Cars are cool and will always be, although not all cars comply with this definition. Cool cars are expensive and rare. All the rest are just mere horrid transportation tins. At El Solitario we love motorcycles more than anything on this planet, because in reality, there is not such a thing as a crap motorcycle. A motorcycle is solely formed by an engine and two wheels and that combination, even dragged by a horrible aesthetic layout or power train, by definition always contains some flare & excitement. In simple words, it is very easy to convert the biggest lemon in the world into a fun cheeky set of two wheels that will make you grin. You just need some initiative, basic tools and a little imagination as the road and the wind in the face you can take it for granted.
On the other side of the balance, cool cars cost way too much money and take too many resources to keep them sound. Unfortunately for us, this obvious limitation, did not stop us theorizing about the potentiality of implementing our creative process on such bigger canvas!@#$ Almost five years ago we started transforming motorcycles into El Solitario creatures in a tiny garage and in this time, many victories and accomplishments have sweetened our path but we feel now the necessity of a new challenge, a new and undiscovered set of rules to break, a new community to enrage… A quadruped revolution! So determined we are, that we will move to a bigger workshop to accommodate us and our new adventures.
If you follow us on Instagram or Facebook, you will have noticed that we’ve been posting pictures of an old, gnarly & murdered G-Wagen and this is because we are already immersed in the transformation of such 4 wheeled creature. Under the family name Marciano, we will build a raw, powerful & crazy animal, based on the iconic Mercedes G-Class. The best 4WD vehicle on the planet, is a car we know well as we’ve already owned half a dozen in the past, and has taken our crew to innumerable amazing places like the beaches of Senegal, the dunes of the Sahara, the vast Galician forests or the snows of the Pyrenees. Can you imagine an El Solitario Petardo with four wheels? That is exactly what we are after. A car you need to RIDE with your guts wearing helmet, goggles and gloves.
But what does a cool car need first? The answer is power, so for a good start we have already dropped in its engine bay a sweet and super light, Cosworth developed, 2.3 L – 16 valves motor & gearbox. With dual overhead camshafts and four valves per cylinder, this engine produces 185 hp at 6,200 rpm and 174 lb. of torque (236 N·m) at 4,500 rpm and easily revs up to the 7,000 rpm redline. Based on the robust 2.3 L Mercedes four cylinders, the heads for this engine were cast at Cosworth’s foundry in Worcester to be then sent to Germany where they added light pressed alloy pistons and rings as well re designed con rods, bearings and bearing caps aimed to withstand the higher engine speeds of this remarkably flexible engine.
With the motor transplant we also accomodated its unique 5-speed manual gearbox that features a ‘racing’ gear pattern with ‘dog leg’ 1st gear (Left & down from Neutral). This means that the remaining 4 gears are in a simple H pattern allowing fast and easy selection and tons of fun.
We took Kristina Fender for a ride in the midst of a storm and caught a few snapshots of Marciano as it sits now for the archive, as soon we will strip it all apart and comence its ground up re-incarnation into the Euro-Hot-Off-Rod we always dreamed with.
Stay tuned!
