One of my project cars found it’s way to the Projectcar community and seemed to be some interest and questions so I will share a bit more about it.

Long story short, its an Aston Martin v12 swapped Mercedes 190e with an Evo II body kit. Owning an Evo II replica has been a goal but the original 4 cylinder engines never appealed to me. I grew with the F1 v12s as my hero cars. I want to own something that has that could produce that screaming exhaust note. That’s the closest explanations as to “why” I can get to. Other than that its just the enjoyment of finding a way to make it work.

I picked up the car and the engine in ’24. Mercedes was barely running but a blown head gasket and sloppy suspension but other than that a solid start. First issue with putting a V engine in a 190e is the steering box. It’s very much in the way of everything on the driver’s side. I borrowed an idea from another Mercedes 190e project and swapped in front C63 knuckles and a BMW steering rack. Some custom camber plates allowed me to run BC Racing front coil overs from a C63. I also had a complete set of Aston Martin brake calipers for the project so the fronts were mounted at the same time.

The body kit itself came from UMB in Thailand. He does a lot of Mercedes and DTM kits along with some one-off custom stuff. He does exceptional work and it fits like a gloves.

Car was gutted, original engine was pulled and the chassis sent to the fab shop in Dec of ’24. It has been slow progress unfortunately but welding is just outside of my skillset. So far the Aston Martin v12 and Tremec t56 are mounted, equal length 6 into 1 headers have been fabricated along with the full exhaust. Quarter panels have been cut to fit the body kit. Once the front fenders have been tubbed, transmission tunnel completed, and 240sx diff mounted the car will be coming back to me.

The project still has a long way to go. Not going to simply drop the engine in and get it running. The goal is to have a comfortable GT cruiser for the family, not a bare bones track car. Probably have this running in 2029. Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions, it's appreciated!