Have you ever asked yourself what the opposite of a sleeper is? OK, we’re asking you to leave the ricer joke aside on this occasion and come up with an honest answer?
While you do that, we want to provide a suggestion, once that comes in the form of a 1980s Mercedes-Benz whose clearly tickling the owner’s funny bone. In fact, it is the guy behind the wheel himself who describes this machine as the opposite of a sleeper.
We’re talking about a 1984 Mercedes-Benz 300D. The car might base its reputation on its reliability, but the example seen here has taken a weird trip down the customization lane. Perhaps the hood exhaust system is an example as good as any.
The power comes from a Mercedes OM617 3-liter in-line five turbodiesel, but don’t expect wonders. This thing delivers about 150 hp 200 lb-ft (that's 271 Nm for you reading this across the pond), despite the soundtrack indicating much more than that.
The contraption even takes on the quarter mile. As the Benz takes off, it resembles a cat waiting to jump its prey. After the man behind the wheel uses the screwdriver that works as a shifter to row the gears, this Merc passes the 1/4 mile mark after a rather tiring 18 seconds.
Then again, this is a machine from a time when current common-rail injection was something extraterrestrial, so we’ll stick to its fun factor. Even so, we've seen much slower cars hitting the strip, so we won't complain.
In his quest to bring you the most impressive automotive creations, Andrei relies on learning as a superpower. There's quite a bit of room in the garage that is this aficionado's heart, so factory-condition classics and widebody contraptions with turbos poking through the hood can peacefully coexist. Full profile
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