OK, here's the deal......
I have access to a full CAD operated machine shop/manufacturing facility, with the folks I am working with to manufacture GT40 and cobra replicas.

We just finished making our own bellhousing to mate a 4.6 modular ford engine to a ZF (pantera) gearbox for our GT40 replica,,,,,,,and that sort of got me thinking.......

hmmmmm, why not make a custom bellhousing to fit a 119 series MBZ v8 and mate it to a Tremec T56 six speed gearbox, just like the Viper and Aston Martin Vanquish???

hmmmm, I just happen to have a 119 (500sl) engine sitting on the stand here, and my AMG hammer in the back corner of the shop,,,that I can use as the "test mule".

hmmmmm, the only other thing needed to "make" would be a flywheel, as you can get a clutch pedal & master cyl from MBZ for a 124 chassis 300e manual.

So, here's my thought.

"what if", I developed a "kit" that would make it possible to bolt a T56 6speed into your 124 chassis 400e or 500e?

I could offer it two ways:

Kit A: would be a basic set up of just the custom fabbed parts, such as the bellhousing, flywheel, hydraulic throwout bearing, rear trans mount and driveshaft yoke& driveshaftfront half.

gearbox, clutch assembly, pedal, slave cyl,shifter and other "off the shelf" pieces to finish the job.


orrrr my Kit B: would include everything you need to do it.

Of course I would provide detailed instructions with digital pics in the kits.

I'd also have to make a speedo drive work for both mechanical and elec speedos.

The catch is that although alot of folks like to "talk" about MBZ performance, my experience is that there aren't many who are actually willing to pay for it.


Making these parts will take considerable time and money on my part, so I'm only going to consider it if there is actually a "market" for such parts.

At this point, I can only guess, but my target price for the fabbed parts would try to stay wthin $1500 to 2k for them.

You can buy the gearbox new for around $3k, and figure 1k more for clutch assembly,pedal,and misc stuff.
I'd try to keep the entire swap cost around $5k.

So whadoo ya think?
I'd want to make at least ten of them, to make it worthwhile.

This project would actually tempt me to keep my hammer, and make some "other" cool parts for the 119 engine while I'm at it.

here's some of the "stuff" I've been working on,
http://members19.clubphoto.com/alain658327/guest-1.phtml

__________________
Alain
independant MBZ tech since 1981
http://www.motorsportlegendsks.com/