London - A big problem solved?

Well, here we are with a day to go before the Royal Wedding and less than a week till we head off on our Baltic drive and we have encountered our first major problem which I hope has been solved!

Of the five cars on the drive just one, Ahmad's Mercedes 4x4, has been shipped into the UK from his home in San Antonio Texas. His Merc was 'stuffed' into a 40ft container with another car and arrived in the UK last week. When the container was opened they discovered that the other car had broken free from its locking straps and had been smashing into the front of Ahmad's Merc!! The car was delivered last Thursday to Brighton, where Ahmad is staying with his son Darvish. Ahmad arranged with a local Mercedes dealer to check the car out and find out what repairs were necessary. We had a great big shock when the dealer told us that, as the car was built in the US, no spares for this model are held in Europe. The main item they were trying to replace was a damaged intercooler, with the remaining repairs being bodywork damage.

In desperation, with only a week till we leave, Ahmad spoke with a good rally friend of ours, Richard Smith who very generously offered to lend Ahmad his Toyota Landcruiser. At the same time Ahmad started the ball rolling to see if he could locate an intercooler in the States and have it sent by Fedex, but this was decided to be too problematic because of the two bank holidays between now and May 4th and potential customs clearance issues. Finally, Ahmad made the decision for his brother, who lives in Boston and is flying over on May 4th to join us in Berlin, to bring the intercooler with him. Ahmad is arranging with a Mercedes dealer in Berlin to fit it whilst we have our 'day off' in the city. It will mean two days of driving with the damaged intercooler but the Brighton dealer seems to think it will make it there - let's hope so!!

So, that's why I put the question mark in the title. We think the problem is solved but we won't know for sure until Berlin.

Finally, the bodywork damage will have to wait until the car gets back to the UK in June, but as Darvish said to Ahmad, it looks like a REAL rally car now!!