Manny’s Mercedes 300D
As we get back in to the swing of things after our weekend trip up to Wekfest, we bring you Manny’s Turbo Diesel E Class Mercedes. I first saw the car back in April at our Welcome To Atlanta event. Manny’s car came to our attention again when he emailed us for pre-registration at Southrnfresh 3 where he ended up taking home best fitment. The car was a favorite among the attendees so Jon and I met up with Manny on a rainy day last week.
Photos By: Jon Davis
Manny first got the car about a year and a half ago and saved it from being abandoned. And he says it has been an addiction every since. Manny’s roots are within the VW scene, and previously a road racer in his old wide body Rx7 which is owned by another friend of mine, Alex Machado.
Manny calls himself somewhat of a perfectionist when it comes to the car. The car is still relatively new with only 75,000 miles on the clock. It is just getting started to be broken in. The paint is original and shines like it’s new, thanks to Manny’s constant cleaning. Manny told us that when he goes to work, he brushes the car off and covers it while at work.
When Manny first purchased the car he said he filled up three 30 gallon trash cans with trash. It led to him completely removing the interior and cleaning it up to get rid of some of the 20 year old funk. As you can see, the interior is still in immaculate condition once it was cleaned up. Manny says that he will be upgrading it soon to the rare AMG Recaro seats.
The exterior follows a simple recipe with bags and BBS wheels. But unlike most cars putting the car on air was a tricky task on its own. Manny spent hours looking through catalogs to find proper shocks to piece the kit together. The suspension is comprised of custom rear shocks , Bilstein sports in front with strut mounts from a r129 chassis Mercedes, custom built bag brackets, Slam Specialties ss-5 on all four corners, and air management controlled by Airlift Autopilot v2.
The wheels are a set of custom built 17×9.5 (front) & 17×10.5 (rear) BBS RS with flat caps.
Manny is in a decision making stage with the vehicle, as he is debating on what to do about the paint. It is in good condition overall, but starting to show its age in some places. We will be following Manny and his build so stay tuned for updates! Thanks for looking!
