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The car is mine, The doggone car is mine - so what now? Diesel dilemma...
G'day Folks,
Some of you might know that I have a W123 300D saloon that has been stripped down to the smallest component part.
An absolutely naked shell has been sitting on my driveway for more years than I would like to admit. It needs a fair amount of rust remedy work and new paint. One of the reasons why it hasn't been fixed up sooner is that there was some question whether at the point of divorce the car would actually be mine...
...I felt pretty strongly (to say the least) that I was not going to fix it up before I was sure some little magpie wouldn't be able to walk past it and say "oh I'll have that as well"...
...anyway judge says I can keep it - so the car is mine!
Drum roll => introducing a slight road tax related 2nd problem
All "classic cars" in Holland that are older than 25 years old but younger than 40 years old are allowed to pay a reduced road tax of 120 euros a year if they are not powered by either LPG or diesel. If I put the car back together with my freshly rebuilt OM617 and my freshly rebuilt 722.118 transmission I'll have to pay the full road tax amount which will be in excess of 1500 euros a year.
I expect I will drive about 3 kilometers (yes that's a sarcastic 3 by itself without any thousand) a year in this car so diesel is no longer an option
To bugger up any ideas the Dutch government has regarding people using "clean" fuels instead of diesel, I am more than happy to put in a stupid powerful petrol engine that will give me about 2MPG just to say a big F-you to those bureaucratic cock heads
If they make things too difficult for me I'm even prepared to put in lots of poisonous rare metal batteries and a sodding great big electric motor!
SO ANYWAY...
...what MERCEDES petrol engine would you like to see me put in a 4 door W123 "sleeper"?
As explained it has to be petrol - so a diesel owner looking to be a bit antisocial which petrol engine would you choose?
Sleeper to me means => totally stock Manganese Brown (480) W123 with custom made 16 inch / 17 inch hub caps => looks totally original to Joe Public but under the hood something with Megasquirt and perhaps a turbo or two
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