Now that's the type of response that I was hoping to hear. Even if you don't convert your car per say, it helps to confirm my belief that, the guys, and girls that own these cars today, are not the people the same people that Mercedes originally marketed to. I do know that I'm not that person. When this car was new, I was struggling to make payments on Honda Accord, I could't possibly have afforded this car. I'll tell you what's funny, now that I can afford what newness that Mercedes has to offer, I still remain outside of their targeted market. Although, now that I own several cars, my newest car is 94 Jag XJ12. You'd never catch me buying a new car.
I do believe that the current owners are from a different generation, they think differently, they're more hip, much more forward thinking, and possess the ability to see past the nose on their faces.
They want to have fun with their rides, dress them up, show them off, and hold they're own on motorways with a soccer moms minivan, same as me. Don't kid yourself, a soccer moms minivan in a bad state of tune can give you hell.
When I look around and see guys swapping in Chevy motors, 6.9's, V12's, and who knows what else, that told me something. These cars no longer dominated by you grandfather, or the guy in the stuffy suit, wearing brown wing tipped shoes. The new owners want some juice. This generational thing is not segregated by age. The generation that I'm talking about encompasses all that are not held back by the status quo.
The thing that jumped out at me was what wasn't happening. No one was doing anything manual.
Once I looked into it, it seemed obvious as to why. It's kinda hard to work with something that you don't have. I guy with desire, some ambition, and few coin in his pocket can get his hands on a different engine, fiddle around and make it work, but this manual setup is elusive to say the least. Even I, who wanted to do it, had to look high & low, and it still took me years to gather the info, and necessary pieces to the puzzle. Not to mention the manufacturing end of it.
After all, if you happen to be one of the fortunate ones that has a manual setup in your very rare car, how likely are you to rip it out, and for what reason?
I was talking on the phone with a guy just the other day. He seemed quite knowledgable, but while speaking with him, he seemed to talk in a condescending way. He made a point of qualifying his knowledge base and presenting himself as the so & so from the national this, Mercedes that, club, foundation, Grand Poobah. Whatever man. I let him speak and listened for what knowledge he might have to bestow. We have two ears and one mouth. I'm not always successful, but I try to listen twice as much as I speak. After listening for a while I began to realize that he wasn't contributing anything to the universe, and at that point I'd finally heard enough. When I finally started to tell him what I was doing, I got the impression that he had flattered himself into thinking that I was seeking the wizards advise as to how to accomplish my mission. By the way, once the wizard finally did hear the plan, the world became flat and Mr. Wizard was at the end of the earth. The information chest had suddenly become empty. With the one last card in his possession, the wizard offered it up "Buy a 280SL that has a 5 speed and use that". Are you serious? After repeating myself several times, I'd finally made it clear that I wasn't asking what to do, or even how to do it. I was telling what I was doing, it was an FYI type of thing.
At this point I suddenly feel the need to inform you all that I am in no way holding out a shingle claiming to be some know it all guru. If for some reason you fell that I sound that way, it certainly is not my intent. I do possess a small library of Mercedes, Jaguar, and Porsche literature. I have traveled to several countries, walked through many shops, some big, and small. I've spent considerable amounts of time in junk yards in these countries as well, and I've spoken to countless numbers of people in search of this holy grail. The things that I do know, I could not, did not come up with on my own. I know I'm not that smart. I can tell you this, most of the people that I have spoken with along the way, in those shops were way smarter when it comes to this stuff, and much more knowledgeable then I may ever be. That is where my information comes from. The guy in this story is not one of those people.
Back to the story:
I made the mistake of giving this guy way too much credit. I thought that if he was the Grand Poobah he'd be able to give me a clue. Right? Wrong! As it turns out, I think that he is clueless.
It's going to take me a bit more time to get everything sorted, which will be followed by lot's of testing. Before I am able to present anything to anyone I gotta know that it works as I say it's going to. It should also work on all the 107's, the 350, 450, 500, 380, and 560.
When I get my hands on a 126 SEC I think I may be able to do something with that as well.
Thank you for taking the time to read my little tale, all comments & suggestions (if there are any) whatever they are, will be taken in stride.
A.J.
