The channel Spike now broadcasts old Top Gear episodes regularly. A while ago one of the favorite episodes came along, with a truly beautiful report from Eastern Europe. I knew about the mini-film about the Trasfagarasan, had already seen it and was once again absorbed in the breathtaking panorama that passed through the Loewe picture tube. And dreamed away in two acts. About one of the most beautiful cars ever and one of the most beautiful routes.
Impressive reportage
The Top Gear broadcast was an outright rediscovery of the road built between 1970 and 1974 by order of dictator Nicolae Ceaucescu. There was a goal linked to this: the possibility to quickly organize a military intervention. The route was christened in Transfăgărășan. So code name Trasfagarasan. Construction was not without a struggle. 6000 tons of dynamite were used to free up space for the construction of the asphalt ribbon winding through Romania. According to official sources, 40 soldiers paid the highest price for this: they had to pay for the work by saying goodbye to life.
Breathtaking Fata Morgana
Top Gear presented the viewer with a striking picture of what 40 Romanians gave their lives for. At the end of the beautiful report in Romania, in which the BBC camera magicians strikingly depicted various characteristics of the Eastern European country, the Three Top Gear Musketeers reached the target. Suddenly a truly fantastic road network full of hairpin bends and straights loomed like a mirage, part of a gem of a panorama. This was filmed so well that I briefly thought I was driving the last part of the route over the Trasfagarasan itself.
Feel and conquer
The DN7C has been a permanent bucket list resident in the Transylvanian Alps for years. I also want the indeterminate feeling that others had discovered him for a long time, while I had never driven there. I want to experience that build-up to the apotheosis at 2.042 meters. Feel the thrill when Lake Balea looms at that peak. The lake, which has been given to nature by the glacier and makes the world even more beautiful at height. I would like to drive the Trasfagarasan with my favorite car: the Mercedes-Benz W113. The Pagoda. Silbergrau Metallic. The 280 SL. The Roadster variant. XNUMX-speed manual gearbox, mounted in this SL, which with its ultra-thin line between power and elegance calms a blistering environment. And who looks like no other as elegantly and slightly cradled hip over his shoulder. As if the Pagoda looks back on the sensitive history.
Silent protest and victory
Because the dream rit of ever also becomes a retroactive protest. With the car of the mighty brand with the star as the holy grail. A symbol that policymakers in the communist regimes seem to be horrified by. It is a protest because the 151 kilometer measuring work of art in Central Romania was the Last Road of the regretted Romanian soldiers, who unintentionally worked on one of the most beautiful roads in the world. They deserve an honorary reward, which is reinforced by the slightly hoarse timbre, which offers the civilized serenade of the 2.778 cc M130 engine. With differences in sound height thanks to the accelerator and five gears. And with the most beautiful decor that a car can imagine: the ultimate beautiful lines of the Pagoda.
The leaders of the Eastern European countries are absolutely not horrified by the Mercedes star. Nicolae Ceausescu drove privately with an R107 and was professionally transported with the obligatory W100 Mercedes 600 in a landaulet version and a full convertible.
Nor is the fact that human lives were involved in the construction of tunnels is not a socialist exclusive right. Thirteen people died in three years in the construction of the Franco-Italian Mont Blanc tunnel. The capitalist Hoover Dam built by the democratically elected President Roosevelt took 96 lives.
Most deaths in the construction of tunnels and mountain roads are actually not counted, because people only become ill years later. Those people die from exposure to silica dust. And then we talk about thousands and thousands of lives every year in all countries. People who are nowhere on a memorial plaque.
Today I was driving in a German village and a pagoda approached me. In beautiful condition. Only now did I notice how low the grill is above the ground. Must have been a sensation in the 60's!