So about three years ago he calls me and says "do you want the 280 back?"...I say, how much? he names a price and I say "well yeah I think so".

So I hook up my trailer to the dodge and taking my favorite machinist along head down to Indy.

As we pull up to the place I find the car sitting next to his house about 50 feet from the creek. I put jumpers on it and try to start it. The engine is locked up pretty solid. There is mud in the car. I say "This car has been flooded"....he says no....My favorite machinist says he thinks no too.

But I am pretty certain it was under water up about to the bottom of the dash, but I bought it any way since I was pretty sure I could sell the five speed tranny for more than the purchase price.

So we drained a bit of water out of the tranny and diff and pulled the motor.

My favorite machinist pulled the motor apart and went through it. There were a few pits in the bores but they were all low and he felt they would not cause trouble, and simply honed the cylinders, cleaned up the pistons (one task I trusted myself to do) , installed new rings (but not bearings as they were perfect) and did a good three angle valve job and put it all back together. The car shows 140,000 miles.

After the engine was back in the car with a new clutch pp, etc. We found that it needed a new fuel pump relay (actually my indie did). That was what parked it originally, apparently. We also had to install a couple of good used calipers that I had on hand and purged the brake fluid and installed new belts air cleaner and brake pads.

So my plan was to make a race car of it. Originally I planned to race it in vintage racing but after watching them go at it hammer and tong up at Road America I decided maybe my balls were not big enough for that and have been autocrossing it.

We fitted h and r 1" lowering springs on it to complement the Bilstein HD fronts and Koni Red adjustable on the rear.

I cleaned up some 14" bundts and had them painted and have mounted Hoosier slicks 225/50r14s on them. There are virtually no high performance wheels and tires actually designed for the benz.

So with the springs and pretty much everything else stock except that I have removed the interior excepting the drivers seat I ran in FSP.

At the last autocross at Grissom a couple of weeks ago I ran uncontested in my class but for comparison I beat the two Honda s2000s and three of the five Lotus Elise's that ran in my group.

I have no idea what I could do against a good FSP (whatever that might be) but I still grin every time I think of beating those cars.

The car weighs I estimate under 3000# and handles very neutral with a heavy spare and a full tank of gas. I ran it last year once with no spare and a half tank of gas and it felt too light in back.

So I have it at the alignment shop getting the negative camber maxxed out and maxxing the caster as well along with about 1/16" of toe out.

It loves to rev and has good torque from down low up to the fuel cut off at 6600 RPM, which I have hit a few times but try to avoid.

And then I plan to install a four point harness to keep me solid in the seat and head up to Crown Point this Saturday for another autocross.

I am having fun.

Tom W

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.