winged scot

I was just wondering how many other's here have ever questioned the factory's advertised horse-power rating for the 103 motor such as the completely stock one in my `87 300E. I was basically blown-away with the acceleration from about twenty mph-on. I am somewhat familiar with fast car's having owned numerous Chrysler-powered drag vehicle's and even a `94 Viper. This car is by no-mean's quick off the grid, but to-date I've had the pleasure of ruining the day's of quite a few Mustang's, Camaro's, a couple of M3 BMW's and even an `07 Hemi-Charger. Anyone else here had any similar experience's? Just not sure about the factory horse-power figure's.

Saijin_Naib

Nope. My 300ce achieved manufacturer times at the drag strip with 87 octane fuel and snow tires, and a total noobie behind the wheeel (me) after 20 years of being on the road, and thats amazing, but I dont feel like any of the w124 are fast except maybe the 500e.

winged scot

I dunno mate, maybe it's just me....I just got lucky or something!?

Wolf190

Idk guys I think my car is pretty fast. It's a 190e 3.0 fitted with the 5 speed manual transmission. But this is in comparison to my first car, a 1979 300D

I've tried racing a dodge neon srt4 when i first got the car a year ago when the engine was stock and I couldn't drive and I got smoked. Last month I raced my friend's 1999 audi a4 1.8T and left him in the dust! So these engines arn't high performance by any means, but they will definetly move out when you get after it.

ZorroAMG

My W124 is faster than my Vantage.


When it's parked.

Wolf190

??? Is this a joke? you must have made a typo right...? I feel silly to ask, do you mean an Aston Martin?

winged scot

I know the rating for the motor's horse-power doesn't reflect that of a typical high-performance power-plant, however, this thing goes balistic when I smash the loud-pedal from say 30mph and higher. When I first got this Merc some three-odd year's ago, I remember just how gob-smacked I was after stabbing the throttle for the first time. I was taking the car for a test-drive and was traveling somewhere around twenty mph when I floored it. At that moment, the rear tyre's barked and then, barked a second time when the 722 up-shifted. It was that impressive, my decision to buy the car was now sealed. Although this car had been so-so maintained, the previous owner was not the sort to invest in any high-performance gadgetry.

I am suprised that so far, no-one else has had this sort of experience.

Hakk403

Your car was surprisingly quick when we were cruising around when I first met you. Your car seemed as quick as mine.

I know my car was faster than my buddies parent's w210 e320 and slk 230 up to 100km/h, which both have 0-60 of 6.9. In high school, (years and years ago), I beat my friends e39 528I by about a car length, race was probably around a quarter mile. I think the 0-60 is about 6.8 for those cars and his car was chipped.

All those races were back in 2002 when I was a stupid kid.

Not all engines are made equal though. Some of these cars are pretty quick, not fast by todays standards, especially off the line, but on the highway they shine.

ZorroAMG

I also think the gearing in these cars is done properly....they move well considering...

Wolf...no typo, yes Aston.

STLe320

Any pictures?

Wolf190

Yea I would love to see some pics! Any mods? Aston Martin.... that's crazy

ZorroAMG

I will have to take some, the car is in Calgary and I rarely lug my camera when I am there....

winged scot

This is more along the line's I'd of thought more of us would be familiar with. Perhap's this wasn't such a good thread to start afterall. No, these motor's are not rated anywhere near hi-performance standard's, and no, they are not very impressive as-far-as the "stop-light grand prix" is concerned. Having said that, once the car has reached the twenty-five to thirty mph mark, the motor start's a very-aggressive power-output (lack of other word's) that I have yet to find fall-off, and that's at speed's reaching 140 mph. Even at that speed, I still have lot's more pedal in the waiting.

Bigpete123

Word. If I hit the torque curve just right in the 25-30 MPH range and hit the kick-down switch, my tires will chirp.

But I still think of my car as a slug (a pretty one though!). And the reason the tires chirp is 1/2 because of power and 1/2 because the transmission shifts so abruptly... and I just had a tranny rebuild so I'm pretty sure it came this way from the factory.

POS

Drop the hammer on mine at 20 mph or anywhere above 2000rpm and the car just hauls absolute ***. 2000 rpm is the magic number.

winged scot

Yippee! That's what I'd been hoping to hear when I first started this thread. Until about two month's ago, I was still traveling around with the factory 15" wheel's (yuck!), my car looking for the most part like it belonged to some old grandad heading to the golf-course. I couldn't begin to tell you the countless time's I've caught some prat playing race car driver.... off guard. I think your correct about the 2K rev-mark and above as that's about when I've noticed all hell break's loose. Since I've now changed the wheel/tyre combination (S/CLK-class dual five-spoke's) some of those same character's that I had run-in's with before, apparently remember that day when they first learned....
Merc's bite!

Thank's mate, youv'e made my day!

neanderthal

nuff said.

same for my vintage BMW 2002. not fast per se, but properly geared. so not a drag light warrior. but certainly a canyon road warrior.

these were designed before the current fuel economy regulations.

RBYCC

A stock, well maintained M103-12V will run 0-60 in 7.5 and a 16.5+ / 86 mph quarter.
Period road tests will prove these numbers..faster then the BMW 635csi and Jag XJ-S 3.6.

Numbers are in line with many 70's US muscle cars....

The AMG 320CE ( 245HP / 239LBFT torque ) would run a 15.4 / 91 mph quarter.
Not too shabby for a low horsepower ( Mercedes always very conservative ) relatively heavy vehicle with an automatic trans and 3.07 rear gear

winged scot

Your comparison to US-built `70's era muslecar's is spot-on mate. I've been fortunate enough to own two `69 Plymouth Roadrunner's: 1) 383ci/Hemi 4-speed coupe....2) 440 6-pack/727 automatic saloon. Both, including the six-pack car (acceleration-wise), would've gotten their ****'s wiped by the Merc.

Chinny4290

++84+84

My friend has a 190E 2.6....off the line, it's not that quick, but rolling-start acceleration is amazing. It stuns me how much friggen torque it has.

winged scot

That's what amaze's me....the torque-curve. I guess originally being from the UK, I've noticed that people in the USA tend to drive their car's in a much more conservative fashion as opposed to those back-home that tend to drive their car's as MB intended them to be driven (they're not made of crystal). You lot should see some of the test-footage showing what MB put the car's through during R & D.

Chinny4290

Trust me. I love MBz so much, I've almost seen every R&D video on almost every Mercedes possible that's on Youtube

winged scot

Then you already know how brutal Merc was when it came to testing new model's. They maybe slow off-the-line but, that's about where it end's.

Drive it like you stole it!!!!

RBYCC

Now if you apply a very low .48 bar boost, you'll be very quick off the line and get to sixty in the low to mid five second range...
Enough torque to do some serious tire smoking..

I prefer the M103-12V over the M104-24V....seems to have a better torque curve and feels lighter on initial acceleration...

sgb33f

<offtopic>might i ask how much a turbotechnic conversion is for the m104?</offtopic>