A rare Actros restoration

- Dominic Newby

Exciting beginnings.

Dominic also wanted to commemorate the 25^th anniversary of the Actros this year with a special truck, “There are hardly any MP1s left and as this one is so unique I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to give it a new lease of life.”

Additionally, he has acquired the entire service history of the vehicle, including every time it has visited a Mercedes-Benz garage, be it in the UK or around the world.

His new addition is very unique indeed – a 1997 Actros MP1 2557 – one of the first Actros models to be produced and that had previously led an exciting career in motorsport, as one of four vehicles to be supplied to McLaren as part of a Mercedes-Benz sponsorship. The truck was used to pull the Race Engineer and Communications trailer which collected data from the cars and transmitted it back to McLaren’s headquarters in Woking, UK.

The body kit was designed and produced by McLaren to match the trailers and is made of aluminium rather than fibreglass, whilst the air kit on the tractor unit was a special design by AB Airflow of Bedford which matched the bespoke design of the trailer.

Dedicated craftsmanship.

“The workmanship of it shows whoever made it is very talented. Although not to everyone’s taste today, it is very eye-catching and would have been unique in the 90s. The original paintwork on the tractor unit was undertaken by McLaren’s in-house paint shop using the same airbrush paint design that was on the racing cars at that time,” enthused Dominic.

During the period his Actros was used by McLaren, driver Mika Häkkinen won two F1 World Championships racing alongside his renowned teammate David Coulthard, “On the engine are ‘No 1’ markings, I would love to find out the origins of these; who knows, maybe Mika Häkkinen signed it after winning his first World Championship!”

- Dominic Newby

Some TLC and a lot of painting!

Although already impressive, the vehicle still needed some TLC, so Dominic set to work restoring it to its former glory with a more modern paint job.

Initially he stripped the vehicle in order to paint the cab mountings separately before repainting the cab, body kit and the entire chassis, restoring it back to its original McLaren livery. Next Dominic sourced some 316 stainless steel from Germany for the catwalk which had to be CNC machined to suit the chassis infill. The roof air kit also needed a lot of attention to bring it back to life – this particular task proved to be the biggest challenge and required many hours of dedication, along with vast amount of parts which were stripped down and painted!

However the work proved mainly cosmetic, as the truck was still a powerful runner underneath the exterior. “Due to the vehicle being in such good condition, I haven’t needed to do any mechanical work at all,” said Dominic.

The latest update.

Since his previous article on RoadStars, Dominic has managed to apply some more custom-cut stainless steel to the catwalk and re-install all of the chassis infill. He’s also fitted Alcoa polished aluminium wheels with new tyres plus some new lights, both of which have given the truck a fantastic overall finishing touch.

Along with his wife, son and a bit of elbow grease, he has taken all of the interior out and given it a thorough clean, “Considering the age of the lorry, with a bit of determination it has cleaned well and is looking pretty much brand new!”

Lastly, Dominic has added some McLaren original signwriting to the vehicle in honour of the truck’s racing heritage.

Revealing the finished masterpiece.

In comparison to this mighty task, Dominic’s NG 1622 project proved easier due to its smaller size and requirement for fewer parts. However this didn’t deter him, he was more than happy to get stuck in and do a proper job to honour the model’s history, “I wanted to do this to a very high standard due to its pedigree so it has naturally taken more time.”

Dominic can’t wait to take it to truck events and show it off. In fact, he recently purchased a trailer which will be modified to match the tractor unit and will contain living accommodation and a separate area to transport his NG 1622, so that he and his family can travel across the UK and Europe together and attend shows.

We want to congratulate Dominic on his latest endeavour; it’s certainly a beauty to behold! No doubt it will not be his last now he has the taste for restoring bigger vehicles.

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