Expedition to Mongolia’s Gobi Desert

My whole family likes to travel. Both of my parents have been all over the world. My wife and I met in China (no, neither one of us is Chinese) and since then we have traveled together to India, Costa Rica, and all over Europe. When I was 13 and my brother 3, our parents packed up our ’84 Buick Regal sedan and drove cross-country for a period of almost four weeks. When I was 20 I spent five weeks in Southern Africa riding around in a Land Rover 110 TD5 ( I need to find and scan the pictures from that trip). In the summer of 2009 my mother, her husband and my sister-in-law along with a group of thirteen other people spend four weeks in southern Russia and Mongolia, and here is a bit of car-related photo-journalism from this trip.

Unfortunately none of the people that went on this trip knew a lot about cars, so I have very limited information on these two vehicles. The bigger of the two is German MAN KAT, 6×6, which was originally designed for expeditions very much like this one, with obvious origins as a heavy military truck. I did some research, and it turns out that the KAT is most likely powered by 12.7-liter V8 diesel engine. The engine is mid-mounted (!) and mated to an 8-speed transmission.

This very truck was custom built to be a “bus” and was used what what is called by some “The Automotive Expedition of the Century“. While that may sound a bit optimistic, it seems like one crazy undertaking regardless of what you call it. Searching around the above website I have found a gallery showing the build of the pictured MAN-KAT; very cool and interesting, check it out. Things to notice are the fact that this MAN started off being a 4×4 and the rear cabin was design for “living”, so over time it has obviously undergone some serious modifications.

The second vehicle is a Mercedes Benz TN-series 4×4 van. Again, I cannot find much information on this van, but it was also a diesel. I would assume that the 4×4 system was a factory option as opposed to a modification, but I cannot be sure. Any info on this would be appreciated.

From over a thousand pictures I have selected the ones that show the car-culture of the region, abbreviated expedition shots, some land/city shots and the people. i also wasn’t too crazy about showing the people that went on this trip, which in and of itself threw out more than a half of all the pictures. Enjoy.