Hello! I just want to first start by saying I am extremely excited to be a part of this community. I hope that as my knowledge of cars improves I can give back more to the new members and maybe some older members of this community. I love performance cars, I think Mercedes-Benz doesn't get enough credit. One of my favorite models is obviously the 2.3/2.5-16/evo, I think this car might be the most underrated car ever produced. Although I don't know much about the luxury cars themselves, I always see guys doing modifications to them making them into their own. I have experience with basic stuff like tune ups, and I also have experience with rebuilding transmissions and I can even do engine swaps if it's easy enough. I'm not the best tuner and I am looking at Mercedes to improve. I know it's not easy, but my biggest weakness is electronics and if I can learn the Benz I can learn anything.

First question, I want to build a drift car. With Mercs being so low already and having a great foundation I wouldn't need to focus on coilovers right away. So my question is would the 300 series or the 190e be a better platform to start with?

Second question, the 190e can have the m104(I think that's it) almost as a direct drop in, the problem is I want to get somewhere around 260-280 whp on the project. If that's not easily possible I'd love to know the limits for easy engine swaps. It's going to be a drift car so I'm hoping there might be something easy and reliable to put in. I know there are some custom fit engines that get 600hp but I'm not really trying to make a total monster. Just something fun and casual that's also different!

I've worked on BMW's in the past and Mercs don't seem to be too different. I don't know much about the AMG stuff but are there conversion parts for them in the future if I decided to do it? I don't plan on just beating the car and junking it, I am hoping this can be a great learning experience for me and I can fully engross myself into the Mercedes world.