BENZITEAM is a team from Lebanon. The nomination comes from BENZI=MERCEDES-BENZ  .It all started back to 1980 when Suleiman Khattar known as Soly bought his first Mercedes G-WAGEN, it was an army-green Long-wheelbase 280GE. At that time Lebanon was dealing with a devastating civil war. Soly had to wait till 1993 for the first official Off-Road competition, by that time he was practicing off road on a regular basis and discovering the wilder side of the Lebanese Mountains.Soly started to appreciate the car for its reliability, so he didn't hesitate to get another one, this one was a SWB 230G Cabrio....

In 1993 Soly won the first off road competion held in Lebanon in Fakra , and till now participated in almost every competion in Lebanon, wether it is Rallies or Trials. Andre Zovighian was the co-pilot during the 93-98 period. Philippe Abboud is currently the co-pilot and indeed a very important member in the Benziteam family. Because of the lack of sponsorship Soly had to wait till 2002 to participate in an international competition ,and decided to go for the MASTER RALLY which is the 2nd most important Off Road event after the legendary PARIS-DAKAR, unfortunately Benziteam had no sponsorship but Soly insisted on self-financing the project, Benziteam then headed to Russia in August 2002 (St.Petersbourg). They were the first Lebanese team to participate in an international off road event.Their goal was to finish the 5700 kilometers rally and they did with a respectable position.