I already know the answer, by the way.
For those of you asking, “What the hell’s the Wombat?” Oh, how I envy your lack of knowledge on this particular project car. Still, I should back up and describe the car’s current state regardless.
The Wombat is a 1984 Mercedes-Benz 300TD wagon that I’ve owned for about 13 years or so. Our original plan for the build was to swap in a 5.7-liter Hemi V8 paired with safari-style suspension upgrades. I’ve had the car for so long that when I thought about doing a safari-style build, it wasn’t quite popular yet, and the trend has since come and gone.
A Hemi proved too wide for the engine bay. Progress was glacial. And then the company helping fund the build was sold to a larger company that decided it didn’t want to pay the remaining balance owed under the contract. The car has sat ever since.
I still own it, though, and there’s even a V8 engine sitting in the engine bay. Granted, it’s a loosely placed 5.3-liter Chevrolet engine that’s just sort of there.
Recently, I’ve been pondering what the hell I should do with the Benz. I’ve been contemplating putting it up for sale as-is, and seeing if BringATrailer would take it as a true project vehicle. Almost in the vein of the old version of BAT. You’ll need an actual trailer to bring this one home.
But a post on Instagram by the mad maestro of all things Gambler has me thinking. Tate Morgan explains that there’s a Gambler/Hooptie class in the American Off-Road Championship Race series. It’s a bit 24 Hours of Lemons meets desert racing, and it sounds sublime. And it could be the perfect excuse to get the Wombat up and running.
People have done off-road Benz wagon builds before. The car wouldn’t need to be pretty. There’d certainly be plenty of work to make it happen. But damn… it would be a hell of a way to resurrect the car, no?
Sadly, I cannot post a photo, but Sparky Pete MS Painted an MFP livery on a pic of my Eagle wagon. If you need livery ideas…
I *think* we turned off pics because of bot issues with the last version of the site, but I can double check on that
I presume this was presented in the form of a question in order to somehow trap comments from spambots. I won’t ruin the trap by stating the obvious answer.