Engine Swapped1992W201
I run a race fab shop. We build cages. This is a side project. Eight years. It only works when you know the owner and you both have the same picture.
The skin is a 1985 190E. Underneath it is a 2010 C63 chassis, subframes, cooling, brakes, dash, harness. We never cut the fuel lines. We shortened the C63 about a hundred millimetres, narrowed it, and dropped the old body over the new floor.
The hood on a 190 sits flat. A C63 strut needs room the 190 never had, so we built towers and hinges that fold into the cabin. KW coilovers. Front track in twenty millimetres. Geometry stayed C63 where we could leave it.
Weistec twin-screw on the 6.2. Intercooler would not fit up front, so it lives in the trunk on formed aluminium pipe. Factory Evo II bumpers and skirts, reproduction flares, an Evo I wing because a clean Evo II one never showed up. Dale painted it.
Matt at Ai Design did the interior off an aluminium shell I sent him. Quiet. Modular. Cage stitched through the pillars. That’s the part of the job I actually advertise.
I don’t want another one on the books. Not because it went wrong. Because nobody can be asking when it will be done.
If you weren’t paying attention, you’d never in a million years be able to guess the amount of work and customization that went into this thing. That’s the beauty of the whole thing. Rare as they are, sourcing an actual Mercedes 190 E 2.5-16 Evolution II would take considerably less time and money than building a restomodded version from scratch. But then it wouldn’t be this, without a doubt one of the most impressive custom cars we’ve ever had the pleasure to drive, and frankly, a project for the ages.
Wheels and Tires The C63 DTM Evolution rides on Fifteen52 Evo SC Wheels; 18×8 inches in the front, and 18×9.5 out back. Tires are Michelin Pilot Super Sport in 235/40R18 and 275/35R18.
Exhaust Dual two-and-a-half inch stainless, X-pipe, onto the ARH headers, four tails out the back. The pipe was easy. The aluminium bezels in the valance were not.
Wiring About ninety percent is still the C63 harness. Windows are the exception: new wire, 190E motors. Taillight codes got sorted by a guy in Russia. I didn’t ask questions.
Doors I didn’t want a thirty-year-old key. C63 mechanisms in the 190 doors, solenoids to pop them. Fifty hours a side before Ai Design even started the cards. Trunk release is a BMW solenoid. Don’t write to me about that.
Supercharger Weistec twin-screw, more or less as it comes. Air in through two ducts we built into the radiator mount. Intercooler will not fit in the nose, so it lives in the trunk. Formed aluminium pipe down the tunnel and back. No heater hose.
Keep the C63 stack Radiator, power-steering cooler, transmission cooler, condenser, oil cooler, and another oil cooler beside it. If the newer car already solved it, we used that.
Engine bay The V8 is the obvious problem. The hours went into the small ones. The wiper motor alone" C63 unit, custom linkage, park position, rain sensor moved onto a 190 screen. A half-day job that ate a week.
Body Factory Evo II bumpers and skirts. Only the flares are reproductions. Never found an Evo II wing worth fitting, so it’s an Evo I. 6.2 Kompressor on the flanks. Dale painted it at Old School Ent.
Seats and headlining Matt tried six rear-seat designs. We kept the ones with aluminium tubs and removable shells. Roof was the hard part: two fibreglass pieces around each bar, foam between, then hide the cage. If it rattles we failed.
Dash The C63 dash almost bolts in. Almost. A lot of aluminium to make that true. Console is custom, same material. Factory switches stayed. Some of them moved. Ai Design finished it so you can’t see the join.
Front geometry Custom towers so the W201 body sits on the C63 chassis. Track pulled in about twenty millimetres at the lowers and the upper mounts together. Everything else we left C63.
Suspension KW coilovers, adjustable uppers. We tried a few rates before it sat right. The problem is the hood, a 190 sits flat and a C63 strut needs room. Reliefs in the bonnet. Hinges that fold into pockets in the cabin.
Cage Six-point, stitch-welded to the body, tied into the front towers. A, B and C pillars opened, tube in, welded shut. I built the aluminium shell for the doors, the rear recesses and the trunk pan. Matt covered the cage later. That’s the part of this job I actually sell.
Headlights Sixty hours in aluminium housings so the C63 radiator stack still fits under a 190 hood. Hella HID projectors, adjustable, behind the factory glass. He wanted to keep the glass. So we kept the glass.
Same car, thirty years later With the bodies off you could see it. Fuse box in the same place. Cladding on the arms done the same way. Steering wheel to tunnel is the same dimension. We weren’t forcing two strangers together. Mercedes had already done half the job.
The cut I took the C63 body off from the sills up so we could keep the car that already worked. Shortened the chassis about a hundred millimetres, narrowed it, and put the 190E in a frame before we cut that one too. Then the old skin went over the new floor.
Your car belongs in this registry. 476 of the 500 founding slots are still open, numbered in order of intake.
Free, no card. Your own photos, your honest spec, reviewed before it goes live. City only, and your email is never shown.
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