This 1964 Mercedes 190 Hides A 500hp+ Turbocharged BMW Secret

Say hello to one of the most unique cars to ever grace the extensive collection of your rides in the CT Garage. The 1964 Mercedes-Benz 190 is already a cool car in its own right, but it’s been transformed into something that’ll embarass most sports cars in a straight line. Soon enough, this mad Merc will be blowing supercars into the weeds too. And all this because of a turbocharged BMW M50B25 engine which currently produces 485whp (wheel horse power) and 416lb ft torque; as you’ll hear, that turbo is enormous…

Before we get into the modifications, owner Elias was kind enough to share the story behind the build:

“My girlfriend bought the 190 back in 2009 as her first car. We knew it was rusty in the floor but not too bad, and in the engine bay there was a 300D with an automatic transmission.”

“In the winter of 2009/2010 we started to get the rust fixed. When that was done, we turbocharged the poor diesel engine. That engine build was just for fun and didn’t turn out well because we broke the engine half way through the summer of 2010.

“At this point we didn’t know what to do with the car so we just put it in the garage. One year later, I came across a BMW E34 525 for almost nothing that I was going to turbocharge and use as a daily to have some fun with. But after a closer look at the 525, I realised that the floor was almost gone.”

“So I thought ‘what shall I do now?’ I had one car with a strong straight-six and manual gearbox that worked, and one car in the garage without rust that needed an engine. That’s when I decided to do the swap.

“At first, the project was just to put the BMW engine and gearbox in the car so that we could use it as it was. But as you know, many projects escalate into something much bigger and our car is no exception.”

“First of all we decided to turbocharge it, so then we had to upgrade the brakes, rear-end, fuel system, ignition, clutch etc. We also moved the engine back 20 centimetres to get most of the weight behind the front axle. We also retrimmed the entire interior to get a more simple but useful racing look.

“At the beggining of the summer of 2013, we went to the local dyno and tuned the Merc to 485whp and 416lb ft torque at 1.1 bar of boost.”

“Right now, we’re rebuilding the front-end to make it more adapted for drifting with a tube frame and racing/drifting parts from a Nissan 200SX S14. Why I chose the S14 parts is because they’re easy to find and the concept is already well tested. The car is going to be race ready in 2015.”

“The engine is also going to be rebuilt to 2.8 litres, and we’ll uprate the camshafts and necessary components to hit our next goal of 700hp at the wheels. When we’re done, it’ll be our ultimate street-legal ride that we can take drifting, drag racing and on track days.”

To chat to Elias about his unique ride (and to see the extensive list of mods), head over to his CT Garage page where you can speak to him in the comments section.