Chasing the Ghost
Tracking down an elusive AMG-modified 1988 Mercedes-Benz 560SEC
Article Mario Puente
Images David Gooley Susan Morehouse
How do you chase a ghost? I’m admittedly crazy about the Mercedes-Benz marque, particularly for the small group of automobiles that were modified into wide-body form using AMG accessories during the period immediately before the merger of AMG into DaimlerChrysler AG. So, when about three years ago I heard rumors of a pearl-white wide-body 560SEC that had been seen under mysterious circumstances at a few regional car shows and glimpsed occasionally on the mountain back roads in the South Carolina area, I couldn’t help myself. I had to find out if this automobile – so elusive that everyone was calling it “The Ghost” – was real, and if there was any way I could acquire it for myself.
A friend of a friend
Working through my connections in the flourishing premerger AMG network, I managed to locate a friend of a friend of a friend who claimed he actually knew the owner of The Ghost. According to him, this mythic vehicle had been built for a wealthy collector in Canada; when the owner died in 2012, his widow transferred the car with its title to an equally affluent friend of their family living in South Carolina. I told my go-between that I was fully prepared to buy the car should it ever become available for sale.
I kept in touch, emphasizing my genuine interest until, one Friday morning late in 2016, my source emailed me a slightly out-of-focus digital image of a white car with wide fenders, period AMG penta-style wheels and distinctive AMG bumpers, and told me the car was for sale. There and then, I called the phone number he’d supplied me with.
In a five-minute conversation, the owner confirmed that he’d had the car for four years and had driven it occasionally to keep it in trim – the odometer now read 28,160km. He said the car was once a show car, was in excellent condition, had always been carefully maintained and was entirely original. He gave me a price and promised I wouldn’t be disappointed, but warned that he had other potential buyers. If I were interested, I would have to make a commitment immediately.
On the basis of those earlier rumors and the sincerity in the voice on the other end of the phone 729 miles away, I found myself in my bank branch manager’s office just 15 minutes later making arrangements for a bank transfer of the asking price – against every reasonable convention that recommended pre-purchase inspections, face-to-face transactions and availability of maintenance records.
My wide-body AMG
Two weeks went by during which I don’t think I got much sleep, dreaming about what a great car this could be or the nightmare of a bad mistake I might have made. Then one day while I was at work, my father texted me a photo: “Look what is being off-loaded in front of the shop!”
I couldn’t believe my good fortune. The pearl-white paint job was almost immaculate, with only the dust of travel on it. The curves of the wide fenders just demanded to be caressed. When I opened the driver’s door, I saw the royal-blue dashboard with three bright white-faced instruments with sharp black letters reading AMG. This 560SEC even had a set of fabled but rarely seen original matching AMG floor mats, which looked as if they might have been installed yesterday.
It was everything I had hoped. The next morning, I contacted the seller to tell him how much I appreciated his honesty; I could have hugged him. “I told you that you would be pleased,” he said. “Now take care of her and have fun.” Despite my efforts to contact him later with other questions, I haven’t been able to get in touch with him again.
Of course, there were a few items that needed to be addressed. I drained and replaced all the fluids, replaced the rear-suspension accumulators – which deteriorate with time, not mileage – and repaired two minor scuffs at the edge of the hood plus the misalignment that had caused them. I removed the modern MP3/Bluetooth head unit and replaced it with the original Sony unit that was in a box in the trunk. The windshield was cracked, but that could wait until later.
Unraveling the rest of the story
Knowing that this special machine had been built in Canada, I started looking for additional information. A friend sent me a picture of a similar car on display at the 1988 Toronto International Auto Show. A sign reading, “AMG of Canada Mercedes Tuning” could be seen in the background of the photograph. From that clue I found links to Flying Tiger Development, a shop owned by a man named Eddy Lai; the shop was still in business.
When I called Lai, he confirmed that he had modified a 560SEC to AMG standards in 1988, painted it pearl white and displayed it at the Toronto show. The numbers in his records matched the car in my shop. He was also able to fill me in on the rest of his own story.
Born in 1962 in Hong Kong, Lai was eight years old when his brother Ricky, older by 10 years, started doing tuning and repairs on the cars that came from all over the world to race on the famous Macau Grand Prix circuit. Lai soon started working on automobiles himself, building a Super Beetle before he was old enough to drive and teaching himself to shift with the car perched on jack stands. Seeking a wider audience for their proven tuning skills, the brothers immigrated to Canada in 1975 and settled in Markham, Ontario.
Because his English was better than his brother Ricky’s, Eddy coached his sibling through the technical manuals that had to be learned to become a certified automobile technician in Canada and go on to acquire an engineering degree. It was then simple for Eddy to pass the exams himself when he was old enough, to gain certification himself. Soon after Eddy started Flying Tiger Development, named for the famous volunteer flying squadron that helped defend China from Japan in World War II.
Concentrating on performance tuning, Eddy started importing performance parts, especially those from AMG in Affalterbach for the Mercedes-Benz cars popular with his Canadian customers. Because of the brothers’ extensive personal racing history as well as the quality of Eddy's work, AMG co-founder Hans Werner Aufrecht granted him the franchise as the only approved AMG tuning shop in Canada.
The Ghost
In 1988, Lai ordered a pair of 560SECs from Mercedes-Benz for use in shows and presentations. Both cars received the full AMG performance treatment, with the 5.6-liter 4-valve engine bored out to six liters with cam, headers and pistons improved to increase horsepower to a dyno-validated 285 at the wheels along with tire-shredding 345 pound-feet of torque. To control that power, shocks, springs, brakes and brake rotors were upgraded as well, and wider wheels and tires were swapped in all around.
To make room for the new wider wheels and modified suspension, the brothers cut off the car’s original fenders below the belt line. Wider fiberglass fenders designed by AMG were then glued in place – since the fiberglass couldn’t be welded – with industrial adhesive. Eddy’s wife, who was with us at Legends of the Autobahn,® took credit for applying the glue, pointing out tiny blobs that can be detected under the paint at the edge of the rear fenders where the bead of adhesive ended at the front of the rear panel.
The 560SEC was originally ordered in Arctic White (Code 147), but after all the custom AMG panels were fitted, the car was resprayed in the distinctive pearl white that it wears today.
In addition to the full range of performance modifications and body work, the affluent original buyer – he boasted that he had a Lamborghini Countach in his living room – specified that the car must have all available AMG gauges and accessories, right down to the AMG floor mats. But because too much is never enough, there was more: Since the brothers also had a sterling reputation for installing high-quality aftermarket sound systems, a top-of-the-line Sony sound system was added, complete with an impressive amplifier in the trunk. When all was said and done, the final cost for this unique vehicle may have been as much as three times its original purchase price.
Soon after the car was displayed at the Toronto show and delivered to its owner, it disappeared and was not seen or heard of again until 2012, when those ghostly rumors started to circulate in the southeastern United States.
The Ghost at Legends
With 2017 and AMG’s 50th anniversary, which would be celebrated in California at Legends of the Autobahn in Monterey, I knew I had to debut the car there. Excited to see the car again after three decades, Eddy Lai and his wife agreed to join us in California. I did have one problem, however: At some point during shipping, the windshield of the 560SEC had cracked. A new windshield needed to be installed before I would be willing to show the car.
But this was a Mercedes-Benz, so I simply called my local parts department to order a replacement windshield for a 1988 560SEC. No problem: five OEM factory windshields were listed as still available in the company’s worldwide inventory system. Unfortunately, we nearly exhausted the entire global supply in the next few weeks as the first – and then the second, and even the third and fourth – replacement windshields cracked in shipping. Finally, with only one day left before the car was due to be dispatched to California, the world’s last available 560SEC windshield arrived at our shop unscathed; we installed it without incident, though our stress levels were at a please-see-your-doctor level.
And that’s how it came about that a Canadian high-performance car builder, an inveterate early AMG enthusiast from Florida, and a once-mythical all-original AMG built in 1988 for a customer from Ontario all came to be together in Monterey, California, in 2017, proving beyond the shadow of a doubt that ghosts can sometimes become real.
Specifications
1988 Mercedes-Benz 560SEC AMG
TYPE: AMG-modified wide-body, two-door coupe
ENGINE: M117 5,547cc V-8, bored 3.80in/96.5mm x stroke 3.73in/94.8mm
HORSEPOWER: 298 hp at 5,250 rpm
TORQUE: 345 lb-ft at 4,000 rpm
TRANSMISSION: 4-speed automatic
DIFFERENTIAL: 2.82 limited slip
CURB WEIGHT: 3,880 lb
PERFORMANCE: Zero-60 mph 5.3 sec
TOP SPEED: 186 mph (300 km/h) – Manufacturer's test
The 560SEC debuted at the 1988 Toronto International Auto Show.
Mario Puente (in cap) and his father own Autobahn Vault LLC in Fort Myers, Florida.
Flawless details still entice.
Eddy Lai, the “Ghost’s” original builder, beams from the passenger seat after being reunited with his creation at Legends of the Autobahn.
The 560SEC’s engine was given the full AMG treatment, then connected to Affalterbach’s finest exhaust system.
Extensive AMG mechanical upgrades to suspension and brakes were married to AMG wheels and wider tires, prompting the installation of wider AMG fenders and a complete body kit.
Period AMG brochures.
The story continues inside: Stock Mercedes-Benz interior was upgraded with all available AMG options, including hard-to-find original black and white AMG logo floor mats, and white-faced AMG instrument dials.
As a final touch, the Lai brothers installed a top-of-the-line Sony sound system, complete with amplifier in the trunk.