• By Murilee Martin
    Sep 19, 2009 2:00 PM 7,129
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    #custom

    Swede Builds His Own Batmobile For $1 Million

    Rust, Tatts, and Straight Pipes: Billetproof Nor-Cal 2009!
    read more: #engineswap, #custom, #24hoursoflemons, #24hoursoflemonssouth, #racing, #mercedesbenz, #w124, #1980s, #1986, #1986mercedesbenz300e, #1986mercedesbenzw124, #mercedesbenzw124, #mercedes300e, #300e, #24hoursoflemonssouthfall, #r107, #mercedesbenzr107

    You Too Can Build A Chopped, V8-Powered W124 Benz For Just 500 Bucks!

    All right, maybe you couldn't build a fine race car like the Son Of A Blitzen '86 300E LeMons car, but even the LeMons Supreme Court believes the legitimacy of the team's budget claims.


    The recipe is quite simple: start with one banged-up W124 sedan, then find a wretched early-70s 350SL that's been sitting in a field so long that trees are growing through the engine compartment and buy it for $150. Transplant the 3.5 liter SOHC V8 and 4-speed manual tranmission from the R107 into the W124, and you'd think that would have been enough. But no! These madmen decided that they needed to do a chop job on the roof- supposedly performed by a guy who had just learned to weld that week- and the car looks much better this way. Even with a fairly trashed suspension (which enabled the Son Of A Blitzen to get through the BS Inspection with zero penalty laps), the car was quite fast, running an excellent 1:04.958 best lap (the quickest car had a 1:02.123 best lap) and placing 15th overall.

    Check out the exhaust tips in the rear door! Somebody needs to build one of these things for daily-driver use.


    Send an email to Murilee Martin, the author of this post, at murilee@jalopnik.com.