The two-tone brown paint on this custom caught our eye at first; it wasn’t until we saw the Mercedes head unit, shifter, gauges, and switchgear inside that the car’s split personality became apparent. Hal Wing, the man who commissioned the car, told us he approached Trepanier with the idea of marrying German engineering with American iron. Wing chose the G55’s 5.4-liter supercharged V-8 but left the vehicle selection to the car’s builder. Trepanier tells us the most difficult part of the build was the wiring; specifically, getting the G55’s computers to believe that they were still hooked to a four-wheel-drive system instead of the car’s Detroit Truetrac rear diff.

The 300S at the show was powered by the 3.6-liter inline-six from a C36 AMG—one of the company spokesmen admitted it was overkill—backed by a column-shifted five-speed. A 555-hp AMG 5.5-liter V-8 was fitted in place of the 280SE’s original 3.5-liter V-8. The coupe also had an upgraded suspension of Mechatronik’s own design using Eibach parts, as well as modern Mercedes ABS brakes. And thanks to Becker’s line of classic-looking modern stereos, the sound system got a stealth redo as well. We were told the company’s current over-the-top project is a 280SE convertible with a supercharged AMG V-8 for “a special client.” You gotta imagine most of their clients are pretty special, though.