Hello all,
Recently Benzmac brought to my attention that a contact of his saw a tuner-C36 twin-turbo with a dyno sheet showing in excess of 500+ rear-wheel HP. No info on the specific tuner but apparently this car (at auction) was a real beast. If a stock compression or (most likely) low-compression twin-turbo kit exists with any of the tuners I have yet to hear about it. Last I checked with Mosselman/Lorinser they didn't have anything for the C36 (C280 and E320 M104's and the C43's M113 yes, but nothing for the C36) Obviously it isn't AMG as a C36 is already a "tuned" C280. Never heard of Renntech or Brabus using much forced induction on cars of that vintage. Does anyone have any other leads or ideas? There is plenty of room in the C36 engine bay for twin-turbos but I've never personally seen it done or offered anywhere. If anyone has any good/solid leads please do let me know. Its got to be out there somewhere...

Thanks...Lee

Hello Lee,
I believe the information is in a April 97' issue of "Street Power",which is no longer being published by McMullen Argus. The article cover's a black 95' C36 that has been made over by Arizona's Motorsport Design owned by Bob Holcombe (of race fame). They take the ower output to 500+Hp and 550+lb-ft, I think the article quotes 561Hp to be exact! If you want I will try and scan the article and send to you or post, just let me know.

Ross N.
96' C260

I haven't seen that article, but from just now talking to a friend it sounds like that car has been prowling around here for a while. He saw it one time when someone showed up at Firebird Raceway here in Phoenix for drag racing night. No word on how it did...

A little more info....

I just got my hands on a copy of the April '97 Street Power. I haven't got a chance to read the whole article yet, I did skim it. In addition to what roas already meantioned it also states that the work to the C36 cost about $30k, and the results of drag racing at firebird put 0-60 in the 4's and 1/4 mile in 12.6 @ 113.5 mph.

[This message has been edited by jsr (edited 03-22-2000).]

Ross,
If you could scan and email it to me I would be most grateful.

Thanks...Lee

No problem Lee,
I sent the article to your address off the Links page. I hope they are clear enough for you, let me know what you think of the article. I can see how a lot of W202 owner's can benefit by taking there car's to this shop if they plan on doing some mod's. The 30k is a little steep for me right now but who know's, maybe I can convince my wife that its a Great Investment, in grin's that is!
It looks like Holcomb's work if First rate anyhow, seeing how many of the parts are CAD/CAM designed and made in-house (at least that is what the article implies), not farmed out to other shops, curious to see if anybody has or will contact him with plans on a upgrade? Please let us know, thanks.

Ross
96 C280

------------------
96 C280

[This message has been edited by roas (edited 03-23-2000).]

Thanks for the scans Ross. All were pretty much legible if you zoom in/out a bit. I'll agree that 30K isn't cheap, but the results you get are not either. For someone who was pondering getting a MB hot-rod it may be the best route yet. Pick up a C36 for $30K-$35K, send it to Holcomb for an additional $30K in goodies, and you will have a just about the meanest sedan out there. The numbers that thing put up would kill the Lorinser K43, just about anything but De Terminator from Brabus, and would probably dance with the SL73 AMG. Still, for a out-the-door pricetag of $60K I can't think of much that would match the luxury, stealth, handling, and of course power that little beast is packing. Even a 500E with a 6.0 engine would be hard pressed to catch the Holcomb C36. Mid 11's is seriously into "supercar" territory. If one has the bucks I guess the only question is do you put a "Kompressor" badge where the AMG used to be? j/k

Thanks again...Lee

Hey Lee, you wouldn't happen to know how much the car went for at the auction, do you? I'd be curious to know how much of what he put in he got back. That seems to be what alawys stops me from doing any type of upgrades at all to my car that I cant easily take off, I know that once I sell it I'll get almost nothing back for all the money put into it...

JSR,
According to my information the twin-turbo C36 "no-saled" at $60K for a C36 that had only 4K miles on it. Almost sounds as if someone bought the car, had the conversion done, then sent it shortly to auction for whatever reason. For a car like that you might no sale ten times until that special buyer wants it. There are just so few who would buy a car like that with the conversion already done that it can take quite some time to sell a car like that. (even if it IS worth it!)

Hope this helps...Lee

can someone please tell me where to find this article online? thank you

I put the article online a while back, can't believe Homestead has not wiped the site clean!!!

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/showthread.php?threadid=13261&highlight=c36+turbo

Enjoy.

Bob Holcomb is a friend and associate of mine - he really does some great stuff! We have a complete twin turbo design for my CLK320.. as complicated as it is. The mechanics of installing twin turbos is not that difficult. Its all the computer related 'letters' that might give you headaches. We designed ours with a 'piggy-back' Fuel Injection system that overrides the stock computer, yet lets it do all its other functions.
Most of the parts used are a careful (and secret) blend of 'stuff' we had in the race shop...and it all fits together nicely.
One day I will have the time to actually install it!

Ross:

Did you renew with Homestead under their new fee structure? I'd like to link to that article if you're staying with them.

Lee:

Hey buddy, how are you? If you're lookin for twin-turbos, I hear Porsche has a two-door that might fit the bill.

__________________
Dean Albrecht
"Lead, follow, or better yet, get out of the way!"E500 owners motto

No renewal, but its working this morning?

http://roas2k.homestead.com/C36_Article.html

that Homestead article is very interesting.

finally an explanation of why the inline-sixes have head gasket problems (that's because the long block experiences more longitudinal thermal expansion than V-engines).

i guess the moral of the story is to let the engine warm up sufficiently before letting it loose ...