autobahns, which are increasingly speed-limited and overcrowded. Central China is the place to drive fast, the final frontier of unencumbered speed. Who knew? When Mercedes-Benz invited Automobile Magazine to participate in the fifth and final leg of the E-class Experience, a twenty-eight-day, 8500-mile drive from Paris to Beijing in a fleet of diesel-powered E-class sedans, I leapt at the opportunity but wondered if the driving itself might be a chore. Surely, Chinese roads wouldn't be anywhere near Western standards, and we'd spend half our time dodging donkey carts, bicycles, and pokey trucks. I realized that conditions would be far better than they were for the 1907 Peking to Paris race that inspired the E-class Experience, but that doesn't mean I had high hopes for the roads between Lanzhou, where our journey began, and Beijing. Automobile Magazine |