I guess that is the highest powered Mercedes 170 on earth. Unfortunately no engine bay pics. https://www.ebay-kleinanzeigen.de/s...ra-1970-basis-einzigartig/1162090477-216-4766 You don't see these kinda hotrods often overe here. Maybe something for Marc (CAN), as I seem to remember he was looking for a 170 Mercedes... Just sharing this Patrick
Check out this website. This was Briggs Cunningham's BUMERC. It was raced in NY by Mr. Cunningham in 1939. and also after WW2 in Watkins Glen NY on the street course before the permanent racetrack was built. It was originally raced in ARCA events which led to the SCCA after the war. Great piece of automotive history and a sportscar legend. It still exists today in the REVS institute (formerly the Collier collection) which a large part of it was from the former Cunningham collection. https://revsinstitute.org › the-collection › 1939-bu-merc
Thanks for posting this Patrick,- I took a look at it. I have to say they ruined the lines of the car by doing that. It seems there is a lot of stretching involved making a 170 fit on a Riviera chassis. It wouldn't be so bad if they had used a post-war model 170V or S, but they used a scarce pre-war model. (OK, the model year 1938 was one of more numerous, but not many survived the war) At least I now know that hiding a Big Block Buick in the original small chassis is next to impossible. Too bad they didn't post more pictures, but the ad does say they are available on request. I'm still looking for a stock 170, and the most I would change in it would be to retrofit a 6 cylinder out of a later 220 into it, or a more modern 4 cylinder like a 1.9 OHC or even a late 220 model out of the early 70s, just to make it keep up in modern traffic, otherwise, it would remain stock. If the Canadian dollar hadn't tanked a few years ago, I might have been the proud owner of a 1942 model 170V, there was one available in North Carolina but when I went to buy it, the Canadian dollar lost 15 cents almost overnight and that killed my reserve.
@Erik, thanks for digging up those engine pics. Looks tight. I wonder what else they did to it. The original engine had some meager 50ish horsepower. Guess the 455 and it’s torque required some reinforcements.
Took a look at the "Bu-Merc" too. That would be cool...I'd often thought of doing something like that except with a 401. The original motor in a 170V was 45 hp and 79 ft/lbs of torque. It was good for about 110 km/h or 70 mph flat-out, not exactly what I'd consider an Autobahn cruiser.
