W202 C55

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.

Adam230K

MB Enthusiast
Joined
May 1, 2007
Messages
3,085
Car
German oil burner
Following a conversation i had with Olly i'm quite intrigued to know if there are actually any W202 C55's in this country at all? and if there are, are any of them on this forum?
 
Yes there are, and I know where one is at least!

A very nice chap who runs a MB/Audi/LR (strange combination!) specialist garage in Buryas Bridge (Nigel) has a 744 silver one.

I believe they were a V.special order only and cost something like £88k new.

I'm pretty sure they have the full '55 running gear, including the unique '55 prop/diff etc (different to the standard V8 '43).

Rare car :cool:

Will
 
I saw one for sale before I bought my C43. Went and had a look at it but they wanted silly money. The sales guy seemed pretty knowledgeable about the car, he reckoned there were only 7 right hand drive ones made..

Cheers,

Gaz
 
IIRC, the last one that I saw advertised might well have been Nigel's one - it was up for something like £25K (this was about 3 or 4 years ago, mind)

Will
 
Is it just me, or wouldn't it be cheaper to actually buy a bad example w211 e55 (or even a w210 e55), take the engine/diff/prop/gearbox etc and then drop it into a w202?

edit: Thats assuming people who try and sell it now still want £25K for those (which i highly doubt considering today's economic state).
 
Last edited:
Is it just me, or wouldn't it be cheaper to actually buy a bad example w211 e55 (or even a w210 e55), take the engine/diff/prop/gearbox etc and then drop it into a w202?

It would these days, but this was years back when C43s were about £10k+ and E55s were still £12-15k+

I think a C43 for £4Kish, plus an accident damaged W210 E55 (maybe £3k?) would make a fantastic project car.

In my mind, E55 staggered 18s (8s and 9s) onto the '43, engine/gearbox/diff etc swap and then you've still got loads of bits to sell (C43 engine or gearbox anyone? :D), plus the interior, 17" AMG wheels etc.

Could be a very viable project for someone with the time/facilities. Still won't be a factory original car though so don't expect to invent the formula for making gold ;)

Hmm :)

Will
 
Is it just me, or wouldn't it be cheaper to actually buy a bad example w211 e55 (or even a w210 e55), take the engine/diff/prop/gearbox etc and then drop it into a w202?

edit: Thats assuming people who try and sell it now still want £25K for those (which i highly doubt considering today's economic state).

I was told they had to modify the shell to get the 55 running gear in, something about making the diff fit.. not impossible, but it's not a trivial conversion. And you still wouldn't have a genuine factory car at the end of it.

Cheers,

Gaz
 
I'm not worried about the "factory car" thing at all. Do you guys remember a while back when there was that W202 on Ebay with the 55K engine in it? and someone bought it for like 2-3k? (cant quite remember)

I'm sure if he ever gets it running he wont car if its a factory car or not, but the fact that he has close to 500bhp in a car that small is just insane...

But then again when i think of it, can the C43 chassis (brakes and all the rest of it) deal with a 55 engine without any modifications? If it cant that it would turn out more expensive then a C55... But i'd be really interested in hunting down a W202 C55 for the future anyway... mainly because of how rare they are (and i bet they are fantastic to drive!)
 
Hi,
I have thought about doing this since before even before buying my C43, but it is,nt quite as simple as swapping the running gear.
Apparently the E55 diff unit won,t fit in the W202 chassis without refabricating of the floor pan, and transmission tunnel area, that coupled with major wiring modifications has put me off a bit.
But you never know if i see a cheap donor car i still might try.
 
I guess pretty much anything is possible with enough time/money/skill/determination/tools etc.

To be honest, I bet if you asked Nigel @ BBG he'd probably build one if you had the cash ready. Some of his handywork is pretty awesome.

His G-wagen with a 560 engine, four Recaro classic 'C' seats, AMG bits etc is quite impressive. They seem to get all the rare/unusual stuff there - W124 500E/E500s, W201 190E 2.5-16 EVO I, R129 SL60, W202 C55 AMG etc.

Some of the people who come to his LR garage travel from all over Europe!

Will
 
I'm not worried about the "factory car" thing at all. Do you guys remember a while back when there was that W202 on Ebay with the 55K engine in it? and someone bought it for like 2-3k? (cant quite remember)

I'm sure if he ever gets it running he wont car if its a factory car or not, but the fact that he has close to 500bhp in a car that small is just insane...

But then again when i think of it, can the C43 chassis (brakes and all the rest of it) deal with a 55 engine without any modifications? If it cant that it would turn out more expensive then a C55... But i'd be really interested in hunting down a W202 C55 for the future anyway... mainly because of how rare they are (and i bet they are fantastic to drive!)

Yes I remember that one. Different engine covers to the 'E' and there was a problem with starting (ECU fault)? Think it made around the 2k mark
 
Yes I remember that one. Different engine covers to the 'E' and there was a problem with starting (ECU fault)? Think it made around the 2k mark

Thats the one.

A few years down the line i will eventually want to taste an AMG but if i can find something really rare and uncommon i'd go for that, A w202 C55 or a W124 E60 would be my ideal choices (i'd take the E60 over the 202 to be honest), I've also heard that there were 20 "C V8"'s made by Brabus with a 400 bhp 6.1 litre sitting under the bonnet, now that would be interesting !

On a more realistic note, does anyone have any idea about how one would go about searching for something as rare as any of these cars? would it be a good idea just to go to germany and find one then import it? or try and find 1 in the uk? and if in the uk, then where?
 
Last edited:
Can't read german but I think it may have a kompressor fitted as well!
Jeeezus and beghora!
 
thats 9000 Euros to convert your C43 to a base spec C55 with m113 5.5 AMG engine & running gear

Further optional extras include Kompressor, Tiptronic etc
However it looks very legitimate with full TUV entry after the event (required in Germany)
 
VIN WDB2020281F496868 Plant 50 Model C 36 AMG Chassis 2020281F496868 Engine 104941 12 990007 Transmission 722629 00 901170 Tyres Primary BRIDGESTONE Rear BRIDGESTONE Order 0 6 221 00656 Lights BOSCH Cab 00000 Delivery date 26.09.96 Dealer Koeln branch (221) Interior leather black or graphite (201) Paint 199 metallic blue-black (с 01.01.1983) Options 021 designo - decorative trim (с 09.12.1995 по 04.02.1997)
221 left front seat, electrically adjustable (с 01.11.1978)
222 right front seat, electrically adjustable (с 01.11.1978)
240 outside temperature indicator (с 01.03.1982)
249 automatically dipping inside rear view mirror (с 01.06.1990)
363
414 electric tilting/sliding roof in glass version (с 01.10.1988)
423 5 speed automatic transmission / nag (с 01.03.1994)
441 steering column, electrically adjustable, W202 manually adjustable (с 01.07.1984)
471 acceleration skid control (ASR) (с 01.07.1984)
510 radio MB Exquisit with traffic news decoder (VK), with RDS (Becker) (с 01.07.1992)
531 automatic antenna (с 01.01.1963)
540 roller blind, electric, for rear window (с 01.05.1985)
543 sun visor with vanity mirror, illuminated, left and right (с 01.11.1978)
551 anti-theft warning system (с 01.11.1978 по 31.03.1998)
570 folding armrest front w202/210 stowage box front with armrest (с 01.04.1970)
front folding armrest w202 - housing at front with armrest
580 air conditioner/Tempmatic (с 01.11.1982)
584 electric window lifters (front and rear doors) (с 01.04.1970)
electric window lifters, fourfold or sixfold
593 heat-insulating glass, all-around, heated rear window pane (single-sheet safety glass), band filter
green heat-insulating glass all round, heated rear window, single pane safety glass - tinted strip (с 01.01.1972)
654 light alloy wheels, 5-hole
sport suspension with AMG-la-wheels 5-holes (с 01.10.1994)
673 high-capacity battery (с 01.01.1964)
772 amg styling package - front spoiler, side skirts and rear apron (с 02.01.1992)
774 Shell modification for AMG-wheels
807 Change of year of model, last figure shows new model year
810 loudspeaker, sound package
sound package (bose) (с 01.12.1986)
873 seat heater for left and right front seats (с 01.02.1984)
910 14V/65A alternator
alternator with increased capacity (с 01.11.1990)
956 equipment package sport (с 01.11.1991)
957 AMG technology package (с 01.01.1992)
extension tube on the roof, front left
980 vehicle registration book
vehicle registration book and general operating permit no. on type plate for export vehicles (с 01.08.1980)
 
Probably a bit of a how long is a piece of string question but...
If one came up for sale & assuming the car is straight, has been well cared for and doesnt have an astronomic mileage, howmuch would it sell for?
 
It really 'depends'

I guess, bearing in mind how rare these cars are, a prospective seller could ask almost whatever amount they choose. It's not as though you would be able to find several other cheaper examples to compare against. Hence value could be either (a) whatever seller decides or (b) what a real world buyer would be prepared to pay.

FWIW, the C55 that I have mentioned in this thread was offered on the market a couple of years ago for sale. The seller decided that he wanted a certain price, and AFAIK no-one was prepared to pay that, hence it didn't sell.

Realistically, unless it was an absolutely 'mint' car with staggeringly low mileage (say 30/40k or less?), I'd be surprised if most people would pay much more than about £10k. You can after all buy good C32s for this much (and less), nice CLK55s can be had for £7-8k and W203 C55s are available for mid-high teens these days.

Will
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom