When it comes to modifying cars, Scandinavia is obviously doing something right now a little different than the rest of the world. It’s a place that is scarce in people, yet insanely built cars are bountiful – so much so that I still haven’t exhausted all the vehicles I shot at Mantorp Park this summer. One of the remainders I found extra intriguing is this Mercedes-Benz 190E.
Oddly enough, this build all started with a single component – an Eaton M112 supercharger. It seems this logic is standard fare for mental builds in Scandinavia: you start with a single piece and then figure out how to utilize it in the context of an actual car. Often times this means building your own chassis from scratch, borrowing an engine from your neighbor and having a local craftsman build you a body to place atop the pile of awesomeness.
While this is perhaps a much more sensible application of the technique, it’s no less enjoyed by the owner than the aforementioned mind-benders. In this case, the blower was bolted to a 3.6L AMG engine, mated to an E34 ZF gearbox and shoehorned into the 190 to create a pretty solid foundation for getting sideways.
It may seem rather tame from the outside, but one look under the skin and you’ll see there’s been a lot of work done to get this Benz into proper slide-spec. For starters, the inside of the car has a been put on a serious diet and had a competition-legal eight-point roll cage installed to allow the vehicle to compete in the Swedish Power Drift series.
All of the underpinnings have been replaced with adjustable pieces, virtually all of which had to be custom made. The finishing touches in the cockpit include a pair of Sparco buckets, a gutted and flocked dash and a MaxxEcu engine management system. Pretty awesome.
As unlikely of a candidate as it may be, this particular Merc makes for a really awesome-looking drift car, which in my opinion is half the battle. To me, Marten Stangberg has built a car that embodies what drifting should be: creative, fun, a little silly and most of all, stylish.
Sean Klingelhoefer
Instagram: seanklingelhoefer
sean@speedhunters.com
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