Paris-Dakar 1983: Ickx and the Mercedes G-Class

Jacky Ickx, born Jacques Bernard Ickx in Brussels on January 1, 1945, is a living legend in motorsport. No, do not look for the Belgian in the list of World Drivers' Champions. Perhaps he does not need that title. Rather, it would be the World Championship that needs his name.

He began his racing career in 1964. In 1967, he was the European Formula 2 champion and debuted in Formula 1. He won 8 F1 Grand Prix during his career: France in 1968, Germany and Canada in 1969, Austria, Canada, and Mexico in 1970, the Netherlands in 1971, and finally, Germany in 1972. He left Formula 1 in 1979, having won two World Drivers' Championship runner-up titles, in 1969 and 1970.

His endurance record is even more impressive. Two world championship titles, in 1982 and 1983, or six victories in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the main event of the discipline (1969, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1981, and 1982), are a synthesis of a fantastic career, some chapters of which would be written in the desert sands...

It is January 1, 1983. While champagne flows and music plays in Paris to celebrate the New Year, in the Place de la Concorde, gasoline flows and the engines of 253 cars and trucks, and 132 motorcycles, roar as they embark on the fifth edition of the Paris-Dakar, an adventure dreamed up by Thierry Sabine, a young Frenchman who switched from equestrian competitions to rallies, first in a car and later, already on a motorcycle, to raids that began to gain popularity in the late seventies.

In just five years, the Paris-Dakar, Sabine's dream, has become an event that not only attracts adventurers with handcrafted cars but also well-known drivers, alongside professional preparers, and even brands.

In this 1983 edition, participants must cross France, Algeria, Niger—where the hell of the Ténéré awaits them in one of the most dreadful stages in the history of this event—Upper Volta, Ivory Coast, Mali, Mauritania, and Senegal. Twelve thousand kilometers...

Among the cars, number 142 attracts many glances and comments. It is a Mercedes G-Class driven by none other than Jacky Ickx, accompanied by co-driver Claude Brasseur (1936-2020). A famous actor who has worked with directors of the calibre of Jean Renoir, Brasseur is passionate about sports: he has worked as a journalist for L'Équipe, been part of the French bobsleigh team, and is passionate about motorsport. Both Ickx and Brasseur were well aware of the challenges of the Paris-Dakar, a race in which they had participated with a Citroën CX for the first time in 1981.

And in 1982, Ickx and Brasseur joined the Mercedes-Benz France project, whose officials decided to participate in the race with two 280 GE of the 460 series. Customer service director Gunter Latour had good contacts with Mercedes-Benz in Untertürkheim. The project was entrusted to Georg Berkmann, an engineer specializing in adapting car engines to commercial vehicles. At the engine level, Berkmann chose the standard version of the M 110 with 185 hp as the base. He wanted to obtain even more horsepower. The engineer resorted to camshafts originally intended for the power improvement of the 280 SL (R 107). Thus, the "Paris-Dakar" engine reached about 197 hp. In comparison, the M 110 of the Mercedes-Benz 280 GE launched in 1979 developed 156 hp.

But there are more concerns. The main problems when facing the deserts of the African continent are extreme temperatures and dust. In this regard, Berkmann relocated the engine's air intake to the interior, where temperatures are usually lower and the dust content in the air is less. Another problem is the poor quality of gasoline. Berkmann opted for a simple but effective solution, as he recounted a few years ago: "I placed yellow and red marks on the ignition distributor. Thus, drivers could quickly adjust the ignition timing if the engine knocked due to poor fuel quality." To make this quick and not have to search for the right tool, the engineer tied a four-millimetre Allen key to a chain near the ignition distributor. Jacky Ickx was also meticulous. In his preparation, he labelled each relay to quickly locate problems and breakdowns.

With the improved engine, the 280 GE reached a top speed of 175 km/h, 25 km/h faster than the street version. However, after the 1982 experience, where they finished third (Jean-Pierre Jaussaud/Michel Brière) and fifth (Jacky Ickx/Claude Brasseur), Berkmann was sure that this pace would not be enough to win in 1983. For reliability reasons, further increasing the engine's power was not an option. So Berkmann turned to engineer Rüdiger Faul, who had developed the aerodynamics of several racing cars and the record-breaking C 111-IV.

To optimize the aerodynamics of the 280 GE, Faul took a pragmatic approach. "In the construction department of the Sindelfingen plant, I got some 70-millimetre diameter plastic drain pipes," he recalls. He fixed pieces of the pipe around the windshield, thus considerably optimizing the flow pattern in this area. Interestingly, these pillars have also been worked on now, in 2024, in the new electric G-Class, to improve aerodynamics.

But let's return to our story. At the rear, Faul opted for striking extensions of the roof and rear side walls. In the company, this change in the body line was ironically named "the bus canopy." The measures drastically optimized air resistance. Wind tunnel measurements in Untertürkheim showed that the CX, the drag coefficient, was reduced from the original 0.52 to 0.41, a 20.5 percent improvement. Georg Berkmann summarizes: "Thanks to the aerodynamic changes, the top speed increased by about 20 km/h, reaching almost 200 km/h, while fuel consumption per 100 kilometres was reduced by five litres."

Ickx and Brasseur dominated the race from the start, but a broken axle almost ruined the victory. Thanks to the installation of one from his teammate Jean-Pierre Jaussaud, he was able to continue the race. There was a protest against the winning team, which ultimately did not succeed as Mercedes argued that the regulations did not prohibit exchanging parts between competitors. However, this situation greatly displeased Ickx, as he stated at the end of the race. The Belgian driver also noted, after his victory, that the Mercedes "was too heavy (around 2 tons) and in the future, it will not be possible to win with this type of car. In my opinion, future editions will be reserved for true prototypes, lighter and better balanced." Just look at how Dakar cars have evolved to confirm the accuracy of this prediction.

Over the years, Ickx has also spoken of other changes related to the Dakar, but in this case, on a personal level: "If I ask myself about the origin of my open-mindedness, and about my feeling of living, since then, the best part of my life, the Dakar is the extraordinary opportunity to have discovered and met people whose solidarity and humanity are essential for survival.

Africa, desert life where you cannot cheat. You can tell many stories, but you quickly return to reality. We are small, really. There, thousands of years ago, there were already people living like this. Breeding, culture, life, awareness of life. And awareness of the privileges we enjoy and that are not always linked to talent, only to luck or destiny."

Ickx would return to the Dakar, this time at the wheel of a Porsche. But that is another story.