Soly bought his first Mercedes G-Wagen in late 1980, Soly obviously fell in love with the car, buying 2 other G, in the years that followed, later he bought 2 others, making him the owner of 5 G-wagen both 460 series, one Short-wheel based 280GE(orignally 230G), the rest are Long-wheel based 280GEs, all the cars are still running nowadays whether for competition or daily use.
The most interesting car is the 280GE LWB (2nd from left), this car survived many crucial races in the rocky lebanese nature, Soly then started working along with Philippe Abboud and Georges Andraos on it, totally changing it in order to meet the FIA standards, in the year 2000 the car was ready, having now a Fiberglass body, a V8 5.0 engine,an automatic transmission, and a FIA approved Roll-Cage. The Benziteam did his first step in 2002 outside the middle east by participating in the legendary Master Rally 2002, held in Russia.
Soly, Philippe Abboud (Co-Pilot) , Georges Andraos(Maintenance) and the G500 Marathon travelled from Lebanon to Russia in August 2002 and finished the rally in success.
The G 500 proved to be a very reliable, during the race it suffered from minor problems that were repaired instantly by Abboud and Andraos.
The car finished the race in the 29th position making the Benziteam dream come true.