This Mercedes V8-Swapped C320 Hatch Is a CLK 55 AMG in Disguise

I was about halfway up Angeles Crest Highway in a Maybach when I spotted another Mercedes out of its depth coming the other way. It was a pokey C320 Sportcoupe, those frumpy little W203 liftbacks that were once the cheapest Mercedes in the United States. They're the last platform you expect someone to modify, which is why I did a neck-snapping double-take when I heard it rumble by with a V8.

I was fortunate to catch up with its builder @c55.vick at a turnoff, where he popped the hood on an engine bay stuffed with 5.4 liters of Mercedes M113 V8, from the CLK 55 AMG. The owner is a serial Mercedes owner and modder, one who has owned real AMGs but decided to diverge from them to build this. His reasoning was simple: This unloved little hatch is actually the lightest and stiffest of the W203 C-class, and the V6-powered C320 shares its subframes with the AMG versions. In his words, turning it into the AMG that Mercedes never built was "like building with Lego."

In fact, its 362-horsepower V8 bolted straight up to the stock six-speed manual, bringing along its wiring harness and ECU. Not a single wire needed to be chopped for it to go in. The engine bay looks accordingly OEM, and you wouldn't give the V8 a second glance if you didn't know Stuttgart didn't put it there. You'd also never guess that the engine was a 200,000-mile, $800 junkyard special that pulls just as hard as the day it was new.

For an engine with only a 6,200 rpm redline, it feels revvier than it is, owing to long gears and a choppy Mercedes exhaust note that makes you appreciate the midrange more than you'd expect. It may be a single-cam, three-valve engine, but its power climbs noticeably in the last 1,000 rpm, making it a pleasure to wring out. At just 3,400 pounds, it's also much lighter than the nearly two-ton CLK 55, so it's quicker than the car its parts come from, too. (You can hear how it sounds in a video from @thecanyoncarver below.)