C55 AMG is Cranked Up to 11 For Hillclimb Racing
What does a turbo, a wide body and a big rear wing all have in common? They are on this insane hillclimb race car.
Don’t let your eyes fool you, but this hillclimb race car is a privately made car despite looking like a fully fledged DTM racer. Behind this creation is South Farican born Thouca Mechanicos, and he’s built up this DTM replica from a W203 C55 to race at the Knysna Speed Festival. While it is based on a C55 AMG, you’d be hard pressed to find any evidence of the street car left.
Sure, the body panels are replicas, but this car certainly has the speed and engineering to back up the looks. All the flares and wings serve a purpose. Under those wide wheel arches, you’ll find sticky racing rubber. Up front and out back you’ll find necessary splitters, diffusers and wings to keep the car glued to the ground. Even the front grill opening has special channels for brake cooling. This car is the real deal. Peek inside and you’ll find a fully caged interior with custom dashboard and custom gauges keep Mechanicos up to speed on all the car’s important engine parameters.
Speaking of engines, hillclimb cars benefit from horsepower and this C55 AMG has plenty of it. Turbocharged to about 16 psi, this V8 now produces over 800 horsepower and about 740 lb/ft of torque. Surprisingly, power is sent through a traditional H-pattern transmission, rather than a sequential, or dual clutch gearbox. Presumably, there’s a reason for that and strength and durability are probably why.
Lots of work for a short blast up a mountainside which lasts only about 45 seconds or more. But that’s the point of hillclimb. Just like drag racing; every inch counts, especially when you’ve only got 1.2 miles to work with. Interestingly enough, hillclimb seems to be where DTM race cars wind up after retirement. Since rules allow some wild builds, some of them even end up with wild Formula 1 engines that’ll blow your speakers out.
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