M117 450 - 370bhp

[WGB]

The October 2008 edition of Mercedes Enthusiast arrived in the mail yesterday and there is a short article on a 107 Coupe prepared by AMG which appeared at Monza on March 26 1978 for the European Touring Car Championship - 3rd on it's first outing.

They lightened the car from 1,630 kg to 1,225 kg and the story says "AMG increased the power of the 4520cc V8 engine from 214 bhp to 370 bhp"

Not a lot of detail and it looks like the present restored car now has one of the 1980 Rally car engines putting out 320 bhp which was presumably a 5.0 litre Alloy motor.

The bit that caught my eye was that they state AMG got 370 hp from a 4.5.

Others here may know more about these track cars vs the better known rally cars.

Bill

 

[Styria]

Hi Bill, as you quite rightly state, the rallye cars are better known than any track car. However, we might just be lucky in perhaps Des and/or Michel being able to dig up further information. Regards Styria

 

[SELfor50]

Hey Bill, are you able to scan and post the article by any chance??

I'm guessing they did all the usual suspects first.. Bore, CAMS etc.. Then maybe injection. That's a sizeable increase though!!

 

[WGB]

That's the one - October issue.

If you don't get the airmail version let me know and it just might find itself on a scanner.

Bill

 

[SELfor50]

Sorry Bill.. i don't get any version.

And chance you could e-mail me an 'archiveable' sample??

Cam.

 

[WGB]

Hi Cam,

I have tried to send you an e-mail but the format available through the site does not allow me to send a file. When I used the e-mail setup my system hangs so will send you a PM with information.

The colour PDF runs to 4.8 megs.

Bill

 

[Oversize]

Damn shame this thread was never finished. RIP

 

[gurrier]

 

[ProfessorExperimental]

Well that video provides the answer to Dr. Bill's question... the gauge to the left of the tacho is a boost gauge.

 

[ProfessorExperimental]

Well that video provides the answer to Dr. Bill's question... the gauge to the left of the tacho is a boost gauge.

In fact, pausing the relevant shot:


Can be taken as an indication of a 6200-6400rpm redline and 2.2-2.3kg/cm^2 target boost pressure, since they've clocked the gauges for "what you want to see" being needle-at-12-o'clock when the car is vibrating too much to read the scale.

Of course that could well be spurious, and just some restomodder trying to make it look cool, but assuming benefit of doubt thems the numbers.

32psi is a very respectable boost number on a big engine, even in today's 2000+hp dyno-queen tuning world.

[Edit] did a bit more googling, which I should have done earlier. Didn't realise the series was a full homologation category, and AMG couldn't even run their "normal" 5+L engines as a result, nor the 5 speed they offered. So it wouldn't have been boosted. As far as I can see that car in the video is the one that was for sale ex South Africa some years ago, which was listed with a manual box and 5L engine, so no longer in its "original" guise. But info seems really scant on the interwebs. What few articles basically rehash each other, even in german. No engine shots. Certainly very little period photography... 6500ish redline mentioned though, so at least there's that...

 

[Oversize]

Does anyone have a copy of the mag mentioned at the start of this thread?